US09991873B2
A microacoustic component includes a functional acoustic region, an inner marginal region and an outer marginal region. The cover covers the functional acoustic region and has a thin film and a bearing surface. The inner marginal region is acoustically coupled to the functional acoustic region and the bearing surface bears directly at least on a part of the inner marginal region.
US09991872B2
A MEMS device includes a substrate, at least one anchor on a surface of the substrate, and a vibrating body suspended over the substrate by the at least one anchor. The vibrating body includes a periodically poled piezoelectric thin-film layer, a first conductive layer, a second conductive layer, and a functional layer. The first conductive layer is on a first surface of the vibrating body opposite the surface of the substrate. The second conductive layer is on a second surface of the vibrating body opposite the first surface. The functional layer is over the first conductive layer. By including the functional layer over the first conductive layer, functionality may be added to the MEMS device, thereby increasing the utility thereof.
US09991870B2
A surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonator includes a piezoelectric layer disposed over a substrate, and a plurality of electrodes disposed over the first surface of the piezoelectric layer. A layer is disposed between the substrate and the piezoelectric layer. A silicon layer disposed between a first surface of the layer and a second surface of the piezoelectric layer. A first surface of the silicon layer has a smoothness sufficient to foster atomic bonding between the first surface of the silicon layer and the second surface of the piezoelectric layer.
US09991868B1
A micro-resonator employs a lid-integrated electrode to one or more of drive, sense and tune a vibrational resonant mode of a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonator. The micro-resonator includes a lid attached to a base that provides a resonator cavity. The micro-resonator further includes the MEMS resonator extending from a surface of the base toward the lid within the resonator cavity. The lid-integrated electrode extends vertically from the lid into the resonator cavity toward the base. The vertically extending, lid-integrated electrode is positioned spaced from and adjacent to a side of the MEMS resonator to one or more of drive, sense and tune mechanical movement of the MEMS resonator.
US09991867B2
A piezoelectric acoustic resonator with an adjustable temperature compensation capability is disclosed. The piezoelectric acoustic resonator includes: a piezoelectric acoustic reflection structure, a first electrode, a second electrode, a piezoelectric layer between the first electrode and the second electrode, and a temperature compensation layer; wherein the temperature compensation layer is a single-layer temperature compensation layer formed of SixOy material, or a composite temperature compensation layer formed by stacking material with a positive temperature coefficient of sound velocity and material with a negative temperature coefficient of sound velocity; and the temperature compensation layer is configured to: perform reverse compensation for a temperature frequency shift caused by the first electrode, the piezoelectric layer and the second electrode in the piezoelectric acoustic resonator; wherein x:y is not equal to 1:2.
US09991858B2
A receiver includes a signal receiving part suitable for outputting a signal corresponding to a reception signal that is received through an input terminal, and controlling a DC voltage of a signal to be outputted, according to an offset signal, an amplifying part suitable for amplifying and outputting an output of the signal receiving part, and a feedback control part suitable for controlling the offset signal according to an output of the amplifying part.
US09991855B2
In a semiconductor device, received signals of different frequency bands are input selectively to low noise amplifiers. A plurality of primary inductors are coupled between differential output nodes of the respective low noise amplifiers. A secondary inductor is provided commonly for the primary inductors, and magnetically coupled to the primary inductors. A demodulator converts a received signal transmitted from one of the primary inductors to the secondary inductor by electromagnetic induction, into a signal of a low frequency.
US09991847B2
A receiver may receive a signal and process each of a plurality of sub-bands of the received signal via a respective one of a plurality of first-type receive chains. The receiver may utilize a signal output by a first one of the plurality of the first-type receive chains to remove undesired signals from a signal output by a second one of the plurality of the first-type receive chains. The undesired signals may comprise aliases and/or harmonics of one or more signals that fall within a sub-band of the first one of the plurality of the first-type receive chains. The receiver may downconvert, filter, and digitize each of the plurality of sub-bands via a corresponding one of the plurality of the first type receive chains. The received signal may encompass the cable television band, and each of the plurality of sub-bands may comprise a plurality of cable television channels.
US09991845B2
When a ground fault detection device detects a ground fault of a photovoltaic string, for example, while a power conditioner is in operation, a great current may be flowing in a switching section from the photovoltaic string, so that components resistant to a great current have been used for the switching section. A ground fault detection device includes a stop determination unit configured to determine whether a power converter for converting electric power from a solar battery is in stoppage, and a ground fault detector configured to detect a ground fault of the solar battery in a state where the solar battery and the power converter are electrically disconnected from each other by a disconnection unit arranged between the solar battery and the power converter when the stop determination unit determines that the power converter is in stoppage.
US09991844B2
A device comprises a platform constructed and arranged to be mounted to one or more solar array modules and one or more solar irradiance sensors on the platform configured to receive incident solar energy, the solar irradiance sensors oriented on the platform so that the received incident solar energy is comparable to that received by the solar array modules, the one or more solar irradiance sensors providing solar irradiance signals in response to the incident solar energy. A processor is on the platform, the processor configured to receive the solar irradiance signals and, in response, generating a performance reference metric based on the solar irradiance signals, the performance reference metric related to the expected performance of the one or more solar array modules to which the platform is mounted. A transmitter is on the platform, the transmitter configured to periodically transmit the performance reference metric to a receiver.
US09991837B2
Systems and methods to manipulate the noise and vibration of a switched reluctance machine (SRM), capable of being implemented in a controller. By use of vibration sensors and a real-time optimizer, the noise and vibration profile of an SRM and associated load can be modified in order to meet multiple control objectives, such as torque ripple mitigation (TRM), harmonic spectrum shaping, and efficiency improvement. The systems and methods can be adapted to high power, high pole count, and high speed applications, and applications where electrical or mechanical imbalance exists.
US09991819B2
A power conversion system is capable of distinguishing easily and clearly between being interconnected to the power system and being in an isolated operation. The power conversion system converts DC power to AC power to interconnect with a power system and injects reactive power into a grid node for determining an isolated operation, including: a voltage detector that detects an output voltage at the grid node; a current detector that detects an output current at the grid node; a frequency measurement unit that measures a frequency of the output voltage at the grid node; a reactive-power measurement unit that measures reactive power at the grid node; and an isolated-operation determination unit that determines whether or not the power conversion system is in an isolated operation as disconnected from the power system. The isolated-operation determination unit includes a reactive-power-fluctuation determination unit that performs a first isolated-operation determination from the reactive power.
US09991814B2
A pre-charging circuit of inverter is disclosed, the pre-charging circuit of inverter including a relay arranged between an output node of the rectifier and an input node of the DC-link capacitor, and a pre-charging resistor arranged between an output node of the rectifier and an input node of the inverter unit, whereby a degree of freedom for PCB design can be obtained.
US09991809B2
The feedback IC is provided at the secondary side of the DC/DC converter and is coupled to the photo coupler. The error amplifier amplifies an error between a voltage detection signal according to an output voltage of the DC/DC converter and a target voltage, and draws a current according to the error from the input side of the feedback photo coupler via the photo coupler connection terminal. The abnormal detection circuit asserts an abnormal detection signal when an abnormal condition in a secondary side of the DC/DC converter is detected. The protection circuit is coupled to the photo coupler connection terminal, and acts on the feedback photo coupler via the photo coupler connection terminal so that a feedback operation by the error amplifier is invalid and an on-period of the switching transistor is shorten.
US09991808B2
A cross regulation circuit for multiple outputs, includes an input end and at least two output ends. A first output end of the at least two output ends is connected to a feedback circuit. The feedback circuit is connected to the input end and used for maintaining the output voltage of the first output end by adjusting the input end. A first resistor and a first inductor are sequentially connected in series on the upstream of each of other output ends than the first output end and are used for performing cross regulation. In the cross regulation method of the circuit, simultaneous equations are established through parasitic inductance on any output branch and load thereof as well as parasitic inductance on the first output branch so as to obtain the inductance of the first inductor and the capacitance of the first resistor.
US09991806B2
Disclosed is a voltage converter and a method. The voltage converter includes: an input, an output, and a transformer including a primary winding and a secondary winding; a primary side circuit comprising at least one switch and coupled between the input and the primary winding; a secondary side control circuit coupled to the output. The primary side circuit is configured to receive a feedback signal from the secondary side control circuit. The secondary side control circuit is configured to generate an error signal based on an output signal of the voltage converter, and to modulate the error signal based on supplemental information to generate the feedback signal.
US09991804B2
A power supply apparatus is provided, that supplies a bus voltage VBUS to a detachable device. A DC/DC converter generates a DC voltage VOUT used as the bus voltage VBUS. A USB controller receives the DC voltage VOUT as a power supply voltage, and detects whether or not the device is connected. The DC/DC converter generates the DC voltage VOUT such that (i) when the device is detected, the DC voltage VOUT has a specified voltage level, and such that (ii) when the device is not detected, the DC voltage VOUT has a voltage level that is lower than the specified voltage level and that is higher than a minimum operating voltage level required to operate the USB controller.
US09991800B2
A switched mode power supply includes an active clamp flyback converter having an input for receiving an input voltage, and an output for providing a regulated voltage, the active clamp flyback converter having a first switch for controlling a flow of current through a primary winding of a flyback transformer, and a second switch for clamping a switch node on a primary side of the flyback transformer, and a controller for controlling the first and second switches to operate the active clamp flyback converter in an active clamp flyback mode when a load current is above a first predetermined level, and for controlling the first and second switches to operate the active clamp flyback converter in a discontinuous conduction mode with a variable switching frequency when the load current is below a second predetermined level.
US09991789B2
The electric motor vehicle includes a voltage conversion circuit, a primary-side smoothing capacitor, a battery, a system main relay, an inverter circuit, a secondary-side smoothing capacitor, an electric motor, a first voltage sensor, a collision sensor, and a controller. The controller is configured to adjust an operation of the voltage conversion circuit, detect primary-side voltage by using the first voltage sensor in a state that the voltage conversion circuit is operated in a case where a collision is detected by the collision sensor, and detect a state that the system main relay is off based on a change in the detected primary-side voltage.
US09991783B2
A method and to a device for discharging an energy store, in particular an intermediate circuit capacitor, in a high-voltage power supply system, in particular a DC voltage intermediate circuit in a motor vehicle, a first discharge resistor being connected parallel to the energy store, and a second discharge resistor automatically being connected parallel to the first discharge resistor when a voltage at the energy store falls below a specified threshold value.
US09991776B2
A method and apparatus for switched mode power supply (SMPS) system includes circuitry configured to produce a voltage output based on an input voltage, the SMPS circuitry includes inductive, capacitive and switching elements configured to generate the voltage output. The switching elements include at least one set of cascode coupled devices, each set of cascode coupled devices including a high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) and one of a diode and a field effect transistor (FET) in a cascode coupling. A controller produces a signal to a gate terminal of the FET of the sets of cascode coupled devices to drive the HEMT switching rate to adjust the output voltage. The circuitry of the SMPS further includes circuitry to couple the substrate of at least one HEMT to a high voltage node of the SMPS system to reduce large voltage spikes or dv/dts.
US09991774B2
A field gradient motor with a stator solenoid coil, a stator solenoid coil retained by a stator solenoid coil housing, a shaft rotatably retained in proximity to the stator solenoid coil, and a rotor retained relative to the shaft. The rotor has a plurality of iron disks retained by the shaft, and the stator solenoid coil, the plurality of iron disks, and the shaft cooperate to produce an axial closed toroidal B-field in a surrounding volume of air and an electromagnetic action of the motor. Radial notches with 45 degree equilateral triangular cross sections communicate radially on first and second faces of each disk. Where the notches are 360/N degrees wide, they can be 360/N degrees deep.
US09991766B2
A valve-timing control apparatus includes a motor housing formed with an accommodating space; a permanent magnet provided along an inner circumference of the accommodating space of the motor housing; a rotor configured to rotate relative to the permanent magnet; a transmitting mechanism configured to transmit a rotational force of the rotor to a cam shaft; a switching brush mounted on the motor housing and configured to switch an energization of coil; a power-feeding brush provided to one of the motor housing and a fixed member and configured to feed electric power to the switching brush; a slip ring provided to another of the motor housing and the fixed member and being in contact with the power-feeding brush; a pigtail harness connecting the power-feeding brush with a power-feeding terminal; and contact portions bending the pigtail harness at a plurality of spots of the pigtail harness by contact with the pigtail harness.
US09991765B2
A cooling device for an electric motor includes at least one closed capillary tube, within which a cooling fluid is located and which is introduced into an opening of a lamination stack of the electric motor such that the capillary tube is connected to the lamination stack to conduct heat and partially projects out of the lamination stack, such that the capillary tube has a cold end disposed outside and a hot end disposed inside the lamination stack. The cooling fluid and the degree of filling of the capillary tube with the cooling fluid is chosen such that an input of heat from the lamination stack into the capillary tube leads to evaporation of the cooling fluid, and the cold end of the capillary tube is cooled such that vapor produced during the evaporation condenses and heat input into the capillary tube is dissipated out of the capillary tube.
US09991761B2
An actuation device for a clutch device is provided having a magnetic field brake with a brake stator and a brake rotor. This magnetic field brake can be operated as an eddy-current brake and/or as a hysteresis brake.
US09991758B2
An electric machine comprises a sealed outer casing defined by a body and by a cover coupled to the body, a stator and a rotor the latter two being mounted inside the casing; the stator is of a wound type and comprises a core having at least two pole pieces and a plurality of windings each defined by a conductor wire wound in a plurality of coils around the pole pieces; the electric machine further comprises a plurality of plastic components located inside the casing and made of a plastic material whose moisture absorption at saturation is less than 0.8%, having insulating and/or supporting and/or cooling functions.
US09991744B2
A wireless power receiving device includes a first coil partially disposed in an outer region and configured to transmit and/or receive data; and a second coil disposed inwardly of an inner boundary line of the outer region and configured to receive wirelessly transmitted power, wherein a center defined by an inner boundary line and a center defined by an outer boundary line of the second coil are different from each other.
US09991733B2
A feed unit includes: a power transmission section configured to perform power transmission using a magnetic field or an electric field, to a device to be fed including a secondary battery; and a power-transmission control section configured to control power transmission operation in the power transmission section. In a charging period in which charging to the secondary battery is performed based on transmitted power in the power transmission, when the device to be fed including the secondary battery is activated, the power-transmission control section controls the power transmission operation, to increase the transmitted power.
US09991730B2
A charger for a starting, lighting, and ignition (SLI) battery is provided. The charger includes a base unit having a pair of terminals that are adapted to engage a pair of conductive terminals coupled to a battery unit to electrically couple the base unit to the battery unit. The charger also includes charging circuitry having power conversion circuitry that is adapted to receive primary power and to convert the primary power to a battery power output compatible with a charging voltage of the battery unit.
US09991725B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a charging method, a mobile device, and a charging device. The mobile device includes a battery and a connector, where the connector includes a charging pin and a ground pin. When the charging pin establishes a connection to an output pin of the charging device by using a charging cable or a battery charging stand, the charging pin receives a first current signal transmitted by the output pin of the charging device, and transmits the first current signal to an anode pin of a battery, so as to charge the battery.
US09991717B1
Method and apparatus for connecting and disconnecting a photovoltaic module to a distribution system
A method and apparatus for electrically connecting and disconnecting a photovoltaic (PV) module from a distribution system includes determining whether one or more conditions are met to connect the PV module to the distribution system. The PV module is connected to the distribution system based upon the determination of whether the one or more conditions are met, and the one or more conditions are monitored. The PV module is disconnected from the distribution system if one or more of the conditions are not met.
US09991700B2
A power bank is disclosed. The power bank includes a voltage output port arranged to provide a first voltage level, and a voltage-controllable and current-bidirectional port arranged to selectively transit a first communication protocol. When the voltage-controllable and current-bidirectional port is arranged to transit the first communication protocol, the voltage-controllable and current-bidirectional port is arranged to output a second voltage level according to the first communication protocol.
US09991686B2
A method for stretching cables includes the steps of i) providing at least one first and one second stretching device; the first and second stretching device include at least one rotatable drum on which a cable can be wound or unwound; an electrical movement member associated to the drum for winding the cable; supply means connected to the movement member; a braking device associated to the drum and activatable for unwinding the cable; an energy recovery member associated to the drum and active simultaneously with the braking device for recovering energy during the unwinding of the cable; ii) activating the second stretching device for pulling the cable; iii) recovering energy from the first stretching device during the unwinding of the cable; and iv) transferring at least part of the recovered energy from the first stretching device to the second stretching device.
US09991666B2
A semiconductor laser device includes a substrate, a buffer layer provided on an upper surface of the substrate and formed of InP, a laser element having a ridge structure formed above the buffer layer, and an epi intermediate layer formed of a compound semiconductor containing As and exposed to the outside.
US09991663B2
A solid-state laser device includes: a first water tank which houses a laser rod and a lamp and into which coolant is introduced; an outer inlet which is provided in a member forming a chamber and through which coolant is received into the chamber; and an outer outlet provided in said member and through which a coolant is discharged to the outside of the chamber. The solid-state laser device further includes: two second water tanks that house electrodes of both ends of the lamp, respectively, and communicate with the first water tank; a coolant inflow passage of which one end communicates with the outer inlet and the other end forms inner inlets opened to only the second water tanks; and a coolant outflow passage of which one end communicates with the outer outlet and the other end forms an inner outlet opened to the first water tank.
US09991662B2
Generator for wholly optical tunable broadband linearly chirped signal comprising a mode-locked laser, a first optical coupler, a first optical filter, a first dispersion module, a second optical filter, a second dispersion module, a tunable time delay module, a second optical coupler, an optical amplifier, and a photodetector. The generator of the present invention employs just one mode-locked laser as a light source, thus preventing instability of the generated signal resulting from independent unrelated lasers. By making use of the principle of wavelength-time mapping and by means of adjusting the center wavelength and the filter bandwidth of the first optical filter and the second optical filter, easy and flexible tuning of the center frequency and sweep bandwidth of the generated linearly chirped signal is realized. The present invention possesses a big advantage on the aspect of generating a broadband linearly chirped signal over other solutions.
US09991652B2
An electrical receptacle connector includes a terminal module received in a metallic shell. The terminal module includes a base portion and receptacle terminals held on the base portion. A notch is recessed from a periphery of an insertion opening of the metallic shell. Therefore, when the electrical receptacle connector is assembled in an electronic device, the periphery of the notch corresponds to the periphery of a cut opening of a housing of the electronic device. The periphery of the cut opening and the periphery of the notch are aligned along the same profile line, and the periphery of the notch does not protrude out of the cut opening. Therefore, the periphery of the insertion opening will not interfere with other components assembled with the housing, and the problem of that the conventional design cannot satisfy the design change of the housing of the electronic device can be solved.
US09991649B1
A cable identification system includes a cable. A first connector is located on the cable and includes a first light emitting device. A first loop circuit includes the first light emitting device and a first diode. The first loop circuit is connected to a first wire that extends through the cable. A second connector is located on the cable and includes a second identification actuator that is configured to decouple the first wire from ground such that first radio waves produced adjacent the first loop circuit will induce a first current flow in the first loop circuit that causes the first light emitting device to emit light.
US09991641B1
An electrical connector includes a shell and a contact organizer received in the shell including contact channels each having an open side between a front and a rear of the contact organizer. The contact organizer has locating shoulders in corresponding contact channels and securing detents extending into corresponding contact channels. Contacts are terminated to cables and are received in contact channels through the open sides. Each contact has a flange engaging the corresponding locating shoulder to hold an axial position of the contact within the contact channel. Each contact has an exterior surface engaging the corresponding securing detent to retain the contact in the contact channel by resisting removal through the open side.
US09991639B2
A wafer connector is disclosed in which a plurality of twin-axial wires are terminated to the tails of ground and signal terminals of the connector. Each twin-axial wire includes a pair of signal wires enclosed in a conductive sheath. A conductive grounding clamp is provided that contacts the sheaths of the twin-axial wires and holds them together as a unit to facilitate the attachment of the wires to the connector terminal tails. The clamp has two opposing halves that cooperatively define openings which receive the twin-axial wires and flat, interconnecting portions extending between the openings that provide contact points where the grounding clamp may be attached to the connector terminal tails.
US09991631B2
An electrical connector (100) includes: an insulative housing having a base (11) and a pair of side walls (12), each side wall having a resilient inner arm (121) and a stationary outer arm (122); and plural contacts (2) retained to the insulative housing, wherein the resilient inner arm extends along a horizontal, front-to-back direction and has a front end operable in both a vertical, top-to-bottom direction and the horizontal, front-to-back direction to move toward the stationary outer arm.
US09991630B1
A connector assembly that has a connector including a coupling member rotatably coupled to a body, a gripping sleeve that receives a portion of the body and a portion of the coupling member, and a torque limiting feature associated with both the gripping sleeve and the coupling member. The torque limiting feature has first and second predetermined torque limits. Rotation of the gripping sleeve applies torque to and rotates the coupling member in a tightening direction until the first predetermined torque limit is reached such that no additional torque is applied to the coupling member by the gripping sleeve that is greater than the first predetermined torque limit. The gripping sleeve rotates with respect to coupling member in a loosening direction until the second predetermined torque limit is reached thereby allowing the gripping sleeve to rotate the coupling member in the loosening direction.
US09991629B1
Disclosed are a magnetic automobile vehicle device and its multifunctional module. The magnetic automobile vehicle device obtains electric power from a cigarette lighter slot of an automobile vehicle and includes a first magnet and an impact detector. The impact detector generates a distress signal when the automobile vehicle is collided. The multifunctional module includes a second magnet and an output element coupled to the magnetic automobile vehicle device by magnetic attraction and provided for charging or supplying power to the output element, and the output element has an ultrasonic transmitter, a USB slot or an O3 air purifier. Therefore, the device comes with a multifunctional configuration and meets market and consumer requirements.
US09991627B1
A includes an electrical outlet that is positioned on a wall. The electrical outlet has at least one female socket. A power cord is provided that has a male plug. The male plug is selectively electrically coupled to the at least one female socket. A locking unit provided. The locking unit is coupled to the wall and the locking unit is selectively manipulated. The locking unit selectively engages the power cord when the male plug is electrically coupled to the at least one female socket. Thus, the locking unit inhibits the male plug from falling out of the at least one female socket.
US09991624B2
The disclosure relates to a modular plug connector comprising a metal housing and an insulating holding frame received therein. At least one plug connector module is received in the holding frame, comprises a metallic or at least electrically conductive material, and is electrically insulated from the housing by the holding frame. Furthermore, an earthing device, which bridges the holding frame and permits an electrical contact between the plug connector module and the metal housing, is provided on the plug connector module. This allows different plug connector modules to be held in the holding frame insulated from the housing, and at the same time others to be held in electrical contact with the housing.
US09991617B2
Embodiments related to electrical connectors including superelastic components are described. The high elastic limit of superelastic materials compared to conventional connector materials may allow for designs which provide reliable connections and high frequency operation. Superelastic components also may enable connector designs with higher densities of connections. In some embodiments, a connector includes one or more superelastic elongated members forming the mating contacts of the connector. The superelastic elongated members deform within one or more conductive receptacles to generate a suitable contact force. The conductive receptacles may include a plurality of protrusions arranged to deflect the superelastic elongated members during mating. A superelastic component may also be provided in a receiving portion of a connector, and may form a portion of a conductive receptacle.
US09991615B1
A dual connector system includes a host circuit board and first and second electrical connectors mounted to the host circuit board. The first electrical connector has a housing having a card slot for a module circuit board and the second electrical connector has a housing having an upper mating surface for the module circuit board. The housing has a hold down ledge having a hold down surface located below the upper mating surface. A dual connector module is mated to the first and second electrical connectors. The dual connector module includes a securing anchor extending below a module circuit board that engages the hold down surface and being captured below the hold down ledge to secure the dual connector module to the second electrical connector.
US09991608B2
A method is provided for preparing a wire for installation of a terminal. The method comprises removing an insulating layer from a conductor to expose a portion of a conductor. The method further includes attaching a conductive foil layer to a portion of the exposed portion of the conductor by applying pressure to the conductive foil layer. Terminated wires are also provided.
US09991594B2
An improved antenna array is distinguished inter alia by the following features: each of at least two antenna columns contains at least one supplementary antenna element, the at least two supplementary antenna elements are arranged such that the centers of the at least two supplementary antenna elements are arranged with a horizontal lateral spacing (b) that is smaller than the lateral spacing (a) between the centers of the antenna element groups or of the antenna elements in the two antenna columns, the wideband antenna elements in a respective antenna column are fed jointly together with the at least one supplementary antenna element, and a distribution network is provided for the at least one antenna element group with the at least one associated antenna element with an associated filter function (F) for the at least one associated supplementary antenna element, which radiate in a higher frequency subband than the wideband antenna elements.
US09991593B1
An Electronically Scanned Array (ESA) antenna is controlled via an optical domain without electrical conductors on the ESA Printed Wiring Board (PWB). Distribution of the control signal occurs over pulses of light through an optical medium separate from the ESA PWB. External to the ESA PWB are one or more optical wave guides functional as communications channels which connect the ESA optical receivers/transceivers with transmitters/transceivers interfaced to a system controller. The ESA is divided into groups of elements with serial busses and discrete signals driven by local controllers. The local controller for each group of elements may include one or more optical receivers (unidirectional) or transceivers (bidirectional). This concept offers a trade in electrical complexity associated with an ESA PWB for an additional manufactured medium redundantly supplying the control signal to the ESA as well as routing the RF data signal from the ESA to the system controller.
US09991591B1
A test arrangement for testing a device under test, the test arrangement comprises a test antenna system comprising a number of reflectors and a number of test antennas for emitting test signals to the device under test via the reflectors and/or measuring signals emitted by the device under test to the reflectors, a link antenna for communication with the device under test, and a mechanical antenna positioning structure that carries the link antenna and controllably moves the link antenna around the device under test, wherein for positions of the link antenna around device under test that are occupied by the test antenna system, the test antenna system simulates the link antenna.
US09991586B2
A portable electronic device including a front cover, a back cover and a circuit board is provided. The circuit board is located between the front cover and the back cover. The back cover is combined with the front cover and includes a back section, a plurality of side sections and a separator, at least one of the side sections adjacent to the back cover includes a groove close to the back section and a slot far away from the back section, the slot is connected through to the groove, a first antenna unit and a second antenna unit are defined at the side section by the groove and the slot. The separator is located in the groove and the slot.
US09991582B2
A glass antenna for a vehicle is disposed adjacent to an upper edge portion of a window glass. The glass antenna for receiving two types of frequency bands includes a feed point; a first antenna conductor; and a second antenna conductor. The first antenna conductor includes a vertical element for feed connection; a first transverse element; and a second transverse element. The second antenna conductor includes a transverse element for feed connection; a vertical element for connection; a third transverse element; a fourth transverse element; an upper vertical element; and an upper transverse element. The first transverse element and the third transverse element are capacitively coupled to each other to form a first capacitively-coupled portion. The second transverse element and the fourth transverse element are capacitively coupled to each other to form a second capacitively-coupled portion. The upper transverse element is located above the second capacitively-coupled portion.
US09991577B2
A cavity filter that uses cross-coupling is disclosed, which includes: a housing, in which multiple cavities are formed, with the cavities being open towards a first direction; multiple resonators held respectively in the multiple cavities; and a coupling member arranged to pass through an aperture between a first cavity and a second cavity, from among the multiple cavities, such that the coupling member is positioned between a first resonator and a second resonator. Here, the coupling member includes a first extending portion and a second extending portion, the first extending portion is positioned closer to the first resonator than to the second resonator and extends towards one side of the housing along the first direction, and the second extending portion is positioned closer to the second resonator than to the first resonator and extends towards the other side of the housing along the first direction.
US09991568B2
A battery temperature adjustment apparatus including a battery, a temperature adjustment section configured to operate by power supplied from an external power source or the battery and adjust a temperature of the battery by heating or cooling, a detection section configured to detect a temperature of the battery, and a control section configured to change an operating condition or an operating state of the temperature adjustment section according to whether or not the external power source to supply power to the battery is electrically connected, and in a case where the external power source is not electrically connected, restrict the operation of the temperature adjustment section so as to reduce power consumed in the battery as compared to a case where the external power source is electrically connected.
US09991565B2
A sensor system for detecting a leak of a system component from an electrochemical storage system, in particular a lithium-ion battery. To determine a defect in the electrochemical storage system, the sensor system includes a reaction chamber containing a detection component, and a measuring device for determining a physical variable within the reaction chamber. The value of the physical variable is changeable by a chemical reaction of the system component with the detection component, so that a leak of the system component is detectable via a change in the value of the physical variable. Also described is a sensor element for such a sensor system, an electrochemical storage system having such a sensor system or sensor element, the use of such a sensor system or sensor element, and a mobile or stationary system, for example an electric vehicle, equipped with the sensor system, the sensor element, or the storage system.
US09991564B2
An electrochemical energy store with an anode, which is electrically connected to an anode space in which an anode material with a first fill level is arranged, and a cathode, which is electrically connected to a cathode space in which a cathode material with a second fill level is arranged, and an ion-conducting separator, which separates the anode space from the cathode space. The ion-conducting separator has a top region and a base region, wherein at least one conductivity section is provided in the top region of the ion-conducting separator, which conductivity section has greater electrical conductivity during correct operation of the electrochemical energy store than an electrically insulating insulation section in the base region, wherein at least one state of charge of the electrochemical energy store exists in which the anode material makes contact with the conductivity section in the anode space.
US09991562B2
Described are organosilicon electrolyte compositions having improved thermostability and electrochemical properties and electrochemical devices that contain the organosilicon electrolyte compositions.
US09991561B2
The present invention provides a lithium ion secondary battery comprising: a positive electrode; a negative electrode comprising a negative electrode active material comprising at least one carbon material selected from the group consisting of a natural graphite, an artificial graphite, a non-graphitizable carbon and a graphitizable carbon; and an electrolyte solution comprising a specific cyclic disulfonate ester compound and an acid anhydride.
US09991560B2
The present invention aims to a liquid electrolyte for a fluoride ion battery having high stability with respect to a fluoride ion. The present invention attains the object by providing a liquid electrolyte for a fluoride ion battery comprising: a fluoride salt; an alkali metal amide salt having an alkali metal cation and an amide anion; and a glyme represented by general formula: R1—O(CH2CH2O)n—R2 (in which R1 and R2 each independently represent an alkyl group with 4 or less carbon atoms or a fluoroalkyl group with 4 or less carbon atoms, and n is in the range of 2 to 10).
US09991556B2
A garnet-type Li-ion conductive oxide contains Li, La, Zr, and oxygen and contains at least one type of element among elements represented by M1, M2, M3, and M4. M1, M2, M3, and M4 are as follows: M1: One or more types of elements selected from the group consisting of Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, and Zn; M2: One or more types of elements selected from the group consisting of Al, Ga, Co, Fe, and Y; M3: One or more types of elements selected from the group consisting of Sn and Ge; and M4: One or more types of elements selected from the group consisting of Ta and Nb.
US09991552B2
A secondary battery is provided. The secondary battery includes a cathode; an anode; and a non-aqueous electrolytic solution, wherein the cathode includes any one of a first lithium-containing compound and a second lithium-containing compound, the first lithium-containing compound having a bedded salt-type crystal structure, wherein the first lithium-containing compound includes one or more metal elements (M) other than lithium (Li), wherein the second lithium-containing compound having an olivine-type crystal structure, and wherein the nonaqueous electrolytic solution includes an unsaturated cyclic compound.
US09991535B2
The fuel cell system includes: a fuel cell 40 that receives supply of reactant gas to generate power; output characteristic updating means for updating an output characteristic of the fuel cell 40 based on output current and output voltage measured by a current sensor 140 and a voltage sensor 150; maximum power calculation means for calculating, using the output characteristic, the maximum power available at the fuel cell 40; and determination means for determining whether a value of the output characteristic is in an assumed situation where the output characteristic value is assumed to be temporarily lowered, wherein while the output characteristic value is determined by the determination means to be in the assumed situation, the maximum power calculation means calculates the maximum power using the output characteristic updated by the output characteristic updating means just before transition to the assumed situation.
US09991524B2
In a fuel cell separator and the like, a technology for reducing the separation of a flow path rib which rectifies the flow of a fluid is desired.A separator used in a fuel cell is provided, the separator including: a separator main body that includes a fluid flow region through which a reactive gas or a coolant flows, a through-hole through which the reactive gas or the coolant flows, and a connection portion which connects the fluid flow region and the through-hole; and a flow rectifying portion that is arranged by being adhered on the connection portion and that rectifies flow of the reactive gas or the coolant between the fluid flow region and the through-hole, where the flow rectifying portion includes a plurality of protruded portions and a coupling portion which is thinner than the protruded portions and which couples the protruded portions.
US09991523B2
A supported catalyst includes a plurality of support particles that each include a carbon support and a layer disposed around the carbon support. The layer is selected from a metal carbide, metal oxycarbide, and combinations thereof. A catalytic material is disposed on the layers of the support particles.
US09991519B2
An object of the present invention is to provide an electrolytic aluminum foil having no significant difference in properties between one surface and the other surface thereof, and also a method for producing the same. Another object is to provide a current collector for an electrical storage device using the electrolytic aluminum foil, an electrode for an electrical storage device, and an electrical storage device. An electrolytic aluminum foil of the present invention as a means for achieving the object is characterized in that both surfaces of the foil have L* values of 86.00 or more in the L*a*b* color space (SCI method). The electrolytic aluminum foil of the present invention can be produced, for example, employing a method for producing an electrolytic aluminum foil, which comprises applying a current between a cathode drum partially immersed in a plating solution and an anode plate immersed in the plating solution to form an aluminum film on the surface of the cathode drum, and then separating, from the cathode drum, the aluminum film raised from the liquid surface by rotating the cathode drum, and in which the dew point of a treatment atmosphere at the time of the separation of the aluminum film from the cathode drum to give an electrolytic aluminum foil is controlled to be −50.0° C. or less.
US09991516B2
A battery production method is provided for producing the battery using the rubber material such as a tire containing sulfur as the raw material. In the method, the raw material is thermally decomposed, so that the raw material is separated into the solid portion and the dry distilled gas. In the next step, the dry distilled gas is cooled, so that the dry distilled gas is separated into the oil portion and the gaseous portion. In the next step, the oil portion is distilled, so that the oil portion is separated into the heavy oil, the light oil, and sulfur. In the next step, the heavy oil and sulfur are kneaded and thermally processed to produce the positive active substance or the positive electrode active material of the battery.
US09991514B2
Provided are a method of manufacturing a lithium nickel complex oxide including mixing a nickel-containing mixed transition metal precursor, a lithium compound, and a polyvinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene (PVdF-HFP) copolymer, and heat treating the mixture, a lithium nickel complex oxide manufactured thereby, and a cathode active material including the lithium nickel complex oxide. The method of manufacturing a lithium nickel complex oxide according to an embodiment of the present invention may adjust a ratio of divalent nickel (NiII) to trivalent nickel (NiIII) by using a polyvinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene (PVdF-HFP) copolymer, and thus, the method may improve capacity of a secondary battery.
US09991507B2
Disclosed are an electrode for a secondary battery having improved energy density and a lithium secondary battery including the same. More particularly, an electrode for a secondary battery, in which an electrode mix including an electrode active material, and a material having a shape easily rolled during electrode rolling as a conductive material is coated on an electrode current collector, and a lithium secondary battery including the same are provided.
US09991504B2
Provided herein is a method for preparing a cathode electrode based on an aqueous slurry. The invention provides a cathode slurry comprising a cathode material especially high Ni ternary cathode material with improved water stability. The cathode material shows lower tendencies for pH change when applied in the aqueous slurry. The lower processing temperatures may avoid the undesirable decomposition of cathode material having high nickel and/or manganese content. In addition, the batteries having the electrodes prepared by the method disclosed herein show impressive energy retention. The capacity retention of the battery is not less than 60% of its initial capacity after 2 weeks of high temperature storage.
US09991503B2
A method for producing a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery according to the present invention is characterized in that the method comprises the steps of: placing an electrode body into an outer casing, the electrode body having a folded-separator structure or a wound structure in which a positive electrode including a positive-electrode active material and a negative electrode including a negative-electrode active material are stacked with a separator interposed therebetween; placing a non-aqueous electrolyte free of a flame retardant into the outer casing; charging the electrode body by applying a voltage between the positive electrode and the negative electrode placed in the outer casing; placing a flame retardant into the outer casing; and sealing the outer casing, wherein the step of charging is a step of charging the electrode body with the state in which the surface of the positive-electrode active material and the surface of the negative-electrode active material are in contact with the non-aqueous electrolyte substantially free of the flame retardant.
US09991495B2
Adjacent coupling units of a plurality of coupling units are slidably coupled via connecting members in a connection direction of the connecting members. Of the plurality of coupling units, one coupling unit of adjacent coupling units that are not coupled to each other via the corresponding connecting member includes an extension portion that is extended toward another connecting member that is different from the connecting member that couples the one coupling unit. The extension portion holds the other connecting member.
US09991487B2
A battery separator for a lead/acid battery is resistant to oxidation arising from the use of water or acid containing contaminants, for example chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), titanium (Ti), copper (Cu), and the like. The separator is a microporous membrane including a rubber. The rubber is no more than about 12% by weight of the separator. The rubber may be rubber latex, tire crumb, and combinations thereof. The rubber may be impregnated into the microporous membrane. The microporous membrane may be a microporous sheet of polyolefin, polyvinyl chloride, phenol-formaldehyde resins, cross-linked rubber, or nonwoven fibers. A method for preventing the oxidation and/or extending battery life of the separator is also included.
US09991486B2
Solid-state separator for electrochemical systems, wherein the solid-state separator consists of a plurality of ion-conducting solid-state segments, and the individual solid-state segments are connected by means of a deformable, electrically insulating material.
US09991485B2
A battery cell is provided. The battery cell includes a battery case, an electrode assembly located in the battery case, the electrode assembly comprising a cathode, an anode, and a separator disposed between the cathode and the anode, an electrolyte present in the battery case, the battery case being sealed at a perimeter thereof, and a frame coupled to the perimeter of the battery case, the frame having a venting guiding portion at the perimeter of the battery case, such that sealing of the battery case is released through the venting guiding portion when internal pressure of the battery cell increases, the venting guiding portion comprising a reduction in the amount of material of the frame in a predetermined location at the perimeter of the battery case. A battery cell module is also provided.
US09991482B2
Provided is a magnesium-air fuel cell in which a conductive state is achieved when a lid is fastened, and a nonconductive state is achieved when the lid is loosened, so that the power supply can be turned ON and OFF based on a fastening state of the lid. A lid includes a lower end portion that comes into contact with a main body at a time of fastening, an anode body inserted in the main body, and an electrode plate made of metal coupled to an end of the anode body. The electrode plate includes a first terminal at least positioned at the lower end portion. The main body includes a second terminal positioned on a surface that comes into contact with the lower end portion of the lid at the time of fastening the lid. Electrical conduction is achieved when the first terminal and the second terminal come into contact with each other.
US09991475B2
The present invention provides a display backplane and a manufacturing method thereof, as well as a display device. The display backplane comprising: a substrate; an array of organic light emitting elements and an array of transistors for driving and controlling the array of organic light emitting elements formed on the substrate; and a heat insulation layer formed between the array of organic light emitting elements and the array of transistors, wherein the heat insulation layer is provided with a heat insulation layer via hole, through which the array of transistors is connected with the array of organic light emitting elements. The display backplane provided in the present invention can reduce the conduction of heat generated by the array of organic light emitting elements during lighting to the array of transistors, thus avoiding problems caused thereby such as uneven display.
US09991470B2
An organic light emitting display device includes an organic light emitting display panel including first to third pixels that emit light of different colors, a wavelength of a color light emitted from the third pixel being shorter than wavelengths of color lights emitted from the first and second pixels, a window on an upper portion of the display panel, and a light shielding pattern on the window, the light shielding pattern being adjacent to an outline of the third pixel.
US09991469B2
According to one embodiment, a display device includes an insulating substrate including a first area and a second area adjacent to the first area, the insulating substrate including a first through hole formed in the second area which is formed thinner than the first area, a pad electrode disposed above the first through hole, a signal line electrically connected to the pad electrode, a line substrate including a connection line and disposed below the insulating substrate, a conductive material disposed inside the first through hole to electrically connect the pad electrode and the connection line, a first protection member disposed below the first area, and a second protection member disposed below the first protection member.
US09991467B2
A display device includes a flexible substrate having a display area for displaying an image, and a pad area adjacent the display area, a circuit film coupled to the flexible substrate at the pad area, and a passivation layer on at least a part of the circuit film and at part of the pad area.
US09991454B2
An organic light-emitting device includes a first electrode; a second electrode facing the first electrode; and an organic layer between the first electrode and the second electrode, wherein the organic layer includes an emission layer and at least one organometallic compound of Formula 1. An organic light-emitting device including an organometallic compound of Formula 1 may have low driving voltage, high efficiency, and excellent color purity.
US09991453B2
This invention addresses the problem of providing an electronic device, organic electroluminescent device, conductive film, organic thin-film solar cell, and dye-sensitized solar cell provided with a charge-transporting thin film that exhibits excellent stability. In the presence of external disturbances, the charge-transporting thin film exhibits little in the way of fluctuations, and the resistance of the charge-transporting thin film changes little over time as current is supplied. As one of the secondary effects thereof, the charge-transporting thin film results in little in the way of changes in emission characteristics over time. This electronic device, which is provided with a charge-transporting thin film that contains one or more functional organic compounds having chiral elements, is characterized by the provision of a charge-transporting thin film wherein the total of the number of chiral elements per molecule in each type of the functional organic compounds summed over all types of the functional organic compounds is four or more.
US09991449B2
The present invention relates to a novel anthracene derivative, for an organic light-emitting device, and an organic light-emitting device comprising same, the anthracene derivative enabling excellent device characteristics when used as a light-emitting material.
US09991447B2
A compound represented by the following formula (1): wherein in the formula (1), Ar1 and Ar2 are independently a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group, a substituted or unsubstituted heteroaryl group, or a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group; X1 to X4 and X13 to X16 are independently CR1, CH or N; one of X5 to X8 is a carbon atom bonding to one of X9 to X12, and at least one of X5 to X8 that is adjacent to the carbon atom bonding to one of X9 to X12 is CR2; one of X9 to X12 is a carbon atom bonding to one of X5 to X8, and X9 to X12 that is adjacent to the carbon atom bonding to one of X5 to X8 is CH or N; and the remaining X5 to X8 and the remaining X9 to X12 are CR1, CH or N.
US09991444B2
Surface-modified organic semiconductors and methods for making surface-modified organic semiconductors are disclosed. More particularly, surface-modified thin films are provided, the surface-modified thin films comprising a first layer comprising a polyaromatic organic semiconductor and a surface layer in direct contact with the first layer, the surface layer comprising an addition reaction product of the polyaromatic organic semiconductor with, for example, a dienophile, wherein the first layer is substantially free of the addition reaction product of the organic semiconductor with the dienophile. Also provided are surface-modified single crystals comprising a core comprising a polyaromatic organic semiconductor and a coating in direct contact with the core, the coating comprising, for example, an addition reaction product of the polyaromatic organic semiconductor with a dienophile, wherein the core is substantially free of the addition reaction product of the organic semiconductor with the dienophile.
US09991439B2
A method of producing a structure made of a piezoelectric material, including: a) production of a stack including at least one metal layer and at least one conductive layer on a substrate made of piezoelectric material, wherein at least one electrical contact is established between the conductive layer and a metal element outside the stack; b) an ionic and/or atomic implantation, through the conductive layer and the metal layer; c) transfer of the substrate onto a transfer substrate, followed by fracturing of the transferred piezoelectric substrate, in an embrittlement area.
US09991431B2
An optoelectronic component includes a carrier strip and an optoelectronic semiconductor chip, a first electrical connection surface formed on a front side of the chip and a second electrical connection surface is formed on a rear side of the chip, first and second electrically conductive contact regions are formed on the strip, the first region is arranged on a folding section of the strip, the rear side of the chip faces toward an upper side of the strip, the upper side faces toward the front side of the chip, the first electrical connection surface electrically conductively connects to the first region, the second electrical connection surface electrically conductively connects to the second region by a second connecting material, the strip has a second through-opening that lies next to the second region, and the second connecting material extends through the second contact opening to a lower side of the strip.
US09991425B2
A light emitting device including a light emitting structure disposed on one surface of a substrate and a transflective portion disposed on the other surface of the substrate. The transflective portion and the substrate have different indexes of refraction from one another.
US09991420B2
A semiconductor light-emitting element according to the present invention is a semiconductor light-emitting element including: a first semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type; a light-emitting functional layer formed on the first semiconductor layer; and a second semiconductor layer that is formed on the light-emitting functional layer and is of a second conductivity type opposite to that of the first semiconductor layer. The light-emitting functional layer has: a base layer formed on the first semiconductor layer, the base layer having a plurality of base segments that have a composition subject to stress strain from the first semiconductor layer and are formed in a random net shape, the base layer being doped with a dopant of the second conductivity type; and a quantum well light-emitting layer formed on the base layer.
US09991419B2
A device according to embodiments of the invention includes a semiconductor structure including a light emitting layer disposed between an n-type region and a p-type region. A surface of the p-type region perpendicular to a growth direction of the semiconductor structure includes a first portion and a second portion. The first portion is less conductive than the second portion. The device further includes a p-contact formed on the p-type region. The p-contact includes a reflector and a blocking material. The blocking material is disposed over the first portion and no blocking material is disposed over the second portion.
US09991411B2
Structures and techniques introduced here enable the design and fabrication of photodetectors (PDs) and/or other electronic circuits using typical semiconductor device manufacturing technologies meanwhile reducing the adverse impacts on PDs' performance. Examples of the various structures and techniques introduced here include, but not limited to, a pre-PD homogeneous wafer bonding technique, a pre-PD heterogeneous wafer bonding technique, a post-PD wafer bonding technique, their combinations, and a number of mirror equipped PD structures. With the introduced structures and techniques, it is possible to implement PDs using typical direct growth material epitaxy technology while reducing the adverse impact of the defect layer at the material interface caused by lattice mismatch.
US09991398B2
The present disclosure provides a thin film transistor array substrate and a fabrication method thereof, and a display device. The thin film transistor array substrate includes an active layer. The active layer is formed using a zinc target under an environment of oxygen and nitrogen in a sputtering chamber. A source/drain buffer layer is formed on the active layer using the zinc target by a sputtering process in the sputtering chamber under an environment containing one of oxygen and nitrogen.
US09991397B2
To provide a semiconductor device that includes an oxide semiconductor and is miniaturized while keeping good electrical properties. In the semiconductor device, an oxide semiconductor layer is surrounded by an insulating layer including an aluminum oxide film containing excess oxygen. Excess oxygen in the aluminum oxide film is supplied to the oxide semiconductor layer including a channel by heat treatment in a manufacturing process of the semiconductor device. Furthermore, the aluminum oxide film forms a barrier against oxygen and hydrogen. It is thus possible to suppress the removal of oxygen from the oxide semiconductor layer surrounded by the insulating layer including an aluminum oxide film, and the entry of impurities such as hydrogen into the oxide semiconductor layer; as a result, the oxide semiconductor layer can be made highly intrinsic. In addition, gate electrode layers over and under the oxide semiconductor layer control the threshold voltage effectively.
US09991386B2
A method of manufacturing an epitaxial wafer, including a silicon substrate having a surface sliced from single-crystalline silicon and a silicon epitaxial layer deposited on the surface of the silicon substrate, includes an oxygen concentration controlling heat treatment process in which a heat treatment of the epitaxial layer is performed under a non-oxidizing atmosphere after the epitaxial growth such that an oxygen concentration of the surface of the silicon epitaxial layer is set to 1.0×1017 to 12×1017 atoms/cm3 (ASTM F-121, 1979).
US09991383B2
A semiconductor component including: a semiconductor substrate; and a semiconductor device provided thereon, the device being a field-effect transistor that includes: a gate insulating film provided on the substrate; a gate electrode provided via the film; and a pair of source-drain regions provided to sandwich the electrode, the substrate including a patterned surface in a portion where the electrode is provided, the patterned surface of the substrate including a raised portion where the film is formed to cover a surface that lies on the same plane as a surface of the pair of source-drain regions, and the electrode is formed on a top surface of the film, and the patterned surface of the substrate including a recessed portion where the film is formed to cover surfaces of a groove formed toward the interior than the surface of the pair of source-drain regions, and the electrode is formed so as to fill the groove provided with the film.
US09991378B2
A trench power semiconductor device is provided. A trench gate structure of the trench power semiconductor device located in a cell trench of an epitaxial layer includes a first dielectric layer, a second dielectric layer, a gate electrode, a third dielectric layer, and a shielding layer. The second dielectric layer is interposed between the first and third dielectric layers, and the second dielectric layer is made from different material than the first dielectric layer. After performing a selective etching step on the second dielectric layer, a recess can be formed among the first, second and third dielectric layers. The gate electrode includes a conductive layer formed in the recess region, and the shielding electrode is surrounded by the third dielectric layer and insulated from the conductive layer.
US09991377B2
According to an exemplary implementation, a field-effect transistor (FET) includes first and second gate trenches extending to a drift region of a first conductivity type. The FET also includes a base region of a second conductivity type that is situated between the first and second gate trenches. A ruggedness enhancement region is situated between the first and second gate trenches, where the ruggedness enhancement region is configured to provide an enhanced avalanche current path from a drain region to the base region when the FET is in an avalanche condition. The enhanced avalanche current path is away from the first and second gate trenches. The ruggedness enhancement region can be of the second conductivity type that includes a higher dopant concentration than the base region. Furthermore, the ruggedness enhancement region can be extending below the first and second gate trenches.
US09991369B2
An ESD protection SCR device includes a semiconductor substrate, an epitaxial layer, device isolation layers, an n-type well formed in an anode region, a first high concentration p-type impurity region formed on a surface portion of the n-type well, a first high concentration n-type impurity region formed on the surface portion of the n-type well, a p-type well formed in an cathode region, a second high concentration n-type impurity region formed on a surface portion of the p-type well, a second high concentration p-type impurity region formed on a surface portion of the p-type well so as to be spaced apart from the second high concentration n-type impurity region, and a third high-concentration p-type impurity region formed on the surface portion of the p-type well so as to surround a side portion of the second high-concentration n-type impurity region, adjacent to the anode region.
US09991368B2
Some aspects of this disclosure relate to a memory device. The memory device includes a collector region having a first conductivity type and which is coupled to a source line of the memory device. A base region is formed over the collector region and has a second conductivity type. A gate structure is coupled to the base region and acts as a shared word line for first and second neighboring memory cells of the memory device. First and second emitter regions are formed over the base region and have the first conductivity type. The first and second emitter regions are arranged on opposite sides of the gate structure. First and second contacts extend upwardly from the first and second emitter regions, respectively, and couple the first and second emitter regions to first and second data storage elements, respectively, of the first and second neighboring memory cells, respectively.
US09991363B1
A contact etch stop layer includes a nitride layer formed over a sacrificial gate structure and a polysilicon layer formed over the nitride layer. During subsequent processing, the polysilicon layer is adapted to oxidize and form an oxide layer. The oxidation of the polysilicon layer effectively shields the underlying nitride contact etch stop layer from oxidation, which protects the mechanical integrity of the nitride layer.
US09991358B2
A semiconductor device according to an embodiment includes a semiconductor region, a gate electrode, and a first gate insulating film provided between the semiconductor region and the gate electrode and containing a material having a chemical composition expressed by (SiO2)n(Si3N4)m (where n and m are positive integers), in the material, at least one silicon atom being bonded with at least one oxygen atom and at least one nitrogen atom.
US09991357B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate including multiple active regions having a common conductivity type and separate, respective gate electrodes on the separate active regions. Different high-k dielectric layers may be between the separate active regions and the respective gate electrodes on the active regions. Different quantities of high-k dielectric layers may be between the separate active regions and the respective gate electrodes on the active regions. The different high-k dielectric layers may include different work-function adjusting materials.
US09991355B2
A method of forming a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) contact, a transistor including the MIS contact, and the MIS contact are described. The method includes etching an opening for formation of the contact, the opening extending to an upper surface of a semiconductor region. The method also includes implanting metal ions at a selected depth within the upper surface of the semiconductor region and converting the upper surface of the semiconductor region to a metal oxide insulating layer. The method further includes forming a metal layer on the insulating layer.
US09991353B2
Machining accuracy of an IGBT region is worsened due to a height difference caused by polysilicon. Therefore, there is a problem that characteristic variation of the IGBT increases. Provided is a semiconductor device including a semiconductor substrate; a gate wiring layer provided on a front surface side of the semiconductor substrate; and a gate structure that includes a gate electrode and is provided on the front surface of the semiconductor substrate. The gate wiring layer includes an outer periphery portion that is a metal wiring layer and is provided along an outer periphery of the semiconductor substrate; and an extending portion that is a metal wiring layer, is provided extending from the outer periphery portion toward a central portion of the semiconductor substrate, and is electrically connected to the gate electrode.
US09991350B2
An semiconductor device with a low resistance sinker contact wherein the low resistance sinker contact is etched through a first doped layer and is etched into a second doped layer and wherein the first doped layer overlies the second doped layer and wherein the second doped layer is more heavily doped that the first doped layer and wherein the low resistance sinker contact is filled with a metallic material. A method for forming a semiconductor device with a low resistance sinker contact wherein the low resistance sinker contact is etched through a first doped layer and is etched into a second doped layer and wherein the first doped layer overlies the second doped layer and wherein the second doped layer is more heavily doped that the first doped layer and wherein the low resistance sinker contact is filled with a metallic material.
US09991347B2
A power semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate having a drift region, a gate electrode trench in the semiconductor substrate and a field electrode needle trench in the semiconductor substrate. The gate electrode trench extends into the drift region and includes a gate electrode. The gate electrode is arranged in the gate electrode trench and electrically insulated from the drift region by a gate dielectric layer arranged between the gate electrode and the drift region. The field electrode needle trench is laterally spaced from the gate electrode trench and extends into the drift region. The field electrode needle trench includes a field electrode arranged in the field electrode needle trench and electrically insulated from the drift region by a cavity formed between the field electrode and the drift region.
US09991345B2
There is provided a semiconductor device comprising a group III nitride semiconductor layer; a gate insulating film formed on the group III nitride semiconductor layer; and a gate electrode formed on the gate insulating film. The gate insulating film comprises a first film that is placed on the group III nitride semiconductor layer, includes silicon and has a higher crystallization temperature than a crystallization temperature of aluminum oxide; and a second film that is placed on the first film and contains aluminum oxide. The first film has a hydrogen concentration of not lower than 1×1021 atoms/cm3, a nitrogen concentration of not lower than 1×1019 atoms/cm3 and a carbon concentration of not lower than 1×1019 atoms/cm3. This configuration prevents crystallization of aluminum oxide.
US09991344B2
An embodiment provides: a method for manufacturing a silicon carbide epi wafer, the method comprising the steps of preparing a wafer, applying a reaction gas to the wafer, heating the reaction gas to generate an intermediate compound, and forming a silicon carbide epi layer on the wafer using the generated intermediate compound, wherein the reaction gas contains a plurality of hydrocarbon compounds; and a silicon carbide epi wafer comprising a silicon carbide epi layer formed by a reaction gas containing a plurality of hydrocarbon compounds, wherein the C/Si value of the silicon carbide epi layer is uniform on the wafer, and thus the uniformity of the silicon carbide epi layer on the wafer can be improved.
US09991334B2
A capacitive device includes a first electrode comprising a nanosheet stack and a second electrode comprising a nanosheet stack, the second electrode arranged substantially parallel to the first electrode. A first conductive contact is arranged on a basal end of the first electrode, and a second conductive contact is arranged on a basal end of the second electrode.
US09991332B2
An integrated circuit has a lateral flux capacitor assembly that includes a first metal layer having a capacitive portion with first and second lateral sides and first and second capacitive fingers, a first dummy metal lines portion positioned adjacent the first lateral side of the capacitive portion and a second dummy metal lines portion positioned adjacent the second lateral side of the capacitive portion. The first set of capacitive fingers is electrically connected to the first dummy metal lines portion and the second set of capacitive fingers is electrically connected to the second dummy metal lines portion. A method of making an integrated circuit assembly with a lateral flux capacitor includes electrically connecting a first plurality of capacitive fingers in a first metal layer to a first dummy metal lines portion of the first metal layer.
US09991331B2
Apparatuses including compensation capacitors are described. An example apparatus includes: first, second and third capacitors arranged such that the second capacitor is sandwiched between the first and third capacitors, each of the first, second and third capacitors including first and second electrodes. The first electrodes of the first, second and third capacitors are electrically coupled in common to one another. The second electrodes of the first and third capacitors are electrically coupled in common to each other. The second electrode of the second capacitor is electrically insulated from the second electrodes of the first and third capacitors.
US09991325B2
There are provided a display unit and an electronic apparatus that are capable of preventing color mixture in adjacent color pixels, and improving color reproducibility and chromaticity viewing angle. The display unit includes: a drive substrate having a plurality of pixels with a partition therebetween; and a first light shielding film provided on the partition.
US09991311B2
Some embodiments include an imaging system. The imaging system includes an active matrix pixel array having a flexible substrate and a pixel. The pixel includes a transistor over the flexible substrate, and the transistor includes multiple active layers having a first active layer and a second active layer over the first active layer. Further, the active matrix pixel array also includes a photodiode over the transistor, and the photodiode includes an N-type layer over the transistor, an I layer over the N-type layer, and a P-type layer over the I layer. Meanwhile, the imaging system also includes a flexible scintillator layer over the active matrix pixel array. Other embodiments of related systems and methods are also disclosed.
US09991305B2
The present invention reduces the leakage of the electric charge, which occurs at an end of a pixel electrode. An imaging apparatus includes: a plurality of pixel electrodes arranged separately from each other; an insulating film arranged on the pixel electrode; a pixel isolating film of an insulating member arranged between the pixel electrodes; and a photoelectric conversion film arranged on the insulating film, wherein the pixel isolating film contacts the pixel electrode.
US09991295B2
An array substrate, a manufacturing method thereof and a display apparatus are provided. The array substrate includes thin-film transistors (TFTs) and conductive electrodes; the TFT includes a gate electrode, a source electrode, a drain electrode and an active layer; the source electrode and the drain electrode are arranged in the same layer and at two ends of the active layer and at least directly partially contact the upper surface or the lower surface of the active layer; and the conductive electrode is directly disposed on the electrode. With improved layer structures of the array substrate, a plurality of layer structures is formed in one patterning process by stepped photoresist process, so as to reduce the frequency of patterning processes, better ensure the compactness of the array substrate, and guarantee good contact between the layer structures in the array substrate.
US09991288B2
A more convenient and highly reliable semiconductor device which has a transistor including an oxide semiconductor with higher impact resistance used for a variety of applications is provided. A semiconductor device has a bottom-gate transistor including a gate electrode layer, a gate insulating layer, and an oxide semiconductor layer over a substrate, an insulating layer over the transistor, and a conductive layer over the insulating layer. The insulating layer covers the oxide semiconductor layer and is in contact with the gate insulating layer. In a channel width direction of the oxide semiconductor layer, end portions of the gate insulating layer and the insulating layer are aligned with each other over the gate electrode layer, and the conductive layer covers a channel formation region of the oxide semiconductor layer and the end portions of the gate insulating layer and the insulating layer and is in contact with the gate electrode layer.
US09991281B2
A semiconductor device is provided as follows. A tunnel insulation layer is disposed on a substrate. The tunnel insulation layer includes a first silicon oxide layer, a second silicon oxide layer, and a silicon layer interposed between the first silicon oxide layer and the second silicon oxide layer. The silicon layer has a thickness smaller than a thickness of each of the first silicon oxide layer and the second silicon oxide layer. A gate pattern is disposed on the tunnel insulation layer.
US09991278B2
According to an embodiment, a non-volatile memory device includes first electrodes stacked on an underlying layer, a second electrode provided on the first electrodes, a semiconductor layer extending in a first direction from the underlying layer to the second electrode, and a memory film provided between each of the first electrodes and the semiconductor layer. The semiconductor layer includes a first portion adjacent to the first electrodes and a second portion adjacent to the second electrode. The second portion has a thickness thinner than a thickness of the first portion in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.
US09991270B2
A semiconductor device and a manufacturing method for the same are provided in such a manner that the oxygen barrier film and the conductive plug in the base of a capacitor are prevented from being abnormally oxidized. A capacitor is formed by layering a lower electrode, a dielectric film including a ferroelectric substance or a high dielectric substance, and an upper electrode in this order on top of an interlayer insulation film with at least a conductive oxygen barrier film in between, and at least a portion of a side of the conductive oxygen barrier film is covered with an oxygen entering portion or an insulating oxygen barrier film.
US09991269B2
The present invention provides a non-overlapped-extension-implantation (NOI) nonvolatile memory device capable of being treated with anti-fuse operation. Differing from conventional anti-fuse memory devices, the structure and fabrication of this NOI nonvolatile memory device are complied with currently-used standard COMS processes; that is, the NOI nonvolatile memory device provided by the present invention can be manufactured through the standard COMS processes, without using any additional masks for defining specific oxide layer. The most important is that, after the NOI nonvolatile memory device is treated with the anti-fuse operation, the Gate and Drain of the NOI nonvolatile memory device still propose the switching characteristic the same to the traditional MOSFET, resulting from the oxide breakdown caused by a high electric filed merely occur in an overlapped oxide segment of the gate oxide layer.
US09991268B1
A static random access memory (SRAM) cell and a SRAM cell structure are provided. The SRAM cell includes a first pull-down transistor, a first pull-up transistor, a second pull-down transistor, a second pull-up transistor, a first conductive line pattern and a second conductive line pattern. A first gate electrode pattern of the first pull-down transistor and a second gate electrode pattern of the first pull-up transistor are physically separated from each other and electrically connected to the first conductive line pattern. The second inverter includes a second pull-down transistor, a second pull-up transistor and a second conductive line pattern. A third gate electrode pattern of the second pull-down transistor and a fourth gate electrode pattern of the second pull-up transistor are physically separated from each other and electrically connected to the second conductive line pattern.
US09991263B2
The semiconductor device includes a first inverter and a second inverter which is connected thereto in series. Each of the first and the second inverters includes a p-channel transistor and an n-channel transistor, respectively. The number of projection semiconductor layers each as the active region of the p-channel and the n-channel transistors of the second inverter is smaller than the number of the projection semiconductor layers each as the active region of the p-channel and the n-channel transistors of the first inverter.
US09991262B1
A semiconductor device includes PMOS and NMOS FinFET devices disposed on a hybrid substrate including a first substrate and a second substrate, in which a fin of the PMOS FinFET device is formed on the first substrate having a top surface with a (100) crystal orientation, and another fin of the NMOS FinFET device is formed on the second substrate having a top surface with a (110) crystal orientation. The semiconductor device further includes a capping layer enclosing a buried bottom portion of the fin of the PMOS FinFET device, and another capping layer enclosing an effective channel portion of the fin of the PMOS FinFET device.
US09991260B2
A method of determining the reliability of a high-voltage PMOS (HVPMOS) device includes determining a bulk resistance of the HVPMOS device, and evaluating the reliability of the HVPMOS device based on the bulk resistance.
US09991244B2
Method for forming a semiconductor device structure is provided. The semiconductor device structure includes a first semiconductor wafer and a second semiconductor wafer bonded via a hybrid bonding structure, and the hybrid bonding structure includes a first conductive material embedded in a first polymer material and a second conductive material embedded in a second polymer material. The first conductive material is bonded to the second conductive material and the first polymer material is bonded to the second polymer material. The semiconductor device also includes at least one through silicon via (TSV) extending from a bottom surface of the first semiconductor wafer to a metallization structure of the first semiconductor wafer. The semiconductor device structure also includes an interconnect structure formed over the bottom surface of the first semiconductor wafer, and the interconnect structure is electrically connected to the metallization structure via the TSV.
US09991239B2
Embodiments of the invention include multi-die package and methods of making such multi-die packages. In an embodiment a mold layer has a first surface and a second surface that is opposite from the first surface. One or more first electrical components that each have a solderable terminal that is oriented to face the first surface of the mold layer. The mold layer may also have one or more second electrical components that each have a second type of terminal that is oriented to face the second surface of the mold layer. Embodiments may also include one or more conductive through vias formed between the first surface of the mold layer and the second surface of the mold layer. Accordingly an electrical connection may be made from the second surface of the mold layer to the first electrical components that are oriented to face the first surface of the mold layer.
US09991234B2
A semiconductor package includes a substrate, a plurality of semiconductor chips stacked on the substrate, and a plurality of bonding layers bonded to lower surfaces of the plurality of semiconductor chips. The plurality of bonding layers may be divided into a plurality of groups, each having different physical properties depending on a distance from the substrate.
US09991232B2
A packaging process of a semiconductor device includes following steps. A patterned conductive layer and a solder resist layer that covers the patterned conductive layer are formed through 3D-printing over a carrier having a cavity. The patterned conductive layer and the solder resist layer extend to the outside of the cavity from the inside of the cavity. One portion of the patterned conductive layer is exposed by the solder resist layer. At least one semiconductor device is mounted on the patterned conductive layer in the cavity, such that the at least one semiconductor device is electrically connected to the patterned conductive layer.
US09991229B2
A semiconductor device including a package substrate having, at the periphery of the main surface thereof, bonding leads disposed in a row, a semiconductor chip mounted inside of the row of the bonding leads on the main surface of the package substrate, wires for connecting pads of the semiconductor chip and the bonding leads of the substrate, a sealing body for resin sealing the semiconductor chip and the wires, and solder bumps disposed on the back surface of the package substrate. The top of a loop of each of the wires is disposed outside the wire connecting portion so that the wire connection between the bonding leads and the pads of the semiconductor chip has a stable loop shape to prevent wire connection failure.
US09991225B2
A high-voltage transistor (HVT) structure adapts a low-voltage transistor (LVT) to high-voltage environments. The HVT structure includes a drain node, a source node, a control gate, and a field electrode. The drain node and the source node define a conductive channel, in which mobilized charges are regulated by the control gate. While being isolated from the control gate, the field electrode is configured to spread the mobilized charges in response to a field voltage. The field electrode is structured and routed to prevent charge sharing with any one of the drain node, source node, or control gate. Advantageously, the isolated field electrode minimizes the capacitance of the control gate as well as the drain and source nodes, such that the HVT can switch with less power loss and a more robust performance in a high-voltage environment.
US09991224B2
Disclosed herein is a bump-on-trace interconnect with a wetted trace sidewall and a method for fabricating the same. A first substrate having conductive bump with solder applied is mounted to a second substrate with a trace disposed thereon by reflowing the solder on the bump so that the solder wets at least one sidewall of the trace, with the solder optionally wetting between at least half and all of the height of the trace sidewall. A plurality of traces and bumps may also be disposed on the first substrate and second substrate with a bump pitch of less than about 100 μm, and volume of solder for application to the bump calculated based on at least one of a joint gap distance, desired solder joint width, predetermined solder joint separation, bump geometry, trace geometry, minimum trace sidewall wetting region height and trace separation distance.
US09991221B2
A semiconductor integrated circuit chip, in which multi-core processors are integrated, is usually mounted over an organic wiring board by FC bonding to form a BGA package by being integrated with the substrate. In such a structure, power consumption is increased, and hence the power supplied only from a peripheral portion of the chip is insufficient, so that a power supply pad is also provided in the chip central portion. However, because of an increase in the wiring associated with the integration of a plurality of CPU cores, etc., there occurs a portion between the peripheral portion and the central portion of the chip, where a power supply pad cannot be arranged. According to the outline of the present application, in a semiconductor integrated circuit device such as a BGA, etc., in which a semiconductor chip is mounted over an interposer, such as a multilayer organic wiring board, in a face-up manner, a first group of metal through electrodes, which are provided in the semiconductor chip to supply a power supply potential to a core circuit, etc., and a first metal land over the interposer are interconnected by a first conductive adhesive member film.
US09991220B2
The semiconductor device includes an insulating substrate including an insulating plate and a circuit plate; a semiconductor chip having a front surface formed with an electrode and a rear surface fixed to the circuit plate; a printed circuit board including a metal layer, and facing the insulating substrate; a conductive bonding material disposed on the electrode; and a conductive post having a leading end portion electrically and mechanically connected to the electrode through the bonding material, a base portion electrically and mechanically connected to the metal layer, and a central portion. In the conductive post, a wetting angle of a surface of the leading end portion with respect to the molten bonding material is less than the wetting angle of a surface of the central portion.
US09991216B2
A method for forming an integrated fan-out package includes depositing an adhesive layer on a carrier, forming a back-side buffer layer over the adhesive layer, forming a back-side redistribution metal layer on the back-side buffer layer, wherein the back-side redistribution metal layer includes one or more ground plane structures, forming one or more through-insulator vias (TIVs) and one or more cavity sidewalls on the one or more ground plane structures, placing a radio frequency (RF) integrated circuit (IC) die on the back-side buffer layer, laterally encapsulating the RF IC die, the one or more TIVs, the one or more cavity sidewalls, with a molding compound, thus forming an interim substrate, wherein the cavity sidewalls and their associated ground plane structure define one or more antenna cavities, and forming a top-side redistribution (RDL) wiring structure on the interim substrate, the top-side RDL wiring structure including one or more integrated patch antenna structure, wherein the one or more integrated patch antenna structure is coupled to the RF IC die and each of the one or more integrated patch antenna structure is positioned over one of the antenna cavities.
US09991210B2
Semiconductor devices are described, along with methods and systems that include them. One such device includes a diffusion region in a semiconductor material, a terminal coupled to the diffusion region, and a field plate coupled to the terminal and extending from the terminal over the diffusion region to shield the diffusion region. Additional embodiments are also described.
US09991209B2
A method of fabricating an electrical guard structure for providing signal isolation is provided. The method includes providing a substrate having a mounting surface comprising a first area for hosting at least one electronic component. The method further comprises synthesizing a plurality of thread-like structures over the substrate to collectively form one or more electrically conductive projections extending transverse to the mounting surface. The one or more electrically conductive projections include one or more wall-like structures which are elongate parallel to the mounting surface. The electrically conductive projections can be transferred to another surface such as a major surface of a second substrate. There are further provided a support structure and a guard structure having the wall-like electrically conductive projections which are electrically grounded when in use to provide signal isolation.
US09991191B2
Electronic power device comprising: an active layer comprising several lateral and/or semi-lateral components for which the electrodes are located on a front face of the active layer; an interconnection structure comprising several conducting portions to which component electrodes are connected, and located in contact with these electrodes extending parallel to the active layer; a support comprising a front face on which electrically conducting tracks are located, and in which: the interconnection structure is located between the active layer and the support, the conducting portions being placed in contact with the conducting tracks, or the active layer is placed between the interconnection structure and the support, the conducting portions comprising parts extending next to the active layer and connected to the conducting tracks.
US09991189B2
A semiconductor device includes a first passivation layer over an interconnect structure. The semiconductor device further includes a first redistribution line (RDL) via extending through an opening in the first passivation layer to electrically connect to the interconnect structure. The first RDL via includes a first conductive material. The semiconductor device further includes an RDL over the first passivation layer and electrically connected to the first RDL via. The RDL comprises a second conductive material different from the first conductive material. The RDL extends beyond the first RDL via in a direction parallel to a top surface of the first passivation layer.
US09991188B2
A cooler with a cooler main body that, in one configuration, includes a first wall portion forming a cooling surface that cools an electronic component, a second wall portion disposed opposing the first wall portion, and a side wall portion that connects a periphery of the first wall portion and a periphery of the second wall portion. In the configuration, cooling fins are attached to an inner wall surface of the first wall portion, a refrigerant introduction pipe and refrigerant introduction flow path for supplying refrigerant to the cooling fins and a refrigerant discharge pipe and refrigerant discharge flow path for ejecting refrigerant from the cooling fins are included, and protruding portions and are provided on the first wall portion side of the refrigerant introduction flow path.
US09991187B2
A semiconductor device includes: a silicon substrate that includes a heat release mechanism formed on a rear surface thereof; and an element layer that includes a transistor element and is formed on a front surface of the silicon substrate, the heat release mechanism including: a carbon material being a high heat-conducting material such as a CNT that is higher in heat conductivity than the silicon substrate and is formed in a plurality of first holes formed in the rear surface of the silicon substrate; and a carbon material being a heat-conductive film such as a multilayer graphene film that is thermally connected to the CNT in a manner to cover a rear surface side of the silicon substrate. This configuration provides a carbon material-embedded silicon substrate realizing very efficient heat release with a relatively simple configuration to obtain a highly-reliable electronic device.
US09991182B2
The invention relates to the use of specific organopolysilazanes as an encapsulation material for light emitting diodes (LED). The organopolysilazane polymers act as insulating filling materials and are stable over temperature and over exposure to ambient UV radiation. The encapsulating material has good thermal stability against discoloration to yellow by aging even at high temperatures which is a key factor for the long lifetime of an LED encapsulant and the LED performance.
US09991178B2
An interposer is provided which includes: a substrate having a first surface with a plurality of first conductive pads and a second surface opposite to the first surface, the second surface having a plurality of second conductive pads; a plurality of conductive through holes penetrating the first and second surfaces of the substrate and electrically connecting the first and second conductive pads; and a first removable electrical connection structure formed on the first surface and electrically connecting a portion of the first conductive pads so as to facilitate electrical testing of the interposer.
US09991175B2
This method for estimating the depth of latent scratches in SiC substrates includes an etching step, a measurement step, and an estimation step. In the etching step, a SiC substrate in which at least the surface is formed from single crystal SiC, and which has been subjected to machining, is subjected to heat treatment under Si atmosphere to etch the surface of the SiC substrate. In the measurement step, the surface roughness or the residual stress of the SiC substrate which has been subjected to the etching step is measured. In the estimation step, the depth of latent scratches or the presence or absence of latent scratches in the SiC substrate before the etching step are estimated on the basis of the results obtained in the measurement step.
US09991166B2
A method for co-integrating wimpy and nominal devices includes growing source/drain regions on semiconductor material adjacent to a gate structure to form device structures with a non-electrically active material. Selected device structures are masked with a block mask. Unmasked device structures are selectively annealed to increase electrical activity of the non-electrically active material to adjust a threshold voltage between the selected device structures and the unmasked device structures.
US09991161B1
A method for filling a through hole (TH) located on a substrate is provided. The TH is a continuous channel having an upper rim, a lower rim and an interior surface. In one embodiment, the method comprises steps (a)-(d). In the step (a), a conductive material (CM) is deposited over the substrate to thereby deposit a layer of the CM around the rims and on the interior surface. In the step (b), the deposited CM is etched. In particular, the etching step selectively removes more CM deposited at the rims relative to CM deposited at a mid-section of the interior surface of the channel. In the step (c), the steps (a) and (b) are optionally repeated until the channel is sealed at the mid-section by a bridge formed of CM. In the step (d), the CM is further deposited over the substrate to thereby completely fill the TH.
US09991159B2
According to some embodiments, a semiconductor device manufacturing method includes forming a sacrificial film on a material film. The method includes processing the sacrificial film, and forming a first groove in the sacrificial film having a first width and a second groove in the sacrificial film having a second width larger than the first width, the material film defining a base of the first groove and a base of the second groove. The method includes forming a catalyst layer on the sacrificial film, and on the base of the first groove and the base of the second groove. The method includes forming a first metal film having a thickness equal to or larger than half the first width and smaller than half the second width on the catalyst layer by plating. The method includes removing at least a portion of the first metal film in the second groove while leaving a portion of the first metal film in the first groove unremoved. The method includes removing the catalyst layer on the sacrificial film while leaving the catalyst layer on the base of the second groove unremoved. The method includes forming a second metal film in the second groove by the plating.
US09991146B2
The present invention provides a detection device for a cassette comprising at least one supporting unit, each supporting unit comprising a plurality of supporting brackets which constitute a supporting plane, wherein the detection device comprises a sensing mechanism for detecting whether position of each of the supporting brackets in each supporting unit is within a predetermined range. In the present invention, through detecting positions of the supporting brackets in the cassette, and then judging whether the positions of the supporting brackets in each supporting unit are in a preset range, a supporting unit in which there is one or more bracket supporting brackets whose positions are not in the preset range can be maintained in time, and therefore, damage to the glass substrate due to large error in positions of the supporting brackets can be prevented.
US09991141B2
A substrate processing apparatus includes a heater having an infrared lamp and a housing for heating an upper surface of a substrate held by a substrate holding mechanism with the heater in opposed relation to the upper surface. A heater cleaning method includes locating the heater at a position above a lower nozzle in opposed relation to a first spout of the lower nozzle, the lower nozzle being in opposed relation to a lower surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding mechanism, and a lower cleaning liquid spouting step of supplying a cleaning liquid to the lower nozzle to spout the cleaning liquid upward from the first spout with no substrate being held by the substrate holding mechanism to thereby supply the cleaning liquid to an outer surface of the housing of the heater located at the heater cleaning position.
US09991137B2
This substrate processing method includes: a substrate rotating step of rotating a substrate around a predetermined vertical axis line at a first rotation speed; a liquid-tight step performed along with the substrate rotating step, and where a first opposed surface is opposed at a first distance to a rotated lower surface of the substrate, and at the same time, a processing liquid is discharged from a processing liquid dispense port of a lower surface nozzle opposed to the lower surface of the substrate to cause a space between the lower surface and the first opposed surface to be in a liquid-tight state by the processing liquid; and a liquid-tight state releasing step of releasing the liquid-tight state in the space between the lower surface and the first opposed surface by separating the lower surface and the first opposed surface after the liquid-tight step.
US09991135B2
A method for fabricating a metal oxide thin film transistor comprises selecting a substrate and fabricating a gate electrode thereon; growing a layer of dielectric or high permittivity dielectric on the substrate to serve as a gate dielectric layer; growing a first metal layer on the gate dielectric layer and a second metal layer on the first metal layer; fabricating a channel region at a middle position of the first metal layer and a passivation region at a middle position of the second metal layer; anodizing the metals of the passivation region and the channel region at atmospheric pressure and room temperature; fabricating a source and a drain; forming an active region comprising the source, the drain, and the channel region; depositing a silicon nitride layer on the active region; fabricating two electrode contact holes; depositing a metal aluminum film; and fabricating two metal contact electrodes by photolithography and etching.
US09991133B2
Techniques herein provide an etch-based planarization technique. An initial film is deposited on a substrate. Deposition of this initial film results in a non-planar film because of differences in area density of underlying structures (for example, open areas compared to closely spaced trenches). Etch processes are executed that use a reverse lag RIE process to planarize the initial film, and then another coat of the film material can be deposited, resulting in a planar surface. Such techniques can planarized substrates without using chemical mechanical polishing (CMP).
US09991130B2
A trench is formed at an exposed portion of a semiconductor substrate by performing a dry etching process with a hard mask of silicon oxide film serving as an etching mask in a dry etching device. At this time, a mixed gas of tetrafluoromethane (CF4), a hydrogen bromide gas (HBr), and a chlorine gas (Cl2) is used as an etching gas. The dry etching process is performed under the condition that a flow rate ratio is more than 0 and less than 0.04, the flow rate ratio being a value obtained by dividing a flow rate NF by a flow rate TF, the flow rate NF being a flow rate obtained by dividing a flow rate of the tetrafluoromethane by the number of fluorine atoms bonded to one molecule of the tetrafluoromethane, the flow rate TF being a total flow rate of the hydrogen bromide gas and the chlorine gas.
US09991125B2
A method for forming a semiconductor device structure is provided. The method includes forming a dielectric layer over a semiconductor substrate. The dielectric layer has a first recess. The method includes forming a first conductive material layer over an inner wall and a bottom of the first recess. The first conductive material layer is partially filled in the first recess. The method includes performing a reflow process to convert the first conductive material layer into a first conductive layer. The first conductive layer has a second recess in the first recess. The method includes performing an electroplating process or an electroless plating process to form a second conductive layer over the first conductive layer so as to fill the second recess.
US09991124B2
The present disclosure provides a semiconductor structure, including an active region with a first surface; an isolated region having a second surface, surrounding the active region, the first surface being higher than the second surface; and a metal gate having a plurality of metal layers disposed over the first surface and the second surface. A ratio of a thinnest portion and a thickest portion of at least one of the plurality of metal layers is greater than about 40%.
US09991118B2
Implementations of the present disclosure relate to improved hardmask materials and methods for patterning and etching of substrates. A plurality of hardmasks may be utilized in combination with patterning and etching processes to enable advanced device architectures. In one implementation, a first hardmask and a second hardmask disposed on a substrate having various material layers disposed thereon. The second hardmask may be utilized to pattern the first hardmask during a first etching process. A third hardmask may be deposited over the first and second hardmasks and a second etching process may be utilized to form channels in the material layers.
US09991116B1
The invention disclosed a method for forming high aspect ratio patterning structure. Firstly, forming a dielectric film ashing stop layer, a first photoresist layer, a first hard mask layer and a second photoresist layer on a semiconductor substrate in turn. A second hard mask layer having a high etch selectivity ratio with the first photoresist layer is formed on top surface and sidewall of the pattern by utilizing a low temperature chemical vapor deposition process, which can be a protect for the pattern sidewall during the later etching process of the first photoresist layer. So, the cone-shaped or the bowling-shaped photoresist morphology caused by plasma bombardment can be avoided. Therefore, the problems of the insufficient of selectivity ratio, burrs at the edge of the pattern and larger critical dimension can be solved, and the implanted ions can be well distributed according to the design of the device.
US09991114B2
A method of patterning a device includes forming a fluorinated photopolymer layer over a device substrate. The photopolymer layer has a lower portion proximate the device substrate and an upper portion distal the device substrate. The fluorinated photopolymer layer includes a radiation-absorbing dye and a fluorinated photopolymer having a solubility-altering reactive group. The photopolymer layer is exposed to patterned radiation to form exposed and unexposed areas in accordance with the patterned radiation and a developed structure is formed by removing unexposed areas using a developing agent that includes a first fluorinated solvent. The lower portion of the exposed area of the photopolymer layer has a dissolution rate in the developing agent that is at least 5 times higher than a dissolution rate for the upper portion.
US09991111B2
In one embodiment, an apparatus of treating a surface of a semiconductor substrate comprises a substrate holding and rotating unit, first to fourth supplying units, and a removing unit. A substrate holding and rotating unit holds a semiconductor substrate, having a convex pattern formed on its surface, and rotates the semiconductor substrate. A first supplying unit supplies a chemical onto the surface of the semiconductor substrate in order to clean the semiconductor substrate. A second supplying unit supplies pure water to the surface of the semiconductor substrate in order to rinse the semiconductor substrate. A third supplying unit supplies a water repellent agent to the surface of the semiconductor substrate in order to form a water repellent protective film onto the surface of the convex pattern. A fourth supplying unit supplies alcohol, which is diluted with pure water, or acid water to the surface of the semiconductor substrate in order to rinse the semiconductor substrate. A removing unit removes the water repellent protective film with the convex pattern being left.
US09991106B2
A method is disclosed comprising passing a signal output from a detector through a programmable attenuator or a programmable amplifier prior to digitizing the signal, and switching an attenuation factor or gain factor of the programmable attenuator or the programmable amplifier one or more times during a data acquisition period.
US09991103B2
A method of checking or adjusting the calibration of a mass spectrometer is disclosed. The method comprises fragmenting parent or precursor ions and generating fragment or product ion mass spectral data and recognizing first neutral loss ions in the fragment or product ion mass spectral data. The method further comprises determining a first mass loss difference between the parent or precursor ions and the first neutral loss ions and determining whether the first mass loss difference corresponds with an expected or pre-determined mass loss difference, wherein if it is determined that the first mass loss difference does not correspond with an expected or pre-determined mass loss difference then the method further comprises adjusting one or more calibration parameters.
US09991095B2
Cleaning of an ion implantation system or components thereof, utilizing temperature and/or a reactive cleaning reagent enabling growth/etching of the cathode in an indirectly heated cathode for an ion implantation system by monitoring the cathode bias power and taking corrective action depending upon compared values to etch or regrow the cathode.
US09991089B2
A method for operating a multi-beam particle optical unit comprises includes providing a first setting of effects of particle-optical components, wherein a particle-optical imaging is characterizable by at least two parameters. The method also includes determining a matrix A, and determining a matrix S. The method further includes defining values of parameters which characterize a desired imaging, and providing a second setting of the effects of the components in such a way that the particle-optical imaging is characterizable by the parameters having the defined values.
US09991087B2
An imaging system for directing a flux of charged particles transmitted through a specimen onto a spectroscopic apparatus, wherein the flux is dispersed by a dispersing device into an energy-resolved array of spectral sub-beams propagating substantially parallel to a propagation axis. An adjustable aperture device defines an aperture in a path of the array so as to select a subset of the array to be admitted to a detector, which aperture is delimited in a dispersion direction perpendicular to the propagation axis to allow independent adjustment of both of: a width of the aperture parallel to the dispersion direction; and a position of a center of the aperture relative to the propagation axis.
US09991085B2
An apparatus and method to generate distributed x-rays. A hot cathode of an electron gun is used in vacuum to generate electron beams having certain initial movement energy and speed. Periodic scanning is performed with the initial low-energy electron beams, which are thus caused to be reciprocally deflected. A current-limiting device is provided in the travel path of the electron beams along the direction of the reciprocal deflection. Through holes arranged in an array on the current-limiting device, only part of the electron beams targeting specific positions can pass to form sequential electron beam currents distributed in an array. These electron beam currents are accelerated by a high-voltage electric field to obtain high energy, bombard an anode target, and thus sequentially generate corresponding focus spots and x-rays distributed in an array at the anode target.
US09991081B2
Disclosed are an electron emitting device using graphene and a method for manufacturing the same. The electron emitting device includes a metal holder having at least one slot, at least one emitter plate inserted into the slot to protrude from a first surface of the metal holder, and including an emitter supporting member and a graphene emitter attached onto the emitter supporting member, an insulation layer provided on the first surface of the metal holder, and a gate electrode provided on the insulation layer and including a gate supporting member and a graphene gate attached onto the gate supporting member.
US09991078B2
A short-circuit protection action current adjusting method and a device thereof for a multi-pole electromagnetic release. An electromagnetic system includes an auxiliary static iron core, a second static iron core, a coil, a reset spring and a dynamic iron core; at an initial position, a first gap is formed between the auxiliary static iron core and the dynamic iron core, a second gap is formed between the dynamic iron core and the second static iron core, and the thickness of the second gap changes in the same direction along with the size variation of a release threshold; the elastic force of the reset spring changes oppositely along with the size variation of the release threshold; when a release current value is adjusted from large to small, the coil energy reduces in a quadratic relationship mode along with flowing currents and meanwhile the electromagnetic attraction between the dynamic iron core and the second static iron core is increased in a quadratic relationship mode, which is in inverse proportion to reduction of the thickness of the second gap. According to the short-circuit protection action current adjusting method and device thereof for the multi-pole electromagnetic release, adjustment of the release current value and electromagnetic attraction required by actions of the dynamic iron core are in a linear fixed corresponding relationship due to automatically achieved balance between two quadratic functions, and adjustment of the release threshold through the user is convenient, reliable and stable.
US09991076B2
Electromechanical devices described herein may employ tunneling phenomena to function as low-voltage switches. Opposing electrodes may be separated by an elastically deformable layer which, in some cases, may be made up of a non-electrically conductive material. In some embodiments, the elastically deformable layer is substantially free of electrically conductive material. When a sufficient actuation voltage and/or force is applied, the electrodes are brought toward one another and, accordingly, the elastically deformable layer is compressed. Though, the elastically deformable layer prevents the electrodes from making direct contact with one another. Rather, when the electrodes are close enough to one another, a tunneling current arises therebetween. The elastically deformable layer may exhibit spring-like behavior such that, upon release of the actuation voltage and/or force, the separation distance between electrodes is restored. Thus, the electromechanical device may be actuated between open and closed switch positions.
US09991074B2
A safety-oriented load switching device including a first current branch, which extends from a first supply connection to a first load connection and having a first switching means, and having a second current branch, which extends from a second supply connection to a second load connection and including a second switching means, wherein a first test branch is connected to a first measuring point located between the first switching means and the first load connection and is also connected to the second supply connection and includes a series connection of a first test switch and a first measuring device, wherein a second test branch is connected to a second measuring point between the second switching means and the second load connection and is connected to the first supply connection and includes a series connection of a second test switch and a second measuring device.
US09991071B2
A thin notebook computer mechanical keyboard includes a reinforcement iron plate, a scissor structure, a keycap, a base, a pressing stopper, a spring and a cover. The scissor structure includes first positioning parts vertically and movably clamped on clamping parts of the reinforcement iron plate, and second positioning parts. The keycap includes fastening parts fastened on the second positioning parts. When the keycap is pressed to a certain extent, an action between a hand touch and a fourth terminal produces a sound of an upward impact against the cover. When the keycap is pressed, the scissor structure maintains balance of the whole keycap without catching the keycap, which ensures a favorable touch feeling. A switch can be directly installed on a printed circuit board and pass through the reinforcement iron plate. The scissor structure maintains balance of the keycap, and balanced movement is achieved without falling short of thinning requirements.
US09991070B2
This application relates to a switch that can include multiple settings for controlling multiple functions of a computing device. The switch can include multiple flexible surfaces that each includes a surface contact. When the switch is depressed, at least one of the flexible surfaces can collapse and close a connection of the switch. When the switch is further depressed, multiple flexible surfaces of the switch can collapse and close multiple connections of the switch. As a result, depending on the amount of force by which the switch is depressed, different functions of a computing device can be controlled by the switch.
US09991068B2
A side-push push-button switch is provided in which the strength of a rear surface side of a housing to which a load is particularly applied by outside force caused by the switching operation of a push-button member is increased to stably mount the housing on a circuit board and ensure reliable and secure switching operation. The push-button switch includes a housing, a push-button member, and a holding frame. The housing accommodates a switch contact. The push-button member is disposed on a front-surface center portion of the housing and configured to press the switch contact. The holding frame of a channel shape covers outer surfaces of the housing. Both ends of the holding frame are secured to front-surface side portions of the housing on both sides of the push-button member.
US09991065B2
The disclosure is directed to optimized switching circuitry utilizing MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems) circuitry in series with solid state circuitry. Specifically, the MEMS circuitry includes a first MEMS circuit in parallel with (and separate from) a second MEMS circuit. A paired signal is defined as a transmit signal and a receive signal (in a single band) that are transmitted or received on separate paths or on separate nodes. The transmit signal is associated with the first MEMS circuit, and the receive signal is associated with the second MEMS circuit. The solid state circuitry switches between the first MEMS circuit and second MEMS circuit without requiring any switching in the first or second MEMS circuits.
US09991062B2
Implementations of an electrical switch device are provided. In some implementations, the electrical switch device may be used to operate electrically powered firearm accessories (e.g., lasers and illumination tools). In some implementations, the electrical switch device may be conductively connected to a firearm accessory by a flexible cable having a connector thereon. In this way, the electrical switch device may be remotely positioned relative to the firearm accessory to which it is attached. In some implementations, the electrical switch device may be secured to a mounting interface (e.g., KeyMod or M-LOK® accessory mounting slots and/or a Picatinny rail) for firearm accessories. In some implementations, the electrical switch device may include user selectable programs that control the operation of connected firearm accessories.
US09991060B2
An energy storage device having improved energy density performance may include an electrolyte having a salt concentration of about 0.6 moles/L (M) to about 0.95M. A final energy storage device product having a total mass of electrolyte that is at least 100% of a saturation quantity of electrolyte sufficient to fully saturate one or more electrode(s) and separator(s) of the device, and below a threshold quantity above the saturation quantity.
US09991054B2
A multilayer electronic component includes an element body having an internal electrode layer and a dielectric layer. These are substantially parallel to a plane including a first axis and a second axis and are alternately laminated along a third axis direction. Side surfaces oppositely facing in the first axis direction are respectively equipped with an insulating layer. End surfaces facing each other in the second axis direction are respectively equipped with an external electrode. An end portion in the first axis direction of the internal electrode layer is recessed from an end portion in the first axis direction of the dielectric layer to the inner side along the first axis direction. A main component of the internal electrode layer is Ni. A reaction portion is between the end portion in the first axis direction of the internal electrode layer and the insulating layer.
US09991050B2
A wire winding device for a stator contains: a rotatable tray, a horizontal shaft, a support post, and a guiding bar. The rotatable tray includes a clamping portion, a fixing portion, an accommodation orifice, and a slot. The horizontal shaft includes a connection section located on a first end thereof and includes a clamp arm arranged on a second end thereof proximate to a receiving trough. The support post inserts into the receiving trough of the horizontal shaft and is clamped by the clamp arm, and the support post includes two jaws and a circular cavity defined therein adjacent to the two jaws. The guiding bar includes a part housed in the circular cavity and is hollow so as to accommodate a metal wire which is located in or around a stator.
US09991047B2
The antenna coil unit includes a main coil and an auxiliary coil electrically insulated from the main coil, the auxiliary coil being arranged at a position in which an induction current is produced by a magnetic field produced by an electric current flowing through the main coil. The auxiliary coil is configured in a state in which a frequency deviating by a predefined amount in a predefined direction from a target frequency predefined within a harmonic component of the fundamental component of an electromagnetic wave produced by the electric current flowing through the main coil is taken as a resonance frequency. The direction and amount are such that the phase of an alternating-current current flowing through the auxiliary coil is in an opposite-phase state, which is opposite the phase of the harmonic component of an AC current flowing through the main coil.
US09991030B2
Two electromagnetic interference (EMI) controlling tape application methodologies for unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable include Fixed Tape Control (FTC) and Oscillating Tape Control (OTC). In FTC, tape application angle and edge placement are controlled to maintain position of the tape edges over a base of nonconductive filler in the cable. In OTC, the tape application angle is continuously varied, resulting in crossing of the tape edges over all of the pairs of conductors with varying periodicity. In both implementations, the filler allows a cylindrical shape.
US09991025B1
An exterior end portion cap is configured to be attached to electrically conductive paths and an exterior member. The exterior end portion cap includes an external exposure portion having a first blocking portion and an internal insertion portion having a second block portion. The internal insertion portion has a slit. The second blocking portion has a convex portion that is fitted to a gap between the electrically conductive paths. The exterior end portion cap is configured to be divided into two divided parts. The slit is disposed in a position corresponding to a position of a divided surface of the two divided parts and is formed so as to bring the part of the outer surfaces of the electrically conductive paths into contact with an inner surface of the exterior member near the end portion of the exterior member.
US09991001B2
Disclosed is a non-volatile memory (NVM) device including an array of NVM cells segmented into at least a first sector and a second sector and at least one sensing circuit to sense a state of a target NVM cell in the first sector using a reference current of the second sector received from at least a dynamic reference cell.
US09991000B2
In accordance with an embodiment, a circuit includes a sense amplifier circuit configured to sense a difference between a first current based on a direct memory bit and a second current based on a complementary memory bit. The direct memory bit is coupled to a first input of the sense amplifier circuit, and the complementary memory bit is coupled to a second input of the sense amplifier circuit. A controller is configured to, during a sense operation, selectively add a first margin current to the first current, and during the sense operation, selectively add a second margin current to the second current.
US09990981B2
To provide an electronic device capable of improving a signal quality, the electronic device includes a semiconductor memory device, a semiconductor device configured to access data stored in the semiconductor memory device, and a wiring substrate on which the semiconductor memory device and the semiconductor device are mounted. The wiring substrate includes first and second data wirings electrically connecting the semiconductor device with each first and second data terminal of the semiconductor memory device through first and second wiring layers. The first wiring layer is a wiring layer arranged closer to the semiconductor device than the second wiring layer, and the first data terminal is located farther from the semiconductor device than the second data terminal.
US09990970B2
A semiconductor device may be provided. The semiconductor device may include a first chip and a second chip. The second chip may be configured to receive signals from the first chip to generate a latch address based on the received signals from the first chip.
US09990959B1
A base of a disk drive apparatus includes a bottom plate portion and a wall portion. The wall portion includes an increased thickness portion and a decreased thickness portion. An inner surface of the increased thickness portion includes a first slanting surface arranged to extend radially outward away from a central axis while extending axially away from the bottom plate portion. An inner surface of the decreased thickness portion includes a second slanting surface arranged to extend radially outward away from the central axis while extending axially away from the bottom plate portion, and protrude radially inward relative to the first slanting surface. An inclination angle of the second slanting surface with respect to an axial direction is arranged to be smaller than an inclination angle of the first slanting surface with respect to the axial direction.
US09990958B2
A playback apparatus loaded with a data recording medium including image data includes a first determining unit configured to determine whether a user stopped playing back the image data, a storage control unit configured to control a storage process so that a first set of information indicating a position where the playback of the image data was stopped is stored when the first determining unit determines that the user stopped playback of the image data, and a display control unit configured to control a screen to display a list of thumbnail images with an icon superposed on a thumbnail image corresponding to the image data stopped on the basis of the first set of information when the first determining unit determines that the user stopped playback of the image data, the icon indicating that playback of the image data is resumed from the position where the playback of the image data was stopped.
US09990953B1
Systems and methods for long-term non-volatile non-rotating optical storage of digital information rely on storage elements that include optical storage media, an access subsystem configured to access bits of information from one of the storage elements, and a support structure configured to support multiple storage elements. A laser used to retrieve and/or record bits of digital information may be moved along two orthogonal dimensions while the storage element is non-rotating.
US09990950B1
An apparatus comprises a slider configured for heat-assisted magnetic coupled to a controller. The slider comprises a writer, a heater, a near-field transducer, and an optical waveguide for communicating light from a laser diode to the near-field transducer. The controller is configured to set a target pre-write clearance of the slider prior to performing a write operation, set a target write clearance of the slider for performing the write operation, and determine a difference between the target pre-write and write clearances to define a target pre-write clearance offset. The controller is also configured to measure, for a plurality of different target pre-write clearance offsets, a writability metric for the slider while sweeping a laser diode current, and adjust the target pre-write clearance offset so that the writability metric reaches a predetermined threshold. The controller is further configured to perform subsequent write operations using the adjusted target pre-write clearance offset.
US09990940B1
A data storage medium having a seed structure formed of a first seed layer comprising a nickel alloy NiY, where Y is an element selected from Al, B, Fe, Nb, W, and Co, and a second seed layer represented by NiWAX, where A is an element selected from Al, B, Fe, Nb, and Co, and X is either B, Si, Ti, Nb, V, Cr, Ru, or an oxide, with the second seed layer being disposed on the first seed layer; and a magnetic recording layer above the seed structure. In addition, a method for manufacturing a data storage medium containing the aforementioned seed structure is also disclosed.
US09990930B2
A computer numerical processing method for encoding and decoding audio information for use in conjunction with human hearing is described. The method comprises approximating an eigenfunction equation representing a model of human hearing, calculating the approximation to each of a plurality of eigenfunctions from at least one aspect of the eigenfunction equation, and storing the approximation to each of a plurality of eigenfunctions for use in encoding and decoding. The approximation to each of a plurality of eigenfunctions represents a perception-oriented basis functions for mathematically representing audio information in a Hilbert-space representation of an audio signal space. The model of human hearing can include a bandpass operation with a bandwidth having the frequency range of human hearing and a time-limiting operation approximating the time duration correlation window of human hearing. In an embodiment, the approximated eigenfunctions comprise a convolution of a prolate spheroidal wavefunction with a trigonometric function.
US09990928B2
An audio watermarking system conveys information using an audio channel by modulating an audio signal to produce a modulated signal by embedding additional information into the audio signal. Modulating the audio signal includes segmenting the audio signal into overlapping time segments using a non-rectangular analysis window function produce a windowed audio signal, processing the windowed audio signal for a time segment to produce frequency coefficients representing the windowed time segment and having phase values and magnitude values, selecting one or more of the frequency coefficients, modifying phase values of the selected frequency coefficients using the additional information to map the phase values onto a known phase constellation, and processing the frequency coefficients including the modified phase values to produce the modulated signal.
US09990924B2
The present invention discloses a speech interaction method and apparatus, and pertains to the field of speech processing technologies. The method includes: acquiring speech data of a user; performing user attribute recognition on the speech data to obtain a first user attribute recognition result; performing content recognition on the speech data to obtain a content recognition result of the speech data; and performing a corresponding operation according to at least the first user attribute recognition result and the content recognition result, so as to respond to the speech data. According to the present invention, after speech data is acquired, user attribute recognition and content recognition are separately performed on the speech data to obtain a first user attribute recognition result and a content recognition result, and a corresponding operation is performed according to at least the first user attribute recognition result and the content recognition result.
US09990922B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for hotword detection on multiple devices are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes the actions of receiving, by a computing device, audio data that corresponds to an utterance. The actions further include determining a likelihood that the utterance includes a hotword. The actions further include determining a loudness score for the audio data. The actions further include based on the loudness score, determining an amount of delay time. The actions further include, after the amount of delay time has elapsed, transmitting a signal that indicates that the computing device will initiate speech recognition processing on the audio data.
US09990921B2
One embodiment provides a method, involving: receiving, at a device, voice input comprising at least one command; identifying, using an image of the user, a direction of user focus; and responsive to the identifying that the direction of user focus is directed toward the device, performing an action based on the at least one command. Other aspects are described and claimed.
US09990918B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media for speech recognition. One method includes obtaining an input acoustic sequence, the input acoustic sequence representing an utterance, and the input acoustic sequence comprising a respective acoustic feature representation at each of a first number of time steps; processing the input acoustic sequence using a first neural network to convert the input acoustic sequence into an alternative representation for the input acoustic sequence; processing the alternative representation for the input acoustic sequence using an attention-based Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) to generate, for each position in an output sequence order, a set of substring scores that includes a respective substring score for each substring in a set of substrings; and generating a sequence of substrings that represent a transcription of the utterance.
US09990916B2
Technology related to improving synthesis of foreign regional nouns using personalized and culturally correct phonetic transcription is described. The technology includes systems and methods for generating personalized speech by receiving an input, the input including textual data, identifying a regional noun in the textual data, and determining a user accent classification based on a context of the input. The method may further include determining a personalized phonetic transcription of the regional noun corresponding to the user accent classification and using a phonetic inventory stored in a database and outputting the personalized phonetic transcription.
US09990911B1
Disclosed herein is a method for creating a preview track. The method includes: acquiring a plurality of tracks; extracting rhythm data from each of the tracks; determining a plurality of extracted parts each corresponding to the respective tracks based on the extracted rhythm data; cutting out the extracted parts from the respective tracks; and connecting the extracted parts with one another to create a preview track.
US09990907B2
A string-locking tailpiece for fixed bridge musical instrument which allows for quick string changes. The device eliminates the conventional 3 wraps around the tuning peg. Tuning is stable because the ball end cannot slip thru the tuning peg hole. As well, it also drastically reduces the time necessary for restringing. The tailpiece receives a free end of the string after it has been strung through the tuning pegs and is clamped by a set screw within the tailpiece.
US09990897B2
A shift register unit is provided. The shift register unit includes a first input module configured to output a first voltage signal as a pull-up control signal under the control of a first signal, a first reset module configured to reset the pull-up control signal under the control of a first reset signal, a pull-up module configured to output a first clock signal under the control of the pull-up control signal, a pull-down control module configured to output a second clock signal as a pull-down control signal under the control of a second clock signal, a pull-down module configured to pull down a voltage of the pull-up control signal, a first output module, and a second output module.
US09990894B2
A semiconductor device where delay or distortion of a signal output to a gate signal line in a selection period is reduced is provided. The semiconductor device includes a gate signal line, a first and second gate driver circuits which output a selection signal and a non-selection signal to the gate signal line, and pixels electrically connected to the gate signal line and supplied with the two signals. In a period during which the gate signal line is selected, both the first and second gate driver circuits output the selection signal to the gate signal line. In a period during which the gate signal line is not selected, one of the first and second gate driver circuits outputs the non-selection signal to the gate signal line, and the other gate driver circuit outputs neither the selection signal nor the non-selection signal to the gate signal line.
US09990890B2
A display device including: a light emitting unit including a plurality of light sources; a second panel configured to adjust transmittance of light from the light emitting unit; and a first panel configured to adjust transmittance of light from the second panel, further including: a first control unit configured to perform first control with respect to the first panel for controlling transmittance of each pixel on the basis of the image data; and a second control unit configured to perform, in a case where an image area of low brightness is adjacent to an image area of high brightness in the image data, second control for making transmittance of the second panel at a partial area corresponding to the image area of low brightness be lower than transmittance of the second panel at a partial area corresponding to the image area of high brightness.
US09990889B2
A display device has first and second pixel columns and at least one third pixel column. The first pixel column includes first pixels to emit light of a first color and a second pixels to emit light of a second color alternately arranged in a first direction. The second pixel column includes the first pixels and the second pixels arranged in the first direction in a reverse order from the first pixel column. The at least one third pixel column includes third pixels to emit light of a third color and arranged in the first direction. The first and second pixel columns are alternately arranged in a second direction crossing the first direction. The third pixel column is between the first and second pixel columns. The second pixel of the first pixel column and the second pixel of the second pixel column are connected to a same data line.
US09990887B2
Pixel driving circuit, method for driving the same, shift register, display panel and display device
A pixel driving circuit is provided. The pixel driving circuit includes a driving transistor (M1), a storage capacitor (Cs) and a data writing unit. The data writing unit is configured to receive an nth-row scanning signal (Vscan (n)) and apply the data voltage (Vdata) to the gate electrode of the driving transistor (M1) in the case that the nth-row scanning signal (Vscan (n)) is valid. The pixel driving circuit further includes: a reverse control unit, receiving an (n−2)th-row scanning signal (Vscan (n−2)) and connected to the cathode of the OLED, and configured to control the cathode of the OLED to receive the (n−2)th-row scanning signal (Vscan (n−2)) in the case that the (n−2)th-row scanning signal (Vscan (n−2)) is valid. A voltage of the (n−2)th-row scanning signal (Vscan (n−2)) is greater than the driving voltage (Vdd), and n is an integer greater than 2.
US09990878B2
A data clipping method using red, green, blue and white data, and a display device using the same are disclosed. Red (R), Green (G), Blue (B), and White (W) data are modulated by multiplying clipped data of an input image by a gain, a luminance increment is created based on the result of subtracting the clipped data from the modulated RGB data, and the luminance increment is added to the W data to be written to a W sub-pixel.
US09990874B2
A method for testing a display includes capturing information displayed by the display at a location of an identifier displayed with a frame of a sequence of frames; and analysing the captured information. The method further includes determining a colour of the identifier; and using information on the determined colour to determine at least one of the following: a change of a frame in the sequence of frames displayed by the display; a timestamp of a frame in the sequence of frames displayed by the display; a frame of the sequence of frames not displayed by the display. An apparatus for implementing the method is also included.
US09990871B1
A banner for displaying while cheering at an event venue. The banner comprises a flexible woven fabric panel bearing indicia related to a partisan of an event taking place at the event venue, a reinforced opening and an illumination source. A handle having an enlarged head penetrates the opening and is retained by a friction fitted washer slipped over the handle. The opening is at one corner of the panel and the illumination source is a light emitting diode with battery and switch all contained in a compartment at another corner.
US09990839B2
When an ambient alarm system detects an alarm condition in the monitored region, the ambient alarm system can transmit a first signal to one or more registered user devices, responsive thereto, the one or more registered user devices can activate a respective Bluetooth peripheral device, the ambient alarm system can initiate a discovery process with the one or more registered user devices, responsive to the discovery process, the respective Bluetooth peripheral device of each of the one or more registered user devices can transmit a respective second signal to the ambient alarm system indicative of a respective identification of a respective one of the one or more registered user devices. Based on a number of received identifications, the ambient alarm system can identify the number of occupants in the monitored region.
US09990835B2
A security system notifies of an alarm situation. The security system has two separate communications paths. When the alarm situation is determined, the security system may select one of the two separate communications paths based on performance, cost, urgency, and other factors.
US09990819B2
Methods and systems are described for determining operation of an openable barrier into a building. A method for determining an open state of a barrier may include identifying a first position for the barrier, the barrier having at least one hinge and a hinge sensor magnetically mounted to the at least one hinge. The method may further include determining, based at least in part on the hinge sensor, when the barrier changes position from the first position to a second position. The method may further include wirelessly transmitting data concerning the change in position of the barrier.
US09990817B2
Various embodiments of the present technology may comprise a system disposed within a structure comprising a network of individually addressed devices for providing building safety, security, and operational efficiency. Each device in the network may comprise a microcontroller electrically connected to a communication module, at least one output module, and/or at least one sensor module. The sensor module may produce data corresponding to a particular sensed environmental condition within its vicinity and may transmit a signal to the microcontroller based on the data for processing to identify the particular sensed environmental condition. In various embodiments, the microcontroller may communicate with any number of addressable devices in the network to effect selective activation of output modules and/or sensor modules. In some embodiments, the microcontroller may communicate with remote systems external to the network, such as building operation systems, building fire suppressions systems, and first responder notification systems to appropriately respond to the particular sensed environmental condition.
US09990805B2
A gaming system having a plurality of game devices, a game controller, a shared experience controller and a method for operation thereof is disclosed. Each game device allows a player to make a wager on a game and awards the respective player an award as a function as a result of a winning condition for the game played by the respective player. The game controller is coupled to the game devices for playing the game, randomly establishing the actual outcome of the game, and determining if any of the players have a winning condition. The shared experience controller is coupled to the game devices for recognizing a bonus condition for one of the players, responsively providing a choice of items to one or more other players, and providing a bonus award to the one player and/or any of the other players in response to selection of on of the items.
US09990794B2
A system for processing bank notes and a corresponding method comprises at least one bank-note processing machine having a central control device on which only those software modules are implemented that are necessary for the standard operation of the bank-note processing machine for counting, checking and/or sorting bank notes. At least one application server is connected to the bank-note processing machine via an external communication network and has implemented thereon at least one further software module which is executed on the application server and provides an application which provides at least one function going beyond the standard operation of the bank-note processing machine. The application provided on the application server involves a configuration application, a serial-number application, a reporting application and/or a servicing application.
US09990779B2
The methods, systems, techniques, and components described herein allow interaction volumes of virtual objects in a virtual environment, such as a Virtual Reality (VR) environment or Augmented Reality (AR) environment, to be modified based on user interactions taken on virtual frames created for those virtual objects. A user interaction element of a virtual frame may receive a user interaction. The user interaction may comprise one or more instructions to modify the size, shape, or other visual property of the virtual object. As an example, the user interaction may comprise one or more instructions to change a size of the virtual object while maintaining a scale of the virtual object. In response to the user interaction, visual properties of the virtual frame and/or the virtual object may be modified. Interaction volumes of component elements of the virtual frame as well as interaction volumes of the virtual object may be modified in response to the user interaction.
US09990777B2
An augmented reality display device comprises a housing for one or more components for the augmented reality display device, wherein the one or more components comprises a plurality of sensors to capture information pertaining to the user's surroundings, and wherein at least one sensor of the plurality of sensors is an image-based sensor, a processing module communicatively coupled to the housing to process a set of data retrieved from the plurality of sensors, wherein the processing module comprises a gating mechanism that selectively allows data to be uploaded to the cloud, and a detachable camera removably attached to a housing of the augmented reality display device, such that when the detachable camera is attached to the housing of the augmented reality display device, the gating mechanism is opened such that data retrieved from the detachable camera is uploaded to the cloud.
US09990776B2
The present disclosure teaches a system and method for communicating the spatial position and orientation of surgical instruments with respect to a surgical area of interest. Using a visual display of a surgical site generated by a camera feed, a computer generates a virtual overlay of the location and projected trajectory of a surgical instrument based on its current position and orientation. Position and orientation information is generated and stored using tracking markers and a tracking sensor in information communication with the computer.
US09990761B1
A method of image compositing that directly manipulates ray tracing samples generated by a ray tracing renderer, rather than manipulating the pixels of a rasterized image. Rasterization may be performed after compositing at any desired resolution or resolutions, for example to adapt to different displays. Ray tracing samples may be tagged with the identity of the object intersected by the ray, facilitating object selection during compositing without the need for object masks. Random or pseudo-random ray patterns typically used by renderers may be supported directly. A large number of compositing operations may be performed directly on the ray tracing samples, including color changes, object repositioning in two dimensions or three dimensions, merging of images or objects from different scenes or rendering passes, and generation of new viewpoints for an image. Preview images may be generated during compositing using a subset of the available samples, trading off image quality for speed.
US09990744B2
An initial registration unit performs initial registration between an intraoperative image and simulation information. A positional information obtaining unit obtains positional information indicating a relative positional difference between the intraoperative image after the initial registration and a newly obtained intraoperative image based on an unchanged position which is not changed during surgery included in the intraoperative images. A superimpose display unit registers the simulation information with the new intraoperative image based on the positional information and displays, on a display, the simulation information superimposed on the new intraoperative image.
US09990742B2
An apparatus for processing a medical image includes an image processor including a plurality of processors, the plurality of processors configured to reconstruct a cross-sectional image of an object by performing a first operation having a first priority and a second operation having a second priority that is lower than the first priority, and a controller configured to monitor whether a malfunction occurs among the plurality of processors, and configured to assign, to at least one of the plurality of processors, at least one of the first operation and the second operation to be performed, based on a result of monitoring of the plurality of processors.
US09990736B2
Velocity controllers in accordance with embodiments of the invention enable velocity estimation for tracked objects. One embodiment includes a tracker controller, including: a processor; and a memory containing: a velocity tracker application; a state space describing relationships between measured locations, calculated locations, and changes in locations, where the calculated locations in the state space correspond to unoccluded points on the surface of the tracked object; wherein the processor is configured by the velocity tracker application to: pre-process the state space to identify a tracked object; estimate a velocity of the tracked object using a location history calculated from the measured locations of the tracked object within the state space and a motion model calculated from the state space; and return the velocity of the tracked object.
US09990731B2
An apparatus includes: a processor configured for obtaining a first image that corresponds with a first multi-leaf collimator (MLC) configuration, wherein the first image is generated when the MLC is stationary, obtaining a second image that corresponds with a second MLC configuration, wherein the second image is generated when the MLC and/or another component of a radiation machine is being operated to track a motion, and performing an analysis based at least in part on the first image and the second image to obtain a result; and a non-transitory medium for storing the result.
US09990730B2
The invention relates generally to edge detection and presentation in thermal images. Infrared and visible light images comprising at least partially overlapping target scenes are analyzed. An edge detection process is performed on the visible light image to determine which pixels represent edges in the target scene. A display image is generated in which some pixels include infrared image data and in which pixels corresponding to edges in the visible light image include a predetermined color and do not include corresponding infrared image data to emphasize edges. Edge pixels in the display image can include exclusively the predetermined color, or in some examples, a blend of a predetermined color and visible light image data. Methods can include replacing one or the other of visible light edge pixels or corresponding infrared pixels with the predetermined color before combining the visible light and infrared image data to create a display image.
US09990716B2
In a method for visualization of scar tissue in medical imaging data of a heart, medical imaging data representing a heart myocardium and scar tissue within the heart myocardium are obtained and provided to a computer. The computer deviates the thickness of the myocardium into a number of layers and calculates the presence and distribution of scar tissue within each of the layers. The scar tissue is shown in a visualization of the myocardium; and a user is provided with controls to allow the user to select which of the layers of scar tissue is visualised.
US09990713B2
An analysis and visualization system analyzes a digital image of a tissue sample. In the sample, cells of a first type are stained in a first way, and cells of a second type are stained in a second way. The system segments the high-resolution image into first and second objects representing cells of the first and second types, respectively. The system also identifies a region of interest, and divides it into tiles. The system generates, for each tile, a first value and a second value. The first and second values for a tile are indicative of densities of the first and second objects in the tile. From the values, a measured correlation coefficient (CC) value is determined. The system compares the measured CC value to a reference CC value, thereby obtaining a correspondence value. The system then displays the image region along with a visualization of the correspondence value.
US09990707B2
In some embodiments, methods include acquiring a micrograph image of a plated through hole and converting the micrograph image to a binary image. Methods include defining a pixel line at a copper-dielectric material interface of the binary image. In some embodiments, methods include comparing a length of an interface line compared to a length of a portion to determine a roughness of the pixel line. In some embodiments, methods include determining a roughness of the hole wall before copper plating. Methods may include determining a roughness of the interface using the pixel line.
US09990706B2
Systems and methods may apply global contrast correction to a plurality of thermal images. For example, a vehicle may capture a plurality of aerial thermal images for use in generating a composite image. Each individual thermal image may be individually contrasted based on the temperature range of pixels in that image, so the contrast range of the thermal images may vary. The plurality of thermal images may be analyzed to determine a global contrast range. Extreme temperatures may be excluded from the global contrast range. Based on the global contrast range, a contrast level of each of the plurality of thermal images may be adjusted. For example, the individual temperature range of each thermal image may be scaled to a global temperature range. A composite image having consistent contrasting may be generated from the plurality of thermal images.
US09990697B2
A computer-implemented method for creating an image collage includes automatically selecting a first image from the group of images that best fits image-collage template based on predetermined criteria, placing and fitting the first image in the image-collage template, automatically selecting one or more additional images from the group of images that best fits the image-collage template including one or more already placed images that include the first image, and placing and fitting the one or more additional images image in the image-collage template by the computer system. An image collage is formed after all images in the group are placed in the image-collage template.
US09990690B2
In an example, a method for tile-based processing by a display processor may include reading first foreground tile data of a foreground image from a first memory space. The method may include storing the read first foreground tile data into a second memory space. The method may include reading first background tile data of a background image from the first memory space. The method may include storing the read first background tile data into a third memory space. The method may include reading a subset of data of the first foreground tile data from the second memory space. The method may include reading a subset of data of the first background tile data from the third memory space.
US09990688B2
Methods, apparatus, and systems use embedded watermarks to determine whether the segments of a multimedia content has been rearranged. The embedded watermarks are recovered from the content and one or more attributes associated with the recovered watermarks are identified. A continuity of the content can then be assessed in accordance with the one or more attributes. The continuity assessment may be based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to a determined heartbeat of the recovered watermarks, a density, separation, location, or extent, of the recovered watermarks, as well as information associated with the watermarks, such as a stego key, channel bits, packet numbers, a fingerprint, or the like.
US09990683B2
Disclosed are systems and methods which provide availability of information on a network wide basis, with the network or information technology (IT) fabric spanning a wide range of institutions and other sources of information, including correctional facilities, without regard to which jurisdiction the source of information belongs, e.g. police, courts, federal investigation agencies, public databases etcetera. Embodiments provide an electronic based capability to identify useful information and for locating, collecting, compiling, aggregating, distilling, and/or reporting robust data.
US09990682B2
Systems and methods for facilitating passengers to manage airline reservations within electronic messages are disclosed. Interactive content may be determined based on airline reservation information associated with the passengers. The interactive content may include content sets for the passengers to purchase flight options such as upgrading seats, meals, entertainment, and the like within the electronic message. The interactive content may include content sets for the passengers to interact with (e.g., select) offers by merchants. Targeted offers or advertisements may be obtained from the merchants by providing passenger information. In some examples, selection of targeted offers for presentation to the passenger in the electronic messages may be made based on historical information related to the passenger (e.g., such as product preferences manifested by the passengers in the past).
US09990676B2
A position associated with a synthetic spread order may be managed where a status of a synthetic spread order is identified as legged. The synthetic spread order may have at least one child hedge order pending at an electronic exchange and in response, a bracket order is submitted to an electronic exchange for the tradeable object associated with a filled leg of the synthetic spread. In response to execution of the bracket order, the child hedge order may be cancelled.
US09990674B1
A card registry system is configured to automatically identify financial card information in one or more credit files associated with a consumer and populate a card registry account of the consumer with the identified financial card information. Once the financial card information has been obtained from the credit file(s), the card registry system may transmit cancellation and/or reissuance requests to the respective card issuers in the instance that one or more cards are compromised, so that the financial cards may be easily and efficiently cancelled and/or reissued at the request of the consumer.
US09990671B2
A method, system, GUI, apparatus, and computer readable media for enabling a customer to access both an artist media file as well as the associated artist are provided. An artist profile may be hosted on, for example, a web site, SMS/MMS gateway, and a WAP site. A media file may be received from the artist along with artist contact links and may be uploaded to the artist's profile. A request to access the media file and/or the artist may be received from a customer. The customer may then be enabled to access the media file and/or artist. The artist's account may be updated to indicate the transaction.
US09990670B1
A system and method are disclosed for providing product location information within a store. The system comprises a first user interface fixed within the store and an inventory information unit coupled to the first user interface. The first user interface is configured to receive an input signal from a user related to the identity of a product within the store, to process the input signal and to provide a product inquiry signal in response to the input signal. The first user interface is further configured to receive a location information signal, and to provide an output signal in response to the location information signal. The inventory information unit comprises a database containing product location information and is configured to provide the location information signal to the first user interface after receiving the product inquiry signal from the first user interface.
US09990658B2
A robotic retail wall is presented allowing for the dispensing of merchandise within a retail location. The robotic wall includes commodity products and robotics that pick and deliver products to consumers in response to input at a kiosk. The robotics and products are separated from a retail space by a transparent barrier, allowing consumers in the retail space to view the actions of the robotics in retrieving a product. Behind the robotic wall is a product stocking area, where commodity products can be added to the robotic wall with assistance from the robotics.
US09990657B2
According to one aspect of an embodiment, an information display device includes a display unit configured to display first content and second content in a display region so as to overlap each other. The information display device includes a change unit configured to change the second content to third content, depending on a position where a predetermined region included in the first content is displayed.
US09990652B2
A viewing user is provided with social advertisements when accessing content associated with a social networking system. A social advertisement can include a candidate advertisement and an associated social story. Candidate advertisements are advertisements provided by one or more advertisers, where the advertisements each specify a relationship between their advertising content and one or more social networking objects. To identify social stories associated with the candidate advertisements, the social networking system identifies other users associated with the viewing user who has interacted with social networking objects that are related to candidate advertisements. Additionally, the social networking system identifies the one or more interactions between the other users and the one or more objects as a social story. The social networking system selects a candidate advertisement and combines it with a social story to create a social advertisement and sends the social advertisement for display to the viewing user.
US09990650B1
A method is performed at an electronic device with a display. The method includes initiating display of a multimedia advertisement including a question. Upon a lapse of a predetermined amount of time following initiating display of the multimedia advertisement, the device displays a plurality of affordances on the display. Each affordance in the plurality of affordances corresponds to a respective user response to the question. The device detects a user input that selects a respective affordance of the plurality of affordances, thereby selecting a respective user response to the question, and, upon detection of the user input, discontinues display of the multimedia advertisement.
US09990647B2
Digital media is distributed to a list of subscriber addresses. The digital media is stored in a memory of a client device that is dedicated to content offered by a producer.
US09990644B2
Systems and methods for using wireless beacons in point of purchase (“POP”) displays to facilitate the delivery of consumer oriented content to mobile devices is disclosed herein. Wireless beacons may be used to broadcast wireless signals from POP displays, where the wireless signals include data packets with unique identifiers for the wireless beacons. A first wireless signal from a first POP display may be received by a mobile device. The mobile device may also receive a second wireless signal from a second POP display at the same retail locatin. The mobile device may provide the first and second unique identifiers to a remote server. The remote server may know the location of one of the POP displays and assess the retail location of the other POP display based on the receiving both unique identifiers from the same retail location.
US09990637B2
A system and method for implementing an in-store kiosk device as part of a retail reinvention and self help care portal. The in-store kiosk device may allow a consumer to self-diagnose problems with electronic devices, such as smart phones, and to seek technical or service related assistance with appropriate experts. The in-store kiosk device may also facilitate initiating a communication between the consumer and multiple experts, to help resolve any consumer technical or sales queries. In some examples, the in-store kiosk device has the added advantage of providing consumers with a means to have service or inventory-related issues addressed without having to wait for available in-store service staff. The in-store kiosk device may also facilitate electronic device exchange.
US09990634B2
Embodiments for methods, systems and apparatuses for managing a member organization experience of a collaborative commerce community through a network are disclosed. One method includes managing buyer company profiles of a plurality of buyer organizations and seller company profiles of a plurality of seller organizations, wherein the buyer company profiles and the seller company profiles are shared amongst the buyer organizations and the seller organizations associated with the network, wherein the member organization is at least one of the plurality of seller organizations or the plurality buyer organizations. The method further includes providing unified management of collaborative interactions between the plurality of seller organizations and the plurality of buyer organizations, determining an intra-organization link between users of the member organization based on the collaborative interactions of the member organization and a subset of the plurality of buyer organizations or a subset plurality of seller organizations.
US09990615B2
Certain exemplary embodiments relate to entertainment systems and, more particularly, certain exemplary embodiments relate to jukebox systems that incorporate digital downloading jukebox features along with karaoke jukebox and/or photo booth features. A combined karaoke/photo booth/jukebox may enable more integrated performance-like experiences in an in-home or out-of-home location or venue. By leveraging vast audio media libraries, trusted rights-respecting network infrastructure, and on-site image/video capturing from integrated recorders and/or remote portable devices, a more sociable experience may be created for karaoke jukebox patrons, e.g., where custom content can be generated and shared in a safe and legally appropriate manner.
US09990612B2
Machine, methods, and program product for facilitating electronic inventory tracking and management of products through messaging over a payment network, are provided. An example includes an inventory management computer in communication with a merchant POS apparatus or terminal over an existing financial services payment network and configured to receive and process purchase transaction data associated with a product being purchased, for use by a product provider. The computer can include electronic inventory management program product configured to perform various operations including receiving a purchase transaction message sent through the payment network, storing purchase transaction data, and notifying a product provider of the purchase transaction data. The purchase transaction message can include a financial services electronic payment network compatible universal product-transaction identifier, which can be received through the POS terminal in response to a consumer or merchant interfacing the product's container, or an associated purchase ticket or slip storing the transaction identifier, with the POS terminal.
US09990608B2
Systems and methods for providing a virtual professionals community for conducting virtual consultations with suggested professionals includes receiving, at an electronic device, a request for data associated with a professional. A list of professionals can be transmitted to a client in response to the request. The client can select one of the professionals from the list of professionals. At a scheduled time for a virtual consultation, an appointment interface can be established between the client and professional. Prior to the virtual consultation, including immediately before the virtual consultation, a notification can be transmitted to the professional. The notification can include access to the appointment interface, and a selectable option corresponding to a professional insurance coverage for the virtual appointment. The professional insurance coverage can be based at least in part on the request and can have a coverage period corresponding to a duration of the virtual consultation.
US09990596B2
A cloud-based global alarm annunciation broker assist in locating and contacting suitable technical support personnel in response to detected alarm events at a plant facility. The system comprises a cloud-based framework that dynamically matches on-site alarm events to domain experts capable of addressing the alarm events. The framework uses an agent-based architecture to gather industrial data from data sources within the industrial environment, including time-series alarm data. The data is received at a cloud platform, where broker services perform a global search for suitable technical support resources in response to alarm events identified by the collected data. The brokering system can automatically generate service tickets and send notifications to both end users and system managers/supervisors, and can notify application-level experts about events and anomalies that emerge from the on-premise processes being monitored by the cloud-based broker system.
US09990592B2
A computing device determines a kernel parameter value for a support vector data description for outlier identification. A first candidate optimal kernel parameter value is computed by computing a first optimal value of a first objective function that includes a kernel function for each of a plurality of kernel parameter values from a starting kernel parameter value to an ending kernel parameter value using an incremental kernel parameter value. The first objective function is defined for a SVDD model using observation vectors to define support vectors. A number of the observation vectors is a predefined sample size. The predefined sample size is incremented by adding a sample size increment. A next candidate optimal kernel parameter value is computed with an incremented number of vectors until a computed difference value is less than or equal to a predefined convergence value.
US09990574B2
A holder for cards providing RFID protection is disclosed herein. The holder comprises multiple sheaths, where each sheath has a card position adjacent a protective assembly and a means for holding the card adjacent the protective assembly. Each protective assembly comprises a conductive layer and an absorbing layer adjacent the card position. The sheaths are hingedly connected to enable the user to select a single card for desired use without the need to remove the card from the holder. Once the desired card read has been completed, the cards within the holder are shielded from unauthorized or malicious card reads.
US09990570B2
An information processing apparatus in which an application for print control and a printer driver corresponding to a destination printer operate, comprises a unit configured to, by performing a listening at a listening port designated by a loopback address, receive from the printer driver, on which the designated port is set as a transmission port by the application, print data generated based on data from the application; a unit configured to determine, according to completion of communication corresponding to the print data, a spooling completion of the print data; a unit configured to specify, from the received print data, information corresponding to the data from the application; and a unit configured to notify to the application the determined spooling completion, the print data, and the specified information.
US09990569B2
The disclosure discloses an image scanning device and a control method thereof, wherein the image scanning device includes: a bearing member, configured to receive a paper bill; a light source; a lens; a first converter, arranged on the emergent side of the lens and configured to convert light signals from the lens into electric signals; a controller, connected with the light source and the first converter, and configured to control the light emitting time of the light source, acquire the electric signals during the light emitting process of the light source, and acquire the electric signals again after the light source stops emitting light for a preset period of time. Through the disclosure, the problem of low accuracy of paper bill scanning in the prior technologies is solved, and the effect of increasing the accuracy of paper bill identification is achieved.
US09990565B2
Methods and arrangements involving portable user devices such smartphones and wearable electronic devices are disclosed, as well as other devices and sensors distributed within an ambient environment. Some arrangements enable a user to perform an object recognition process in a computationally- and time-efficient manner. Other arrangements enable users and other entities to, either individually or cooperatively, register or enroll physical objects into one or more object registries on which an object recognition process can be performed. Still other arrangements enable users and other entities to, either individually or cooperatively, associate registered or enrolled objects with one or more items of metadata. A great variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.
US09990555B2
The application relates to a video detection method, a video detection system, and a computer program product, which can implement liveness detection for a human body. The video detection method comprises: obtaining video data acquired by a video data acquisition device; determining a to-be-detected object based on the video data; obtaining a to-be-detected signal corresponding to the to-be-detected object; and determining whether the to-be-detected signal is a liveness physiological signal, wherein the to-be-detected signal is a frequency domain signal corresponding to the video data of the to-be-detected object.
US09990538B2
A face recognition technology using physiognomic feature information, which can improve the accuracy of face recognition. For this, the face recognition method using physiognomic feature information includes defining standard physiognomic types for respective facial elements, capturing a facial image of a user, detecting information about facial elements from the facial image, and calculating similarity scores relative to the standard physiognomic types for respective facial elements of the user based on the facial element information.
US09990535B2
An image of a physical environment is acquired that comprises a plurality of pixels, each pixel including a two-dimensional pixel location in the image plane and a depth value corresponding to a distance between a region of the physical environment and the image plane. For each pixel, the two dimensional pixel location and the depth value is converted into a corresponding three-dimensional point in the physical environment defined by three coordinate components, each of which has a value in physical units of measurement. A set of edge points is determined within the plurality of three-dimensional points based, at least in part, on the z coordinate component of the plurality of points and a distance map is generated comprising a matrix of cells. For each cell of the distance map, a distance value is assigned representing a distance between the cell and the closest edge point to that cell.
US09990530B2
A fingerprint sensing device includes a plurality of sensing units. Each sensing unit includes: a readout element, a photosensitive element, a light emitting element and a diode. The photosensitive element is electrically connected to the readout element. The light emitting element is disposed corresponding to the photosensitive element, and includes a first anode, a first cathode, and a light emitting layer located between the first anode and the first cathode. The diode includes a second anode and a second cathode, and a semiconductor layer located between the second anode and the second cathode. The second anode is electrically connected to the first cathode of the light emitting element, and the second cathode is electrically connected to the first anode of the light emitting element.
US09990522B2
An imager module for an optical code reader may include a camera comprising a lens system, and an actuator for moving the lens system operatively connected to the lens system for autofocus adjustment. The actuator for moving the lens system comprises a linear electric motor with a drive shaft, a position sensor device adapted to detect the position of the drive shaft within a predefined stroke length and a control device adapted to control the movement of the drive shaft. The control device and the position sensor device are integrated in a single PCB, the electric motor comprises a frame that supports the drive shaft, and the single PCB constitutes part of said frame. On optical code reader may include such an imager module.
US09990520B2
There is described an indicia reading terminal that can be operative to capture a succession of frames of image data and that can be operative so that a certain frame of the succession of frames is subject to quality evaluation processing where a result of the quality evaluation processing is responsive to one or more of an incidence and sharpness of edge representations of the frame of image data.
US09990515B2
In longitudinal datasets, it is usually unrealistic that an adversary would know the value of every quasi-identifier. De-identifying a dataset under this assumption results in high levels of generalization and suppression as every patient is unique. Adversary power gives an upper bound on the number of values an adversary knows about a patient. Considering all subsets of quasi-identifiers with the size of the adversary power is computationally infeasible. A method is provided to assess re-identification risk by determining a representative risk which can be used as a proxy for the overall risk measurement and enable suppression of identifiable quasi-identifiers.
US09990502B2
Systems and methods for security hardening of a file in transit and at rest via segmentation, shuffling and multi-key encryption are presented. The method including segmenting at a first computer system a file into a plurality of file segments, and encrypting the plurality of file segments using a plurality of encryption keys in order to generate a corresponding plurality of encrypted file segments, wherein each file segment of the plurality of file segments is encrypted using a respective encryption key of the plurality of encryption keys. Additionally included is bidirectional data transformation of a file by obfuscating at a first computer system digital values of the file in order to generate corresponding obfuscated digital values of the file, wherein the obfuscated digital values of the file retain their contextual integrity and referential integrity.
US09990498B2
A multi-engine malicious code scanning method for scanning data sets from a storage device is provided. The method includes, among other steps obtaining at least one data set from a storage device and generating a single forensic image of the data set and also applying a recover data application to the data set to generate a single recovered data set. A scanning is initiated of the single forensic image and the single recovered data set using the selected plurality of malware engines, where each of the malware engines, installed on the independent operating systems of the virtual operating system may be run concurrently on the single forensic image and the single recovered data set. A report is generated combining each of the malware engines reporting the results of the scans.
US09990487B1
A technique for distinguishing between a human user and a software robot. The technique includes: receiving a first communication from a device different from the at least one computer; identifying, from the first communication, a request to access a web resource; generating an image that encodes a challenge text, the image comprising data stored in a plurality of channels including a transparency channel, the generating comprising: generating decoding information representing the challenge text; and storing the decoding information in the transparency channel of the image; transmitting, via the at least one network, the generated image to the device; receiving a second communication from the device; identifying, from the second communication, a response text; and providing the device with access to the web resource based on a comparison between the challenge text and the response text.
US09990484B2
A computer-implemented method and system for verifying the identity of a user in an identity authentication and biometric verification system which includes collecting information from the user regarding the user's identity, which is then electronically authenticated. Upon authentication, personal information regarding the verified identity of the user is retrieved from a source database which is used to verify the identity of the user, via user interaction. Upon successful verification and authentication, biometric data regarding the user is electronically collected.
US09990483B2
A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for biometric identification are provided. The apparatus may be a user device. The apparatus may detect biometric information for a predetermined period of time. The predetermined period of time may be set by a hysteresis timer. The apparatus may compare the detected biometric information with stored biometric information associated with a stored user profile of a plurality of user profiles. The apparatus may then determine whether to display the stored user profile based on the comparison after the predetermined period of time has elapsed.
US09990476B2
An interactive streaming media and application service provider system can securely stream high resolution, multiple formats of video and data. Different data sets can be included in a single stream. A rights management system controls matrix manipulation and other aspects of user control of the data, including one or more of rendering in various different 2D, 3D, or other media formats, reconstruction and modeling, zooming, frame grab, print frame, parental controls, picture in picture, preventing unauthorized copying, adapting to different data transmission formats, adapting to different resolutions and screen sizes, and actively control functionality contained in embedded data, encryption/decryption. Control can be exerted by an external entity through a user-side virtual machine. Control codes can optionally be embedded in the media, embedded in the user's device, and/or sent separately to the device.
US09990469B2
The present disclosure relates to a method, apparatus, system and computer program for inferring a system state over time. Biomedical measurement data is obtained, wherein the data relate to at least one indicator of a system of interest and includes at least two indicator values being indicative of the state of the system of interest and the indicator values are measured at different time points. At least one measure of goodness for the indicator is formed by using values of the indicator of at least one control state and at least one comparison state. Difference values are formed for at least two indicator values with reference to the control and comparison states, and using the at least two difference values a change in value of said indicator is displayed with a progress indicator so that the change over time can be used in inferring the system state. The progress indicator has at least one dimension depending on the value of the at least one measure of goodness.
US09990461B1
A method for placing and routing devices in a circuit layout is provided. The method includes determining devices to be placed in a circuit layout and a relative position of two devices in the circuit layout. In some embodiments, the method includes pre-routing channels in the circuit layout, determining routing trunk information from the pre-routed channels, and placing the two devices in the circuit layout based on the routing trunk information. Further, the method includes forming a first routing trunk along channels in the circuit layout, coupling the first routing trunk to one device of the two devices, and checking that a placement of a plurality of devices and the coupling the first routing trunk to one device of the plurality of devices meet a circuit layout specification. A computer system and a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing commands to execute the above method are also provided.
US09990460B2
Source beam optimization (SBO) methods are disclosed herein for enhancing lithography printability. An exemplary method includes receiving an integrated circuit (IC) design layout and performing an SBO process using the IC design layout to generate a mask shot map and an illumination source map. The SBO process uses an SBO model that collectively simulates a mask making process using the mask shot mask and a wafer making process using the illumination source map. A mask can be fabricated using the mask shot map, and a wafer can be fabricated using the illumination source map (and, in some implementations, using the mask fabricated using the mask shot map). The wafer includes a final wafer pattern that corresponds with a target wafer pattern defined by the IC design layout. The SBO methods disclosed herein can significantly reduce (or eliminate) variances between the final wafer pattern and the target wafer pattern.
US09990443B2
A system executes a query associated with an application against a graph database by providing, to a first shard of the graph database, the query and a first query header that specifies the first shard. The query includes a subject, a predicate and an object, and the graph database stores a graph that includes nodes, edges between the nodes, and predicates to represent and store data. In response to the query, the system receives results and associated result headers from the first shard and a second shard, where the result headers specify that the results are partial results that are particular fractions of a total result. Furthermore, a combination of the partial results provides the total result to the query that includes a subset of the graph. Note that the subset of the graph may include desired information expressed within an associated structure of the graph.
US09990441B2
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving an unstructured text query to search for posts of the online social network. The method includes parsing the text query to identify one or more n-grams. The method includes searching an index of keyword phrases associated with the first user to identify one or more keyword phrases matching one or more of the n-grams of the text query. The index of keyword phrases is based on posts by one or more second users of the online social network. The method includes calculating a keyword score for each of the identified keyword phrases. The method includes generating one or more suggested queries. Each suggested query includes one or more n-grams identified from the text query and one or more identified keyword phrases. The method includes sending one or more of the suggested queries to search for posts of the online social network.
US09990440B2
Software on a client device presents a webpage through a browser. The webpage is from an online content-aggregation website and includes a plurality of panels containing a plurality of content items. The software selectively pre-loads into a cache a resource associated with a content item in a panel if the content item is relatively persistent in comparison to other content items. The cache is controlled by the browser. The software retrieves the resource from the cache upon receiving command from a user and presents the resource through the browser.
US09990439B2
A system and method for disseminating digital content, including receiving at a server a request from a user computer for a browser displayable interface definition, and sending from the server to the user computer the interface definition including resource tags, the resource tags being interpretable for linking to sources of the digital content.
US09990438B2
Example embodiments of the present disclosure include a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program and a computer-implemented method for providing a customized fitting room environment. Consistent with some embodiments, the method may include identifying a garment being brought into a fitting room, and determining a garment type of the garment. The method may further include adjusting one or more environmental settings of the fitting room based on the garment type. Additional aspects of the present disclosure include further adjusting environmental settings based on various combinations of user data and a desired use case of the garment specified by the individual.
US09990435B2
In particular embodiments, a computing system may receive a search query from a first user of an online social network, identify one or more second users of the online social network that match the search query, where each identified second user may have a visibility setting specifying which other users of the online social network can view information from the online social network associated with the second user, and send to the first user information associated with each second user having a relationship within the online social network to the first user such that the visibility setting of the second user specifies that the first user can view the information associated with the second user.
US09990434B2
An approach is provided to analyze posts included threads of an online forum. The analyzing identifies a main topic related to a parent post of the thread. Child posts of the thread are selected with the parent post being a parent to each of the child posts. Child topics are identified for each of the child posts. A relevance of each of the child posts is determined by comparing the identified main topic to each of the identified child topics. Child posts are selected based on the relevance of the child posts. Parent post data is ingested into a corpus utilized by a question answering (QA) system. Data from the selected child posts is also ingested into the corpus.
US09990430B2
An online social network is managed using one server for database management tasks and another server, preferably in a distributed configuration, for CPU-intensive computational tasks, such as finding a shortest path between two members or a degree of separation between two members. The additional server has a memory device containing relationship information between members of the online social network and carries out the CPU-intensive computational tasks using this memory device. With this configuration, the number of database lookups is decreased and processing speed is thereby increased.
US09990426B2
Disclosed are methods, apparatus, systems, and computer readable storage media for establishing access with a content object stored in a content management data source from an on-demand database service. A request can be received from a user of the on-demand database service to access data regarding a content object stored in an external content management data source. The content management data source can be identified based on the request, and the request can be provided to a repository-specific connector communicatively coupled to the external content management data source. Access can be established with the content object to retrieve the requested data, and a virtual object associated with the on-demand database service can be created to instantiate connection between the content object and the on-demand database service. The requested data can be provided to a display device in a user interface for the on-demand database service.
US09990418B1
A system and method for the opinion economy that allows a user to make a choice of what data, demographics, opinions, behaviors, beliefs, and other information to share. The system and method provides capability to a user to set a value for that user's data, opinions, behaviors, and beliefs. The system and method further allows for dynamic pricing for surveys or data collection, either dependent on length of time, effort given by the user, or other attributes that might drive the value the user sets on that user's participation.
US09990416B2
A system may include a database of physical data tables including stored data, and an abstraction layer associated with the stored data. The abstraction layer may include a measure object associated with a measure, a plurality of dimension objects associated with respective dimensions, a first analysis group object linked to the measure object, to a first one or more of the plurality of dimension objects, and to a first portion of the stored data associating the measure with respective dimensions of the first one or more of the plurality of dimension objects, and a second analysis group object linked to the measure object, to a second one or more of the plurality of dimension objects, and to a second portion of the stored data associating the measure with respective dimensions of the first one or more of the plurality of dimension objects and of the second one or more of the plurality of dimension objects.
US09990404B2
A system and method optionally includes an electronic data storage configured to store content items introduced to a social network by a first user and to store interactions with the content items by second user of the social network. The system further includes a processor, coupled to the electronic data storage, configured to determine an influence of the first user based, at least in part, on the interaction by the second user with at least one of the content items as introduced by the first user and a characteristic of the second user and cause an indication of the influence of the first user to be displayed on a user interface.
US09990402B2
Techniques for managing continuous queries that include subqueries are provided. In some examples, a continuous query that includes at least a subquery may be identified. Additionally, the subquery may be processed to obtain a first result or generate a logical subquery plan. Further, in some instances, the continuous query may then be processed based at least in part on the first result from the subquery or by merging a logical continuous query plan with the logical subquery plan. This may result in obtaining a second result via querying a data source with the continuous query that is based at least in part on the first result from the subquery and/or the merged plans.
US09990401B2
Techniques for counting event changes with archived relations are provided. In some examples, a query that identifies at least a data object may be identified. Additionally, the query may be evaluated against historical data associated with the data object. Additionally, in some instances, a listening service may be registered with the data object. Further, the query may be evaluated based at least in part on the data object and the historical data.
US09990397B2
Techniques for indexing file paths of items in a repository may include, for each type associated with instances that are not associated with file path indexes, starting with folder types prior to item types in a round robin sequence, attempting to associate the instances of the type with file path indexes. The repository may be queried for instances of a current type that are not associated with file path indexes and that are filed in a folder that is associated with a file path index. Responsive to the querying returning one or more instances of the current type, the one or more instances of the current type may be associated with the file path indexes. Responsive to the querying returning one or more instances of the current type, attempting to associate the instances of the same current type with file path indexes may be repeated.
US09990393B2
Various techniques are disclosed for offloading the processing of data packets. For example, incoming data packets can be processed through an offload processor to generate a new stream of outgoing data packets that organize data from the data packets in a manner different than the incoming data packets. Furthermore, in an exemplary embodiment, the offloaded processing can be resident in an intelligent switch, such as an intelligent switch upstream or downstream from an electronic trading platform.
US09990388B2
Allocation within a database environment is performed by processing a sequence of steps, each of which is described by an allocation processing block. The allocation processing block receives three inputs (input tables or input view) and computes a result. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described.
US09990373B2
A method is provided for populating a map with a set of avatars through the use of a mobile technology platform associated with a user. The method (201) includes developing a set of facial characteristics (205), wherein each facial characteristic in the set is associated with one of a plurality of individuals that the user has encountered over a period of time while using the mobile technology platform; recording the locations (207) and times at which each of the plurality of individuals was encountered; forming a first database by associating the recorded times and locations at which each of the plurality of individuals was encountered with the individual's facial characteristics in the set; generating a set of avatars (309) from the set of facial characteristics; and using the first database to populate (319) a map (307) with the set of avatars.
US09990371B2
Technology is disclosed for classification of data objects (e.g., files) in a distributed file system based on application creation and/or access information. In some embodiments, data objects of a user are stored across multiple computing devices associated with a user, e.g., mobile computing devices such as a tablet, a laptop, or a smartphone, and/or at server systems, e.g., cloud-based storage servers, in a distributed cloud-based storage system. The technology described tracks the applications that create or touch particular data objects in the distributed file system and classifies the data objects according to these applications resulting in various application classifications. For example, a classification engine can process data objects in the distributed file system to identify an application that created the data object and/or applications that have accessed the data object. The classification information can be saved by, for example, a cloud-based storage server.
US09990368B2
A system and method for automatic generation of information-rich content from multiple microblogs, each microblog containing only sparse information, the method comprising collecting a population of microblogs comprising microblog data, each microblog containing a limited number of characters; providing a user interface allowing entry of a search query; matching a search query entered on the user interface to data in the microblog data; providing the results of the matching process as a sub-set of microblog data; applying processing techniques to the sub-set of microblog data; and generating a summary report of the processed sub-set of microblog data.
US09990364B2
The present invention provides a fast and efficient way of processing structured data by utilizing an intermediate file to store the structural information. The structured data may be processed into a Binary mask Format (BMF) file which may serve as a starting point for post-processing. A tree structure built on top of the BMF file may be constructed very quickly, and also takes up less space than a DOM tree. Additionally, BMF records may reside entirely in the memory and contain structural information, allowing SAX-like sequential data access.
US09990362B2
Profiling data includes processing an accessed collection of records, including: generating, for a first set of distinct values appearing in a first set of one or more fields, corresponding location information; generating, for the first set of fields, a corresponding list of entries identifying a distinct value from the first set of distinct values and the location information for the distinct value; generating, for a second set of one or more fields, a corresponding list of entries, with each entry identifying a distinct value from a second set of distinct values appearing in the second set of fields; and generating result information, based at least in part on: locating at least one record of the collection using the location information for at least one value appearing in the first set of fields, and determining at least one value appearing in the second set of fields of the located record.
US09990361B2
Snippets can be represented in a language-independent semantic manner. Each portion of a snippet can be represented by a combination of a semantic representation and a syntactic representation, each in its own dimensional space. A snippet can be divided into portions by constructing a dependency structure based on relationships between words and phrases. Leaf nodes of the dependency structure can be assigned: A) a semantic representation according to pre-defined word mappings and B) a syntactic representation according to the grammatical use of the word. A trained semantic model can assign to each non-leaf node of the dependency structure a semantic representation based on a combination of the semantic and syntactic representations of the corresponding lower-level nodes. A trained syntactic model can assign to each non-leaf node a syntactic representation based on a combination of the syntactic representations of the corresponding lower-level nodes and the semantic representation of that node.
US09990359B2
A method for analyzing a virtual discussion. The method may include identifying, with a processing device, a first concept relevant to a first subdiscussion associated with an online discussion. The method may also include identifying a second concept relevant to the first subdiscussion, and determining a relation between the first concept and the second concept.
US09990358B2
An optimized fact checking system analyzes and determines the factual accuracy of information and/or characterizes the information by comparing the information with source information. The optimized fact checking system automatically monitors information, processes the information, fact checks the information in an optimized manner and/or provides a status of the information. In some embodiments, the optimized fact checking system generates, aggregates, and/or summarizes content.
US09990354B2
An information displaying apparatus having a touch-panel display unit is provided. An information obtaining unit obtains explanation information of a direction word specified by user, and displays the obtained explanation information of the direction word on the touch-panel displaying unit. When the user touches on the touch-panel display unit, a multi-touch detecting unit detects touch positions on the touch-panel display unit. A shift judging unit judges whether a distance between the detected touch positions has increased or decreased, when the user shifts the touch positions on the touch-panel display unit. A display-information controlling unit displays detailed explanation information of the direction word, when the shift judging unit determines that the distance between the touch positions has increased, and displays simplified explanation information of the direction word, when the shift judging unit determines that the distance between the touch positions has decreased.
US09990352B2
Techniques and mechanisms described herein facilitate the transmission of a data stream to a networked storage system. According to various embodiments, a data stream may be parsed to identify one or more uncompressed data chunks for transmission to a networked storage system. Each uncompressed data chunk may be compressed to produce a respective compressed data chunk. Each compressed data chunk may be transmitted to the networked storage system via a network for storage at the networked storage system.
US09990348B2
An exemplary embodiment of the present system and method provides a non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions. When executed by a computer, the instructions cause the computer to perform a number of steps of, which include: receiving a spreadsheet model; analyzing the spreadsheet model to determine one or more properties of the spreadsheet model; providing a first user interface on the basis of the determined properties, the first user interface enables configuration information to be specified for one or more cells of the spreadsheet model; receiving configuration information for the cells; and storing the spreadsheet model and the configuration information.
US09990342B2
In general, the technology relates to a method for displaying objects on a webpage. The method includes receiving a request to transition to the webpage in a web application from a device and in response to the request: obtaining a set of object identifiers, providing the set of object identifiers to a link relationship manager and receiving, from the link relationship manager, a set of link relationships. The method further includes providing the set of link relationships and a link relationship evaluator to the device, where the link relationship evaluator only permits objects that are associated with a link relationship from the set of link relationships to be displayed on the device.
US09990341B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, computer program products, and systems for suggesting uniform resource locators located at previously unknown hosts to users. Embodiments of the present invention can be used to record uniform resource locators (URLs) associated with web resources accessed by a user and usage details pertaining to the user's usage of the web resources. Responsive to receiving a request to access a hostname not stored in the recorded URLs, embodiments of the present invention can be used to receive URLs associated with web resources available at the hostname and assign weight values to the received URLs based, at least in part, on the usage details and a similarity between the received URLs and the recorded URLs. Embodiments of the present invention can then be used to generate a URL suggestion from the received URLs based, at least in part, on the assigned weight values.
US09990338B2
A display device, including: a storage unit in which page image data including a figure or a photograph and figure photo information are stored so as to be associated with each other for each page, the figure photo information corresponding to a figure or a photograph included in a page, being information for individually displaying the figure or the photograph and including area information which indicates an area occupied by the figure or the photograph in page image data corresponding to the page; a display unit; an operation unit; an identification unit; and a display control unit.
US09990337B2
A system and method for automatically generating a narrative story receives data and information pertaining to a domain event. The received data and information and/or one or more derived features are then used to identify a plurality of angles for the narrative story. The plurality of angles is then filtered, for example through use of parameters that specify a focus for the narrative story, length of the narrative story, etc. Points associated with the filtered plurality of angles are then assembled and the narrative story is rendered using the filtered plurality of angles and the assembled points.
US09990332B2
A vehicle motion control device includes curve shape acquisition means for acquiring a shape of a curve present in front of a currently traveling vehicle, vehicle position acquisition means for acquiring a position of the vehicle, and vehicle motion control arithmetic means for computing, on the basis of the shape of the curve and the position of the vehicle, a command value relating to longitudinal acceleration to be caused to the vehicle. During a time interval from before the vehicle reaches a near end of the curve, until the vehicle has approached the curve and traveled to a site having a constant or maximum curvature of the curve, the vehicle motion control arithmetic means computes a plurality of different negative longitudinal acceleration command values. Thus, even when there is no lateral motion, the vehicle motion control device accelerates/decelerates the vehicle while improving a driver's feeling of slowdown.
US09990331B2
Artificial intelligence engine that receives data related to at least one of at least one available network of a mobile communication environment and system data of a mobile device in the mobile communication environment. The artificial intelligence engine includes a rules engine that receives a currently configured set including at least one rule, the at least one rule includes at least one condition and at least one action. The at least one condition includes at least one predicate and at least one condition state, and the rules engine is structured to evaluate the at least one condition and the at least one predicate. Further, a triggering device triggers the at least one action in accordance with the evaluation of the at least one condition and the at least one predicate.
US09990325B2
Embodiments relate a universal serial bus (USB) filter hub. An aspect includes receiving, by the USB filter hub that is in communication with a host computer system, a connection from a USB device at a USB port of the USB filter hub. Another aspect includes determining, by the USB filter hub, a type of the USB device. Another aspect includes determining whether the type of the USB device is valid. Yet another aspect includes, based on determining that the type of the USB device is valid, filtering commands that are communicated between the USB device and the host computer system via the USB filter hub based on a predetermined command set corresponding to the determined type of the USB device.
US09990320B2
A plug connector includes an insulating body defining a mating cavity opening forwardly and a cable-load portion, a row of upper terminals, a row of lower terminals and a special terminal. The special terminal includes a contacting piece and a soldering piece discrete from each other. The contacting piece unitarily includes a contacting portion located at the upper inside of the mating cavity and an upper connecting portion, and the soldering piece unitarily includes a soldering leg exposed upon the lower loading face of the cable-loading portion and a lower connecting portion extending forward from the soldering leg. The upper connecting portion and the lower connecting portion electrically connect to each other so as to establish an electrical connection of the special terminal.
US09990318B2
Tracking data transfers in an input/output adapter card system to determine whether the adapter cards are well-placed with respect to the components (for example dynamic random access memories) with which the adapter cards respectively are observed to communicate data. Some embodiments use a heuristic value for each adapter card in the system based on inter node transfers and intra node transfers, which are separately weighted and summed over some predetermined time interval in order to obtain the heuristic value.
US09990312B2
A memory system includes: a plurality of memory devices, one of which includes an unrepaired defective memory cell; a control bus that is shared by the plurality of the memory devices; a plurality of data buses assigned to each of the plurality of the memory devices; and a memory controller that communicates with the plurality of the memory devices through the control bus and the plurality of the data buses, a control latency of the memory device including unrepaired defective memory cells is set differently from a control latency of the other memory devices, where the control latency is used for recognizing control signals of the control bus.
US09990309B2
Systems, apparatuses and methods may provide for determining, at runtime, one or more deviations of a peripheral device from a common interface based on one or more configuration files and translating one or more communications between the peripheral device and an application in accordance with the one or more deviations. In one example, a level of quality of a product dispensed by a system containing the peripheral device may be determined based on the communications. Moreover, a failure of the system may be predicted based on the communications.
US09990306B2
An inter-manycore communications method includes applying, by a service manager process, to a microkernel operating system for shared memory, and mapping shared memory, which is allocated by the microkernel operating system, to virtual address space of the service manager process; receiving and recording a service identifier of a system service process and a second shared memory address that corresponds to the service identifier; searching, according to a service identifier carried by a system service request, for the second shared memory address that corresponds to the service identifier carried by the system service request; and sending the service identifier carried by the system service request, a first shared memory address, and the second shared memory address that corresponds to the service identifier to a user process. According to the method, a problem that communication between a user process and a system service process needs multiple context switches can be solved.
US09990297B2
A processor includes an instruction executing unit which executes a memory access instruction, a cache memory unit disposed between a main memory which stores data related to the memory access instruction and the instruction executing unit, a control information retaining unit which retains control information related to a prefetch issued to the cache memory unit, an address information retaining unit which retains address information based on the memory access instruction executed in the past, and a control unit which generates and issues a hardware prefetch request. The control unit compares address information retained in the address information retaining unit and an access address in the memory access instruction executed, and generates and issues based on a comparison result a hardware prefetch request to the cache memory unit according to the control information of the control information retaining unit specified by specifying information added to the memory access instruction.
US09990278B2
An overlaid erase block (EB) mapping scheme for a flash memory provides efficient wear-leveling and reduces mount operation latency. The overlaid EB mapping scheme maps a first type of EB onto one of a plurality of physical erase blocks, in a corresponding portion of the flash memory. The first type of EB includes a plurality of pointers. The overlaid EB mapping scheme also maps each of second and third types of EBs onto one of the physical EBs that is not mapped to the first type of EB. The second type of EBs store system management information and the third type of EBs store user data. When the flash memory is started up, the overlaid EB mapping scheme scans the corresponding portion to locate the first type of EB, locates the system EBs using the pointers, and locates the data EBs using the system management information.
US09990271B2
A device may receive a uniform resource identifier that identifies an object source. The object source may include one or more objects organized in a hierarchy of objects. The device may identify an object, of the one or more objects, to permit extraction of one or more properties of the object. The device may extract the one or more properties of the object based on identifying the object. The device may select a subset of properties, of the one or more properties, to use to generate an object locator based on extracting the one or more properties. The object locator may be associated with locating the object in the hierarchy of objects. The device may generate the object locator based on selecting the subset of properties of the object.
US09990267B2
Embodiments are directed towards mobile application development in a cloud-based architecture. Mobile applications may be designed to communicate with a cloud platform over a network. Mobile application developers may be enabled to submit cloud code to cloud platforms for use by mobile applications. If cloud code is provided to a cloud platform, the cloud platform may perform one or more actions to authenticate the cloud code, such as, ensuring that that the user providing the cloud code is authorized to provide the cloud code. If the cloud code is authenticated the cloud platform may perform one or more actions to validate the cloud code. If validated, the cloud code may be activated for use by mobile applications and/or mobile application developers. Activation of the cloud code may include associating the cloud code with one or more function calls and/or with one or more trigger points.
US09990263B1
Efficient use of spare device(s) associated with a group of devices is disclosed, including: receiving a set of data; storing the set of data across a group of devices according to a protocol; determining a set of additional data units associated with the set of data; and storing the set of additional data units in a spare device associated with the group of devices, wherein the spare device is available to be used in the event of a failure of a device included in the group of devices, including by overwriting the set of additional data units as needed.
US09990262B2
One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for dynamic mirroring. A first storage node and the second storage node within a first storage cluster may locally mirror data between one another based upon a local failover partnership. The first storage node and a third storage node within a second storage cluster may remotely mirror data between one another based upon a primary disaster recovery partnership. If the third storage node fails, then the first storage node may remotely mirror data to a fourth storage node within the second storage cluster based upon an auxiliary disaster recovery partnership. In this way, data loss protection for the first storage node may be improved, such that the fourth storage node provide clients with access to mirrored data from the first storage node in the event the second storage node and/or the third storage node are unavailable when the first storage node fails.
US09990261B2
Systems and techniques for recovering a storage array are disclosed. These systems and techniques include determining a size corresponding to a storage stripe of the storage array. Pieces assigned to the storage stripe are identified. A storage configuration corresponding to the pieces assigned to the storage stripe is detected. Ordinal information and parity information are determined corresponding to the pieces assigned to the storage stripe. The size determined corresponding to the storage stripe, identification of the pieces assigned to the storage stripe, the storage configuration, the ordinal information, and the parity information is stored in a data store to reconstruct lost or corrupted metadata corresponding to the storage array.
US09990257B2
One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for hosting a virtual machine from a snapshot. In particular, a snapshot of a virtual machine hosted on a primary computing device may be created. The virtual machine may be hosted on a secondary computing device using the snapshot, for example, when a failure of the virtual machine on the primary computing device occurs. If a virtual machine type (format) of the snapshot is not supported by the secondary computing device, then the virtual machine within the snapshot may be converted to a virtual machine type supported by the secondary computing device. In this way, the virtual machine may be operable and/or accessible on the secondary computing device despite the failure. Hosting the virtual machine on the secondary computing device provides, among other things, fault tolerance for the virtual machine and/or applications comprised therein.
US09990255B2
A first non-volatile memory stores a redundant copy of system data that relates to a configuration of at least one physical component of a system, where the first non-volatile memory is accessible by a controller in the system and inaccessible to a processor in the system. It is determined whether system data in a second non-volatile memory accessible by the processor is compromised. In response to determining that the system data in the second non-volatile memory is compromised, the compromised system data in the second non-volatile memory is repaired.
US09990252B1
In part, the disclosure relates to a computer-implemented system for managing a data storage system comprising a plurality of data storage nodes. The system includes at least one processor and an operatively associated storage device. The at least one processor is programmed to: monitor utilization of at least one data object stored at the data storage system as a coded data object comprising a first total number of data blocks, wherein each of the first number of data blocks is stored at a separate data storage node, and wherein an original data object is re-creatable from a first base number of data blocks selected from the first total number of data blocks; determine that the utilization of the at least one data object has changed; and modify a number of the plurality of data storage nodes that store data blocks of the coded data object.
US09990245B2
An electronic device includes a memory having memory locations being subject to transient faults and permanent faults, and a fault detection circuit coupled to the memory. The fault detection circuit is configured to read the memory locations at a first time, and determine a first fault count and fault map signature including the transient and permanent faults at the first time based upon reading the plurality of memory locations, and to store the first fault count and fault map signature. The fault detection circuit is configured to read the memory locations at a second time and determine a second fault count and fault map signature including the transient and permanent faults at the second time based upon reading the memory locations, and compare the stored first fault count and fault map signature with the second fault count and fault map signature to determine a permanent fault count.
US09990243B2
Example methods, apparatuses, and systems are presented for determining a physical (real) topology of an Ethernet type network, including mapping physical switches arranged in a multi-chassis link aggregation group (MC-LAG). Spanning tree protocol (STP) data is obtained via a combination of SNMP queries or SSH/telnet connectors. The STP data and MAC addresses are collected initially for all the switches in the mapping criteria. After collecting this data, pairs of switches are formed (e.g., randomly) and the collected data is correlated and stored according to the set of rules described in embodiments of the present disclosure in order to find switch to switch links.
US09990234B2
For distributed processing using clustering of interdependent Internet of Things (IoT) devices, at a central device, a data source to be used for processing a workload is determined. A set is selected of devices operating within a threshold distance from the data source at a first time. A first subset of the set of devices is selected. Each device in the first subset satisfies a clustering condition. A first device in the subset is instructed to configure a lightweight application to participate in the cluster and process the workload. The processing of the workload is halted on a second device, where the first device has a processing dependency on the second device in processing the workload. A preserved current state of processing the workload is transferred from the first device to a third device. The processing of the workload is continued using the second device and the third device.
US09990233B2
Technologies for partial binary translation on multi-core platforms include a shared translation cache, a binary translation thread scheduler, a global installation thread, and a local translation thread and analysis thread for each processor core. On detection of a hotspot, the thread scheduler first resumes the global thread if suspended, next activates the global thread if a translation cache operation is pending, and last schedules local translation or analysis threads for execution. Translation cache operations are centralized in the global thread and decoupled from analysis and translation. The thread scheduler may execute in a non-preemptive nucleus, and the translation and analysis threads may execute in a preemptive runtime. The global thread may be primarily preemptive with a small non-preemptive nucleus to commit updates to the shared translation cache. The global thread may migrate to any of the processor cores. Forward progress is guaranteed. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09990228B1
Examples described relate to validating network parameters of a containerized application. In an example, the current state of a network parameter configured for a containerized application in a cloud computing environment may be determined. The current state of the network parameter may be validated against a container application profile of the containerized application, wherein the container application profile specifies a desired state of the network parameter. In response to a determination that the current state of the network parameter does not meet the desired state of the network parameter specified in the container application profile, a determination may be made whether a network interface that meets the desired state of the network parameter is available in the cloud computing environment. In response to a determination that the network interface is available in the cloud computing environment, the containerized application may be migrated to the available network interface.
US09990227B2
A multiprocessor system and method for swapping applications executing on the multiprocessor system are disclosed. The plurality of applications may include a first application and a plurality of other applications. The first application may be dynamically swapped with a second application. The swapping may be performed without stopping the plurality of other applications. The plurality of other applications may continue to execute during the swapping to perform a real-time operation and process real-time data. After the swapping, the plurality of other applications may continue to execute with the second application, and at least a subset of the plurality of other applications may communicate with the second application to perform the real time operation and process the real time data.
US09990226B2
An apparatus and a method for implementing a common public radio interface (CPRI) negotiation state machine. The apparatus includes an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip and a system on chip (SOC), where the ASIC chip is configured to send an interrupt request to the SOC in condition that n transition paths of m transition paths of the CPRI negotiation state machine need to be processed by the SOC; the SOC is configured to execute the software code according to the interrupt request to generate interrupt configuration information, and send the interrupt configuration information to the ASIC chip, where the interrupt configuration information is used to indicate whether the CPRI negotiation state machine transits to a state pointed by the n transition paths; and the ASIC chip is further configured to control transition of the CPRI negotiation state machine according to the interrupt configuration information.
US09990221B2
Systems and methods are provided for implementing a Virtual Switch (vSwitch) architecture that supports transparent virtualization and live migration. In an embodiment, a vSwitch with prepopulated Local Identifiers (LIDs). Another embodiment provides for vSwitch with dynamic LID assignment. Another embodiment provides for vSwitch with prepopulated LIDS and dynamic LID assignment Moreover, embodiments of the present invention provide scalable dynamic network reconfiguration methods which enable live migrations of VMs in network environments.
US09990213B2
Data Brick is a state of the art solution to access the data through high speed data access mechanism that is exceptionally fast and is associated with low CPU consumption cost. The Data Brick stores relatively static reference data in the form of a programming language Load Module. The Load module contains the data can be launched into the application program memory and this data can be accessed very efficiently in a programming language program. Static application data that is accessed by multiple applications in a mainframe Batch environment is a prime candidate for the Data Brick.
US09990210B2
Driverless programmable human interface devices are provided that may be configured using plain text configuration information, such as may be viewed or edited by a user. The human interface device may provide a graphical user interface via one or more software applications accessible via a virtual storage volume provided as part of the human interface device, and which may be executed directly by a user without requiring installation. The user may view and modify textual configuration information directly, or may utilize the provided graphical user interface to do so indirectly.
US09990208B2
A method and apparatus for initiating secure operations in a microprocessor system is described. In one embodiment, one initiating logical processor initiates the process by halting the execution of the other logical processors, and then loading initialization and secure virtual machine monitor software into memory. The initiating processor then loads the initialization software into secure memory for authentication and execution. The initialization software then authenticates and registers the secure virtual machine monitor software prior to secure system operations.
US09990206B2
In an embodiment, a method is provided. The method includes managing user-level threads on a first instruction sequencer in response to executing user-level instructions on a second instruction sequencer that is under control of an application level program. A first user-level thread is run on the second instruction sequencer and contains one or more user level instructions. A first user level instruction has at least 1) a field that makes reference to one or more instruction sequencers or 2) implicitly references with a pointer to code that specifically addresses one or more instruction sequencers when the code is executed.
US09990204B2
A processing element comprises a plurality of function units (16) operable to execute respective functions in dependence upon received instructions in parallel with one another. An instruction controller includes a plurality of instruction pipelines (42). Each of the pipelines (42) is associated with a function unit (16) of the processing element, and is operable to deliver instructions to the function unit concerned for execution thereby. Each pipeline also includes a timing controller operable to receive timing information for a received instruction, and to determine an initial location in the pipeline into which the instruction is to be loaded, and an instruction handler operable to receive an instruction for the function unit associated with the instruction pipeline concerned, and to load that instruction into the initial location determined by the timing controller.
US09990200B2
A method for executing instructions using a plurality of virtual cores for a processor. The method includes receiving an incoming instruction sequence using a global front end scheduler, and partitioning the incoming instruction sequence into a plurality of code blocks of instructions. The method further includes generating a plurality of inheritance vectors describing interdependencies between instructions of the code blocks, and allocating the code blocks to a plurality of virtual cores of the processor, wherein each virtual core comprises a respective subset of resources of a plurality of partitionable engines. The code blocks are executed by using the partitionable engines in accordance with a virtual core mode and in accordance with the respective inheritance vectors.
US09990196B2
A processor includes a linear approximator and a front end including circuitry to assign linear approximation of a nonlinear function to a linear approximator. The linear approximator includes circuitry to divide a range of values for the linear approximation into a defined number of segments, perform linear approximation for each segment, move borders between the segments to reduce discontinuity moving along segments of variable length, repeat linear approximation for each segment until convergence, and return values for the linear approximation.
US09990193B2
A method for agile software development comprises receiving by a VM a command by a first version of a software component running on a first virtual machine, wherein the command may be executed by the software component, passing the command to a hypervisor along with an output file including a functionality identifier corresponding to the command and identifiers for versions of the software component to which the command is applicable, and transferring the command to a second VM for an execution of the functionality if the identifier of the second version of the software component was included in the output file. Additionally, the method may include sending a freeze command by the hypervisor to the second virtual machine if the identifier of the second version of the software component is not included in the output file.
US09990182B2
A computing platform for intelligent development, deployment and management of vehicle telemetry applications is disclosed herein. Further, the present disclosure provides a method and system that enables provision of Intelligent Transportation Service on the Cloud-based Platform that facilitates creation and deployment of vehicle telemetry applications configured for enabling traffic measurements, traffic shaping, vehicle surveillance and other vehicle related services.
US09990180B2
A system, method, and device for stochastically processing data. There is an architect module operating on a processor configured to manage and control stochastic processing of data, a non-deterministic data pool module configured to provide a stream of non-deterministic values that are not derived from a function, a plurality of functionally equivalent data processing modules each configured to stochastically process data as called upon by the architect module, a data feed configured to feed a data set desired to be stochastically processed, and a structure memory module including a memory storage device and configured to provide sufficient information for the architect module to duplicate a predefined processing architecture and to record a utilized processing architecture.
US09990179B2
Apparatus and a corresponding method are disclosed relating to circuitry to perform an arithmetic operation on one or more input operands, where the circuitry is responsive to an equivalence of a result value of the arithmetic operation with at least one of the one or more input operands, when the one or more input operands are not an identity element for the arithmetic operation, to generate a signal indicative of the equivalence. Idempotency (between at least one input operand and the result value) is thus identified.
US09990177B2
A computing device is described that outputs, for display, an initial speech recognition graphical user interface (GUI) having at least one element. The computing device receives audio data and determines, based on the audio data, a voice-initiated action. Responsive to determining the voice-initiated action, the computing device outputs, for display, an updated speech recognition GUI having an animation of a change in a position of the at least one element to indicate that the voice-initiated action has been determined.
US09990171B2
The present invention provides a method for automatically adjusting volume of an audio device, including steps of: S1, obtaining user identity information; S2, detecting an actual environmental volume; S3, determining user hearing condition according to the obtained user identity information, and adjusting a volume of the audio device according to corresponding relationship of user hearing condition, environmental volume and target volume of the audio device, so that the volume of the audio device reaches a target volume corresponding to the detected actual environmental volume and the determined user hearing condition. Accordingly, the present invention further provides an audio device for automatically adjusting volume. With the present invention, the volume of the audio device can be automatically adjusted according to environmental volume with respect to different users.
US09990168B2
An information processing apparatus includes circuitry that accepts a configured print setting for generating image data, generates identification information for identifying the image data, generates first image data based on a first print setting different from the configured print setting, stores, in a memory, the identification information of the image data and the first image data associated with each other, generates second image data including the identification information of the image data by applying the configured print setting to the first image data, accepts a second print setting configured for the second image data and the identification information of the image data included in the second image data, the second print setting being different from the first print setting, specifies the first image data based on the identification information of the image data included in the second image data, and generates third image data by applying the second print setting configured for the second image data to the specified first image data.
US09990166B2
One or more servers transmit a job to a processing apparatus in response to a request from the processing apparatus. The one or more servers transmit a job to the processing apparatus in response to a request from a device different from the processing apparatus when a predetermined registration process for registering the processing apparatus has been performed. The connection between the processing apparatus and the one or more servers to transmit the job is established in accordance with whether the predetermined registration process has been performed.
US09990162B2
An operating method of a memory controller may include: enabling a security mode in response to a first command received from a host; generating a security key based on a host key received from the host; storing the security key in a security key storing unit; and/or performing a first data processing operation of encrypting data received from the host and decrypting data stored in a non-volatile memory device, based on the security key, when the security mode is enabled. The security key storing unit may be a volatile memory.
US09990148B2
A storage control device includes a processor. The processor is configured to receive a read request from a backup device including a memory unit. The processor is configured to transmit, upon receiving a write request from a host device after the read request is received, first data to the backup device as a response to the read request. The write request requests to write the first data. The processor is configured to transmit a writing completion response to the host device upon receiving a writing completion notification from the backup device. The writing completion response notifies of completion of writing the first data. The writing completion notification notifies of completion of writing the first data in the memory unit.
US09990132B2
Certain example embodiments relate to a highly-concurrent, predictable, fast, self-managed, in-process space for storing data that is hidden away from the garbage collector and its related pauses. More particularly, certain example embodiments relate to improved memory management techniques for computer systems that leverage an off-heap direct-memory data store that is massively scalable and highly efficient. The off-heap store may be provided in connection with a Java-based environment, and garbage collection may be completely or nearly completely avoided for the off-heap store. The off-heap store may be integrated into a tiered storage solution in certain example embodiments.
US09990117B2
In one aspect, a device includes a processor, a display accessible to the processor, and storage accessible to the processor. The storage bears instructions executable by the processor to present a first portion of a user interface (UI) on the display and receive user input to present an expanded view of the UI and/or to pan within the UI. The instructions are also executable to, in response to receipt of the user input present the expanded view of the UI and present, in the expanded view, an indication of a location of the first portion.
US09990101B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for preventing unintentional GUI control advances. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for preventing unintentional graphical user interface (GUI) control advancing associated with an auto-advance feature can be provided. The method can include defining a threshold time period, selecting a GUI control in a GUI for which auto-advancement is enabled, receiving complete input for the selected GUI control, and suppressing a manual directive to advance to a next ordered GUI control in the GUI responsive to the manual directive being received within the threshold time period between the receipt of the complete input and the manual directive.
US09990099B2
Provided is a display device. The display device includes: a touch sensitive element including an electroactive layer and a plurality of electrodes disposed on at least one of the top surface and the bottom surface of the electroactive layer; a shielding layer on the touch sensitive element; a display panel on the shielding layer; and a touch sensor integrated in the display panel and including a plurality of first touch electrodes and a plurality of second touch electrodes spaced apart from the plurality of first touch electrodes, and the shielding layer is electrically connected with the plurality of first touch electrodes or the plurality of second touch electrodes.
US09990096B2
A capacitive sensor electrode pattern comprises a plurality of sensor electrodes. The plurality of sensor electrodes are disposed in a common layer with one another and arranged to form an ellipse. The plurality of sensor electrodes comprises first, second, and third subsets of sensor electrodes. The first subset of sensor electrodes has a first shape and a first surface area, wherein centers of mass of the first subset of sensor electrodes are substantially coincident with nodes of a coordinate system. The second subset of sensor electrodes has a second subset of sensor electrodes has a second shape and a second surface area. The third subset of sensor electrodes has a third shape and a third surface area. The first, second, and third shapes are all different. The first, second, and third surface areas are all different, and the second and third surface areas are less than the first surface area.
US09990083B2
Provided are a conductive film and a touch panel in which an extraction electrode that is formed in a visible region is inconspicuous to improve visibility, the initial capacitance between electrodes is increased to improve the accuracy of detection, and the electrodes are formed on only one main surface of a base to reduce costs. The conductive film includes a transparent base, first and second electrodes 32A and 32B that are formed on a main surface of the transparent base so as to face each other, and an extraction electrode 34 that is formed on the main surface of the transparent base and extends from the second electrode 32B. The first electrode 32A has a shape which surrounds a portion of the second electrode 32B. At least the extraction electrode 34 is formed in a mesh pattern 38 including a plurality of grids 36 which are formed by thin metal wires.
US09990054B2
A control panel and a controlling method thereof are provided. The control panel comprises: a panel body; a display screen provided on the panel body; at least four press buttons provided on the panel body, wherein each of the press buttons corresponds to a plurality of function electric circuits, and the connection relation between each of the press buttons and the plurality of function electric circuits corresponding thereto is determined according to a state of the display screen; the function electric circuits, each corresponding to at least one of the press buttons, for outputting the respective function information to a controller when at least one of the press buttons connected performs a touch control operation; and the controller, connected with the plurality of function electric circuits, for performing respective function operation(s) according to the received function information.
US09990048B2
An interaction method between pieces of equipment and user equipment. A method comprises: obtaining first motion information of another piece of user equipment by one piece of user equipment, obtaining second motion information of at least one eye of a user from near-to-eye equipment, and executing an interaction operation with the near-to-eye equipment and/or another piece of user equipment in response to the first motion information matching with the second motion information. A natural, portable and safe interaction method is provided between pieces of equipment.
US09990038B2
Systems, methods, and associated software are described herein for enabling a regular user of an end user device, such as a cellular telephone, to customize parameters associated with haptic effects applied to the user by the end user device. In one implementation, among several, a method described herein includes enabling a user of an end user device to access software adapted to design or modify haptic effects of the end user device. The method further includes enabling the user to open a haptic track file and enter or modify parameters associated with the haptic effects of the opened haptic track file.
US09990025B2
A power control method for an electronic device including a built-in battery and detachably connected to an external adaptor, including: detecting whether the external adaptor is connected to the electronic device; obtaining information regarding the external adaptor when the external adaptor is connected to the electronic device; estimating a current value according to the information regarding the external adaptor and an amount of power consumption of the electronic device; and controlling the battery to output a fixed current according to the current value to supply power to the electronic device, wherein at this time the electronic device is powered by both the external adaptor and the battery.
US09990021B2
A display apparatus and a method for controlling the display apparatus thereof are provided. The display apparatus includes a communicator configured to receive a power-on command from an external apparatus to perform a Wake On LAN (WOL) function and a controller configured to determine whether the WOL function is turned either on or off according to a network setting state.
US09990018B2
A communication device includes a main control part configured to receive and process an image signal; a first network control part configured to convert data input from an external device into the image signal and provide the main control part with the image signal; a sub control part configured to detect a power-on command; and a second network control part configured to control communications with the external device via a network to provide the first network control part with data input from the external device. Power supplies to the main control part, the sub control part, the first network control part and the second network control part are independently controlled.
US09990011B2
A drive array is provided, including: a structure having a top panel, a base; and first and second side panels; the first and second side panels positioned on opposite sides of the array and defining a length of the array; and a plurality of fins arranged transversely to the length of the array, the fins further arranged in a plurality of rows, each of the rows transverse to the array; a plurality of projections extending upwardly from the base aligned with a plurality of projections extending downwardly from the top penal, positioned to fit and hold a hard drive; and a circuit board secured to the back of the structure to communicate with the hard drives positioned on the array.
US09990006B2
In one example a hinge assembly for an electronic device comprises a first hinge comprising a first bracket coupled to a first bushing disposed at a first end of the first bracket and rotatable about a first shaft extending through the first bushing. a second hinge comprising, a second bushing, a first linkage arm rotatable about a second shaft extending through the second bushing, and a second linkage arm rotatable about the second shaft extending through the second bushing and a third hinge comprising a second bracket coupled to a second bushing disposed at a first end of the second bracket and rotatable about a third shaft extending though the second bushing, wherein the first linkage arm is rotatably coupled to the first shaft and the second linkage arm is rotatably coupled to the third shaft. Other examples may be described.
US09990003B2
A movement compensation system is described herein that compensates a user interface and received touch input based on detected external motion affecting a mobile computing device. The system uses the integration of accelerometer data to either offset screen rendering or adjust screen size to improve readability. The system may also improve touch target selection by offsetting received touch coordinates to compensate for device shifting. Offsets can be applied to either the screen rendering offset or can be applied to the touch coordinate input. The system may increase font size or the size of other user interface elements in response to detecting external motion. The system may also receive tuning parameters to account for device mass, dampening filters on accelerometer integrations, latency effects, and user responsiveness to motion effects. Thus, the system allows users to continue to use devices under high motion environmental conditions.
US09990000B2
There is disclosed herein a water tight submersible electronic device, such as a dive computer or a dive watch, comprising a case, a bezel, and glass through which a display can be viewed. The glass, case and bezel can all be different materials. The bezel is affixed to the case, in a permanent or removable manner, and has an opening for the glass and an electronic display. The electronic display is positioned under the glass and within the electronic device. For example, the glass is separated from and locked to the bezel by at least a locking ring, a shock absorber and/or a gasket. As such the glass can be free floating so that it and the bezel can deform under pressure without being damaged or causing damage to each other while maintaining a water tight connection.
US09989999B2
A method of reading codes with a reader mounted at least partially within a jacket and communicating the read codes to a handheld device also mounted at least partially within the jacket. The codes may identify a medicine, identify a patient, run an inventory, run a patient safety application, or other process control application located on the handheld device. The jacket includes an opening configured to align and engage with a display surface of the handheld device to simultaneously display being read. The jacket is portable and small and light enough to be carried by a user while working in a healthcare facility.
US09989995B2
An electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a window panel having a front area and a curved area extending from the front area, a display panel disposed beneath the window panel, and a fixed part which supports a curved area of the display panel. The display panel includes a front display area, a side display area extending from the front display area so as to be curved, and a wiring area extending from the side display area, and the fixed part supports a curved shape of the side display area or the wiring area.
US09989992B2
An enclosure for a portable computing device is disclosed. The enclosure includes an indicium (e.g., logo) positioned in an opening extending partially through the enclosure. The enclosure includes multiple material removal processes. First, a tool (e.g., laser ablation tool) can be used to ablate the opening defining an ablation having a shape or profile similar to that of the indicium. A second material removal process can remove a region within the ablation to define an indicium support. The second material removal process may be performed by a CNC cutting tool capable of forming the indicium support to a desired precision. As a result, when the indicium is secured with the indicium support, the indicium includes a desired flatness that prevents an undesired reflectivity. In order to ensure the indicium properly fits in the opening, a third material removal process may be performed to define an indention region around the opening.
US09989976B2
A vehicle, method, and track control system for sensing the temperature of a track and controlling the vehicle's speed based on the temperature of the track. The track temperature may be sensed by a sensor embedded in a portion of the track, such as in a drive lug, a tread bar, or portion of the carcass. The temperature of the track may also be used to alert an operator of a track temperature issue or request that the operator reduce the speed of the vehicle.
US09989966B2
A crosswalk navigation system for operating an automated vehicle in an intersection includes an intersection-detector, a pedestrian-detector, and a controller. The intersection-detector is suitable for use on a host-vehicle. The intersection-detector is used to determine when the host-vehicle is proximate to an intersection and determine when the intersection includes a cross-walk. The pedestrian-detector is suitable for use on the host-vehicle. The pedestrian-detector is used to determine a motion-vector of a pedestrian relative to the cross-walk. The controller is in communication with the intersection-detector and the pedestrian-detector. The controller is configured to determine a travel-path of the host-vehicle through the intersection, determine when the pedestrian will pass through an intersect-location where the travel-path intersects the cross-walk based on the motion-vector, and operate the host-vehicle to enter the intersection before the pedestrian passes through the intersect-location and to arrive at the intersect-location after the pedestrian passes through the intersect-location.
US09989965B2
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can include one or more cameras for capturing image data within a field of view that depends in part upon the location and orientation of the UAV. At least a portion of the image data can be processed on the UAV to locate objects of interest, such as people or cars, and use that information to determine where to fly the drone in order to capture higher quality image data of those or other such objects. Once identified, the objects of interest can be counted, and the density, movement, location, and behavior of those objects identified. This can help to determine occurrences such as traffic congestion or unusual patterns of pedestrian movement, as well as to locate persons, fires, or other such objects. The data can also be analyzed by a remote system or service that has additional resources to provide more accurate results.
US09989963B2
Signals are from a plurality of sources representing aspects of the vehicle and an environment surrounding the vehicle. An autonomous confidence factor is developed based on component confidence levels for at least one of the signals. Control of the vehicle is transitioned between levels of autonomous control based at least in part on the autonomous confidence factor.
US09989959B2
A workpiece processing system and method to process a workpiece in processing chambers in order, in which even if processing duration varies at any chamber, such a variation does not affect the processing of the workpiece in other chambers. Each chamber performs processing of a workpiece in a predetermined order; a conveyor that conveys a workpiece to a next chamber; and a control device controls at least a start time of predetermined processing at each processing chamber. The control device sets: predetermined representative processing at a first chamber as a reference processing step, start time of the reference processing step as control start time, necessary processing duration specific to each chamber, necessary conveyance duration required to convey a workpiece between the chambers, and controls starting of the representative processing at each chamber while considering the control start time as origination.
US09989957B2
A controller for controlling a machine tool calculates a variation of a cutting load based on a changed rotational speed or feed rate of a tool in a machining program for machining a workpiece when the rotational speed or the feed rate is changed, and executes the machining program if the changed rotational speed and/or feed rate of the tool and/or the cutting load are within the ranges of predetermined upper and lower limit values.
US09989947B2
Techniques for driving a plurality of inductive actuators are described herein. According to these techniques, a driver unit includes a clock terminal that receives an external clock signal used by an external control unit. The driver unit further includes a serial bus interface configured to communicate with the external control unit via a serial bus. The serial bus is configured to communicate both of trigger commands synchronized to the external clock signal that indicate to at least one of a plurality of programmable control circuits (PCUs) to generate drive signals in response to the trigger commands that are synchronized with the external clock signal and data associated with at least one of the plurality of PCUs and synchronized with the external clock signal, wherein the data is used by the at least one of the plurality of PCUs to generate the drive signals in response to the trigger commands.
US09989945B2
A data collection system controller that includes a housing such as a cover. The housing includes a user facing section and a support facing section defining a hole. The controller also includes a first input device adjacent the user facing section and a second input device. The second input device includes a knob comprising a third input device and a rotatable shaft extending through the hole and partially disposed within the knob. In one embodiment, the second input device is an XYZ joystick with a button. In one embodiment, the joystick and the first input device are angled relative to each other on either side of an elbow joint. In part, the invention relates to a method of controlling the display of image data obtained with respect to a blood vessel.
US09989937B2
Predicting responses of resources to demand response signals and having comfortable demand responses
An approach where a utility/ISO may dispatch demand response (DR) resources in real time without notification of a DR event. DR dispatches may involve sending specific load level commands to power generators that can respond to such commands in a predictable fashion. DR resources do not necessarily have the same level of control or predictability in their load responses. Accuracy of predicting a DR resource's response to a DR signal may be improved by restricting the DR signal to predefined finite values and, for each predefined finite value, have the DR resource continuously report back what its load response will be if one of those signal values is sent as a DR signal. A DR performed against a home may result in discomfort. But there may be a sufficient recovery rate for regaining the setpoint of a thermostat to attain comfort of the home within a reasonable period of time.
US09989925B2
An interaction method between a graphic tactile device such as a smartphone and a timepiece having at least two analog-type physical pointers is disclosed. Each of the pointers is controlled independently by a stepper motor and referenced relative to a ref-position. The timepiece comprises a control unit configured to handle time count and to control stepper motors. The smartphone has a value setting interface, and the timepiece and the smartphone communicate through a wireless remote short-range communication link. The method comprises the steps of initiating a calibration procedure, causing the minute pointer to be moved to the ref-position via the value setting interface, causing the hour pointer to be moved to the ref-position via the value setting interface, and ending the calibration procedure, and return to a normal time display, Thereby, starting from an initial unknown pointer positions, the control unit of the timepiece can accurately know the positions of pointers.
US09989921B2
The invention relates to a timepiece assortment including a timepiece component fixed to an arbor with the aid of a fixing element. According to the invention, the fixing element is made of at least partially amorphous metal alloy, is secured to the timepiece component by partial insertion and includes a hole into which the arbor is driven.
US09989908B2
Provided is an image formation system of series tandem type in which first and second image formation apparatuses connected in series execute an image formation process on a recording material, wherein the first image formation apparatus includes: a first image carrier; a first toner image formation unit; a first density detection unit; a first density control value setting unit; and a first temperature detection unit, the second image formation apparatus includes: a second image carrier; a second toner image formation unit; a second density detection unit; a second density control value setting unit; and a second temperature detection unit, and the image formation system includes: a recording material density detection unit; and a control unit.
US09989897B2
A fixing device includes a rotatable endless fixing belt, a pressure rotator, a nip formation pad, a lubricant impregnated member, and restrictors. The pressure rotator contacts an outer circumferential face of the fixing belt. The nip formation pad is disposed at an inner circumferential side of the fixing belt, to contact the pressure rotator via the fixing belt to form a nip. The lubricant impregnated member is disposed on the nip formation pad to contact an inner circumferential face of the fixing belt. The lubricant impregnated member is impregnated with lubricant. The restrictors, each disposed at an inner side than each end in a width direction of the fixing belt, regulate movement of the lubricant adhering to the fixing belt, toward each end of the fixing belt in the width direction. The restrictors have a lower absorbability of the lubricant than an absorbability of the lubricant impregnated member.
US09989886B2
A non-volatile memory includes a mechanism that communicates a classification of the consumable product to a device.
US09989885B2
An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier; a developing unit which supplies a toner contained in a developer to the image carrier; a lubricant supply unit which supplies a lubricant to the image carrier; a lubricant amount detection unit which detects an amount of the lubricant which is supplied to the image carrier from the lubricant supply unit and is thereafter incorporated into the developing unit from the image carrier; and a control unit which controls the developing unit to discharge the lubricant from the developing unit according to the amount of the lubricant detected by the lubricant amount detection unit.
US09989879B2
A charging member is provided which can prevent electrostatic adhesion of a toner and/or an external additive of the toner to the surface of the charging member, and exhibits stable charging performance during long-term use. The charging member comprises a support, and a surface layer on the support, and the surface layer comprises a polymetalloxane containing at least one metal atom selected from the group consisting of aluminum, titanium, zirconium and tantalum, and a specific group which is bonded to the at least one metal atom in the polymetalloxane.
US09989872B2
An electrostatic charge image developing toner includes toner particles each including an amorphous resin and a crystalline resin, wherein, when the toner particles are subjected to a measurement to determine an area ratio of the crystalline resin on a cross section of the toner particle before and after being heated at a temperature of 50° C. and a humidity of 50% RH for three days, a relationship between an area ratio a (%) of the crystalline resin on a cross section with respect to the toner particles before being heated, and an area ratio b (%) of the crystalline resin on the cross section with respect to the toner particles after being heated satisfies Expression (1): 0.9≤a/b≤1.0.
US09989865B2
There is disclosed a polarization-modulating element for modulating a polarization state of incident light into a predetermined polarization state, the polarization-modulating element being made of an optical material with optical activity and having a circumferentially varying thickness profile.
US09989857B2
A phase shift mask includes a substrate, a second phase shift pattern on the substrate, the second phase shift pattern extending to an outermost perimeter of the substrate, the second phase shift pattern being formed of a material that is semi-transmissive to light of a first wavelength and the substrate being substantially transparent to the light of the first wavelength such that the mask transmits about 2 to about 10% of the light of the first wavelength at the second phase shift pattern, and a first phase shift pattern on the substrate, the second phase shift pattern being disposed between the outermost perimeter of the substrate and the first phase shift pattern.
US09989847B2
Sulfonium and iodonium salts of nitrogen-containing carboxylic acids are novel. The onium salt functions as an acid diffusion controlling agent in a resist composition, enabling to form a pattern of good profile with high resolution, improved MEF, LWR and DOF.
US09989845B2
An exemplary embodiment discloses an imprint lithography method including: forming a first imprint pattern on a base substrate in a first area; forming a first resist pattern on the base substrate in a second area, the second area partially overlapping the first area; etching a third area using the first imprint pattern and the first resist pattern as an etch barrier, wherein the third area is a portion of the first area that is not overlapped with the second area; removing the first imprint pattern and the first resist pattern; forming a second imprint pattern on the base substrate in a fourth area which overlaps the second area and partially overlaps the third area; forming a second resist pattern on the base substrate in the third area; and etching the second area using the second imprint pattern and the second resist pattern as an etch barrier.
US09989840B2
Provided is a light shielding device including a light shielding wall configured to include a plurality of panels, the light shielding wall being used as a partition of a first space and a second space, the plurality of panels being controllable in either a light transmission state in which light is transmitted or a light shielding state in which light is shielded, an optical path specifying unit configured to specify a predetermined optical path to be passed through the light shielding wall, a panel specifying unit configured to specify a panel on the light shielding wall, the panel being corresponded to a position at which the predetermined optical path specified by the optical path specifying unit passes through the light shielding wall, and a controller configured to control a light transmission state or a light shielding state for the plurality of panels on the light shielding wall.
US09989838B2
A light emitting element includes a base material having a rough surface and a phosphor layer which is directly or indirectly formed on the rough surface of the base material and includes a plurality of phosphor particles which are bonded to each other by a binder.
US09989832B2
An optical unit may include a movable module holding an optical element having an optical axis; a fixed body comprising; a support mechanism swingably supporting the movable module; a drive mechanism structured to swing the movable module; and a flexible circuit board connected with the movable module and fixed body. The flexible circuit board may include a leading-out part extending from the movable module on a first side of the optical axis; a first extended part extending from the leading-out part to a second side of the optical axis; a first curved part which is curved from a tip end side of the first extended part toward a rear side; a second extended part extending from the first curved part toward the first side; and a fixed part of the second extended part connected with the fixed body on the first side of optical axis.
US09989829B2
An electro-optic display comprising at least two separate layers of electro-optic material, with one of these layers being capable of displaying at least one optical state which cannot be displayed by the other layer. The display is driven by a single set of electrodes between which both layers are sandwiched, the two layers being controllable at least partially independently of one another. Another form of the invention uses three different types of particles within a single electrophoretic layer, with the three types of particles being arranged to shutter independently of one another.
US09989828B2
A semiconductor device includes: a first substrate; a gate electrode on the first substrate; a gate insulating layer on the gate electrode; an oxide semiconductor film including a channel region disposed over the gate electrode through the gate insulating layer and lowered-resistance region contacting the channel region; a source electrode and a drain electrode on the channel region; a first insulating film covering at least the channel region and including a contact hole that exposes the lowered-resistance region; and a second insulating film having reducing characteristics and disposed above the first insulating film across the contact hole, the second insulating film contacting the lowered-resistance region inside the contact hole.
US09989825B2
According to one embodiment, a display device includes a first substrate including a first insulating substrate, and a second substrate including a second insulating substrate arranged on a display surface side on which an image is displayed to the first substrate, a light-shielding layer arranged on a side of the second insulating substrate, which is opposed to the first substrate, a gate line and a source line arranged on a side of the light-shielding layer, which is opposed to the first substrate, to extend along the light-shielding layer, a switching element electrically connected to the gate line and the source line, and a pixel electrode electrically connected to the switching element.
US09989822B2
An apparatus for controlling light transmission from an optical input to an optical output can function as a tunable iris or eclipse, or as a privacy window. The iris/eclipse can use a liquid crystal matrix with a dispersion of dichroic particles that absorb light in one orientation and transmit light in another, such that controlling the liquid crystal with an electric field allows control of the dichroic particles. Alternatively, a layer may be used with a light absorbing liquid or powder material that moves with a charged material in response to a variable electric field applied to the layer. Privacy windows use a plurality of liquid crystal microlenses that can be controlled with an electric field to allow an image of an optical input to be obtainable at an optical output when in a first state, or to render the image irretrievable when in a second state.
US09989820B2
A display device is disclosed. In one aspect, the display device includes a panel including a plurality of wiring patterns and a flexible printed circuit board formed over and at least partially overlapping an edge of the panel. The flexible printed circuit board includes a connection portion electrically connected to the panel and the connection portion includes first and second surfaces opposing each other. The wiring patterns include a plurality of first wiring patterns connected to the first surface of the connection portion and a plurality of second wiring patterns connected to the second surface of the connection portion.
US09989812B2
A sealant (9), a method for producing bezel-less liquid crystal display, and a bezel-less liquid crystal display produced by the same. The sealant (9) comprises: an azopyridine derivative represented by the structural formula (1); one or more of polyvinyl alcohol and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer; and a solvent, wherein m in the structural formula (1) is an integer of 8-20; and a mass ratio of the azopyridine derivative to the one or more of polyvinyl alcohol and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer is 1/99-15/85. A color filter substrate (6) and an array substrate (7) of a liquid crystal display are bound under the irradiation of ultraviolet light by using the photothermal effect and the binding property of a mixture of an azopyridine derivative and one or more of polyvinyl alcohol and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, while the bezel of the liquid crystal display panel is not occupied, so as to obtain a bezel-less liquid crystal display.
US09989811B2
Provided are a method of manufacturing a display apparatus and the display apparatus. A method of manufacturing a display apparatus includes preparing a first substrate including a display; adhering a second substrate to the first substrate by using a sealing element; exposing the sealing element by using a blocking member including a plurality of blocking patterns arranged apart from one another; and cutting the first substrate and the second substrate along portions thereof inside the blocking member.
US09989809B2
A curved liquid crystal display includes a first curved substrate; a second curved substrate facing the first curved substrate; a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first curved substrate and the second curved substrate; a first curved liquid crystal alignment layer disposed between the liquid crystal layer and the first curved substrate and including vertical alignment functional groups; and a second curved liquid crystal alignment layer disposed between the liquid crystal layer and the second curved substrate.
US09989802B2
A liquid crystal display device includes a backlight unit and a display panel. The backlight unit includes a light source member and a reflective sheet. The light source member includes light emitting elements, and the light emitting elements include a lens totally reflecting light laterally towards a side surface of backlight unit. The reflective sheet defines a bottom part and cover parts. The bottom part extends to be disposed under the light source member and defines a plurality of opening parts of the first reflective sheet. The cover parts are respectively bent from one side of each of the opening parts toward the display panel. Also, the cover parts are in one-to-one correspondence with the opening parts.
US09989801B2
A liquid crystal display (LCD) is configured for use in a head mounted display (HMD) to increase the brightness and improve power consumption of the LCD by recycling light. The LCD includes a color filter (CF) substrate, a thin film transistor (TFT) substrate, and a backlight unit (BLU). The CF substrate is closer to the BLU than the TFT substrate. The CF substrate includes a first reflective layer in regions of the CF substrate between pixels to reflect light back towards the BLU to be recycled to increase the brightness of the LCD. The TFT substrate includes TFTs to drive the pixels and a second reflective layer covering TFTs to reflect light away from the TFTs.
US09989797B2
A touch recognition enabled display panel includes a plurality of common electrode blocks serving as touch-sensing regions and/or touch-driving regions. Conductive lines connected to the common electrode blocks are placed under the common electrode blocks and the pixel electrodes of the pixels, and they are routed across the active area, directly toward an inactive area where drive-integrated circuits are located. The conductive lines are positioned under one or more planarization layers, and are connected to the corresponding common electrode blocks via one or more contact holes.
US09989796B2
A display device with less light leakage and excellent contrast is provided. A display device having a high aperture ratio and including a large-capacitance capacitor is provided. A display device in which wiring delay due to parasitic capacitance is reduced is provided. A display device includes a transistor over a substrate, a pixel electrode connected to the transistor, a signal line electrically connected to the transistor, a scan line electrically connected to the transistor and intersecting with the signal line, and a common electrode overlapping with the pixel electrode and the signal line with an insulating film provided therebetween. The common electrode includes stripe regions extending in a direction intersecting with the signal line.
US09989791B2
In a display device using a substrate having flexibility, a drop in reliability due to defects such as cracks in the case where a substrate is made to curve is controlled. A display device is provided including a first substrate having flexibility, the first substrate including a curved part, an organic film covering a first surface of the first substrate and a second surface opposing the first surface in the curved part; and a pixel part and a drive circuit part arranged on the first surface.
US09989788B2
The invention provides an electro-optically induced waveguide including: a waveguide layer stack having a core layer including an electro-optic material for guiding light waves; and a field generator for generating an electrical field in the core layer, wherein the field generator includes an electrode arrangement having a plurality of electrodes and a voltage supply arrangement for supplying at least two potentials to the electrode arrangement; wherein the field generator is configured to induce an electro-optic effect by the generated electrical field in a first cross sectional region of the core layer such that a propagation of transverse-electric polarized light waves is enabled in the first cross sectional region; wherein the field generator is configured to induce an electro-optic effect by the generated electrical field in a second cross sectional region of the core layer such that a propagation of transverse-magnetic polarized light waves is enabled in the second cross sectional region; and wherein the first cross sectional region and the second cross sectional region are overlapping in a cross sectional view.
US09989787B2
Disclosed herein are methods, structures, and devices for a silicon carrier-depletion based modulator with enhanced doping in at least part of slab regions between waveguide core and contact areas. Compared to prior designs, this modulator exhibits lower optical absorption loss and better modulation bandwidth without sacrificing the modulation efficiency when operating at comparable bandwidth settings.
US09989786B2
An optical transmission device includes an optical modulator and a processor. The optical modulator optically modulates an optical signal with a driving signal to output a modulated optical signal. The processor performs ABC on a bias of the optical modulator, using the modulated optical signal, so as to cause the bias to converge to an optimum point. The processor starts the ABC using a modulated optical signal optically modulated with a QPSK signal at start-up timing, acquires an optimum value that is a bias value when the bias converges to the optimum point, and stops the ABC. After the ABC is stopped, the processor sets the acquired optimum value as an initial value, and restarts the ABC using a modulated optical signal optically modulated with an N-QPSK signal.
US09989784B2
An optical quantizer including: a first shaping unit which performs at least intensity modulation of the sampling optical pulses using an analog signal to generate first optical pulses having a spectrum in which intensity is flat in a spectrum axis direction; a second shaping unit which performs spectrum shaping of the sampling optical pulses to generate second optical pulses having a spectrum in which intensity increases or decreases monotonously in the spectrum axis direction; a phase shifter which shifts a phase of optical pulses input to one of the first shaping unit and the second shaping unit so that a phase difference between the first optical pulses and the second optical pulses becomes a predetermined phase difference; an interference device which causes interference between the first optical pulses and the second optical pulses; and a wavelength demultiplexer which demultiplexes optical pulses output from the interference device into light of wavebands.
US09989780B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to a sunglasses or eyeglasses holder. The holder generally includes a wine cork on a monofilament line. Ends of the line are secured in a crimp. Optionally, the ends may be sealed within a portion of a heat shrink wrap tube. The other end of the heat shrink wrap tube can be secured to the ends of glasses temples. In another example, monofilament line may be secured/crimped with respect to the glasses temple. The holder described herein provides a flotation feature due to the buoyancy of the wine cork. The holder described herein can also optionally be secured to a wearer's sunglasses by applying heat to the heat shrink wrap. Alternatively, the user may tie and crimp the holder it in place with respect to an existing hole in the glasses temple. Embodiments also relate to methods for manufacturing a sunglasses or eyeglasses holder described herein.
US09989776B2
According to one embodiment, a display device includes a display module which emits display light, a polarizing element including a transmission axis which transmits first linearly polarized light, the polarizing element reflecting second linearly polarized light intersecting the transmission axis, and an optical element includes a retroreflector which retroreflects light reflected from the polarizing element, the optical element being curved, and includes a first portion which is concave, and a second portion which is convex and is connected to the first portion.
US09989774B1
A display apparatus and method of displaying, via the display apparatus. The display apparatus includes context image renderer for rendering context image; focus image renderer for rendering focus image; exit optical element; and optical combiner for optically combining projection of the rendered context image with projection of the rendered focus image to create visual scene. The optical combiner includes first semi-transparent reflective element; and a second semi-transparent reflective element. The context image renderer is arranged in a manner that the projection of rendered context image passes through first semi-transparent reflective element towards exit optical element. The focus image renderer is arranged in a manner that projection of the rendered focus image passes through the first semi-transparent reflective element towards the second semi-transparent reflective element, and reflected therefrom towards the first semi-transparent reflective element, and is then reflected from the first semi-transparent reflective element towards the exit optical element.
US09989758B2
The present disclosure is directed to a system for protecting a reflective optic and/or any other surface in a plasma-based illumination system from debris by actively flowing gas against the debris flow direction. According to various embodiments, a vacuum chamber is configured to contain a target material, wherein a laser or discharge produced plasma is generated in response to an excitation of the target material. One or more outlets within the chamber are configured to receive gas flowing from a fluidically coupled gas source and further configured to actively flow the gas towards a source of debris and away from the reflective optic or any other protected surface at a controlled flow rate.
US09989749B2
Disclosed are several technical approaches of using low coherence interferometry techniques to create an autofocus apparatus for optical microscopy. These approaches allow automatic focusing on thin structures that are positioned closely to reflective surfaces and behind refractive material like a cover slip, and automated adjustment of focus position into the sample region without disturbance from reflection off adjacent surfaces. The measurement offset induced by refraction of material that covers the sample is compensated for. Proposed are techniques of an instrument that allows the automatic interchange of imaging objectives in a low coherence interferometry autofocus system, which is of major interest in combination with TDI (time delay integration) imaging, confocal and two-photon fluorescence microscopy.
US09989741B1
A photographing optical lens assembly includes five lens elements which are, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens element, a second lens element, a third lens element, a fourth lens element and a fifth lens element. The first lens element with positive refractive power has an object-side surface being convex in a paraxial region thereof. The second lens element has negative refractive power. The fourth lens element has an image-side surface being concave in a paraxial region thereof. The fifth lens element has an object-side surface and an image-side surface being both aspheric.
US09989737B2
An optical-lens-set includes a first lens of a convex object surface near the optical-axis, a second lens of negative refractive power of an object surface with a convex portion near the optical-axis and a convex portion near its periphery, a third lens of a convex image surface near its periphery, a fourth lens of a concave object surface near its periphery and a convex image surface near its periphery, a fifth lens of a concave object surface near its periphery and an image surface with a convex portion near the optical-axis and a convex portion near its periphery, a sixth lens of a concave image surface near the optical-axis so that an F-number, the total thickness ALT of all six lens, an air gap G34 between the third lens and the fourth lens and an air gap G45 between the fourth lens and the fifth lens satisfy F-number≤1.8 and ALT/(G34+G45)≥9.0.
US09989736B2
A six-piece optical lens for capturing image and a six-piece optical module for capturing image are provided. In order from an object side to an image side, the optical lens along the optical axis includes a first lens with refractive power, a second lens with refractive power, a third lens with refractive power, a fourth lens with refractive power, a fifth lens with refractive power and a sixth lens with refractive power. At least one of the image-side surface and object-side surface of each of the six lens elements is aspheric. The optical lens can increase aperture value and improve the imagining quality for use in compact cameras.
US09989731B2
An optical imaging lens includes first, second, third, and fourth lens elements arranged in order from an object side to an image side along an optical axis. Each lens element has an object-side surface and an image-side surface. The first lens element has positive refracting power. The object-side surface of the first lens element has a convex portion in a vicinity of the optical axis. The second lens element has refracting power. At least one of the object-side surface and the image-side surface of the third lens element is an aspheric surface. The object-side surface and the image-side surface of the fourth lens element are both aspheric surfaces.
US09989730B2
Methods, apparatuses, and systems for alignment of an optical component are described herein. One method includes forming a pit in a substrate, placing an optical component in the pit, and aligning the optical component such that an edge of the optical component is in physical contact with an alignment edge of the pit.
US09989727B2
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention relates to a lens driving device, comprising: a base including a support part upwardly protruded; a movable unit spaced from the base and movably disposed at an upper side of the base; and a damper contacted with the support part and the movable unit.
US09989718B2
An optical module includes a board; a photoelectric transducer disposed on the board; an optical waveguide that is connected to the board and transmits light entering or emitted from the photoelectric transducer; an optical connector including a first end connected to the optical waveguide and a second end to be connected to an optical cable; a housing that houses the board, the photoelectric transducer, the optical waveguide, and the optical connector; and a conductive part that is provided between the optical waveguide and the housing, in contact with the housing, and formed of an elastic conductive material or a radio absorbing material.
US09989715B2
A photonic interface for an electronic circuit is disclosed. The photonic interface includes a photonic integrated circuit having a modulator and a photodetector, and an optical fiber or fibers for optical communication with another optical circuit. A modulator driver chip may be mounted directly on the photonic integrated circuit. The optical fibers may be placed in v-grooves of a fiber support, which may include at least one lithographically defined alignment feature for optical alignment to the silicon photonic circuit.
US09989705B2
A fiber optic distribution assembly includes a plurality of fiber optic connectors, each having a plurality of ports arranged in the same predetermined port configuration. The predetermined port configuration has a plurality of port positions. Each of a group of N first optical fibers is optically connected to a first (e.g., input) fiber optic connector at port positions 1 through N of the predetermined port configuration, to support a group of N drop connections. A plurality of M second optical fibers is connected between ports (N+1) through (M+N) of the first fiber optic connector and ports 1 through M of a second (e.g., lateral) fiber optic connector. A plurality of P third optical fibers is connected between ports (M+N+1) through (M+N+P) of the first fiber optic connector and ports 1 through P of a third (e.g., distribution) fiber optic connector.
US09989703B2
A semiconductor structure and a method for manufacturing the semiconductor structure are provided. The semiconductor structure includes a processed semiconductor substrate. The processed semiconductor substrate includes active electronic components. The semiconductor structure also includes a dielectric layer that covers, at least partially, the processed semiconductor substrate. An interface layer that is suitable for growing optically active material on the interface layer is bonded to the dielectric layer. An optical gain layer and the processed semiconductor substrate are connected through the dielectric layer by electric and/or optical contacts.
US09989699B2
An optical fiber comprising: (i) a core region comprising an outer radius r1, and 3.0≤r1≤7.0 microns and a relative refractive index Δ1max and 0.32%≤Δ1max≤0.5%; (b) a depressed index cladding region surrounding the core region comprising an outer radius r3 and a relative refractive index Δ3 less than −0.2%, and trench volume V3 wherein 45% Δ-micron2≤|V3|≤200% Δ-micron2; (c) a first outer cladding region surrounding the depressed index cladding region and comprising a relative refractive index Δ4 and an outer radius r4; and (d) a second outer cladding layer comprising 5 wt %-20 wt % titania, a relative refractive index Δ5, and a thickness TM, wherein 3 micron≤TM≤30 microns, and outer radius r5≤65 microns; the optical fiber has a mode field diameter MFD1550 and 8 microns≤MFD1550≤10.5 microns, a cutoff wavelength ≤1550 nm when bent 1 turn around a 2.5 mm radius mandrel, and a bending loss at 1550 nm when using a mandrel comprising a radius of 2.5 mm of ≤1.0 dB/turn.
US09989698B2
A light pipe includes a plurality of light guide units, and a connection unit that integrally connects the plurality of light guide units, the connection unit including a light interference suppression hole formed between the light guide units adjacent to each other, the light interference suppression hole including at least one surface that satisfies a total reflection condition of light entering the light interference suppression hole from the connection unit.
US09989696B2
A high color gamut backlight module including a non-opaque first plastic frame, a light guide plate, an optical membrane set and a quantum membrane; the optical membrane set and the quantum membrane are stacked, from top to bottom, on the light guide plate; an inner side surface and a top surface of the first plastic frame are provided opposite to one end surface of the light guide plate and a lower surface of the quantum membrane, respectively; a top surface of the first plastic frame is a yellow fluorescent layer.
US09989694B2
There is provided an electronic appliance having an improved structure enabling multi-image conversion. The electronic appliance includes a display device configured to display a plurality of images, wherein the display device includes first and second images that are selectively displayed on a screen. A first light-guiding layer is disposed between the screen and a second light-guiding layer, and two light sources disposed to selectively illuminate the first light-guiding layer and the second light-guiding layer. The second light-guiding layer has a thickness that is 25% to 45% greater than a thickness of the first light-guiding layer such that an intensity of light that is emitted from the first light source and introduced into the second light-guiding layer is greater than an intensity of light that is emitted from the second light source and introduced into the first light-guiding layer.
US09989674B2
A plastic optical component includes a base member made of a first plastic, and a covering member disposed over a surface of the plastic member. The covering member is made of a second plastic. The water absorption of the first plastic is lower than the water absorption of the second plastic.
US09989668B2
The present invention provides an inspection system for a container. It comprises: a radiation source, configured to provide X-rays for scanning the container; a detector, configured to receive the X-rays emitted from the radiation source; a body of the inspection system, on which the radiation source and the detector are provided; wherein a size of the body of the inspection system is set to facilitate the inspection of the container. The inspection system of the present invention can inspect in batches the container in the wharf or goods yard.
US09989667B2
Porosity of a subterranean region is estimated by accessing a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation distribution corresponding to NMR measurements of a subterranean region in which the NMR relaxation distribution includes multiple of peaks, fitting Gaussian functions to the NMR relaxation distribution to establish values for fitting parameters for each of the Gaussian functions, determining the porosity of the subterranean region based on the values of the fitting parameters of the Gaussian functions, and categorizing the porosity based on a relationship between the fitting parameters of the Gaussian functions and a distribution of pore sizes.
US09989664B2
Disclosed herein is a remote operating vehicle (ROV) for use in a subterranean mining process, such as to extract material from beneath a rock layer. The ROV may be provided as a number of components each including their own umbilical cord. Each of the components may be lowered through a borehole and assembled together to form the ROV underground. Also disclosed herein is a device and method for in-line monitoring of a mining material to determine the presence of a material of interest in the mining material. The device includes conductive plates that are spaced apart. The device detects the presence of a material of interest as it passes through the spacing between the conductive plates.
US09989656B2
A radiation imaging apparatus includes a pixel array where a plurality of pixels configured to detect radiation are arrayed, a sensor configured to detect radiation irradiation for exposure control, a reader configured to read out signals from the plurality of pixels and the sensor, and a processor configured to process the signals read out by the reader. The processor corrects, based on the signals read out from the sensor by the reader, the signals read out from the plurality of pixels by the reader.
US09989652B2
A method for fabricating a pixelated scintillator including providing a pixelated scintillator-structure and a connection-structure in such a way that the connection-structure is in mechanical contact with two adjacent pixels of the pixelated scintillator-structure. Moreover, the pixelated scintillator-structure includes a first sintering-shrinking-coefficient and the connection-structure includes a second sintering-shrinking-coefficient that is greater than the first sintering-shrinking-coefficient. Further, the pixelated scintillator-structure and the connection-structure are sintered such that a gap between two adjacent pixels of the pixelated scintillator-structure is reduced.
US09989647B2
A mobile terminal capable of selecting optimum satellites among a plurality of positioning satellites and a method of selecting positioning satellites are disclosed with reference to embodiments of the present invention. If DOP (dilution of precision) increases as the number of positioning satellites increases, satellites to be used for positioning are automatically selected from GNSS satellites based on satellite information and a user's menu setting. This can enhance the accuracy of positioning and can reduce battery consumption. In particular, satellites for positioning are spaced from each other by a prescribed distance to reduce DOP, thereby enhancing the accuracy of positioning. Further, multipath signals are reduced in order to enhance the accuracy of positioning.
US09989646B2
Described herein is a receiver for a navigation system, which receives a navigation signal modulated with a pseudorandom sequence along a line-of-sight path and reflected paths. The receiver includes a delay-locked loop, which generates a local sequence, and a first correlator and a second correlator, which operate in open-loop mode and generate a first correlation signal.
US09989645B2
A system can analyze accelerometer data and location data from a mobile computing device to determine a set of user attributes for a user of the mobile computing device. In certain implementations, the set of user attributes can be utilized by a backend transport facilitation system to configure an autonomous vehicle's seat for the user prior to being picked up for transport.
US09989643B2
An object detection device includes: a light deflector that scans a scanning area with light emitted from a light source; and a light-receiving unit that, when an object is present in the scanning area, receives reflected light from the object through an imaging forming optical system. The light emitted from the light source irradiates an area having a shape longer in a second direction orthogonal to a first direction than in the first direction. Wpds/Wpdm
US09989641B2
The invention relates to a method of detecting an object in which pulses of transmitted light are repeatedly transmitted into a transmission zone by means of a light source; reception light received from the detection zone is detected by means of a detection apparatus which has a plurality of detectors; and an evaluation zone is defined which comprises a plurality of detectors and within which reception light is incident onto the detectors. The method is characterized in that a plurality of part regions are fixed within the evaluation zone; the part regions are at least partly successively evaluated while using a plurality of consecutive pulses of transmitted light; and the evaluations of the part regions are combined to determine the presence of an object in the detection zone.
US09989635B2
Disclosed is a method of determining a velocity of a vessel, comprising the steps of: detecting objects in the vicinity of the vessel; selecting an object having a velocity relative to the vessel which is below a predefined threshold; and determining the velocity of the vessel to be opposite to the velocity of the object. Also disclosed is an apparatus arranged to perform the method.
US09989634B2
A system for detection and orbit determination of Earth orbiting objects includes a first plurality of sensors including at least one first antenna. The at least one first antenna is configured to point in a stare mode to broadcast a first detection signal at an angular region centered on an equatorial plane to maximize detection of orbiting objects regardless of altitude, grade, or inclination. The first antenna may be configured to stare at a low inclination angle, and may be configured to stare at one of due east and due west along the equator.
US09989631B2
A system controller 16 determines whether the quality of either a distance image or a light intensity image satisfies reference quality, and, when the quality of either the distance image or the light intensity image dos not satisfy the reference quality, outputs a speed change command to lower a speed, an altitude change command to change a submarine altitude (depth), or the like to a navigation control unit 2, thereby changing a physical relative relation between a measurement plane 3 and a device in question. As an alternative, the system controller changes a beam scanning rate f, a beam divergence θ, or the like within limits at which the amount of variation in a spatial resolution does not exceed a permissible amount.
US09989624B2
An example of a technique for compensating for effects of Earth's magnetic field variations on a mobile device positioning system. A mobile device utilizes a compass to obtain an absolute heading when located relative to a visible light source. The mobile device obtains a heading correction value based on an identifier of the visible light source. An orientation of a map displayed on the mobile device is rotated based on the absolute heading and the heading correction value in order to provide an indication of a location of the mobile device properly oriented on the map.
US09989623B2
A detector for determining a position of at least one object. The detector includes: at least one optical sensor configured to detect a light beam traveling from the object towards the detector, the optical sensor including at least one matrix of pixels; and at least one evaluation device configured to determine an intensity distribution of pixels of the optical sensor that are illuminated by the light beam, the evaluation device further configured to determine at least one longitudinal coordinate of the object by using the intensity distribution.
US09989621B2
A method is described of using the mobile device so as to control the drain of power from the power source of the mobile device, the mobile device having at least two location determination techniques having respective power drain characteristics, the method includes selecting the location determination technique having a lower power drain characteristic the greater the determined distance of the mobile device from a predetermined location or area, and selecting the location determination technique having the greater power drain characteristic the smaller the determined distance of the mobile device from a predetermined location or area. The method thus uses the least accurate technique when furthest away and the most accurate technique when closer to a predetermined location or area.
US09989619B2
A bulk propagation fine timing measurement (BFTM) allocation message is generated by a scheduling mobile computing device that identifies other mobile computing devices in the area. The BFTM allocation message generated by the scheduling mobile computing device indicates a scheduling order for the identified mobile computing devices and contention-free periods for the mobile computing devices to transmit the timing measurement messages. The responding mobile computing devices generate bulk propagation timing measurement (BPTM) messages that include propagation times between pairs of mobile computing devices—either two other devices or the responding device and another device. These BPTM messages are then transmitted during scheduled times frames indicated in the scheduling order.
US09989618B2
An intelligent electronic device with constant calibration capabilities for high accuracy measurements and method thereof are provided. The intelligent electronic device presented herein constantly samples the output of at least one signal from a sensor and at least three reference signals, where the reference signals include a high reference signal, a low reference signal, and a medium reference signal. Using the constant calibration implementations provided, the intelligent electronic device can calibrate and compensate a signal from a sensor in real time. The constant calibration implementations provided are independent of time and temperature, and are advantageous in a rapidly changing environment. Furthermore, the constant calibration implementations provided enable the intelligent electronic device to track changes in an applied correction factor for traceability in the error correction process. The intelligent electronic device can determine, when the correction factor is applied, how often, and temporary drifts in accuracy.
US09989617B2
A B1 magnetic field may be regulated during a magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) imaging sequence.
US09989612B2
A magnetic resonance scan sequence is executed in which nuclear spins are prepared in a preparation region with preparation parameters. The scan sequence provides first image data that image a scan region. The first image data are based on magnetic resonance data acquired with ultrashort echo times. The first image data are combined with reference image data that map the scan region, in order to obtain a resultant image.
US09989604B2
Example systems, apparatus, and circuits described herein concern a multi-turn transmit surface coil used in parallel transmission in high field MRI. One example apparatus includes a balun network that produces out-of-phase signals that are amplified to drive current-mode class-D (CMCD) field effect transistors (FETs) that are connected by a coil that includes an LC (inductance-capacitance) leg. The LC leg selectively alters the output analog RF signal and the analog RF signal is used in high field parallel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) transmission. The multi-turn transmit surface coil produces an improved (e.g., stronger) B1 field without increasing heat dissipation.
US09989586B2
A converter circuit is provided. The converter circuit includes a capacitor module, bridge arms, a voltage measuring module and an open-circuit detection module. Each bridge arm is connected to the capacitor module in parallel and includes an upper arm and a lower bridge arm connected at a middle point. The voltage measuring module measures voltage differences between each two bridge arms. The open-circuit detection module transmits test impulse signals to the bridge arms to activate at least one upper-conducted bridge arm and at least one lower-conducted bridge arm. The open-circuit detection module retrieves the voltage differences of each pair of the upper-conducted and lower-conducted bridge arms to make comparison with a reference value to determine an operation state thereof, and makes comparison of the operation state determined according to the different groups of test impulse signals to determine whether the upper and the lower bridge arms are actually open circuit.
US09989584B2
Example automatic test equipment (ATE) may include: a device interface board (DIB) on which the DUT is mounted; a system for sending signals to, and receiving signals from, the DUT; and an energy source unit (ESU) to provide current to the DUT via the DIB, where the ESU includes current paths to provide the current, and where the current paths are configured to limit a combined inductance of the current paths.
US09989571B2
A method for detecting a fault in a thermoelectric device (102), the method comprising: applying a voltage across the thermoelectric device (102); ceasing to apply the voltage to the thermoelectric device (102) after a predefined period of time; measuring a Seebeck voltage Vs across the thermoelectric device (102); comparing Vs to a first threshold voltage VT; and creating a record of a fault if Vs is below VT.
US09989567B2
Equipment (1) for measuring the energy consumption of branches (11-N) of an electrical network (10) which comprises a single voltages measuring device (2) connected upstream of the branches of the network so as to measure the voltages of the network in a centralized manner, and several dedicated current measuring devices (3) connected to each branch of the network so as to measure the currents on the branches of the network. The measuring devices (2, 3) are connected by network cable (6) allowing digital communication of the voltage measurements to the current measuring devices (3), which comprises a processing unit (33) for calculating the energy consumption of the analyzed branch of the network. The voltage and current measurements are performed by sampling, and the sampling frequencies are compared and adjusted automatically so as to synchronize the current samples with the voltage samples.
US09989565B2
The power supply determining part determines whether there is a power supplied from outside of the vehicle to the battery at start-up of the engine. The alarming part alarms to prompt a driver to manually operate the automatic stop control part when it is determined that there is a power supplied from the outside by the power supply determining part.
US09989564B2
A circuit including over-current protection includes a voltage input, first and second switching transistors that are complementarily switched and that receive current from the voltage input, a first resistor, a first diode including a first anode and a first cathode, and a second diode including a second anode and a second cathode. The first anode and the second anode are connected to each other and are connected to the voltage input via the first resistor. The first cathode is connected to the first switching transistor and the second cathode is connected to the second switching transistor such that the connection of the first and second anodes provides an over-current signal that is related to the current in the first and second switching transistors.
US09989555B2
A vector sensor for use in acoustic instruments is described. The vector sensor includes: a cylindrical bulkhead partition defining a plurality of channels extending longitudinally on a circumferential wall of the bulkhead partition between a first surface and a second surface of the bulkhead partition; first and second cylindrical piezoelectric transducing pieces affixed to the bulkhead partition and extending outwardly as cantilever beams and contained within respective pressure housing capsules. The sensor may include cylindrical foam end pieces fitted over the capsules and having corresponding channels in their outer surfaces that correspond to channels in the bulkhead partition, so as to allow wiring and strength members to pass through. The cylindrical piezoelectric transducing pieces may be formed from a piezoelectric cylindrical tube with a first electrode covering its inner surface and a second electrode on its outer surface. The second electrode may be formed from a plurality of electrically disconnected electrodes spaced around the tube and located towards a fixed end of the tube, leaving a portion of the outer surface near the free end of the tube uncovered.
US09989546B2
This analysis device includes at least one rack intended to receive a plurality of containers containing samples of biological liquid to be analyzed, a loading module arranged to move the at least one rack between a loading position and a first intermediate position, a shaking module arranged to move the at least one rack between the first intermediate position and a second intermediate position and to shake the at least one rack, an unloading module arranged to move the at least one rack between the second intermediate position and an unloading position, where the loading and unloading modules are arranged to move the at least one rack respectively along a first and a second movement directions transverse to the plane of the at least one rack, and where the shaking module is arranged such that the at least one rack extends substantially along a same orientation in the first and second intermediate positions.
US09989531B2
Methods of stratifying a subject having or at risk for developing adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) into diagnostically or clinically useful subclasses are provided. The stratification is based on the subject's PTPμ expression and/or activity and/or PIPK1γ expression and/or activity. Also provided are methods of predicting the risk of developing a scoliosis also based on the subject's PTPμ expression and/or activity and/or PIPK1γ expression and/or activity; and methods of increasing GiPCR signaling in cells of a subject in need thereof comprising administering to the subject's cells an effective amount of an inhibitor of PIPK1γ tyrosine phosphorylation; an activator of PIPK1Y tyrosine dephosphorylation; and/or an inhibitor of PIPK1γ expression and/or activity.
US09989530B2
The present invention provides monoclonal antibodies that are specific for the Dengue non-structural glycoprotein NS1 in monomeric and/or oligomeric (primarily dimeric) form, together with methods, including ELISA and lateral flow assays, that employ the disclosed antibodies for the early detection of Dengue virus infection. Diagnostic kits for the detection of Dengue infection are also provided, such kits including the disclosed monoclonal and/or polyclonal antibodies.
US09989528B2
Synthetic oligonucleotides that comprise a nucleic acid binding protein binding site, PCR primer sequences, and tag sequences that do not bind to nucleic acid binding proteins, with a total length of 85-130 nucleotides are disclosed herein. Also disclosed are libraries and kits comprising the synthetic oligonucleotides as well as methods of detecting nucleic acid binding proteins in a sample using the synthetic oligonucleotides.
US09989521B2
The invention pertains to the field of the study of apoptosis, especially the field of the prognosis and monitoring of diseases wherein apoptosis occurs. Concretely, the invention relates to a method for isolating apoptotic bodies from a sample of body fluid, and to methods for the prognosis and evaluation of the efficiency of a treatment for vascular, neurodegenerative and/or oncological diseases, based on the use of said method for isolating apoptotic bodies.
US09989520B2
A human hepatoma cell line is HLCZ01 cell line which has been deposited in the China Center for Type Culture Collection (CCTCC), and having Accession (deposit) No. is CCTCC NO: C201309. The human hepatoma cell line HLCZ01 is used as a cell model supporting said hepatitis viruses infection and is used to establish an animal model for supporting virus infection, wherein said human hepatoma cell line HLCZ01 is also used for preparation, screening and evaluating anti-hepatitis virus drugs, anti-tumor drugs, and used for manufacturing artificial liver.
US09989511B2
A material tagging system is disclosed for use with an excavation machine. The material tagging system may have a locating device configured to generate a first signal indicative of a location of the excavation machine at a worksite, and a communication device. The material tagging system may also have at least one of an operator input device and a sensor configured to generate a second signal indicative of an identity of material in a work tool, and a controller. The controller may be configured to receive an electronic map of the worksite predicting locations of different types of material, and to make a comparison of the identity of the material with a type of material predicted to be at a location where the excavation machine was located when the material was loaded. The controller may further be configured to selectively generate and communicate an error flag based on the comparison.
US09989509B2
An apparatus may be configured to test a beverage, the apparatus may include but is not limited to, a food container, wherein the food container includes a material. An indicator may be combined with at least a portion of the material of the food container, wherein the indicator may be associated with a brand profile that may identify a brand of the food, wherein the indicator may visibly react when the indicator is contacted with the food to show whether the food is identified as the brand of the food, and wherein the visible reaction may be shown on at least the portion of the material of the food container via the indicator combined with at least the portion of the material of the food container.
US09989505B2
A system includes a gas chromatograph configured to determine experimental chromatographic data including retention times associated with samples. The system also includes a mass spectrometer configured to determine experimental mass spectral data associated with samples. The mass spectrometer can include a quadrupole field ion trap that uses a non-classical detection technique. The system determines a retention index for an unknown sample based upon retention times for a calibration sample and the unknown sample, and identifies reference mass spectral data using the retention index. The reference mass spectral data can include spectra measured using a classical detection technique. The system can compare the experimental mass spectral data to the reference mass spectral data using one or more comparison metrics, such as a percent fragment match and/or a variance match. A score can be determined to identify the unknown sample using one or more of the metrics.
US09989504B2
The operation efficiency and accuracy of the simultaneous analysis of phospholipids, including fatty acid compositions are increased. After a first-time LC/MS/MS analysis for determining the phospholipid classes of the phospholipid contained in a sample is performed (S2-S3), a second-time LC/MS/MS analysis for determining fatty acid compositions is performed only for the detected phospholipids (S4-S8). By associating a method list in which an MRM transition for phospholipid class determination is recorded for each compound of phospholipid classes with a method list in which an MRM transition for fatty acid composition determination is recorded for each phospholipid compound, it is possible to promptly select MRM transitions for fatty acid composition determination that correspond to compounds of the detected phospholipid classes, and to easily create an analysis method for the second-time analysis.
US09989502B2
A system for analyzing fiber reinforced composite including: an ultrasonic transmitter configured to provide ultra-sonic pulses to the fiber reinforced composite; an ultrasonic receiver configured to receive ultrasonic signal data related to the ultrasonic pulses; a filter module configured to filter the ultrasonic signal data; a signal processing module configured to process the filtered ultrasonic signal data; an analysis module configured to analyze the processed ultrasonic signal data by: calculating a characteristic value based on the ultrasonic signal data; comparing the characteristic value to a baseline established for the characteristic value; and determining a percentage of design strength based on the comparison; and an output module configured to output the percentage of design strength.
US09989500B2
A method and device for the ultrasonic testing of test objects by means of a test head. A computer device directly acquires, during a SAFT analysis for determining points in time of the amplitudes to be summed up from among the image time signals, a propagation time, which depends on the test head, from the test head positioned at a measuring point to the location of each of a plurality of voxels and uses the propagation time for calculating an amplitude total for the plurality of voxels.
US09989487B2
A gas sensor element of an air/fuel ratio sensor includes a plurality of through holes formed in an insulating substrate at forward end regions of corresponding electrode pads to which the through holes are connected. In the gas sensor element, the through holes are not formed within the longitudinal rear end regions and center regions of the electrode pads. Since in each of the electrode pads, the region of the electrode pad other than its forward end region occupies a greater area than that of the forward end region, it is easy to bring connection terminals into contact with the regions of the electrode pads other than their forward end regions. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the connection terminals from coming into contact with the through holes, so as to thereby prevent occurrence of an electrical connection failure between the connection terminals and the electrode pads.
US09989484B2
An X-ray fluorescence analyzing system includes: a cassette (3) in which a substrate (1) is housed; a vapor phase decomposing device (20) for dissolving and then drying a measurement object (2) on a sample substrate surface (11a) to be held thereon; at least one measurement substrate (12); a sample recovering device (30) for dripping and drying a recovery liquid (4), which has recovered the measurement object (2) from the sample substrate (11), onto a predetermined dripping position on a measurement substrate surface (12a) to hold the recovery liquid (4) thereon; an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (40); a conveying device (50) for conveying the substrate (1); and a control device (60) for controlling the devices (20, 30, 40, 50). The recovery liquids (4) of the measurement objects (2) from a plurality of the sample substrates (11) are dripped and dried on the single measurement substrate surface (12a) to be measured.
US09989480B2
An inspection system having an expanded angular coverage, the inspection system may include a line camera; a first curved mirror; a second curved mirror; a first focusing lens that is positioned between the first mirror and an object; a second focusing lens that is positioned between the second mirror and the object; a first light source that is configured to direct a first part of a first light beam towards the first curved mirror and a second part of the first light beam towards the first focusing lens; a second light source that is configured to direct a first part of a second light beam towards the second curved mirror and a second part of the second light beam towards the second focusing lens.
US09989476B2
The present invention concerns a method of optical measurement of an aqueous stream, and of processing the results of the measurement in order to determine the anionic charge of the stream, the method being carried out by measuring the light absorption of the stream and predicting the amount of anionic groups in the stream using a mathematical processing, such as mathematical calculations. Particularly, the method includes the steps of adding an amount of a cationic dye to the aqueous stream, measuring the light absorption spectra of the obtained dye-containing stream, and processing the obtained light absorption spectrum using said mathematical processing in order to obtain the anionic charge. The invention also concerns the use of the obtained spectrum in determining the turbidity of the stream, as well as a device suitable for use in carrying out the method.
US09989472B2
A method and apparatus for solution cathode glow discharge (SCGD) elemental analysis. A solution-catching collar, in the form of a weir, a wicking element, or combinations thereof between the outlet tip of the capillary tube and the base of a grounding electrode tip maintain a solution sample level proximate the plasma emission region.
US09989471B2
There is a need in the point-of-care diagnostic community for an efficient and portable method for testing blood and other biological fluids that can be easily translated across multiple applications. An aspect of the invention described involves monitoring the optical properties of molecularly-mediated nanoparticle assemblies though an optically transparent and magnetically active microfluidic chip, which has recently emerged as an attractive method for biomarker detection as it is an efficient tool for monitoring the binding events that take place in a sensing assay. In one embodiment, this device is directed towards two-nanoparticle assays that rely on the assembly or disassembly of plasmonic and magnetic nanoparticles in response to a certain analyte. A further embodiment is directed to a spiral microfluidic using inertial forces to filter fluid components by size, connected to a magnetically active channel comprised of a nickel micropad array, optically transparent microchannel, and permanent magnets.
US09989458B2
According to some embodiments a method of measuring the refractive index profile of a consolidated glass body having a cylindrical surface comprises the steps of: (a) forming an image of a slit behind the glass body; (b) optionally pre-scanning the cylindrical surface of the test glass body or a reference glass body and analyzing the data within a fixed window to determine the likely location of the zero-order, un-diffracted beam while ignoring other diffracted beams; (c) optionally adjusting the optical power to improve the intensity of the data within the fixed window in order to improve the analysis; (d) predicting the trajectory of the zero-order beam through the preform based on the sampling location xi (incidence position) of the light impinging on the cylindrical surface and the location at which the zero-order beam impinges on the detector; (e) measuring the cylindrical surface of a glass body while using the estimated location of the zero-order beam and adjusted optical power to set the center of a floating window and the beam power at each measurement point; (e) determining deflection angles of the exiting zero-order beam within the floating window at each sampling location; (e) calculating the refractive index profile of glass body by utilizing a transformation function which determines refractive index at each location based upon the measured deflection angle function of the beam.
US09989452B2
Magnetohydrodynamic microfluidic systems including modified electrodes and methods of using the same
A magnetohydrodynamic microfluidic system and a method of pumping a fluid using a magnetohydrodynamic system are disclosed. The method includes applying at least one of an electric current and an electric voltage to a first modified electrode and a second electrode to generate an ionic current between the first modified electrode and the second electrode and to cause a current carrying species to move to or from the modified electrode, applying a magnetic field perpendicular to an ionic current vector, the magnetic field and the ionic current combining to induce flow of the fluid in a direction perpendicular to the magnetic field and the ionic current vector, and maintaining fluid flow by recharging the modified electrode.
US09989451B2
A method for analyzing porosity of a particle and a medium disposed in the porosity of the particle. A video-holographic microscope is provided to analyze interference patterns produced by providing a laser source to output a collimated beam, scattering the collimated beam off a particle and interacting with an unscattered beam to generate the interference pattern for analyzation to determine the refractive index of the particle and a medium disposed in the porosity of the particle to measure porosity and the medium.
US09989446B2
The invention discloses a sample preservation method which comprises the following steps: a) providing a paper substrate comprising ligands, where the ligands comprise charged groups, b) applying a sample comprising at least one analyte and at least one contaminant on the paper substrate, c) drying the sample on the paper substrate and, d) extracting at least part of the paper substrate to provide a solution of the analyte.
US09989428B2
The invention provides a method and a bi-directional force sensing device with reduced cross-talk between the sensitive elements. The device contains an L-shaped mounting base, which supports force sensitive elements positioned on mutually perpendicular mounting legs of the mounting base. These force sensitive elements are interconnected by a sensor cross-talk reducing member via respective adapters in such a way that one force is translated to the one force sensitive element without affecting or disturbing another force sensitive element, thus reducing the cross-talk between the first and the second force measurements.
US09989426B2
Embodiments of an integrated rail efficiency and safety support system and method are shown comprising a server operable to receive a plurality of sets of collected information, each of the sets of collected information comprising a consist physical location and weather conditions and rail temperatures in an area of the respective consist and to process a predictive rail temperature algorithm for predicting a rail temperature and/or a trend in rail temperature for a selected section of track; and wherein the predictive rail temperature algorithm factors the information provided to it and provides a predicted rail temperature and/or trend in rail temperature for the selected section of track.
US09989421B2
A surface temperature sensor, including: an NTC or PTC thermistor; and a flexible printed circuit (FPC) or flexible flat cable (FFC) or conducting wire including at least two rows of single calendaring copper wires. The NTC or PTC thermistor and the FPC or FFC or conducting wire are welded together to form welding points. The thermistor and the welding points are packed inside a thin film by hot pressing. The thin film is a polyimide, a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic, an aramid fiber, an aromatic polyamide, a polyether ether ketone, or a silicone rubber.
US09989419B2
An immersion device for disposable guiding tubes of a robotic immersion device includes a stack for the disposable guiding tubes, a feeding channel for feeding an optical fiber into the disposable guiding tube and for feeding the disposable guiding tube together with the optical fiber into a melt, and a transfer mechanism for transferring one disposable guiding tube from the stack into the channel.
US09989409B2
A semiconductor device for measuring IR radiation is disclosed. It comprises a substrate and a cap enclosing a cavity, a sensor pixel in the cavity, comprising a first absorber for receiving said IR radiation, a first heater, first temperature measurement means for measuring a first temperature; a reference pixel in the same cavity, comprising a second absorber shielded from said IR radiation, a second heater, and second temperature measurement means for measuring a second temperature; a control circuit for applying a first/second power to the first/second heater such that the first temperature equals the second temperature; and an output circuit for generating an output signal indicative of the IR radiation based on a difference between the first and second power.
US09989398B2
A device for determining a predetermined fill level of a liquid in a container, with a sensor unit, comprising a unit capable of oscillating mechanically, a transmitter unit, and a receiver unit, which is electrically and mechanically coupled to the transmitter unit, and which transduces the oscillation of the unit capable of oscillating into an electrical receiving signal. An electronic unit, comprising a regulating unit, which regulates a phase difference that exists between the electrical transmission signal and electrical receiving signal to a determined value at which the unit capable of oscillating conducts oscillations at a resonant frequency, and which forms an oscillation circuit with the transmitter unit, receiving unit and the unit capable of oscillating. The electronic unit comprises a compensation path with a compensation unit, which for compensating additional signal components in the receiving signal, which results from the mechanical and/or electrical coupling between transmitter unit and receiver unit, at least intermittently produces a compensation signal from the transmission signal and supplies this compensation signal to the receiving signal. The compensation unit produces the compensation signal in a way such that the compensation signal is opposite to the additional signal components in the receiving signal.
US09989395B2
Apparatus, systems and methods are provided for monitoring yield while harvesting grain. Grain released from paddles on the clean grain elevator chain of a harvester contacts a flow sensor which reports the rate of grain flow through the clean grain elevator. In some embodiments a brush is mounted to the chain and disposed to clean the flow sensor surface. In other embodiments a bucket mounted to the clean grain elevator chain releases grain against the flow sensor at a rate dependent on a grain property.
US09989389B2
An ultrasonic transducer for mounting in an ultrasonic flowmeter for measuring the flow has an electromechanical transducer element for generating ultrasonic signals, a carrier and a housing, the electromechanical transducer element being arranged in the carrier, the housing being formed at least in part of an electroconductive material, the carrier having a carrier material with an acoustic impedance value that lies between the acoustic impedance value of the electromechanical transducer element and the acoustic impedance value of the flowing medium to be measured. To provide an ultrasonic transducer that transmits a high signal portion of the ultrasonic signal into the medium to be measured and simultaneously provides a high operational reliability while being easy to build, the carrier is electroconductive, the carrier and the housing are electroconductively connected to one another and the electromechanical transducer element and the carrier are electroconductively connected to one another.
US09989385B2
A method of assembling an optical sensor for measuring pressure and/or temperature is disclosed. The optical sensor is adapted for use in high temperature environments, such as gas turbines and other engines. The method comprises fabricating a sensor element formed of a pill having an enclosed cavity, bonding the pill to a front end of a spacer, bonding a lens to the back end of the spacer to form the optical assembly, aligning an optical fiber to the optical assembly, and fixing the fiber in position by fusing the fiber to the lens.
US09989380B2
A method for ascertaining a position error in a linear drive, a linear drive, a method for operating the linear drive and an installation, wherein the deviation of a respective further runner in relation to a first runner (reference runner) is ascertained to determine the position error, where the discrepancy of the respective sensor is ascertained based on the deviation of the runner, the discrepancy may be ascertained using a reference system, the position error may be established based on the discrepancy of the respective sensor PS and the deviation of the respective runner, and where the position error may serve for the improved positioning, i.e., more precise positioning, of the respective runner on the linear drive or of the segments.
US09989378B2
A method for displaying an attitude of an aircraft includes receiving a roll angle, a pitch angle and a yaw angle of the aircraft, generating a display image indicating the roll angle, the pitch angle and the yaw angle, and displaying the display image on a display device. The display image includes a spherical shell with a track angle scale projected onto the spherical shell along a latitude line of the spherical shell and with a pitch angle scale projected onto the spherical shell along a longitude line of the spherical shell. Furthermore, the display image includes a graphical aircraft attitude indicator inside the spherical shell rotated with respect to the spherical shell such that the graphical aircraft attitude indicator indicates the roll angle, the pitch angle and the yaw angle of the aircraft with respect to the spherical shell.
US09989373B2
According to one or more aspects, demand response (DR) management for an electric vehicle (EV) may be provided as follows. A current location and a destination location for the EV may be received. A determination as to whether the EV is eligible to participate in a DR event may be made. A travel route from the current location to the destination location may be analyzed to determine whether it is associated with a non-coverage area where a telematics control unit (TCU) of the EV has limited connectivity with an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) server. The DR signal may be transmitted as a DR request based on the EV having current coverage along the travel route and the EV travelling towards the non-coverage area such that an anticipated loss of signal or coverage may occur.
US09989366B2
A method or apparatus to provide a global positioning system receiver is described. The Personal navigation system includes at least one motion sensor, the motion sensor capable of identifying a user activity, and distinguishing between walking and driving, or other manual v. mechanical locomotion. The system automatically switches modes to the appropriate format.
US09989365B2
An Inertial Navigation System (INS) testing system includes a Unit Under Test (UUT) with an INS module, a DAT tool configured to provide command and control functions to a user, and a Dynamically Integrated Navigation Tester (DINT) in communication with the UUT and the DAT tool. The DINT includes a truth data conversion module configured to receive truth data and convert it to navigation data suitable for transmission to the UUT. The INS testing system advantageously allow a user to interface with a UUT while providing user-specified dynamic inputs from the DINT with the truth data selected by the user.
US09989362B2
The invention relates to an actuator element for setting the position of a target mark of a sighting telescope having a front module and a rear module, and the front module and rear module are connected to one another by means of a coupling mechanism, which coupling mechanism can be manually actuated in order to separate the front module from the rear module.
US09989357B2
A three-dimensional (3D) coordinate measuring system includes an external projector that projects a pattern of light onto an object and an aerial drone attached to a 3D imaging device, the 3D imaging device and the external projector cooperating to obtain 3D coordinates of the object.
US09989349B2
A system may measure displacement in an architectural brace that absorbs deformation inducing energy. The architectural brace may have a core member with first and second ends attachable to architectural features, and an intermediate portion between the first and second ends. The architectural brace may also have a buckling restraining assembly that encases the intermediate portion to resist buckling of the intermediate portion. The system may have a first coupling with a first attachment feature securable to the first end of the core member, and a second coupling with a second attachment feature securable to the second end of the core member. The second coupling may be displaced from the first coupling by a displacement. Further, the system may have a sensor that measures a plurality of changes in the displacement occurring over a period of time. The sensor may provide measurement data indicative of the changes.
US09989346B2
An angle measuring gauge incorporates four arms pivotally connected to form a quadrilateral. The arms are connected to a guide bar that attaches to the quadrilateral along a diagonal and forms an axis of symmetry. A first corner of the quadrilateral is pivotally attached to the guide bar and the opposite corner of the quadrilateral is pivotally connected and is slidable along the guide bar to adjust the angles of the quadrilateral. In practice, the first corner of the quadrilateral is adjusted to conform to a desired angle, and the guide bar bisects the angle formed by the first corner and can be used to either ride in a miter slot of a cutting tool, or adjust a miter gauge of a cutting tool to cut accurate miters.
US09989339B2
The invention relates to fragmenting projectiles. In order that all projectiles of a*waffe*Bug projectile type have the same point of impact, i.e., the same projectile weight, the same center of gravity and the same geometry, and that the marksman can set the fragmentation behavior solely by selecting the projectile, fragmenting projectiles having defined fragmentation in steps for the same point of impact, designed as two projectile types, namely as partially fragmenting projectiles or as jacketed projectiles, are proposed, wherein all fragmenting projectiles of a projectile type have the same projectile weight, the same center of gravity, and the same geometry, a fragmentable core is arranged in the front nose region for both projectile types, all fragmentable cores of a projectile type have the same density and differ from each other in the weight of the fragmentable core depending on the fragmentation, and all projectiles of a projectile type having the same weight of the fragmentable core have an identical marking that can be seen or felt from the outside.
US09989336B2
The present invention discloses a projectile device for the nonlethal immobilization of threats. The invention includes a plurality of grappling-type hooking assemblies attached by a flexible means to a projectile core, a means for the dispersal of the hooking assemblies on or just prior to impact on a target, and a means for ballistically deploying the device from a 12 gauge shotgun, a 35 mm flare gun, a 40 mm grenade launcher, or other suitable launching device. In particular, the hooking assemblies disperse and adhere to the target, while the flexible attachment means entangle and either limit the motion of or immobilize the target.
US09989335B2
The present invention discloses a personal protection device for using multiple less-lethal ammunition options. The device is comprised of a lightweight carbon-composite forearm gauntlet sleeve assembly having a multiplicity of external mounts for shortened vented composite less-lethal ammunition barrels of various calibers or other less-lethal ammunition dispensers. In addition, Picatinny Rail attachment points are provided for mounting external tactical gear. Internally, the gauntlet sleeve assembly contains a pistol grip with an electronic control system for selecting and activating individual less-lethal ammunition dispensers in any desired sequence. The invention thus provides the user with multiple selectable less-lethal ammunition options in a single reconfigurable device requiring only one-handed operation while protecting the operating arm. The device has defense utility for both law enforcement and civilians in riots, violent protests, domestic disturbances, commercial aircraft cabins, cruise ships, malls, warehouses, offices and home defense.
US09989330B2
A convertible projectile launching device includes a projectile launching device, such as a paint ball marker, a less than lethal launcher or an airsoft gun, to which a user can secure at least one shell that changes the outer configuration or appearance of a projectile launching device on which it is secured into a MILSIM style projectile launching device. The shell includes at least one front shell portion and at least one rear shell portion that are connected by a hinge so the rear shell portion may pivot about the hinge with respect to the front portion. By operating a locking bolt on the rear shell portion, a user can selectively lock the orientation of the rear portion with respect to the underlying marker. The locking bolt may be spring biased to a locked position.
US09989326B2
An AR-style firearm includes a specially designed lower receiver, a specially designed upper receiver mounted to the lower receiver, a hand grip mounted to the lower receiver, a handguard mounted around a barrel, a specially designed magazine well formed in the lower receiver that is configured to receive an AK-47 magazine or similar magazine, and a specially designed, ambidextrous magazine release that holds and selectively releases the magazine from the magazine well.
US09989324B1
A loading device and method of using same with a rifle having a fixed magazine are disclosed. The loading device may comprise a housing having a channel, a plunger slideably disposed within the channel, and a spout extending away from the housing. The spout is configured to fit within an ejection port of the rifle. The plunger may include an articulating arm extending away from one end of the plunger, wherein the arm includes a plug disposed about one end for pushing ammunition cartridges into the fixed magazine. The loading device advantageously permits efficient and rapid reloading of ammunition into the fixed magazine.
US09989322B2
A heat recovery device such as an EGHR device includes a bypass valve, a gas/liquid heat exchanger and a flow duct. The flow duct has an open top and an open bottom. A top surface of the duct seals to a surface surrounding an opening of a gas flow conduit, such as an exhaust pipe. A duct wall extends from the top surface to the bottom surface, to which the heat exchanger is secured. The flow duct provides a passage through gas flows between the gas flow conduit and the heat exchanger. The bypass valve is mounted in the flow duct and is movable between a bypass position and a heat exchange position. The bypass valve may be mounted adjacent to the top or bottom of the duct, and may be a butterfly-type valve, a one-sided flap valve, or a pair of one-sided flap valves.
US09989318B2
A heat exchanger pipe in a flow duct for gases. The pipe first section has a second section with an inner pipe for transferring heat transfer medium; an outer pipe that radially encloses a part of the inner pipe; and a medium layer between the outer pipe and the part of the inner pipe. The second section of the heat exchanger pipe bends less than 90 degrees. Furthermore, the first section is insulated in its entirety, or non-insulated in the vicinity of other heat recovery surfaces only. In the device the temperature of the heat transfer medium flowing in the inner pipe is at least 500° C., the temperature of the outer surface of the outer pipe is higher than 600° C., or an auxiliary agent is fed to the thermal device.
US09989317B2
In a heat exchanger, an outside air passage, through which outside air flows, is provided between adjacent tubes of the refrigerant tube and the coolant tubes. Disposed in the outside air passage is an outer fin joined to at least one of the refrigerant tube and the coolant tube and configured to accelerate heat transfer between the fluids. A dimension of the refrigerant tube in a flow direction of the outside air is different from a dimension of the coolant tube in the flow direction of the outside air. Hence, with respect to the outer fin joined to both of the refrigerant tube and the coolant tube, an area of a joint surface between the refrigerant tube and the outer fin is different from an area of a joint surface between the coolant tube and the outer fin.
US09989307B2
An improved method of drying wet or water damaged surfaces using a vacuum source, a manifold, and a plastic sheet covered grid having a lattice formation with spaces to permit the passing of moisture and air from and beneath the surface to the vacuum source.
US09989301B2
A flow control system for a flow of a cryogenic fluid over a component is provided. The system includes a first tubing containing a first fluid therein and positioned upstream of the component with respect to the flow of the cryogenic fluid. The system includes a second tubing containing a second fluid therein and positioned downstream of the component with respect to the flow of the cryogenic fluid. The system also includes a parameter sensing device fluidly connected to the first tubing and the second tubing for comparing a first parameter associated with the first tubing and a second parameter associated with the second tubing. The system further includes a flow control device coupled to the parameter sensing device to regulate the flow of the cryogenic fluid over the component based, at least in part, on the comparison.
