Document Document Title
US09083798B2 Enabling voice selection of user preferences
A method, system and apparatus for voice enabling a user preference interface in a multimodal content browser. A method for voice enabling a user preference interface in a multimodal content browser can include matching voice input to a bound command in a speech grammar and invoking logic in the user preference interface consistent with the bound command in the speech grammar. The matching step can include comparing voice input to entries in a markup language specified speech grammar and locating the bound command in the specified speech grammar based upon the comparison. In this regard, the method further can include identifying a variable in the bound command, looking up the variable in a table, retrieving a corresponding parameter for the variable from the table, and replacing the variable with the corresponding parameter in the bound command.
US09083795B1 Communication of information during a call
A request is received from a user of a telephonic device to invoke an application on the telephonic device. A form is displayed to the user using the application. Information input into the form is received by the application along with an indication to submit the form information with a service request to a call handling system. A data communications session between the telephonic device and an application server of the call handling system is established using the application. The form information is provided to the application server. A telephone number of the telephonic device is identified from the form information using which a voice communications session is established with the telephonic device from an interactive voice response system of the call handling system. Voice information is exchanged with the user and text, image or video information is communicated to the user via the voice and data communications sessions respectively.
US09083793B2 Method and apparatus for providing network based services to private branch exchange endpoints
Many of the current IMS standards and enriched services were originally designed for the individual subscribers that are serviced by the wireless network. However, the IMS standards do not fully address the problem of providing the IMS enriched services and features to users connected to a PBX. The present invention discloses a method for providing IMS enriched services and features to users connected to a PBX or an IP-PBX. Access to network services can be secured through a web-friendly interface via the IMS, enabling third-party developers, service providers and even subscribers to self-manage their service experience while the network operator retains control over network resources.
US09083786B2 Electronic device for identifying a party
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method of associating first data identifying a first party with second data to allow future recognition of the first party, including the steps of: conducting a telephone call with the first party; storing second data derived from the telephone call with the first party, the second data being different to the first data and characterizing a feature of the first party to allow future recognition of the first party; and associating the first data with the second data.
US09083784B2 Techniques for providing multimedia communication services to a subscriber
A technique for providing multimedia communication services to a subscriber includes receiving a communication query for the subscriber, the communication query having an associated requested communication mode. The technique also includes servicing the communication query for the subscriber using the requested communication mode when the requested communication mode corresponds to one of one or more selected communication modes.
US09083780B2 Electronic device, screen control method, and screen control program
According to an aspect, an electronic device includes: a display unit; and a control unit for acquiring information related to a process of an application program being executed in background and, executing an operation repeatedly to display the acquired information as additional information on the display unit.
US09083778B2 Adapter for connecting two mobile devices
An adaptor for connecting a first mobile terminal and a second mobile terminal is provided. The adaptor includes a first connector detachable from the second mobile terminal and electrically connected to the second mobile terminal and that can be rotated, a main body having a terminal hole for housing the first mobile terminal, and a second connector positioned at the terminal hole and detachable from the first mobile terminal and for electrically connecting the first connector and the first mobile terminal.
US09083771B2 System and methods for multi-participant teleconferencing using preferred forms of telecommunication
A multi-participant teleconferencing system includes a telecommunication manager that is configured to establish telecommunication connections with participants by instructing and initiating one or more telecommunication devices (e.g., media gateway devices, email servers, web servers, multipoint control units, etc.). Participants can be enabled to provide personal preferences to the telecommunication manager. The personal preferences and other participant information can be stored on one or more storage devices as participant records. The participant records preferably include preferred forms of telecommunication for the participants. Each preferred form of telecommunication can include an indication of a preferred type of telecommunication device and/or an indication of a preferred telecommunication technology. The telecommunication manager can utilize the preferred forms of telecommunication stored on the one or more storage devices to schedule, manage, and initiate multi-participant telecommunication.
US09083770B1 Method and system for integrating real time communication features in applications
A computer has a processor and a memory connected to the processor. The memory stores instructions executed by the processor to receive a real time communication request from a client device and perform an evaluation of the number of client devices associated with the real time communication request. The evaluation results in the coordination of peer-to-peer communications in the event of two client devices and an attempt to host a real time communication session using a first protocol in the event of three or more client devices. A second protocol for the real time communication session is invoked in the event that the attempt to host the real time communication session using the first protocol is unsuccessful.
US09083767B2 Providing relevant notifications based on common interests between friends in a social networking system
A social networking system provides relevant third-party content objects to users by matching user location, interests, and other social information with the content, location, and timing associated with the content objects. Content objects are provided based on relevance scores specific to a user. Relevance scores may be calculated based on the user's previous interactions with content object notifications, or based on interests that are common between the user and his or her connections in the social network. Context search is also provided for a user, wherein a list of search of results is ranked according to the relevance score of content object associated with the search results. Notifications may also be priced and distributed to users based on their relevance. In this way, the system can provide notifications that are relevant to user's interests and current circumstances, increasing the likelihood that they will find content objects of interest.
US09083764B2 Content caching device for managing contents based on content usage features
The present invention relate to a content caching device, and more particularly, to such a content caching device in which the priority of a content requested by a user terminal is calculated based on content usage features such as the number of requests or the latest request interval of the requested content, and the like, the requested content is controlled to be selectively stored in a short-term storage unit based on the calculated priority of the requested content, and among the contents stored in the short-term storage unit, a content needed to be stored for a long time period is controlled to be stored in a separate long-term storage unit based on the storage time of the requested content in the short-term storage unit.
US09083761B1 Reduced latency for subresource transfer
Methods and systems for reducing web page load time are provided. A method for reducing web page load time may include determining subresources of a requested web page. The method may also include requesting the plurality of subresources in a packet. This may be a single request packet for all of the subresources of a web page. Another method for reducing web page load time may include determining subresources to be returned from a request packet. The method may also include generating and returning the subresources in response to the request packet. A system for reducing web page load time may include a subresource determiner and a subresource requester. Another system for reducing web page load time may include a subresource request determiner, a subresource generator and a subresource returner.
US09083739B1 Client/server authentication using dynamic credentials
In an embodiment, a method comprises intercepting, from a first computer, a first set of instructions that define one or more original operations, which are configured to cause one or more requests to be sent if executed by a client computer; modifying the first set of instructions to produce a modified set of instructions, which are configured to cause a credential to be included in the one or more requests sent if executed by the client computer; rendering a second set of instructions comprising the modified set of instructions and one or more credential-morphing-instructions, wherein the one or more credential-morphing-instructions define one or more credential-morphing operations, which are configured to cause the client computer to update the credential over time if executed; sending the second set of instructions to a second computer.
US09083738B2 Airborne wireless device security
A method and apparatus for managing wireless devices on an aircraft. A map for a number of wireless devices on the aircraft is generated. The number of wireless devices is identified in a profile. A risk for the number of wireless devices on the aircraft is identified during operation of the aircraft using state information for the aircraft and the profile. Access to a wireless network on the aircraft by the number of wireless devices is managed based on the risk identified for the number of wireless devices.
US09083734B1 Integrated forensics platform for analyzing IT resources consumed to derive operational and architectural recommendations
A method for facilitating forensic analysis of operational data for an IT infrastructure includes deriving performance data from a plurality of physical systems, network elements and storage devices in an IT infrastructure via a toolset comprising a plurality of IT monitoring and metrics tools, importing the performance data into an integrated forensics platform, aggregating the imported data, and analyzing the aggregated data to determine resources consumed. Each tool is communicatively interfaced with one or more of the physical systems, network elements and storage devices.
US09083731B2 Method and apparatus for pattern matching for intrusion detection/prevention systems
A system, method, apparatus and mechanism for estimating worst-case time complexity of a regular expression defining a pattern adapted for identifying malicious packets and comprising one or more back-references (backref-regex) by constructing a non-deterministic finite automaton (NFA) corresponding to the backref-regex (backref-NFA), wherein the backref-NFA comprises a plurality of NFA-states and a respectively labeled edge for each of the one or more back-references of the backref-regex; performing liveness analysis on the backref-NFA to determine for each NFA-state of the backref-NFA a set of back-references alive at the NFA-state; and determining a maximum number of alive back-references over the plurality of NFA-states, wherein the determined maximum number is indicative of the worst-case time complexity of the backref-regex.
US09083728B1 Systems and methods to support sharing and exchanging in a network
Embodiments of the invention provide for providing support for sharing and exchanging in a network. The system includes a memory coupled to a processor. The memory includes a database comprising information corresponding to first users and the second users. Each of the first users and the second users are facilitated for sharing or exchanging activity, service or product, based on one or more conditions corresponding thereto. Further, the memory includes one or more instructions executable by the processor to match each of the first users to at least one of the second users. Furthermore, the instructions may inform each of the first users about the match with the at least one of the second users when all the conditions are met by the at least one second user based on the information corresponding to each of the second users.
US09083723B2 Method for providing early-media service based on session initiation protocol
Disclosed is a method of providing an early media service based on a session initiation protocol (SIP). More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method of providing an early media service based on SIP, wherein an application server and a media server can provide early media of a multimedia form, such as images, moving images and the like, as well as audios, by using an early session or a regular session.
US09083722B2 Session initiation protocol registration with ping
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate improving session initiation protocol based registration of a mobile device and an IP multimedia subsystem in wireless communications. The mobile device discovers one or more SIP servers (e.g., proxy call session control functions) that are available. The mobile device issues a ping message to each discovered server in parallel to determine reachability. Based at least in part on measured round trip times associated with the ping messages, the mobile device initiates registration procedures with at least one server.
US09083720B2 Managing security objects
A message that a user is requesting an access to a resource is received. The access is associated with a requested access level and is granted if an access path exists between the user and the resource for the requested access level. In response to the message reception, a first identifier of the user, a second identifier of the resource, the requested access level, and a first value that represents that the access to the resource was requested is stored in a record. All access paths usable to determine whether the user is authorized to access the resource are identified. Another security object including a flag to represent its usage in authorizing access to the resources is received. A decision is made with respect to whether the received other security object was used within one of the identified access paths as a function of its flag value.
US09083715B2 Method and apparatus for load balancing based on packet header content
A technique to load balance network packet traffic using content switching is provided. Packets are routed to a particular server or otherwise processed based on the HTTP header content of the packets. In an embodiment, the HTTP header contents of the packets are used in such processing. Content switching decisions are based on any field in the HTTP header, including both known and unknown fields. A plurality of content switching policies is provided. A policy includes a set of rules and actions associated with these rules. Complex nested rules are defined. The evaluation of these nested rules is simplified by converting the nested rules in to their sum of products or minterm representations, and then a bit mask technique is used in conjunction with the minterm representations to determine which set of complex rules in a policy is valid and thus require the corresponding content switching action.
US09083690B2 Communication session termination rankings and protocols
A method of handling a plurality of session requests at an access manager may include assigning a rank to each of a plurality of agents. Each of the plurality of agents may forward requests for protected resources to the access manager for authentication and/or authorization, and the access manager may establish a plurality of sessions. The method may also include establishing a first session that is associated with a first agent in the plurality of agents that is assigned a first rank, a first user device, and/or a user credential. The method may additionally include receiving a request to establish a second session that is associated with a second agent in the plurality of agents that is assigned a second rank, a second user device, and/or the user credential. The method may further include determining whether the second session should be established.
US09083686B2 Protocol for program during startup sequence
A system and a method to determine if a client (e.g., an accessory (or peripheral)) is appropriately licensed for interoperation with a host (e.g., host computer). The client communicatively couples the host and receives a contract from the host. The client computes a checksum of the contract and compares the checksum of the contract with a previously stored version of the contract or a checksum of the contract to determine a match. If there is no match, the host communicatively decouples the client in response to the determination being a no match. If there is a match, the client transmits a contract response to the host and awaits host authorization. Once authorized the client transmits enumeration data to the host.
US09083678B2 Firewall policy inspection apparatus and method
A firewall policy inspection apparatus and method is provided. The firewall policy inspection apparatus includes an intrusion prevention rule obtainment unit for obtaining intrusion prevention rules from a target firewall policy. An anomaly rule detection unit detects an anomaly rule in a relationship between the intrusion prevention rules. A screen display unit displays an anomaly rule graph on a screen using results of the detection.
US09083676B2 Systems and methods for reliably using ping to account for interactions with electronic content
A method for reliably using ping to account for interactions with electronic content includes receiving a request for a content item from a user device, selecting a content item in response to the request, determining whether the user device is ping enabled, and generating a hyperlink for inclusion with the selected content item. The hyperlink has a target URL and a ping attribute. At least one of the target URL and the ping attribute is based on a result of the determination whether the user device is ping enabled. The method further includes distributing the content item and the hyperlink to the user device and receiving a ping request from the user device. The ping request includes the target URL and an identifier of the distributed content item. The method further includes accounting for the interaction in response to receiving the ping request from the user device.
US09083675B2 Translation of resource identifiers using popularity information upon client request
A system, method and computer-readable medium for request routing based on content popularity information are provided. A client computer transmits a request for content from a content provider. The content provider utilizes executable code, such as translation request code, for facilitating request routing utilizing popularity information. The translation request code, may direct a client computing device to request further translation request code and/or translation information. Thereafter, the client issues a DNS query with the translated information including popularity information. The content delivery network service provider can then either resolve the DNS query with an IP address of a cache component or transmit another alternative resource identifier that will resolve to the content delivery network service provider. The process can repeat until a DNS nameserver resolves a DNS query from the client computing device.
US09083674B2 Systems and methods for sharing audio feeds
Systems and methods are disclosed for enabling sharing of audio feeds. One method includes receiving, from a user over a network, a request to add an audio feed to a collection managed by the user; storing, in a database, a URL of the audio feed in relation to the collection; receiving, from the user over the network, a request to share the collection; and generating an RSS URL of the collection by searching the database for URLs of audio feeds stored in relation to the collection.
US09083659B2 Method and apparatus for reducing pool starvation in a shared memory switch
A switch includes a reserved pool of buffers in a shared memory. The reserved pool of buffers is reserved for exclusive use by an egress port. The switch includes pool select logic which selects a free buffer from the reserved pool for storing data received from an ingress port to be forwarded to the egress port. The shared memory also includes a shared pool of buffers. The shared pool of buffers is shared by a plurality of egress ports. The pool select logic selects a free buffer in the shared pool upon detecting no free buffer in the reserved pool. The shared memory may also include a multicast pool of buffers. The multicast pool of buffers is shared by a plurality of egress ports. The pool select logic selects a free buffer in the multicast pool upon detecting an IP Multicast data packet received from an ingress port.
US09083651B2 Controlling a network interface using virtual switch proxying
Methods and systems for permitting a controller within a virtualization environment to control access to devices virtualized within hardware are described herein. For example, a NIC may be able to request rules that define how network traffic is managed at the NIC's virtual switch. In some arrangements, the NIC may transmit a query for the matching rule to a proxy, which may determine whether it has a rule matching the request. If the proxy does not have a matching rule, the proxy may query a controller for the matching rule, which may transmit the rule to the proxy. The proxy may update its store of rules and transmit the matching rule to the NIC. Upon receipt of the matching rule, the NIC may update the rules stored in its virtual switch and may process the packet in accordance with the matching rule.
US09083642B2 Systems and methods for optimizing layer three routing in an information handling system
An information handling system is provided. The information handling system includes systems and methods for providing an anycast MAC addressing of a virtual redundancy router protocol instance that spans a plurality of aggregation switches. The anycast MAC address may be provided by a virtual bridging device and then used as an address of a virtual IP instance accessible through the virtual bridging device. Using the anycast MAC address with the virtual IP instance, a packet to be routed from one rack to another rack in a data center may be dynamically routed based a current load distribution.
US09083638B2 Data transmission in cloud-based system
Technologies are generally described for a data transmission scheme for a cloud-based system. In some examples, a data transmission system may include a communication speed determination unit configured to determine communication speed between a server and multiple client devices connected to the server; a client classification unit configured to classify each of the multiple client devices based at least in part on the communication speed determined by the communication speed determination unit; and a data transmission unit configured to transmit a predetermined portion of data to one or more of the client devices connected to the server.
US09083637B2 System and method for providing dynamic QoS to maximize bandwidth utilization
A network device is configured to implement a QoS function to optimize bandwidth utilization includes a memory configured to store a high priority throughput value and a low priority bandwidth value, a network device input to communicate a data stream including a plurality of data packets to and from at least one computer system on the internal network, and a network device output to communicate the data stream including the plurality of data packets to and from at least one computer system on the external network. The network device further includes a computer processor configured to execute steps stored in non-volatile memory, the steps including identifying high priority data packets in the data stream to detect the high priority throughput value, setting the low priority bandwidth value, and periodically adjusting the low priority bandwidth value. This QoS function can work without the knowledge of actual bandwidth for any link in the networks.
US09083635B1 Enqueue policing systems and methods
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally pertain to systems and methods for policing packet networks. A system in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure includes an enqueue policer positioned within an intermediate node of a packet network prior to at least one egress queue. The enqueue policer utilizes information related to destination end-point capacity limits for a given customer in order to police packets based on such information at a relatively early point in the packet network. Thus, a packet that would have been dropped by an egress node due to capacity limits is dropped by the intermediate node thereby preventing the packet from needlessly consuming bandwidth of the network beyond the intermediate node.
US09083625B2 Communication with components using component-independent driver
An improved technique for communicating with components of an electronic system includes operating a driver according to a designated protocol but agnostically to the components themselves. Information about particular system components is supplied to the driver by respective data sources. To obtain discovery information about a component, the driver accesses a data source for the component and communicates with the component using the designated protocol. The driver thus operates merely as a conduit for component-specific information, which is supplied by the data sources rather than by the driver itself.
US09083616B2 Packet communication method and equipment therefor
To reduce or prevent effect of deterioration of communication quality caused from packet loss in a packet communication, a plurality of Packet Assembly Disassembly devices (PDAs) are installed at a first terminal equipment and at a second terminal equipment, and a packet communication is performed using one PDA in such plurality of PDAs. If the packet loss of received data in such packet communication is detected exceeding the predetermined value, a request is sent using another PDA to the first terminal equipment for transmitting the same data that above-stated one PDA is handling and the data transmitted at the request is received. On reception of the data at the request, sizes of the packet loss rate of received data with above-stated one PDA and of the packet loss rate of received data with above-stated another PDA are compared and the packet communication is continued selecting a system of which packet loss rate is smaller.
US09083615B2 Diagnosing network problems in an IPV6 dual stack network
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to diagnosing problems in a dual stack network supporting Internet Protocol Version Six (IPV6). Inventoried information can be retrieved from an inventory system in response to a problem associated the dual stack network. It can be determined whether a mismatch exists between live customer address information associated with a customer edge router and the inventoried information. A notification can be generated in response to determining whether a mismatch exists. The notification includes information representing a cause of the problem and resolution of the problem.
US09083610B2 Web server and method for hosting a web page for presenting location based user quality data related to a communication network
A web-server communicates wireless networking performance data that reflects the true user experience of a mobile device operating in a particular location and operating on a particular wireless network.
US09083601B2 Method, system, and computer program product for managing interchange of enterprise data messages
A system and method for enabling the interchange of enterprise data through an open platform is disclosed. This open platform can be based on a standardized interface that enables parties to easily connect to and use the network. Services operating as senders, recipients, and in-transit parties can therefore leverage a framework that overlays a public network.
US09083598B2 Three phase and polarity encoded serial interface
A high speed serial interface is provided. In one aspect, the high speed serial interface uses three phase modulation for jointly encoding data and clock information. Accordingly, the need for de-skewing circuitry at the receiving end of the interface is eliminated, resulting in reduced link start-up time and improved link efficiency and power consumption. In one embodiment, the high speed serial interface uses fewer signal conductors than conventional systems having separate conductors for data and clock information. In another embodiment, the serial interface allows for data to be transmitted at any speed without the receiving end having prior knowledge of the transmission data rate. In another aspect, the high speed serial interface uses polarity encoded three phase modulation for jointly encoding data and clock information. This further increases the link capacity of the serial interface by allowing for more than one bit to be transmitted in any single baud interval.
US09083590B2 Long range WLAN data unit format
In a method for generating a data unit for transmission in a wireless network, a physical layer (PHY) preamble is generated. In generating the PHY preamble, a first indicator is generated to indicate at least one of (i) whether the data unit includes data offloaded from a mobile telephony network separate from the wireless network, or (ii) whether the data unit (a) was generated by, or (b) is addressed to, a communication device that supports offloading of data from the mobile telephony network to the wireless network. The first indicator is included in the PHY preamble. Additionally, a media access control layer (MAC) header is generated. The data unit is generated to include the PHY preamble and the MAC header. The data unit is then caused to be transmitted.
US09083589B2 Active signal processing personal health signal receivers
The invention provides a receiver associated with a body, e.g., located inside or within close proximity to a body, configured to receive and decode a signal from an in vivo transmitter which located inside the body. Signal receivers of the invention provide for accurate signal decoding of a low-level signal, even in the presence of significant noise, using a small-scale chip, e.g., where the chip consumes very low power. Also provided are systems that include the receivers, as well as methods of using the same.
US09083588B1 Polar receiver with adjustable delay and signal processing metho
Adjusting a relative phase within a polar receiver to reduce a DC error, the polar receiver having (i) a harmonic ILO having an RF modulated signal input and a phase-compressed divided-frequency output, (ii) a fundamental ILO connected to the phase-compressed divided-frequency output and having a phase-locking output, (iii) a delay element, and (iv) a phase discriminator connected to the delay element output and to the phase-locking output, and having a phase-detection output representative of a phase difference between signals on the delay output and the phase-locking output.
US09083579B1 Stateless services in content management clients
Techniques to provide stateless services in a content management client are disclosed. A session manager is instantiated to service a request to access a content item. The session manager is used to obtain from a global session pool that is not specific to the session manager a session to service the request. The session is used to service the request. Once the request has been completed the session manager may be terminated, but the global session pool and associated object cache remain.
US09083574B2 System and method for AC coupling
An AC coupling circuit is provided that has a level shifter circuit having a p input voltage and an n input voltage and producing a p output voltage and a p output voltage. There is a common mode voltage adjustment feedback circuit configured to cause a common mode voltage output to tend towards a specified reference voltage, the common mode voltage output being an average of the p output and n output voltages of the level shifter circuit. In combination, the level shifter circuit and the feedback circuit allow the interconnection of a first circuit that operates at a first, unspecified, common mode voltage to be connected to a second circuit having a required common mode voltage. The level shifter may be formed of adjustable components such that the frequency response of the level shifter circuit can be adjusted to compensate for a frequency response of an interconnect between the first circuit and the second circuit.
US09083569B2 Apparatus and method for detecting broadcasting signal
Disclosed are an apparatus and a method for detecting a broadcasting signal. The signal detecting apparatus according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes: a reference signal generator outputting a reference signal acquired by performing a correlation calculation between a current sample and a previous sample of a received signal which is an FM signal or a digital radio mondiale plus (DRM+) signal and then normalizing a result of the correlation calculation; and a discriminator detecting a maximum value of the reference signal and judging that the received signal is the FM signal when the maximum value of the reference signal is more than a predetermined threshold.
US09083564B2 System and method of delivering notifications
The present disclosure is directed to a system and method of delivering notifications. The method can include receiving a communication at a server within an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) network, where the communication is directed to a destination device outside of the IPTV network. The method can also include identifying the destination device and associating the destination device with a set-top box device. The method can also include transmitting a notification of the communication to the set-top box device via a private data network within the IPTV network.
US09083555B1 Traffic channel access during acquisition congestion
Techniques for acquisition of traffic channels during acquisition congestion of a communication include receiving a broadcast message at a communication terminal from a network node. The broadcast message indicates to the communication terminal that one or more acquisition channels in the communication network are congested. The broadcast message also identifies a set of traffic channels currently available or likely to become available for use by the communication terminal. The set of traffic channels may include traffic channels that are currently being used by other communication terminals. The communication terminal then selects and monitors a subset of the set of traffic channels for an indication that a first one of the traffic channels in the selected subset is available for use by the communication terminal. The communication terminal then transmits traffic on the first traffic channel.
US09083549B2 Aircraft communication bus fault isolator apparatus
A structure and a first panel are operably disposed with respect to the structure. A first plurality of nodes is disposed within the first panel, including a first plurality of power distribution network nodes in a first power distribution network, and wherein the first plurality of nodes further comprises a first group of nodes. A second panel is operably disposed with respect to the structure. A second plurality of nodes is disposed within the second panel, including a second plurality of power distribution network nodes in a second power distribution network isolated from the first power distribution network. The second plurality of nodes further comprises a second group of nodes. A bus guardian, separate from the two panels, electrically connects the first panel and the second panel. The bus guardian is configured to network the first group of nodes and the second group of nodes in a network.
US09083535B2 Method and apparatus for providing efficient management of certificate revocation
A method for providing efficient management of certificate revocation may comprise storing a list of identifiers of digital certificates including a revocation list defining a list of revoked certificates in an accumulator, storing a witness value in association with at least some entries in the revocation list in which the witness value provides proof of the membership or non-membership of an identifier in the revocation list, enabling generation of a new accumulator and a new witness value responsive to each insertion or deletion of an entry in the revocation list, and enabling batch updates to the revocation list using a reduced bitlength value generated based on to a ratio of a value generated based on elements added to the revocation list to a value generated based on elements deleted from the revocation list. A corresponding apparatus is also provided. A method for certificate authorities (CA) that use Bloom filters for certificate revocation list (CRL) compression that enables the CA to hash only the entry that is to be un-revoked so that a good compression rate may be provided while avoiding computation of the entire CRL for each un-revocation.
US09083532B2 Physiological response PIN entry
Methods and systems are provided for facilitating the secure entry of a user's PIN for electronic transactions such as merchant checkout, payment authorization, or access authorization. A physiological response of the user can indicate which one of a random sequence of numbers is a number of the user's PIN. For example, the user can blink, wink, or make a subtle facial movement to provide the indication.
US09083529B1 Multi party messaging
Multi-party messaging is disclosed. A plurality of public keys is requested from a first server, wherein the plurality of public keys is associated with a plurality of recipients. A message containing one or more components is encrypted using a symmetric key. The symmetric key is encrypted, using each of the respective public keys, resulting in a plurality of encrypted symmetric keys. The encrypted message and the encrypted symmetric keys are encapsulated in an encapsulation. The encapsulation is transmitted to a second server.
US09083526B2 Fully homomorphic encryption
In one exemplary embodiment of the invention, a method and computer program include: receiving first and second ciphertexts having first and second data encrypted per an encryption scheme, the encryption scheme has public/secret keys and encryption, decryption, operation and refresh functions, the encryption function encrypts data, the decryption decrypts ciphertext, the operation receives ciphertexts and performs operation(s) on them, the refresh operates to prevent growth of the magnitude of noise for a ciphertext while reducing the modulus of the ciphertext without using the secret key, utilizing a modulus switching technique that involves transforming a first ciphertext c modulo q into a second ciphertext c′ modulo p while preserving correctness, the technique includes scaling by p/q and rounding, p
US09083525B2 Method and apparatus for generating jitter test patterns on a high performance serial bus
The present invention provides a method for generating random jitter test patterns by generating a sequence of maximum-size asynchronous packets according to the P1394b standard and transmitting the sequence to the device under test. The present invention provides a method for generating jitter test patterns by disabling the transmitter data scrambler of the second device; clearing the port_error register of the device under test; and sending a test pattern to said device under test. The present invention provides for a method for generating supply noise test patterns comprising: transmitting a test pattern to the DUT comprising a maximum length asynchronous packet containing alternate 0016 and FF16 bytes.
US09083521B2 System and method of an in-band modem for data communications over digital wireless communication networks
A system is provided for transmitting information through a speech codec (in-band) such as found in a wireless communication network. A modulator transforms the data into a spectrally noise-like signal based on the mapping of a shaped pulse to predetermined positions within a modulation frame, and the signal is efficiently encoded by a speech codec. A synchronization sequence provides modulation frame timing at the receiver and is detected based on analysis of a correlation peak pattern. A request/response protocol provides reliable transfer of data using message redundancy, retransmission, and/or robust modulation modes dependent on the communication channel conditions.
US09083509B2 System and method of lawful access to secure communications
The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for secure communications. In some aspects, one or more values used to generate an encryption key used to encrypt a packet are stored in a header of the packet. The packet is transmitted with the encrypted data portion in a communication. In some aspects, one or more values used to generate an encryption key are received. The encryption key is regenerated using the one or more values.
US09083507B2 Data processing device, data processing method, and program
A miniaturized non-linear conversion unit is achieved. Included is an encryption processing part configured to divide and input configuration bits of data to be processed into a plurality of lines, and to repeatedly execute a data conversion processing applying a round function as to the data in each line, wherein the encryption processing part includes an F function executing unit configured to input one line of data configuring the plurality of lines, and to generate conversion data, wherein the F function executing unit includes a non-linear conversion processing unit configured to execute a non-linear conversion processing, and wherein the non-linear conversion processing unit includes a repeating structure of a non-linear calculation unit made up from either one NAND or NOR, and either one XOR or XNOR calculation unit, and a bit replacement unit. The miniaturized non-linear conversion unit is achieved by this repeating configuration.
US09083505B2 Manchester code receiving circuit
A Manchester code receiving circuit includes an analog circuit configured to convert an analog signal received through a communication transmission path, to a digital signal based on a Manchester code, and a characteristic compensating unit configured to compensate at least one of rise delay characteristics in which a rising time of the digital signal is longer than a falling time, and fall delay characteristics in which the falling time of the digital signal is longer than the rising time.
US09083493B2 Method and a device for reducing the electricity consumption associated with a communications line
A method and device are provided for reducing electricity consumption associated with a communications line having a set of N carriers of predetermined power suitable for conveying information to a receiver device. The method is adapted to determine first and second groups, each having respectively at least one of the carriers of the set N; to determine a volume of information to be conveyed on the N carriers during a unit of time; and if the determined volume is less than a predetermined threshold, to allocate a power less than the predetermined power to the carriers of the second group, the power of the carriers of the first group being maintained.
US09083490B2 Apparatus and method for mitigating inter-cell interference in multiple antenna system
A method for operating a Base Station (BS) in a wireless communication system is provided. The method comprises of receiving at least one request set for at least one neighboring cell, from at least one Mobile Station (MS), updating the at least one request set based at least in part on a serving band of each MS, and transmitting the updated at least one request set to the at least one neighboring cell, wherein the request set comprises a band and a Precoding Matrix Index (PMI) for making a use restriction or recommendation request to a neighboring cell.
US09083488B1 Extender and method of recovering differential signal
An extender includes a transmitter and a receiver for transmitting a first and a second differential data signals and a differential clock signal. The transmitter combines a positive clock signal of a differential clock signal with a first differential data signal and combines a negative clock signal of the differential clock signal with a second differential data signal, thereby respectively forming a first and a second composite differential signals. The receiver includes a first impedance unit extracting the positive clock signal from the first composite differential signal, a second impedance unit extracting the negative clock signal from the second composite differential signal, and a recovery unit receiving the positive and negative clock signals and forming the differential clock signal. The frequency of the extracted first and second differential data signals are ten times or more of the frequency of the differential clock signal.
US09083486B2 Personal point of sale
Embodiments provided herein include techniques for enabling a mobile device to communicate with smart media in a manner that can sidestep the secure element of the mobile device—and the costs associated with it. The mobile device can communicate with the smart media using near-field communication (NFC) by creating an encrypted connection with a remote computer while bypassing a secure element of the mobile device. This allows the mobile device to provide point-of-sale (POS) functionality by reading and/or writing to the smart media, without compromising the security of the smart media.
US09083478B2 Apparatus and methods for determining latency of a network port
One embodiment relates to a method for determining a latency of a network port. Read and write pointers for a FIFO are sampled at the same time. An average difference between a plurality of samples of the read and write pointers is determined. Another embodiment relates to an apparatus for providing timestamps to packets at a network port. Registers sample read and write pointers of a FIFO using a sampling clock. Logic circuitry determines an average difference between the read and write pointers, and timestamping circuitry receives the average difference and inserts timestamps into packets. Other embodiments and features are also disclosed.
US09083474B2 Multimedia broadcast forwarding systems and methods
In various embodiments, communication apparatus and methods for providing robust communications are disclosed. For example, an exemplary communication apparatus for distributing media to one or more receiving apparatus may include receiving circuitry to receive a first wireless multimedia broadcast signal containing at least a first media stream, transmitting circuitry to wirelessly transmit one or more individual media streams simultaneously to the one or more receiving apparatus using one or more wireless transmit signals, and decision circuitry configured to control the transmitting circuitry to transmit the first media stream to at least one receiving apparatus using at least one wireless transmit signal type based on a forward-link data capacity of each wireless channel between the transmitting circuitry and each receiving apparatus.
US09083472B2 Optical feed-forward equalizer for MIMO signal processing
A feed-forward equalizer can be used in the host optical receiver to perform at least some of the desired signal processing in the optical domain, e.g., prior to coherently detecting and digitizing the received optical signal(s). In some embodiments, the signal processing implemented in the feed-forward equalizer can at least partially compensate the adverse effects of chromatic dispersion, polarization-mode dispersion, and/or spatial-mode mixing/crosstalk imparted on the received optical signal(s) in the optical transport link. This reduces the signal-processing load of and the signal-processing requirements to the receiver's electrical DSP.
US09083461B2 Localisation of electronic equipment
Localization of an electronic device is enabled by establishing a localization environment wherein sources of visible light are configured to modulate onto emitted light a detectable signal, each signal bearing information identifying that light source, such that light incident on a device can be processed to identify particular sources of incident light and therefrom the location of the device.
US09083460B1 Methods and devices for optimizing the operation of a semiconductor optical modulator
A semiconductor-based optical modulator includes a control loop to control and optimize the modulator's operation for relatively high data rates (above 1 GHz) and/or relatively high voltage levels. Both the amplitude of the modulator's driving voltage and the bias of the driving voltage may be adjusted using the control loop. Such adjustments help to optimize the operation of the modulator by reducing the number of errors present in a modulated data stream.
US09083459B2 Optical transmission system, method of testing optical transmission system, and non-transitory computer-readable medium
An optical transmission system includes: an optical transmission device that has a plurality of optical transmitters configured to output at least one different wavelength and a multiplexer configured to multiplex wavelength lights output by the plurality of optical transmitters and output a multiplexed wavelength light; and a detection unit configured to detect each wavelength light that is branched before being fed into the multiplexer by sweeping an objective wavelength for detection, wherein, in a single sweeping, the detection unit selects and detects two or more wavelength lights with a wavelength interval that is wider than a wavelength interval of an output light of the multiplexer.
US09083449B2 Method and system for optimizing signal recognition in a multiwavelength optical communication system
A system and method for optimizing signal recognition in a light communication system by approximately maximizing the minimum distance between received constellation points; the method comprising identifying the constellation region containing points for transmitting symbols, identifying channel impairments, transforming the constellation region according to the channel impairments into a constellation region of potential received symbols, using signal processing circuitry to apply an algorithm that operates to maximize the minimum distance between constellation points to obtain a symbol constellation in the receiver constellation region, and inverting the transformation to obtain the designed transmitted-symbol constellation. The system comprises signal processing circuitry for performing a preferred methodology.
US09083436B2 Full duplex communication system using disjoint spectral blocks
The invention involves utilizing pieces of disjoint spectral blocks. In one embodiment, a frequency division duplex approach is used, where each spectral block is utilized solely for either uplink or downlink communications. In another embodiment, a time division duplex approach is used, where each spectral block is time divided and uplink and downlink communications are assigned to different time slots within the same spectral blocks. In another embodiment, a code division duplex approach is utilized, where uplink and downlink communications are assigned different codes/hopping patterns within a same spectral block.
US09083432B2 Relay method, and relay apparatus in wireless communication system
A relay station performing wireless communications with a plurality of other relay stations and at least one wireless terminal, the relay station including: a scheduler, when at least one of the relay station and the other relay stations receives data from a wireless terminal controlled thereby, generating a first map such that the data is exchanged among the relay station and the other relay stations during a first period, and generating a second map such that the data as received during the first period is transmitted to the controlled wireless terminal during a second period.
US09083431B2 Communication apparatus and communication method
A modulator generates a modulation signal from an input signal. A serial-parallel converter generates a subcarrier modulation signal from the modulation signal. An IFFT unit performs an inverse fast Fourier transformation on the subcarrier modulation signal, generating first data. A decomposer decomposes the first data into real data and imaginary data. An operator performs a predetermined operation using a predetermined threshold value, a boundary value and the real data, generating positive data and negative data. Another operator performs a similar operation on the imaginary data. A generator adds the positive data and negative data based on the real data, and adds the positive data and negative data based on the imaginary data, generating real operation data and imaginary operation data. A synthesizer synthesizes both operation data to generate a baseband signal. A transmitter generates a transmission signal from the baseband signal, and transmits it to another apparatus via an antenna.
US09083422B2 Wireless communications methods and apparatus
A method of relaying a signal in a wireless communications network comprising a plurality of wireless devices, the method being performed by at least one of said wireless devices to relay a signal in a communication path between one of said plurality of wireless devices and another one of said wireless devices, the method comprising receiving a signal from said one of said plurality of wireless devices, determining channel statistical information relating to a part or the whole of said wireless communications network, selecting a mode of relaying said signal from a plurality of predetermined relay modes based on said determined channel statistical information, such that the outage probability for said communication path satisfy a predetermined condition, and transmitting said signal to said another one of said plurality of wireless devices using said selected mode.
US09083421B2 Transceiver and a repeater
The invention discloses a transceiver (210, 215; 305, 310, 320, 330) for use in a cellular communications system (200, 300), arranged to communicate with at least one other transceiver in the system by means of technology for Multiple Input Multiple Output, MIMO. The transceiver is also arranged to control the function of a repeater (206, 207, 208, 209; 340) which is arranged to forward communication between the transceiver and said at least one other transceiver, said control being carried out as a result of measured performance parameters of the communication between the transceiver and said at least one other transceiver. In one embodiment, the function in the repeater (206, 207, 208, 209; 340) which the transceiver is arranged to control comprises activation and deactivation of the repeater.
US09083411B2 Device and method of channel information feedback for multi-cell MIMO
A mobile terminal is provided in the present invention, comprising: a channel state information feedback calculating unit configured to calculate a channel state information feedback between the mobile terminal and a serving cell of the mobile terminal and those between the mobile terminal and all cooperating cells; a channel quality information feedback calculating unit configured to calculate a channel quality information feedback for the serving cell of the mobile terminal; and a transmission unit configured to transmit the channel state information feedbacks and the channel quality information feedback to the serving cell. The present invention greatly improves the performance of a LTE-A system and greatly reduces feedback overhead. The present invention is a scalable feedback solution and may be flexibly applied to various coordinated multipoint transmission scenarios.
US09083407B2 Systems and methods for generating a pre-coding code book
In a network comprising a signal forwarding node, a pre-coding code book generating method, wherein the method comprises: generating a pre-coding code book, wherein the pre-coding code book comprises at least one pre-coding code word corresponding to the signal forwarding node, and the pre-coding code word comprises one or more antenna beamforming weights; and communicating the pre-coding code book to a user equipment.
US09083396B2 OFDMA-based operation of a wireless subscriber terminal in a plurality of cells
A method for carrying out concurrent communications between a subscriber device and two base stations is disclosed. At least one OFDM/OFDMA sub-channel is selected for each of the two base stations which is associated with a communications sector belonging to one of the two base stations and comprises OFDM/OFDMA sub-carriers that are substantially different from sub-carries comprised in the OFDM/OFDMA sub-channel associated with a communications sector belonging to the other base station; establishing a communication path between the subscriber device and each of the two base stations along the respective sub-channel selected; receiving/transmitting control messages exchanged between the subscriber device and the two base stations, wherein at least one control message is exchanged between the subscriber device and one of the two base stations concurrently with at least one control message exchanged between the subscriber device and the other base station, and wherein the control messages are exchanged along different sub-channels comprised in the communication paths.
US09083387B2 Communication system with compound coding mechanism and method of operation thereof
A communication system includes: an antenna for receiving a receiver signal for communicating a transmitter signal corresponding to the receiver signal over transmission channels according to a polar coding scheme; a communication unit including: an arrangement module for generating a sequenced-signal based on the receiver signal according to a permutation mechanism; and a decoder module for determining a communication content based on the sequenced-signal for communicating the communication content intended by the transmitter signal with a device.The communication system includes: a communication unit including an encoder module for determining a coded-message for representing a communication content according to a polar coding scheme, permutation module for generating a message-channel map for mapping the coded-message to transmission channels; and an antenna for transmitting a transmitter signal based on the coded-message according to the message-channel map for communicating the transmitter signal through the transmission channels with a device.
US09083385B2 Channel decoding method and decoder for tail-biting codes
A channel decoding method and decoder are disclosed. The decoding method is based on a Circular Viterbi Algorithm (CVA), rules out impossible initial states one by one through iterations according the received soft information sequence, and finally finds the global optimal tail-biting path. In the present invention, all impossible iterations are ruled out through multiple iterations, and only the initial state having most likelihood with the received sequence survives. The algorithm is finally convergent to an optimal tail-biting path to be output. In addition, the method also updates a metric of a maximum likelihood tail-biting path (MLTBP) or rules out impossible initial states through the obtained surviving tail-biting path, thereby effectively solving the problem that the algorithm is not convergent due to a circular trap, providing a practical optimal decoding algorithm for a tail-biting convolutional code, reducing the complexity of an existing decoding scheme, and saving the storage space.
US09083384B2 Microcomputer system
It is an object of the present invention to provide a technology that a microcomputer is capable of detecting the states of a large number of switches with a small number of ports. In a microcomputer system according to the present invention, any one of (2N−1) kinds of the combination patterns with respect to the combination of N input ports (IP1 to IP4) of a microcomputer (1) is allocated to each of M push-down switches (SW12, SW13, SW14, SW23, SW24, and SW34) with the different combination from each push-down switch. Each push-down switch inverts the input levels of the input ports in the combination pattern allocated thereto when pushed down. The microcomputer (1) detects the state of each push-down switch on the basis of the input levels of the N input ports.
US09083382B2 Memory with on-chip error correction
A memory device is configured to correct errors in codewords written to a memory array. Errors, if any, in a first codeword are corrected and a codeword corrector output is generated including a corrected first codeword. A data buffer receives the codeword corrector output and a first user data associated with the addressed page and generates a data buffer output including the corrected first codeword, as modified by the first user data, defined as a first codeword output. A codeword encoder receives the data buffer output and encodes the first codeword output to generate an encoded first codeword output included in a codeword encoder output. A write buffer receives the codeword encoder output and saves the same for writing to the memory array. Writing to the memory array is performed while receiving a second user data, which has a second codeword associated therewith, and correcting the second codeword.
US09083375B1 Asynchronous successive approximation register ADC
A successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter (SAR ADC) includes a comparator coupled to receive a sampled input voltage; a pair of arrays each including individually switchable binary-weighted capacitors that are switchably coupled to an output of the comparator via phase switches, respectively. A phase signal for controlling a corresponding phase switch associated with a current bit becomes asserted when a preceding bit finishes comparison, and the phase signal becomes de-asserted when the current bit finishes comparison.
US09083369B2 Split-path data acquisition signal chain
The present disclosure provides for split-path data acquisition chains and associated signal processing methods. An exemplary integrated circuit for providing a split-path data acquisition signal chain includes an input terminal for receiving an analog signal; an output terminal for outputting a digital signal; and at least two frequency circuit paths coupled with the input terminal and the output terminal, wherein the at least two frequency circuit paths are configured to process different frequency components of the analog signal and recombine the processed, different frequency components, thereby providing the digital signal.
US09083368B2 Image sensor using offset code for counting
An image sensor includes multiple counters and a counter controller. Each counter of the multiple counters is configured to perform counting of a comparison result signal and to generate a count result, the comparison result signal being obtained by comparing a ramp signal and a pixel signal of a column of multiple columns. The counter controller is configured to generate and transmit a counter clock signal and (n−1) delay clock signals to the counters, respectively, “n” being a natural number equal to or greater than two. Each delay clock signal of the (n−1) delay clock signals is obtained by delaying the counter clock signal by a corresponding offset code.
US09083366B1 Alignment of sampling phases in a multi-channel time-interleaved analog-to-digital converter
A multi-channel analog-to-digital (ADC) converter coupled to a clock-and-data-recovery loop that has a plurality of clock-recovery circuits, each configured to set the sampling phase for a respective one of the ADC channels in a manner that causes the different sampling phases to be appropriately time-aligned with one another for time-interleaved operation of the ADC channels. In an example embodiment, an individual clock-recovery circuit comprises a phase detector and a loop filter. Loop filters corresponding to different clock-recovery circuits may be coupled to one another by having shared circuit elements in their frequency-tracking paths and/or by being configured to receive timing gradients from more than one phase detector, including the phase detector of a selected one of the clock-recovery circuits.
US09083362B2 Oscillator circuit
Devices are provided comprising oscillator circuits coupled to a supply voltage via an adjustable resistance. Corresponding methods to control adjustable resistances are also provided.
US09083360B2 Lock detecter and clock generator having the same
A lock detector and a clock generator including the same are disclosed. A lock detector includes a counter unit which counts a non-matching section of a first signal and a second signal to provide a count value, the first signal and the second signal being comparison result signals obtained by comparing a phase of a reference signal with a phase of a comparison signal, and a lock detection unit which outputs a lock detection signal based on a result of comparing the count value with the reference value. Accordingly, a lock state of the phase-locked loop can be detected rapidly and exactly.
US09083347B1 Built-in integrated circuit debug design
Circuits and methods for capturing internal signal values in a circuit before, during, and after a trigger event are disclosed. For example, a circuit can include a shift register configured to receive data values of an input data set over a plurality of cycles, and a counter unit configured to receive a trigger signal and to output the trigger signal after a number of cycles following the receiving of the trigger signal, where the trigger signal indicates a trigger event. The circuit can also include a switch configured to receive the trigger signal from the counter unit and to open a connection between an input interface and the shift register in response to receiving the trigger signal.
US09083346B2 Touch control system and sensing method thereof
A touch control system and a sensing method thereof. Wherein, a plurality of sensor units are connected respectively to a control electrode line and a detection electrode line. Each sensor unit includes: a first switching element and a second switching element connected in parallel, and a sensing electrode connected to the second switching element. A common electrode provides a trigger signal to each sensing electrode to form coupling. The control electrode line is used to selectively output a turn-off signal in sequence to each of the first switching elements, so that the detection electrode line acts in cooperation with the sensor unit, in response to the turn-off signal. When a touch action occurs, the sensing electrode utilizes the detection electrode line to detect variations of current signal passing through the sensor unit, based on turn-on extent of the second switching element, hereby obtaining at least a touch message.
US09083343B1 Cascode switching circuit
Disclosed herein are cascode switching circuits that include a normally-on semiconductor device, a normally-off semiconductor device, and a gate driver. The normally-on semiconductor device and said normally-off semiconductor device each has a gate terminal, a drain terminal and a source terminal. The gate driver has a first output and a second output, the first output of said gate driver is coupled to said gate terminal of said normally-on semiconductor device, the second output of said gate driver is coupled to said gate terminal of said normally-off semiconductor device, and the drain terminal of said normally-off semiconductor device is coupled to said source terminal of said normally-on semiconductor device so that a current path is formed through said normally-on semiconductor device and said normally-off semiconductor device. Methods of making and using such circuits, and other various aspects of such circuits are also disclosed.
US09083338B2 Digital noise protection circuit and method
A method of protection from noise of a digital signal generated by a comparator, including the steps of generating an output signal that switches from a first logic state to a second logic state at a first switching of logic state of the digital signal; detecting a change from the first logic state to the second logic state of the output signal; and inhibiting further switchings of the output signal for a first time interval after the change from the first logic state to the second logic state.
US09083337B2 Multi-threshold sleep convention logic without nsleep
A Static Sleep Convention Logic (SSCL) circuit. The circuit improves upon Multi-Threshold NULL Convention Logic (MTNCL), disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,977,972, by utilizing the SECRII architecture along with the Bit-Wise MTNCL technique, to produce a new SSCL gate without an nsleep input, which yields a smaller and faster circuit that utilizes less energy per operation than the patented SMTNCL gate design, while only very slightly increasing leakage power during sleep mode.
US09083334B2 Logic circuit
An object is to apply a transistor using an oxide semiconductor to a logic circuit including an enhancement transistor. The logic circuit includes a depletion transistor 101 and an enhancement transistor 102. The transistors 101 and 102 each include a gate electrode, a gate insulating layer, a first oxide semiconductor layer, a second oxide semiconductor layer, a source electrode, and a drain electrode. The transistor 102 includes a reduction prevention layer provided over a region in the first oxide semiconductor layer between the source electrode and the drain electrode.
US09083333B2 Switching circuit
A switching circuit (80) includes: a plurality of insulated gate transistors (30-33) connected in parallel between a high voltage line (L1) and a low voltage line (L2); gate resistors (50-53) each provided for one of the plurality of insulated gate transistors (30-33) and each including a first terminal connected to a gate electrode of each of the insulated gate transistors (30-33); and a single gate voltage application unit (60) configured to apply pulsing gate voltage to the gate electrode of each of the insulated gate transistors (30-33) via the gate resistors (50-53). A second terminal of each of the gate resistors (50-53) provided for each of the plurality of insulated gate transistors (30-33) is connected to the gate voltage application unit (60) via a gate voltage apply line (L3), and a single capacitor is connected between the gate voltage apply line (L3) and the high voltage line (L1).
US09083331B2 Data interface having an intrinsically safe, integrated error detection
An intrinsically safe digital circuit has at least two output signals and at least four input signals for detecting a potential error in the circuit and/or in one of its input signals, the at least four input signals forming two input signal pairs inverted in a double-track manner, and the at least two output signals forming an output signal pair inverted in a double-track manner. The output signal pair transmits a piece of information which is identical to the one of an input signal pair, when the error is not present.
US09083329B2 Circuit arrangement and method for supplying a high-power functional component with high-voltage pulses
A circuit arrangement for supplying a high-power functional component with high-voltage pulses, having two input terminals for applying an input voltage, two output terminals for connection to a high-voltage terminal contacts of the high-power functional component, a plurality of charge storage modules, which each contain a capacitive element, and which are connected in series via at least one first switching device to the input terminals and via at least one second switching device to the output terminals, and a control device for activating the individual charge storage modules and the first and second switching devices. The charge storage modules and the control device are implemented such that in a charging phase, the first switching device is closed and the capacitive elements of the charge storage modules are connected successively individually or in groups in series to a charging voltage, then in a discharging phase the first switching device is opened and the charge storage modules are disconnected from the charging voltage and the second switching device is closed and at least a part of the capacitive elements of the charge storage modules are discharged, if a high-power functional component is properly connected to the output terminals, to form a voltage pulse. Furthermore, set forth is a method for supplying a high-power functional component with high-voltage pulses.
US09083323B2 Integrated circuit identification and dependability verification using ring oscillator based physical unclonable function and age detection circuitry
One feature pertains to an integrated circuit (IC) that includes a first plurality of ring oscillators configured to implement, in part, a physically unclonable function (PUF). The IC further includes a second plurality of ring oscillators configured to implement, in part, an age sensor circuit, and also a ring oscillator selection circuit that is coupled to the first plurality of ring oscillators and the second plurality of ring oscillators. The ring oscillator selection circuit is adapted to select at least two ring oscillator outputs from at least one of the first plurality of ring oscillators and/or the second plurality of ring oscillators. Notably, the ring oscillator selection circuit is commonly shared by the PUF and the age sensor circuit. Also, the IC may further include an output function circuit adapted to receive and compare the two ring oscillator outputs and generate an output signal.
US09083320B2 Apparatus and method for electrical stability compensation
Provided is an apparatus and method for electrical stability compensation. The apparatus includes a drive transistor connecting a power supply to a load, a first variable capacitor having a gate and a source, and a switch transistor for controlling a connection between a programming signal source and a gate of the drive transistor. The gate of the first variable capacitor is connected to the gate of the drive transistor. The first variable capacitor is configured to draw a charge from the gate of the drive transistor during a driving phase for the load.
US09083315B2 Circuit configuration for eliminating EMC interference
A circuit configuration is disclosed for eliminating EMC interference, and a device includes such a circuit configuration, where a damping member is connected to at least one supply line leading to the consumer or consumers. In at least one embodiment optimal elimination of EMC interference of the electrical consumer or consumers is ensured, and overloading the power supply grid is avoided. To this end, in at least one embodiment the damping member is connected in series with a current-limiting element and can be connected to the consumer in parallel. It is thus possible to compensate for the effect of the current-limiting element and short-circuit said element for the operating state by way of a switch, whereby the element does not cause any loss of power outside of the power circuits and nevertheless has a current-limiting, that is, grid-friendly, effect during the power-up and charging process.
US09083311B2 Apparatus having double phase-matched configuration for reducing magnitude of intermodulation products
An apparatus includes: a first apparatus port receiving a first signal having a first frequency; a second apparatus port outputting the first signal having the first frequency; a first passive device connected between the first and second apparatus ports; a second passive device connected between the first and second apparatus ports; a plurality of phase shifters each providing a corresponding phase shift, wherein at least one of the phase shifters provides its phase shift in a first signal path between the first and second apparatus ports through the first passive device, and wherein at least another phase shifter provides its phase shift in a second signal path between the first and second apparatus ports through the second passive device. The phase shifts are selected to cancel an upper or lower intermodulation product between the first signal and a second signal having a second frequency received at the second apparatus port.
US09083308B2 MEMS device
System and method for a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) is disclosed. A preferred embodiment comprises a first anchor region, a vibrating MEMS structure fixed to the first anchor region, a first electrode adjacent the vibrating MEMS structure, a second electrode adjacent the vibrating MEMS structure wherein the vibrating MEMS structure is arranged between the first and the second electrode.
US09083307B2 Flexural vibrator element, electronic device, and method of manufacturing flexural vibrator element
A flexural vibrator element has a vibrator arm extending from a base section and having a rectangular cross-sectional shape, the vibrator arm having first and second step sections composed of step surfaces intersecting respectively with a left side surface and a right side surface, and step side surfaces intersecting respectively with an upper surface and a lower surface, between the lower surface, the upper surface and the left side surface, the right side surface, and first and fourth detection electrodes on the left and right side surfaces and second and third detection electrodes on the step side surfaces are respectively separated in a thickness direction of the vibrator arm. The first through fourth detection electrodes are patterned with accuracy by exposure from the upper surface and the lower surface using a common exposure device by existing photo etching.
US09083295B2 Current feedback output circuit
The current feedback output circuit includes first and second transistors. The current feedback output circuit includes a current amplifier that has a non-inverting input terminal, an inverting input terminal, a first output terminal and a second output terminal, an input impedance of the non-inverting input terminal being higher than an input impedance of the inverting input terminal, and flows a current obtained by amplifying the difference between a current of an input signal to the non-inverting input terminal and a current input to the inverting input terminal between the first output terminal and the second output terminal. The current feedback output circuit includes first to sixth current mirror circuits. The current feedback output circuit includes a current feedback circuit that supplies a current responsive to a voltage at the signal output terminal to the inverting input terminal.
US09083292B2 Analog feedback amplifier
An analog feedback amplifier is capable of suppressing extraneous phase fluctuations and broadening a bandwidth by preventing effects of a group delay element by using an amplitude regulator 21 and a delay line 24.
US09083284B2 Wide-band multi stage Doherty power amplifier
A multi-stage Doherty power amplifier (“PA”) circuit which achieves superior efficiency over broadband range of frequencies is disclosed. Conventional multi-stage amplifiers may offer potential for efficiency enhancement but may suffer from cost penalties and severe bandwidth limitation in practice. Embodiments may employ a driver in the peaking arm which is biased in class C which may alleviate such limitations. The amplifier topology and associated circuitry described in embodiments may achieve high efficiency, smooth PA gain, and enhanced phase characteristics over a 15% fractional bandwidth with reduced costs.
US09083278B2 Device for transforming electromagnetic IR energy from spatially incoherent, low-power density, broad-band radiation in spatially coherent, high-power density, quasi-monochromatic radiation
A device to be positioned between a heat source and a heat sink may transform infrared electromagnetic (IR-EM) energy exchanged therebetween from a first form to a second form. The device may include a pair of layers facing each other and having dielectric material with molecular excitability characteristics to produce the second form of IR-EM energy. The pair of layers may define a gap therebetween. The device may include a conversion circuit configured to convert the second form of IR-EM energy into electrical energy.
US09083261B2 Neutral point clamped converter control system and control method and compensation unit
A control system includes a fundamental control unit, first and second compensation control units, a switch control unit, and a switch implementation unit. The fundamental control unit generates fundamental commands to implement fundamental power conversion operation for a converter. The first compensation control unit generates a first compensation signal for injection into the fundamental command to balance neutral point voltage when the converter is in operation in a first state. The second compensation control unit generates a second compensation signal for injection into the fundamental command to balance neutral point voltage when the converter is in operation in a second state. The switch control unit detects first and second states of the converter and provides first and second switch signals respectively. The switch implementation unit switches the fundamental control unit to communicate with the first and second compensation control units according to the first and second switch signals respectively.
US09083255B2 Adaptive dead time control scheme for switch mode power converter with synchronous rectifiers topology
An adaptive dead time (ADT) control scheme for use with a switch mode power converter having a full bridge with synchronous rectifiers topology. A controller which implements the control scheme includes an input circuit arranged to receive a signal representative of the converter's output voltage, and an output circuit arranged to operate the converter's switching elements and synchronous rectifiers to produce a desired output voltage. The controller is further arranged such that the converter's “dead time” is adaptively varied in an inverse relationship to the magnitude of the load current. In a preferred embodiment, the signals used to operate the synchronous rectifiers are PWM signals, and the controller adaptively varies the dead time in a linear inverse relationship to the magnitude of the load current by modulating the rising and falling edges of the signals used to operate the synchronous rectifiers.
US09083248B2 PWM control circuit, flyback converter and method for controlling PWM
Disclosed herein are a PWM control circuit, a flyback converter, and a PWM control method. The PWM control circuit includes: a peak storing and reference signal generating unit storing a peak value of one period of a feedback signal from a secondary side output and inverting the peak signal and outputting the inverted peak signal as a reference signal; and a PWM control signal generating unit generating a PWM control signal by using an output obtained by comparing the reference signal with a reference waveform from the peak storing and reference signal generating unit. In addition, the flyback converter including the same and the method for controlling PWM are proposed.
US09083237B2 Circuits and methods for controlling a DC/DC converter
A converter circuit includes a converter and a controller. The converter converts an input voltage to an output voltage. The controller receives a reference voltage, generates a slew voltage having a substantially constant first slew rate if the reference voltage changes from a first level to a second level, and controls the converter based on the slew voltage to cause the output voltage to change from a third level to a fourth level at a substantially constant second slew rate.
US09083234B2 Drive output harmonic mitigation devices and methods of use thereof
A filter for filtering a three-phase electrical power waveform produces a three-phase output power waveform. The filter has an inductor with three sets of first and second coils, each having a capacitor connected in series therewith. Each of the three sets of first and second coils has a tap intermediate the first and second coils where the output waveform is present, each tap capable of being connected to a load. In some embodiments, the inductor is passive adaptive and includes resistors for reducing current in-rush.
US09083231B2 Amplitude modulation for pass gate to improve charge pump efficiency
Techniques are presented for improving the efficiency of charge pumps. A charge pump, or a stage of a charge pump, provides its output through a pass gate. For example, this could be a charge pump of a voltage doubler type, where the output is supplied through pass gate transistors whose gates are connected to receive the output of an auxiliary section, also of a voltage doubler type of design. The waveforms provided to the gates of the pass gate transistors are modified so that their low values are offset to a higher value to take into account the threshold voltage of the pass gate transistors. In a voltage doubler based example, this can be implemented by way of introducing diodes into each leg of the auxiliary section.
US09083222B2 Self-excited eddy current liquid-cooled retarder
A self-excited eddy current liquid-cooled retarder is disclosed. The retarder pertains to an auxiliary braking device retarding a vehicle, and comprises a retarder rotor, a retarder stator, a control module and a generator unit. The retarder rotor comprises a retarder coil, an electromagnet core and a core cage. The retarder coil is wound on a coil frame. The electromagnet core is inserted into the coil frame. The electromagnet core, the retarder coil and the coil frame are evenly distributed on the circumference of the core cage. The retarder rotor is connected to a transmission shaft of an automobile. The inner circle of the retarder stator and the outer circle of the electromagnet core of the retarder rotor are coaxial. The generator unit comprises a generator exciting winding, a generator exciting magnetic pole, a generator armature winding and a generator armature core and is received in the retarder rotor.
US09083218B2 Permanent magnet excited synchronous machine with embedded magnets
A permanent magnet excited synchronous machine (1) with embedded magnets, which is particularly suitable for range extender generator. It includes stator (2) and rotor (3) being provided with exciter magnets (7). The rotor (3) has at least two rotor poles (4), each is provided with one exciter magnet (7). In order to increase the magnetic torque limit of the synchronous machine (1)—in each rotor pole (4) at least one, preferably several selective magnetic flux barriers, preferably as substantially radial slots (8) being parallel with the main pole flux is/are provided in the area of the pole shoe.
US09083216B2 Motor and method for manufacturing stator core and rotor core of motor
A motor includes a first, second, and third motor unit. First, second and third rotors each including a first and second rotor core and a field magnet. The first and second rotor cores include respectively first and second rotor core bases and a plurality of first and second claw magnetic poles that are arranged alternately along a circumferential direction of the motor. The field magnet causes the plurality of first claw magnetic poles and the plurality of second claw magnetic poles to function as different magnetic poles. Each of first and second stators including pluralities of first claw magnetic poles and second claw magnetic poles alternately arranged along the circumferential direction of the motor. The second stator core having a coil section.
US09083209B2 Drain structure of electric rotating machine
An electric rotating machine includes a casing having a through-hole and a drain member for draining water from the casing. The drain member has a mounting portion that includes hooks each having a proximal part and a distal part. The proximal part extends in the penetration direction of the through-hole. The distal part has a distal end that makes up an insertion end. The mounting portion is mounted to the through-hole by inserting the hooks into the through-hole from the insertion ends. The proximal parts of the hooks have flexibility so as to flex in a flexural direction perpendicular to the penetration direction during the insertion of the hooks into the through-hole. Each of the hooks also has a protrusion that protrudes from the outer surface of the proximal part toward the inner wall of the through-hole to restrict movement of the hook with respect to the through-hole.
US09083208B2 Ball bearing supported electromagnetic microgenerator
Methods and apparatus for forming an electromechanical device are disclosed. In some embodiments, an electromechanical device includes a first substrate; a second substrate; a rotor movably disposed in the first and second substrates and having a plurality of first turbine blades disposed on a first side of the rotor and a plurality of permanent magnets disposed on a second side of the rotor, wherein the plurality of permanent magnets are arranged about a central axis of the rotor, wherein adjacent permanent magnets have opposing magnetic poles; a channel disposed between the first and second substrates and a peripheral edge of the rotor; a plurality of microballs disposed in the channel to provide a bearing for the rotor; a third substrate disposed proximate the second side of the rotor and having a plurality of coils disposed therein such that rotation of the rotor induces current the plurality of coils.
US09083206B2 Device and method for damped, non-contact support of a coolant feed line for superconducting machines
A superconducting machine for supporting a coolant feed line for superconducting machines includes a hollow shaft that can be connected to the superconducting machine in a first region, the coolant feed line being disposed in the interior thereof for feeding the coolant from the refrigeration unit to the superconducting machine. A magnetic support is disposed in the first region of the hollow shaft so that a radial and thus motion-damping, centering force is exerted on the coolant feed line. The magnetic support has a first and a second magnetic cylinder, wherein the first magnetic cylinder is disposed on the outer jacket of the coolant feed line and the second magnetic cylinder is disposed on the inner face of the hollow shaft. The first magnetic cylinder is a cylinder made of highly electrically conductive material having ohmic resistance.
US09083198B2 System and method for wirelessly charging a rechargeable battery
A wireless charging system having a battery with at least one cell, a receiving coil wrapped around the at least one cell and a charger having a transmitting field designed to couple with the receiving coil of the battery. A battery is further described having at least one cell and having a receiving coil wrapped around at least one cell.
US09083195B2 Power harvesting system for battery operated appliances
A system of harvesting electrical power for use within a battery operated device includes a battery and a motor driven by the battery to impart rotational energy to a first shaft. The first shaft drives a multi-phase generator and produces output voltage signals with respectively untimed phase responses. A rectification circuit combines the voltage signals into a combined DC voltage output, and an inverter connected to the rectification circuit converts the DC voltage output to an AC voltage output. A battery charger connected to the inverter receives the AC voltage output for charging the battery. The harvested power includes power from voltage sources with unregulated, or untimed, phase responses.
US09083194B2 Battery charging system and train
A battery charging system includes a first battery unit for storing electric power to be supplied to a driving system of a train, and a second battery unit for storing electric power to be supplied to the first battery unit. A control unit calculates electric power consumption from the first battery unit. And a battery charging unit supplies electric power to the first battery unit from the second battery unit based on the electric power consumption calculated by the control unit.
US09083193B2 Vehicular electric power supply device and electric power supply system
The electric power supply system includes a stationary device and a mobile device. The mobile device includes a rotary electric machine driven by an engine, a vehicular battery which is used to move the vehicle, and an emergency battery. The stationary battery in the stationary device may be charged by either one of the rotary electric machine, the stationary battery or the emergency battery via an inter-battery power line. The amount of charge to the stationary battery is set based on an amount of necessary power WRQ which the stationary device needs, and an amount of available power WVH which the mobile device can supply. The stationary battery can be charged in an efficient manner and with a sufficient amount of electric power.
US09083191B2 Device of replacing and charging battery at environment monitoring terminal and battery replacement system
The present invention provides a device of replacing and charging battery at environment monitoring terminal and battery replacement system. Through the battery positioning mechanism disposed at both battery charging device and environment monitoring terminal, and anodes and cathodes disposed for contacting the battery electrodes, the battery replacement device can replace the full-discharged battery at environment monitoring terminal and a full-charged battery at the battery charging device. In this manner, the system can automatically replace the battery at environment monitoring terminal without manual replacement so as to reduce battery replacement time.
US09083176B2 Electrostatic discharge clamp with disable
In a particular embodiment, a circuit includes a power supply, a ground, and a clamping transistor circuit coupled to the power supply and to the ground. The circuit further includes a disable clamp circuit. The disable clamp circuit is coupled to the power supply and is responsive to a second power supply input to selectively disable the clamping transistor circuit by modifying a charging current applied to a capacitor of the clamping transistor circuit. In a particular embodiment, modifying the charging current includes enabling a second charging path. Enabling the second charging path enables charging the capacitor at a higher charging rate than a charging rate associated with charging the capacitor via a first charging path.
US09083175B2 Protection circuit
HDMI devices coupled to interfaces in environments with high voltages, for example in an automotive vehicle, may be damaged by a short circuit between a cable and a large DC voltage. A protection circuit (100) for the high speed TMDS lines of an HDMI interface includes a DC voltage source (22, 24), a pair of capacitors (C1, C2) and a pair of splitters (12, 14). Each splitter is arranged to split a signal from respective one of the pair of electrical conductors between two signal paths, whereby one of the signal paths is coupled to the voltage source, and a second signal path is coupled to a first terminal of a respective one of the pair of capacitors. A signal received from an HDMI source (26) is split between a first path coupled to a first terminal of a respective capacitor and a second path coupled to the DC voltage source. The protection circuit can block a DC voltage on a cable (28) connected to the second terminals of the respective capacitors while providing a DC image of a receiver so allowing correct operation of a connected HDMI source.
US09083172B2 Portable lightning protection system
A portable lightning protection system is described for placement adjacent structures requiring lightning protection. The system includes a base mast section with an upper end and a plurality of radially extending, axially aligned ribs; a top mast section; preferably at least one intermediate mast section attachable to the upper end of the base mast section and to the lower end of the top mast section, the mast sections being axially aligned when attached; an air terminal having a conductive rod insertable into the bore of the top mast section; a base including a plurality of radially extending horizontal beams having inner ends attachable to the base mast section ribs and a plurality of inclined beams having inner ends attachable to the base mast section ribs and outer ends attachable to the horizontal beams; and grounding cables connecting the mast to the ground.
US09083169B2 Self-indexing nut plate
An aircraft comprises a secondary support structure, and a nut plate engaging the secondary support structure. The nut plate includes at least one locator protrusion engaging a mounting hole in the secondary support structure to constrain motion of the nut plate along the secondary support structure. The nut plate further includes means for additionally constraining motion of the nut plate away from the secondary support structure.
US09083163B2 Inlet box mounting structure of car
A mounting structure of an inlet box of a car which includes an outer panel of the car having a hole, an inlet box inserted in the hole, a flange provided around the opening of the inlet box and an engaging claw provided on the outer peripheral surface of the inlet box. The flange is set around the hole from the outside onto the edge. The flange is screwed to the edge of the hole of the outer panel from the inside. The engaging claw engages the hole of the edge of the outer panel from the inside when the flange is set on the edge of the hole. The engaging claw is capable of disengaging from the edge of the hole by a disengagement operation occurring inside the outer panel.
US09083157B2 Collapsible high-voltage electrical discharge generator
A collapsible, high voltage electrical discharge generator uses a set of telescoping winding sections to achieve a compact form suitable for efficient transport, storage and deployment. The winding sections have two typical arrangements, fully collapsed and fully extended. In the fully collapsed mode the sections can be telescoped together into a nested configuration, thus occupying a small fraction of the volume of a fully extended system. The towers can be erected into the fully extended mode by applying internal pressure, or alternatively by using mechanical linkage to simply extend the telescoped stack of winding sections into position. Fully extended and connected, the individual sections perform as a large, continuous inductive element capable of generating very high voltages at the top of the tower for use in testing equipment and producing long electrical discharges.
US09083147B2 Distributed feedback (DFB) Brillouin fiber lasers
A Brillouin fiber laser uses a distributed feedback (DFB) fiber Bragg grating with a discrete π-phase shift, which is offset from the physical center of the grating as a resonator. Lasing is achieved by using the SBS gain in the DFB from narrow-linewidth laser pump radiation with an optical frequency that is higher than the central pass band of the grating by an amount nominally equal to the Stokes's frequency shift, νB. The lasing occurs at a wavelength that corresponds to the first Stokes wave. The Brillouin DFB fiber laser has a low threshold, does not require any fiber optic couplers, does not require rare-earth doping, enables connection of many DFB lasers in series, pumping using a multi-wavelength or wavelength tunable laser sources, and the laser output can be delivered along the direction of the pump propagation or in the reverse direction.
US09083132B2 Network communication connector fabrication method
A network communication connector fabrication method for making network communication connectors is performed by: employing a cold drawing technique to repeatedly draw a metal round rod into a thin thickness conducting contact bar, stamping one end of the thin thickness conducting contact bar into a mating contact portion, stamping the thin thickness conducting contact to form an interference portion and a bonding portion, cutting off the thin thickness conducting contact bar subject to a predetermined length, repeating the above steps to obtain multiple metal contacts, electroplating the metal contacts, setting the metal contacts in two contact material strips and inserting the metal contacts in a mold, and then using an injection molding technique to mold an electrically insulative terminal block on the interference portions of the metal contacts to form a semi-finished product for making a network communication connector.
US09083130B2 Differentially coupled connector
A connector is provided with a pair of terminals configured to provide a differential signal pair. A ground terminal is positioned on opposing sides of the differential pair. The body of the differential pair is configured so as to bring the differential pair closer together. In an embodiment, the % coupling on the differential pair is increase at least 10% more than a design where the four terminals are positioned at a constant pitch between the tail and the contact.
US09083128B2 Low inductance bus bar connection
In one aspect, a set of male and female bus bars is provided. The male bus bar includes first and second conductors and an insulation layer therebetween. The male bus bar has a male connecting portion with one or more fingers. The female bus bar third and fourth conductors and an insulation layer therebetween. The female bus bar has a female connecting portion with one or more receptacles, each having contact surfaces that are free of insulation and that are positioned to contact contact surfaces on an associated finger which are free of insulation so as to connect the first conductor and the third conductor and to connect the second conductor and the fourth conductor. Each finger has a width. A gap exists between the contact surfaces of an associated receptacle. The width and gap are sized to provide a press fit between the fingers and the receptacles.
US09083126B2 Configurable safety light receptacle
An electrical receptacle provide outlets and a cavity for receiving an insert. The insert connects to the electrical main through the receptacle and can provide additional functionality through the insert including emergency lighting, night lighting, gas detectors and charging connections.
US09083122B2 Connector unit and connector
A connector unit includes a first connector configured to be connected to an electrical apparatus, the first connector including multiple power receiving terminals for receiving a supply of electric power; and a second connector configured to be connected to a direct-current power supply and mated with the first connector. The second connector includes multiple power feeding terminals corresponding to the power receiving terminals of the first connector and a switch member configured to be moved between a connecting position for electrically connecting the power feeding terminals and the direct-current power supply and a breaking position for breaking the connection of the power feeding terminals and the direct-current power supply.
US09083115B2 Electrical connection terminal
An electrical connection terminal having a housing, two clamping springs and a current bar, wherein a chamber is formed in the housing for receiving the clamping springs and at least one end of the current bar as well as a conductor insertion opening for inserting two conductors, and wherein the clamping springs are arranged next to each other in relation to the longitudinal extension of the current bar. In the electrical connection terminal, the clamping springs each have a clamping leg, an operating leg and a back which connects the two legs to one another, wherein the clamping limbs, together with the current bar form, in each case, a clamping point for a stripped conductor that is to be connected. Moreover, a spring receptacle is provided within the chamber, which has a partition, the two clamping springs being disposed on a respective side of the partition.
US09083101B2 System and method for connecting a power cable with a submersible component
A technique is provided for connecting a power cable to a submersible component. A connector system is used to form the connection and comprises a plurality of individual connectors for connecting power carrying conductors to the submersible component. Each of the individual connectors is separately connectable to the submersible component which enables improved sealing with respect to the submersible component. In multi-phase power applications, individual connectors can be used for each phase.
US09083092B2 Electrical connections for high voltage electrical distribution and/or reticulation
Among other things, an apparatus and method for use with a high-voltage electrical connector are provided. The connector selectively connects a first electrical conductor to a second electrical conductor. The connector may comprise a body portion and a securing portion. The body portion and the securing portion may at least in part define an engaging aperture. A tensioning component may also be present to constrict and/or un-constrict the engaging aperture. The second electrical conductor may be received into or out of the engaging aperture in a direction lateral to the connector.
US09083091B1 Electrical terminal connector for solderless connection of parts to electrical contact holes
An electrical terminal connector for attaching electrical parts to printed circuit boards. The terminal connector may have a connecting conductor member with an insulator displacement contact at a first end and a press-fit contact at a second end. The conductor member may have one or more tabs extending outwardly from the longitudinal edges. The tabs may be formed in the shape of a triangle with a first surface sloped at an acute angle to intersect with a second surface extending outwardly approximately orthogonal to the longitudinal edge.
US09083090B2 Plug-in wire connection terminal structure
A plug-in wire connection terminal structure includes a main body having a receiving space. The receiving space is formed with an arched guide slot. A holding plate has a receiving section. Lateral sides of the receiving section are respectively formed with a wire entrance and a conductive contact section formed with a socket. An annular wall of the socket is formed a slit. A small-diameter fitting section is disposed at the conductive contact section. A collar member is fitted on the fitting section. A connection section is disposed on the receiving section. A leaf spring has a bight section received in the arched guide slot. One end of the leaf spring is formed with a connected section latched with the connection section. The other end of the leaf spring is formed with an abutment end obliquely extending the receiving section.
US09083086B2 High gain and wideband complementary antenna
An antenna is disclosed as including at least one dipole connected with at least one shorted patch antenna, and at least two feeding sources.
US09083083B2 Radome attachment band clamp
A band clamp for coupling a radome to a distal end of a reflector dish for improving the front to back ratio of a reflector antenna, is provided with an inward projecting proximal lip and an inward projecting distal lip. The distal lip is dimensioned with an inner diameter equal to or less than a reflector aperture of the reflector dish. The proximal lip may be provided with an inward bias dimensioned to engage the reflector dish in an interference fit and/or turnback region dimensioned to engage an outer surface of a signal area of the reflector dish in an interference fit. A variety of different configurations of protruding portions extending from the band clamp may be applied to further improve electrical performance.
US09083055B2 Electrode with plural active material layers with different amounts of conductive material for rechargeable lithium battery and method for manufacturing the same and rechargeable lithium battery including the electrode
An electrode for a rechargeable lithium battery and method of manufacturing a rechargeable lithium battery including the electrode is disclosed. In one embodiment, the electrode includes i) a current collector, ii) a first electrode composition layer provided on a surface of the current collector and iii) a second electrode composition layer farther than the first electrode composition layer from the current collector. Further, each of the first and second electrode composition layers comprises an active material and a conductive material, and wherein the amount of the conductive material of the first electrode composition layer is different from that of the conductive material of the second electrode composition layer. The electrode further includes an additional first electrode composition layer farther than the second electrode composition layer from the current collector and an additional second electrode composition layer farther than the additional first electrode composition layer from the current collector.
US09083052B2 Nanocomposites
The invention pertains to heterogenous noble metal nanostructures comprising silver salts and different noble metals, and methods for synthesis and use of various nanocomposite materials having silver salts and different noble metals.
US09083046B2 Cathode active material, cathode electrode and non-aqueous secondary battery
A cathode active material comprising a composition represented by the following general formula (1): LiaM1xM2yM3zPmSinO4  (1) wherein M1 is at least one kind of element selected from the group of Mn, Fe, Co and Ni; M2 is any one kind of element selected from the group of Zr, Sn, Y and Al; M3 is at least one kind of element selected from the group of Zr, Sn, Y, Al, Ti, V and Nb and different from M2; “a” satisfies 0
US09083044B2 Method for manufacturing anode active material for lithium secondary battery, anode active material for lithium secondary battery manufactured thereby and lithium secondary battery using same
The present invention provides a method for manufacturing an anode active material for a lithium secondary battery comprising the following steps of: a) simultaneously mixing a first metallic salt aqueous solution including nickel, cobalt, manganese and optionally a transition metal, a chelating agent, and a basic aqueous solution in a reactor, and mixing with a lithium raw material and calcining to manufacture a center part including the compound of following Chemical Formula 1: Lix1[Ni1−y1−z1−w1Coy1Mnz1Mw1]O2  Chemical Formula 1 (wherein, 0.9≦x1≦1.3, 0.1≦y1≦0.3, 0.0≦z1≦0.3, 0≦w1≦0.1, and M is at least one metal selected from the group consisting of Mg, Zn, Ca, Sr, Cu, Zr, P, Fe, Al, Ga, In,Cr, Ge, and Sn); b) simultaneously mixing a second metallic salt aqueous solution including nickel, cobalt, manganese and optionally a transition metal, the chelating agent, and the basic aqueous solution in a reactor, mixing with the lithium raw material and calcining, and grinding thereof to the size of nanometers to manufacture a compound for forming an outer part including the compound of following Chemical Formula 2: Lix2[Ni1−y2−z2−w2Coy2Mnz2Mw2]O2  Chemical Formula 2 (wherein, 0.9≦x2≦1+z2, 0≦y2≦0.33, 0≦z2≦0.5, 0≦w2≦0.1 and M is at least one metal selected from the group consisting of Mg, Zn, Ca, Sr, Cu, Zr, P, Fe, Al, Ga, In, Cr, Ge, and Sn); c) mixing the center part manufactured from step a) and the compound for forming the outer part manufactured from step b) to form the outer part on the center part surface; and d) heat-treating the compound obtained from step c) at 500-800° C. to form a bi-layer structure in which lithium is present at a continuous concentration-gradient from the contact interface of the center part and the outer part to the surface part of the outer part, and an anode active material for a lithium secondary battery manufactured thereby.
US09083042B2 Negative electrode active material, electrode containing the same, and lithium ion secondary battery having the electrode
A negative electrode active material mainly contains silicon and silicon oxide. In the negative electrode active material, an Ar-laser Raman spectrum thereof includes a peak A corresponding to 950±30 cm−1 and a peak B corresponding to 480±30 cm−1, and an intensity ratio of the peak B to the peak A (B/A) is in the range of 1 to 10.
US09083039B2 Rechargeable battery
A battery may include an electrode assembly including a first electrode and a second electrode, an electrode terminal, a current collecting member electrically connecting the electrode terminal and a first electrode uncoated region of the first electrode, a fixing member, and a case. The current collecting member may include a terminal connecting portion coupled to the electrode terminal and an electrode connecting portion extending from the terminal connecting portion. The electrode connecting portion may include an extending connecting plate and a current collecting piece extending from the connecting plate and being in contact with the first electrode uncoated region along sidewalls of the first electrode uncoated region. The fixing member may include a current collecting member coupling portion engaged with the current collecting member, the electrode connecting portion extending through the fixing member. The fixing member may be between the current collecting member and the case.
US09083037B2 Fuel cell including cathode electrode using iron redox couple
Provided is a fuel cell including an anode electrode, a cathode electrode, and an electrolyte/ion exchange membrane between the anode electrode and the cathode electrode. The cathode electrode uses an iron redox couple as an oxidizer. The iron redox couple is regenerated by an oxidizing substance. The fuel cell does not need a noble metal catalyst, is thus economical in manufacturing costs, and has high power density, thereby improving energy conversion efficiency. Furthermore, the fuel cell is capable of decomposing an oxidizing substance, such as NOx, Cl2, Br2, or O3.
US09083034B2 Treated battery separator
In at least one embodiment, a rechargeable battery is provided comprising an electrolyte including an organic solvent and a solution-treated polyolefin separator. A contact angle of the electrolyte including the organic solvent upon the separator may be from 0 to 15 degrees. In one embodiment, the solution-treated polyolefin layer has an increased concentration of ionic functional groups at its surface compared to an untreated polyolefin layer. In another embodiment, the solution-treated polyolefin separator has been treated with a treatment solution having a pH of either at most 2 or at least 12. The separator may be treated with an acid or base solution for at least 30 seconds. The solution-treated separator may exhibit improved wetting with an electrolyte compared to an untreated separator.
US09083031B2 Battery hold down device including grippable handle and spring arrangement
The present invention provides a device and a method for securely clamping and unclamping a battery in a battery receiving tray, wherein at least one hold down rod is securely connected to the battery receiving tray on one end and at the other end, is held against one or more horizontally disposed hold down clamps by tension provided by a tensioner operating against a tensioner retaining means at the other end of the hold down rod and the one or more hold down clamps.
US09083027B2 Point contact thermal isolation
In one aspect of the present invention, a battery assembly is configured that comprises a battery housing. The battery housing encases a battery cell. At least one insulator is disposed between the housing and the battery cell. A thermal pathway is formed through a point contact in the at least one insulator between the housing and the battery cell.
US09083024B2 Stack design for Na NiCl battery
A battery stack includes a plurality of curved base layers, at least one curved bipolar layer, at least one anode layer disposed between a first curved base layer of the plurality of curved base layers and the at least one curved bipolar layer, at least one cathode layer disposed between the at least one bipolar layer, a second base layer and a plurality of seals. The first base layer and the at least one bipolar layer are provided with one or more seals that seal the first base layer to the at least one bipolar layer without contacting the anode and/or the cathode layer.
US09083018B2 Fuel cell device comprising a controller including an execution condition setting section
A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell, a control valve and a controller. The controller controls the control valve to periodically increase and decrease the anode gas pressure downstream of the control valve. The controller executes a shutdown/restart operation of the fuel cell by closing the control valve to stop the anode gas and shutting down power generation of the fuel cell upon receiving a shutdown command, and restarting feeding of the anode gas and restarting the power generation upon a prescribed operation restart condition being met. The controller estimates an anode gas concentration at a location where the anode gas concentration is locally lower within a power generation region of the fuel cell based on a control state of the anode gas when the shutdown command is issued. The controller sets the prescribed operation restart condition for executing the shutdown/restart operation based on the anode gas concentration.
US09083006B2 Electroluminescent devices comprising insulator-free metal grids
A device, such as an electroluminescent device, comprising (i) a transparent conductor; (ii) a metal grid disposed on said transparent conductor; and (iii) said metal grid is not covered by an insulator, but by a hole injection layer comprising at least one conjugated polymer and at least one matrix polymer. Methods for making the electroluminescent device are also disclosed.
US09082995B2 Organic EL element and organic EL material-containing solution
An organic EL device (1) includes an anode (3), a cathode (4) and an organic thin-film layer (5) provided between the anode (3) and the cathode (4). The organic thin-film layer (5) includes a single-layered mixed-color emitting layer (51) for providing mixed-color emission. The mixed-color emitting layer (51) contains a host, a fluorescent dopant for blue fluorescent emission and a phosphorescent dopant for red or green phosphorescent emission.
US09082994B2 Light-emitting element, light-emitting device, electronic device, and lighting device
Provided is a light-emitting element having a light-emitting layer which contains at least a host material and a plurality of guest materials, where the host material has a lower T1 level than that of at least one of the plurality of guest materials. The emission of the one of the plurality of guest materials exhibits a multicomponent decay curve, and the lifetime thereof is less than or equal to 15 μsec, preferably less than or equal to 10 μsec, more preferably less than or equal to 5 μsec, where the lifetime is defined as a time for the emission to decrease in intensity to 1/100 of its initial intensity.
US09082982B2 Semiconductor nanocrystal-polymer composite, method of preparing the same, and composite film and optoelectronic device including the same
A semiconductor nanocrystal-polymer composite including a semiconductor nanocrystal, a polymer comprising a plurality of carboxylate anion groups (—COO−) bindable to a surface of the semiconductor nanocrystal, and a metal cation bindable to a carboxylate anion group of the plurality of carboxylate anion groups.
US09082980B2 Manufacturing method for electroluminescent element
A method for manufacturing an electroluminescent element including: a first manufacturing step of layering on a substrate, in the following order, a first electroconductive layer, a dielectric layer in which plural contact holes are formed which pass therethrough in a direction orthogonal to the substrate, a second electroconductive layer which is electrically connected to the first electroconductive layer inside the contact holes and which fills the contact holes, a light-emitting layer, and a third electroconductive layer; a temperature distribution measurement step of applying a voltage to the first electroconductive layer and the third electroconductive layer, causing the light-emitting layer to emit light, and measuring the temperature distribution of the electroluminescent element to obtain temperature unevenness information for the electroluminescent element; and a second manufacturing step of adjusting, the basis of the temperature unevenness information, the density of the plural contact holes that pass through the dielectric layer.
US09082978B2 Piezoelectric film and method of manufacturing the piezoelectric film, ink jet head, method of forming image by the ink jet head, angular velocity sensor, method of measuring angular velocity by the angular velocity sensor, piezoelectric generating element, and method of generating electric power using the piezoelectric generating element
In order to provide a non-lead piezoelectric film having high crystalline orientation, low dielectric loss, high polarization-disappear temperature, and high piezoelectric constant, the present invention is a piezoelectric film comprising: a NaxM1-x layer 13 having a (001) orientation only; and a (1-α) (Bi, Na, Ba) TiO3-αBiQO3 layer 15 having a (001) orientation only. The (1-α) (Bi, Na, Ba) TiO3-αBiQO3 layer 15 is formed on the NaxM1-x layer 13. M represents Pt, Ir, or PtIr. Q represents Fe, Co, Zn0.5Ti0.5, or Mg0.5Ti0.5. x represents a value of not less than 0.002 and not more than 0.02. α represents a value of not less than 0.20 and not more than 0.50.
US09082972B2 Bipolar resistive switch heat mitigation
A heat mitigated bipolar resistive switch includes a BRS matrix sandwiched between first and second electrodes and a heat mitigator. The BRS matrix is to support bipolar switching of a conduction channel formed between the first and second electrodes through BRS matrix. The heat mitigator is to reduce heat in the BRS matrix generated during bipolar switching. The heat mitigator includes one or both of a parallel-connected NDR element to limit current flowing in the BRS matrix and a high thermal conductivity material to conduct the generated heat away from the BRS matrix above a predetermined elevated temperature.
US09082968B2 Variable resistance non-volatile memory device and manufacturing method thereof
In a method of manufacturing a variable resistance non-volatile memory device including non-volatile memory element layers stacked together by repeating the step (S100, S200 . . . ) of forming a non-volatile memory element layer plural times, when a thickness of the second metal oxide layer included in each of the non-volatile memory element layers just after the step of forming the corresponding non-volatile memory element layer is completed is a thickness in formation, and when an area of a portion of the second metal oxide layer included in each of the non-volatile memory element layers and a portion of the first metal oxide layer included in the corresponding non-volatile memory element layer, which portions are in contact with each other, just after the step of forming the corresponding non-volatile memory element layer is completed is an area in formation, at least one of the thickness in formation and the area in formation is made different among the steps of forming the non-volatile memory element layers, to cause all of the non-volatile memory elements in a state in which formation of an uppermost non-volatile memory element layer is completed, to have an equal initial resistance.
US09082966B2 Methods of forming semiconductor devices and structures with improved planarization, uniformity
Semiconductor devices and structures, such as phase change memory devices, include peripheral conductive pads coupled to peripheral conductive contacts in a peripheral region. An array region may include memory cells coupled to conductive lines. Methods of forming such semiconductor devices and structures include removing memory cell material from a peripheral region and, thereafter, selectively removing portions of the memory cell material from the array region to define individual memory cells in the array region. Additional methods include planarizing the structure using peripheral conductive pads and/or spacer material over the peripheral conductive pads as a planarization stop material. Yet further methods include partially defining memory cells in the array region, thereafter forming peripheral conductive contacts, and thereafter fully defining the memory cells.
US09082957B2 Arrangements for an integrated sensor
An integrated circuit can have a first substrate supporting a magnetic field sensing element and a second substrate supporting another magnetic field sensing element. The first and second substrates can be arranged in a variety of configurations. Another integrated circuit can have a first magnetic field sensing element and second different magnetic field sensing element disposed on surfaces thereof.
US09082950B2 Increased magnetoresistance in an inverted orthogonal spin transfer layer stack
A magnetic device includes a pinned magnetic layer and a free magnetic layer including a first body-centered cubic material and having a variable magnetization vector that has a first stable state and a second stable state. The magnetic device also includes a first non-magnetic layer and a reference layer. The first non-magnetic layer spatially separates the pinned magnetic layer and the free magnetic layer and includes a second body-centered cubic material that interfaces with the first body-centered cubic material. The magnetic device includes a second non-magnetic layer spatially separating the free magnetic layer and the reference magnetic layer. A magnetic tunnel junction, located below the pinned magnetic layer, is formed by the free magnetic layer, the second non-magnetic layer, and the reference magnetic layer. Application of a current pulse through the magnetic device switches the variable magnetization vector.
US09082948B2 Methods of fabricating semiconductor structures using thermal spray processes, and semiconductor structures fabricated using such methods
Methods for fabricating a semiconductor substrate include forming a first substrate layer over a surface of a first semiconductor layer, and thermally spraying a second substrate layer on a side of the first substrate layer opposite the first semiconductor layer. At least one additional semiconductor layer is epitaxially grown over the first semiconductor layer on a side thereof opposite the first substrate layer. At least one of the first substrate layer and the second substrate layer may be formulated to exhibit a Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE) closely matching a CTE of at least one of the first semiconductor layer and the at least one additional semiconductor layer. Semiconductor structures are fabricated using such methods.
US09082946B2 Light emitting module, a lamp, a luminaire and a display device
A light emitting module 150 emits light through a light exit window 104 and comprises a base 110, a solid state light emitter 154, 156 and a partially diffusive reflective layer 102. The base 110 has a light reflective surface 112 which faces towards the light exit window 104. The light reflective surface 112 has a base reflection coefficient Rbase which i defined by a ratio between the amount of light that is reflected by the light reflective surface and the amount of light that impinges on the light reflective surface. The solid state light emitter 154, 156 emits light of a first color range 114, comprises a top surface 152, 158 and has a solid state light emitter reflection coefficient R_SSL which is defined by a ratio between the amount of light that is reflected by the solid state emitter 154, 156 and the amount of light that impinges on the top surface 152, 158 of the solid state light emitter 154, 156. The light exit window 104 comprises at least a part of the partially diffusive reflective layer 102. A solid state light emitter area ratio ρSSL is defined as the ratio between the area of the top surface of the at least one solid state light emitter and the area of the light reflective surface of the base. A relatively efficient light emitting module is obtained if Rbase>R_SSL+c*(1−R_SSL) and the factor c is 0.2≦c≦1 for 0<ρSSL<0.1, 0.3≦c≦1 for 0.1≦ρSSL≦0.25, and 0.4≦c≦1 for ρSSL>0.25.
US09082942B2 Method and apparatus for packaging phosphor-coated LEDs
The present disclosure involves a method of packaging light-emitting diodes (LEDs). According to the method, a plurality of LEDs is provided over an adhesive tape. The adhesive tape is disposed on a substrate. In some embodiments, the substrate may be a glass substrate, a silicon substrate, a ceramic substrate, and a gallium nitride substrate. A phosphor layer is coated over the plurality of LEDs. The phosphor layer is then cured. The tape and the substrate are removed after the curing of the phosphor layer. A replacement tape is then attached to the plurality of LEDs. A dicing process is then performed to the plurality of LEDs after the substrate has been removed. The removed substrate may then be reused for a future LED packaging process.
US09082925B2 Methods for wet chemistry polishing for improved low viscosity printing in solar cell fabrication
A method of fabricating a solar cell is disclosed. The method includes forming a polished surface on a silicon substrate and forming a first flowable matrix in an interdigitated pattern on the polished surface, where the polished surface allows the first flowable matrix to form an interdigitated pattern comprising features of uniform thickness and width. In an embodiment, the method includes forming the silicon substrate using a method such as, but not limited to, of diamond wire or slurry wafering processes. In another embodiment, the method includes forming the polished surface on the silicon substrate using a chemical etchant such as, but not limited to, sulfuric acid (H2SO4), acetic acid (CH3COOH), nitric acid (HNO3), hydrofluoric acid (HF) or phosphoric acid (H3PO4). In still another embodiment, the etchant is an isotropic etchant. In yet another embodiment, the method includes providing a surface of the silicon substrate with at most 500 nanometer peak-to-valley roughness.
US09082920B2 Back contact solar cell and manufacturing method thereof
A back contact solar cell and a method for manufacturing the back contact solar cell are discussed. The back contact solar cell includes a substrate made of crystalline silicon having a first conductivity type, a passivation layer on one side of the substrate, an antireflection layer on the passivation layer, a first electrode on the other side of the substrate, a second electrode on the other side of the substrate and separated from the first electrode, a first semiconductor layer disposed between the first electrode and the substrate and having the first conductivity type, and a second semiconductor layer disposed between the second electrode and the substrate and having a second conductivity type that is opposite to the first conductivity type. The passivation layer includes at least one of amorphous silicon oxide and amorphous silicon carbide.
US09082910B2 Solar cell and manufacturing method thereof
A solar cell includes: a substrate; a plurality of first nanostructures provided on the substrate and arranged; and a plurality of second nanostructures provided on the substrate and arranged separate from the plurality of first nanostructures wherein an average diameter of a cross section of one of the plurality of first nanostructures that is incised in a direction that is in parallel to a substrate surface of the substrate is greater than an average diameter of a cross section of one of the plurality of second nanostructures that is incised in a direction that is in parallel to a substrate surface of the substrate.
US09082909B2 Optical device including three coupled quantum well structure
Provided is an optical device which includes an active layer which includes at least two outer barriers and at least one coupled quantum well, each of the at least one coupled quantum well is sandwiched between the at least two outer barriers. Each of the at least one coupled quantum well includes at least three quantum well layers and at least two coupling barriers interposed between the at least three quantum layers. The at least two coupling barriers have a potential energy which is higher than a ground level and is lower than energy levels of the at least two outer barriers.
US09082900B2 Photovoltaic module and manufacturing method thereof
Disclosed herein is a photovoltaic module including: a first electrode formed on a substrate; a photoelectric conversion layer formed on the first electrode; a second electrode formed on the photoelectric conversion layer; and a light transmitting back substrate disposed over the second electrode. The photovoltaic module has a color within a range of a*: −25˜0, b*: 10˜50, L*: 20˜50 in Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) LAB color coordinate.
US09082897B2 Solar power storage module, and solar power storage system and solar power supply system having same
A solar power supply system includes a power supply bus and a plurality of solar power storage systems. The power storage systems is electrically connected to each other in parallel via the power supply bus. Each of the solar power storage systems includes solar power storage modules and an inverter electrically connected to an external load and the solar power storage modules in series. Each of the solar power storage modules includes a lithium-ion battery unit, a solar cell unit, and a battery control unit. The solar cell unit charges the lithium-ion battery unit. The battery control unit is electrically connected to the lithium-ion battery unit and the solar cell unit, and controls the lithium-ion battery unit being charged or discharged.
US09082894B2 Image pickup apparatus and image pickup system
In a photoelectric conversion apparatus that adds signals of a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements included in photoelectric conversion units, each of the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements includes a first semiconductor region of a first conductivity type that collects signal carriers. The first semiconductor regions included in photoelectric conversion elements that are included in each of the photoelectric conversion units and that are arranged adjacent to each other sandwich a second semiconductor region of a second conductivity type. A height of a potential barrier for the signal carriers generated in a certain region of the second semiconductor region is smaller than a height of a potential barrier for the signal carriers generated in a third semiconductor region between each of the first semiconductor regions and an overflow drain region of the first conductivity type.
US09082892B2 GaN Based LED having reduced thickness and method for making the same
A device having a carrier, a light-emitting structure, and first and second electrodes is disclosed. The light-emitting structure includes an active layer sandwiched between a p-type GaN layer and an n-type GaN layer, the active layer emitting light of a predetermined wavelength in the active layer when electrons and holes from the n-type GaN layer and the p-type GaN layer, respectively, combine therein. The first and second electrodes are bonded to the surfaces of the p-type and n-type GaN layers that are not adjacent to the active layer. The n-type GaN layer has a thickness less than 1.25 μm. The carrier is bonded to the light emitting structure during the thinning of the n-type GaN layer. The thinned light-emitting structure can be transferred to a second carrier to provide a device that is analogous to conventional LEDs having contacts on the top surface of the LED.
US09082888B2 Inverted orthogonal spin transfer layer stack
A magnetic device includes a pinned magnetic layer having a first fixed magnetization vector with a first fixed magnetization direction. The magnetic device also includes a free magnetic layer having a variable magnetization vector having at least a first stable state and a second stable state. The magnetic device also has a first non-magnetic layer and a reference. The first non-magnetic layer spatially separates the pinned magnetic layer and the free magnetic layer. The magnetic device also includes a second non-magnetic layer spatially separating the free magnetic layer and the reference magnetic layer. A magnetic tunnel junction, located below the pinned magnetic layer, is formed by the free magnetic layer, the second non-magnetic layer, and the reference magnetic layer. Application of a current pulse, having either positive or negative polarity and a selected amplitude and duration, through the magnetic device switches the variable magnetization vector.
US09082885B2 Semiconductor chip bonding apparatus and method of forming semiconductor device using the same
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes: providing a first substrate that includes internal wiring, the first substrate including an array of chip mounting regions that includes a first chip mounting region; placing the first substrate on a first carrier line; providing a first semiconductor chip; placing the first semiconductor chip on a first moveable tray; vertically aligning the first chip mounting region of the first substrate with the first semiconductor chip, and performing initial bonding of the first semiconductor chip to the first chip mounting region of the first substrate; and performing subsequent bonding on the initially-bonded first semiconductor chip and first mounting region of the first substrate, thereby more strongly bonding the first semiconductor chip to the first substrate at the first mounting region. The initial bonding occurs after performing a subsequent bonding of at least one other semiconductor chip on the first substrate.
US09082882B2 Microelectronic component and corresponding production process
A microelectronic component includes a semiconductor substrate having a top side and a reverse side, an elastically movable mass device on the top side of the substrate, at least one source region provided in or on the mass device, at least one drain region provided in or on the mass device, and a gate region suspended on a conductor track arrangement above the at least one source region and at least one drain region and spaced apart from the mass device by a gap. The conductor track arrangement is anchored on the top side of the substrate in a periphery of the mass device such that the gate region remains fixed when the mass device has been moved.
US09082879B2 Silver-to-silver bonded IC package having two ceramic substrates exposed on the outside of the package
A packaged power device involves no soft solder and no wire bonds. The direct-bonded metal layers of two direct metal bonded ceramic substrate assemblies, such as Direct Bonded Aluminum (DBA) substrates, are provided with sintered silver pads. Silver nanoparticle paste is applied to pads on the frontside of a die and the paste is sintered to form silver pads. Silver formed by an evaporative process covers the backside of the die. The die is pressed between the two DBAs such that direct silver-to-silver bonds are formed between sintered silver pads on the frontside of the die and corresponding sintered silver pads of one of the DBAs, and such that a direct silver-to-silver bond is formed between the backside silver of the die and a sintered silver pad of the other DBA. After leadforming, leadtrimming and encapsulation, the finished device has exposed ceramic of both DBAs on outside package surfaces.
US09082875B2 Methods for normalizing strain in semicondcutor devices and strain normalized semiconductor devices
A method of normalizing strain in semiconductor devices and normalized strain semiconductor devices. The method includes: forming first and second field effect transistors of an integrated circuit; forming a stress layer over the first and second field effect transistors, the stress layer inducing strain in channel regions of the first and second field effect transistors; and selectively thinning the stress layer over at least a portion of the second field effect transistor.
US09082867B2 Embedded cost-efficient SONOS non-volatile memory
A cost-efficient SONOS (CEONOS) non-volatile memory (NVM) cell for use in a CMOS IC, where the CEONOS NVM cell requires two or three additional masks, but is otherwise substantially formed using the same standard CMOS flow processes used to form NMOS transistors. The cell is similar to an NMOS cell but includes an oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO) layer that replaces the standard NMOS gate oxide and serves to store NVM data. The cells utilize special source/drain engineering to include pocket implants and lightly-doped drain extensions, which facilitate program/erase of the CEONOS NVM cells using low voltages (e.g., 5V). The polysilicon gate, source/drain contacts and metallization are formed using corresponding NMOS processes. The CEONOS NVM cells are arranged in a space-efficient X-array pattern such that each group of four cells share a drain diffusion and three bit lines. Programming involves standard CHE injection or pulse agitated interface substrate hot electron injection (PAISHEI).
US09082866B2 Semiconductor storage device and method of manufacturing the same
A semiconductor device including a first isolation region dividing a semiconductor substrate into first regions; memory cells each including a tunnel insulating film, a charge storing layer, an interelectrode insulating film, and a control gate electrode above the first region; a second isolation region dividing the substrate into second regions in a peripheral circuit region; and a peripheral circuit transistor including a gate insulating film and a gate electrode above the second region. The first isolation region includes a first trench, a first element isolation insulating film filled in a bottom portion of the first trench, and a first gap formed between the first element isolation insulating film and the interelectrode insulating film. The second isolation region includes a second trench and a second element isolation insulating film filled in the second trench. The first and the second element isolation insulating films have different properties.
US09082861B2 Transistor with oxide semiconductor channel having protective layer
A highly reliable semiconductor device is provided. Over an oxide semiconductor layer in which a channel is formed, an insulating layer including the oxide semiconductor material having a higher insulating property than an oxide semiconductor layer is formed. A material which contains an element M and is represented by a chemical formula InMZnOX (X>0) or an oxide material which contains an element M1 and an element M2 and is represented by a chemical formula InM1XM2(1−X)ZnO (00) is used as the oxide semiconductor material having a high insulating property. Ti, Zr, Hf, Ge, Ce, or Y is used as the element M and the element M2, for example. Ga is used as the element M1, for example.
US09082857B2 Semiconductor device comprising an oxide semiconductor layer
A thin film transistor structure in which a source electrode and a drain electrode formed from a metal material are in direct contact with an oxide semiconductor film may lead to high contact resistance. One cause of high contact resistance is that a Schottky junction is formed at a contact plane between the source and drain electrodes and the oxide semiconductor film. An oxygen-deficient oxide semiconductor layer which includes crystal grains with a size of 1 nm to 10 nm and has a higher carrier concentration than the oxide semiconductor film serving as a channel formation region is provided between the oxide semiconductor film and the source and drain electrodes.
US09082856B2 Graphene devices with local dual gates
An electronic device comprises an insulator, a local first gate embedded in the insulator with a top surface of the first gate being substantially coplanar with a surface of the insulator, a first dielectric layer formed over the first gate and insulator, and a channel. The channel comprises a bilayer graphene layer formed on the first dielectric layer. The first dielectric layer provides a substantially flat surface on which the channel is formed. A second dielectric layer formed over the bilayer graphene layer and a local second gate formed over the second dielectric layer. Each of the local first and second gates is capacitively coupled to the channel of the bilayer graphene layer. The local first and second gates form a first pair of gates to locally control a first portion of the bilayer graphene layer.
US09082853B2 Bulk finFET with punchthrough stopper region and method of fabrication
An improved bulk FinFET with a punchthrough stopper region, and method of fabrication are disclosed. The dopants used to form the punchthrough stopper are supplied from a shallow trench isolation liner. An anneal diffuses the dopants from the shallow trench isolation liner into the bulk substrate and lower portion of the fins, to form the punchthrough stopper region.
US09082851B2 FinFET having suppressed leakage current
A FinFET device which includes: a semiconductor substrate; a three dimensional fin oriented perpendicularly to the semiconductor substrate; a local trench isolation between the three dimensional fin and an adjacent three dimensional fin; a nitride layer on the local trench isolation; a gate stack wrapped around a central portion of the three dimensional fin and extending through the nitride layer; sidewall spacers adjacent to the gate stack and indirectly in contact with the nitride layer, two ends of the three dimensional fin extending from the sidewall spacers, a first end being for the source of the FET device and a second end being for a drain of the FET device; and an epitaxial layer covering each end of the three dimensional fin and being on the nitride layer. Also disclosed is a method of fabricating a FinFET device.
US09082850B2 Semiconductor device having buried channel array
A semiconductor device includes a field regions in a substrate to define active regions, gate trenches including active trenches disposed across the active region and field trenches in the field regions, and word lines that fill the gate trenches and extend in a first direction. The word lines include active gate electrodes occupying the active trenches, and field gate electrodes occupying the field trenches. The bottom surface of each field gate electrode, which is disposed between active regions that are adjacent to each other and have one word line therebetween, is disposed at a higher level than the bottom surfaces of the active gate electrodes.
US09082849B2 Semiconductor structure and method for manufacturing the same
The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a semiconductor structure, comprising the steps of: providing a semiconductor substrate, forming an insulating layer on the semiconductor substrate, and forming a semiconductor base layer on the insulating layer; forming a sacrificial layer and a spacer surrounding the sacrificial layer on the semiconductor base layer, and etching the semiconductor base layer by taking the spacer as a mask to form a semiconductor body; forming a dielectric film on sidewalls of the semiconductor body; removing the sacrificial layer and the semiconductor body located under the sacrificial layer to form a first semiconductor fin and a second semiconductor fin; and forming a retrograde doped well structure on the inner walls of the first semiconductor fin and the second semiconductor fin, wherein the inner walls thereof are opposite to each other. Correspondingly, the present invention further provides a semiconductor structure. In the present invention, a retrograde doped well structure is formed on the sidewalls of the two semiconductor fins that are opposite to each other, so that the width of the source/drain depletion layer may be effectively reduced, and thereby the short channel effect is reduced.
US09082835B2 Semiconductor device, manufacturing method thereof, electronic device and vehicle
A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a recess over a surface of an n-type semiconductor substrate, forming a gate insulation film over an inner wall and a bottom face of the recess, embedding a gate electrode into the recess, forming a p-type base layer in the surface layer of the substrate so as to be shallower than the recess; and forming an n-type source layer in the p-type base layer so as to be shallower than the p-type base layer. The impurity profile of the p-type base layer in a thickness direction includes a second peak being located closer to a bottom face side of the substrate than the first peak and being higher than the first peak, and a third peak located between the first peak and the second peak by implanting impurity ions three times or more at ion implantation energies different from each other.
US09082834B2 Nitride semiconductor device
A nitride semiconductor device is provide that can reduce contact resistance of an ohmic electrode and a nitride semiconductor layer. In a GaN HFET, recesses (106, 109) are formed in a nitride semiconductor multilayer body (20) composed of an undoped GaN layer (1) and an undoped AlGaN layer (2) formed on an Si substrate (10), and a source electrode (11) and a drain electrode (12) are formed in the recesses (106, 109). In a region deeper than an interface (S1, S2) between the GaN layer (1) and the source electrode (11) and drain electrode (12), which are formed from a TiAl material, a first chlorine concentration peak (P11) is formed in vicinity of the interface, and a second chlorine concentration peak (P22) having a chlorine concentration of 1.3×1017 cm−3 or lower is formed at a position deeper than the first chlorine concentration peak (P11).
US09082833B1 Through via recessed reveal structure and method
A stacked assembly includes a stacked structure stacked on a through via recessed reveal structure. The through via recessed reveal structure includes recesses within a backside surface of an electronic component that expose backsides of through vias. Pillars of the stacked structure are attached to the exposed backsides of the through vias through the recesses. The recesses in combination with the pillars work as a lock and key arrangement to insure self-alignment of the pillars with the backsides of the through vias allowing fine pitch interconnections to be realized. Further, by forming the interconnections to the backsides of the through vias within the recesses, the overall thickness of the stacked assembly is minimized. Further still, by forming the interconnections to the backsides of the through vias within the recesses, shorting between adjacent through vias is minimized or eliminated.
US09082829B2 Methods for forming arrays of small, closely spaced features
Methods of forming arrays of small, densely spaced holes or pillars for use in integrated circuits are disclosed. Various pattern transfer and etching steps can be used, in combination with pitch-reduction techniques, to create densely-packed features. Conventional photolithography steps can be used in combination with pitch-reduction techniques to form superimposed patterns of crossing elongate features with pillars at the intersections. Spacers are simultaneously applied to sidewalls of both sets of crossing lines to produce a pitch-doubled grid pattern. The pillars facilitate rows of spacers bridging columns of spacers.
US09082814B2 Semiconductor devices and power conversion systems
A semiconductor device includes first semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type; a second semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type that is formed near a surface of the first semiconductor layer; a first main electrode that is electrically connected to the second semiconductor layer; a third semiconductor layer of the second conductivity type that neighbors the first semiconductor layer; a fourth semiconductor layer of the first conductivity type that is selectively disposed in an upper portion of the third semiconductor layer; a second main electrode that is electrically connected to the third semiconductor layer and the fourth semiconductor layer; a trench whose side face is in contact with the third semiconductor layer and the fourth semiconductor layer; a gate electrode that is formed along the side face of the trench by a sidewall of polysilicon; and a polysilicon electrode.
US09082809B2 Graphene base transistor having compositionally-graded collector barrier layer
A junction transistor, comprising, on a substrate an emitter layer, a collector layer, and a base layer that comprises a graphene layer, wherein an emitter barrier layer is arranged between the base layer and the emitter layer, and a collector barrier layer is arranged between the base and the collector layers and adjacent to the graphene layer, characterized in that the collector barrier layer is a compositionally graded material layer, which has an electron affinity that decreases in a direction pointing from the base layer to the collector layer.
US09082806B2 Semiconductor device and method of forming a vertical interconnect structure for 3-D FO-WLCSP
A semiconductor device has a temporary carrier. A semiconductor die is oriented with an active surface toward, and mounted to, the temporary carrier. An encapsulant is deposited with a first surface over the temporary carrier and a second surface, opposite the first surface, is deposited over a backside of the semiconductor die. The temporary carrier is removed. A portion of the encapsulant in a periphery of the semiconductor die is removed to form an opening in the first surface of the encapsulant. An interconnect structure is formed over the active surface of the semiconductor die and extends into the opening in the encapsulant layer. A via is formed and extends from the second surface of the encapsulant to the opening. A first bump is formed in the via and electrically connects to the interconnect structure.
US09082805B2 System and method for testing an electrostatic chuck
The present invention provides a reliable, non-invasive, electrical test method for predicting satisfactory performance of electrostatic chucks (ESCs). In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a parameter, e.g., impedance, of an ESC is measured over a frequency band to generate a parameter functions. This parameter function may be used to establish predetermined acceptable limits of the parameter within the frequency band.
US09082803B2 Substrate holding apparatus, mask alignment method, and vacuum processing apparatus using long taper pins and short taper pins for alignment
A mask alignment method for a substrate holding apparatus. A first engaging portion is formed in one of a substrate holder and a mask and has two protruding portions. A second engaging portion is formed in the other one of the substrate holder and the mask and has at least one protruding portion. First groove portions formed in the other one of the substrate holder and the mask engage with the protruding portions of the first engaging portion. A second groove portion formed in the other one of the substrate holder and the mask engages with the protruding portion of the second engaging portion. The mask alignment method includes the steps of (a) engaging the protruding portions of the first engaging portion with the first groove portions to align the mask with respect to the substrate holder in a first direction, and (b) engaging, after the step of engaging the protruding portions of the first engaging portion with the first groove portions, the protruding portion of the second engaging portion with the second groove portion, to align the mask with respect to the substrate holder in a direction perpendicular to the first direction.
US09082800B2 Substrate treatment system, substrate transfer method and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium
A substrate treatment system comprise a treatment station having a plurality of treatment units provided at multiple tiers in an up-down direction, a cassette mounting table on which a cassette housing a plurality of wafers W is mounted, and a wafer transfer mechanism arranged between the treatment station and the cassette mounting table, wherein a delivery block in which a plurality of delivery units are provided at multiple tiers is provided between the treatment station and the wafer transfer mechanism, the delivery units temporarily housing a wafer to be transferred between the cassette mounting table and the treatment station and a wafer to be transferred between the tiers of the treatment units. The wafer transfer mechanism includes a first transfer arm that transfers a wafer between the cassette mounting table and the delivery block, and a second transfer arm that transfers a wafer between the tiers of the delivery units.
US09082794B1 Metal oxide thin film transistor fabrication method
A method is provided for fabricating a thin film transistor. An insulating and a metal gate contact layer are deposited on a substrate with the insulating layer being positioned between the gate contact layer and the substrate. A portion of the gate contact layer is selectively removed utilizing reactive ion etching incorporating a gas that etches the gate contact layer but not the insulating layer. A plurality of layers is deposited over a remaining portion of the gate contact layer and insulating layer, which include a gate insulating layer, a channel layer, and a metal film. A portion of the metal film is selectively removed utilizing reactive ion etching incorporating the gas that etches the metal film but not the channel layer. The insulating layer includes a high resistivity insulator that can be deposited at temperatures less than 400° C. and the channel layer is comprised of a metal oxide semiconductor.
US09082788B2 Method of making a semiconductor device including an all around gate
A method of making a semiconductor device includes forming an intermediate structure including second semiconductor fin portions above a first semiconductor layer, and top first semiconductor fin portions extending from respective ones of the second semiconductor fin portions. The second semiconductor fin portions are selectively etchable with respect to the top first semiconductor fin portions. A dummy gate is on the intermediate structure. The second semiconductor fin portions are selectively etched to define bottom openings under respective ones of the top first semiconductor fin portions. The bottom openings are filled with a dielectric material.
US09082787B2 Semiconductor structure and manufacturing process thereof
A semiconductor structure includes a substrate having a first conductive type, a well having a second conductive type formed in the substrate, a first doped region and a second doped region formed in the well, a field oxide, a first dielectric layer and a second dielectric layer. The field oxide is formed on a surface region of the well and between the first doped region and the second doped region. The first dielectric layer is formed on the surface region of the well and covers an edge portion of the field oxide. The first dielectric layer has a first thickness. The second dielectric layer is formed on the surface region of the well. The second dielectric layer has a second thickness smaller than the first thickness.
US09082773B2 Integrated circuit, semiconductor device and method of manufacturing a semiconductor device
An integrated circuit including a semiconductor device has a power component including a plurality of trenches in a cell array, the plurality of trenches running in a first direction, and a sensor component integrated into the cell array of the power component and including a sensor cell having an area which is smaller than an area of the cell array of the power component. The integrated circuit further includes isolation trenches disposed between the sensor component and the power component, an insulating material being disposed in the isolation trenches. The isolation trenches run in a second direction that is different from the first direction.
US09082768B2 Display device and manufacturing method thereof
It is an object of the present invention to prevent an influence of voltage drop due to wiring resistance, trouble in writing of a signal into a pixel and trouble in gray scales, and provide a display device with higher definition, represented by an EL display device and a liquid crystal display device. In the present invention, a wiring including Cu is provided as an electrode or a wiring used for the display device represented by the EL display device and the liquid crystal display device. Besides, sputtering is performed with a mask to form the wiring including Ca. With such structure, it is possible to reduce the voltage drop and a deadened signal.
US09082767B2 Embedded integrated circuit package and method for manufacturing an embedded integrated circuit package
A embedded integrated circuit package is provided, the embedded integrated circuit package including: at least one chip arranged over a chip carrier, the at least one chip including a plurality of chip contact pads; encapsulation material formed over the chip carrier and at least partially surrounding the at least one chip; a plurality of electrical interconnects formed through the encapsulation material, wherein each electrical interconnect is electrically connected to a chip contact pad; and a structure formed between the electrical interconnects of the embedded integrated circuit package, wherein the structure increases the creepage resistance between the electrical interconnects.
US09082755B2 Semiconductor device having multi-layered bit line contact
A method for forming a semiconductor device is disclosed. A method for forming a semiconductor device includes forming a first bit line contact over a semiconductor substrate, forming a second bit line contact that is coupled to the first bit line contact and has a larger width than the first bit line contact, and forming a bit line over the second bit line contact. When using the semiconductor device having a buried gate, although the bit line is formed to have a small width and the bit line pattern is misaligned, the method prevents incorrect coupling between a bit line and a bit line contact, so that it basically deteriorates unique characteristics of the semiconductor device.
US09082746B2 Method for forming self-aligned trench contacts of semiconductor components and a semiconductor component
A semiconductor body component has a first surface and is comprised of a first semiconductor material extending to the first surface. At least one trench extends from the first surface into the semiconductor body and includes a gate electrode insulated from the semiconductor body and arranged below the first surface. A second insulation layer is formed on the first surface with a recess that overlaps in projection onto the first surface with the conductive region. A mask region is formed in the recess, and the second insulation layer is etched selectively to the mask region and the semiconductor body to expose the semiconductor body at the first surface. A third insulation layer is deposited on the first surface, and the third insulation layer is etched so that a semiconductor mesa of the semiconductor body arranged next to the at least one trench is exposed at the first surface.
US09082743B2 3DIC packages with heat dissipation structures
A package includes a first die and a second die underlying the first die and in a same first die stack as the first die. The second die includes a first portion overlapped by the first die, and a second portion not overlapped by the first die. A first Thermal Interface Material (TIM) is over and contacting a top surface of the first die. A heat dissipating lid has a first bottom surface contacting the first TIM. A second TIM is over and contacting the second portion of the second die. A heat dissipating ring is over and contacting the second TIM.
US09082740B2 Battery heating circuits and methods using resonance components in series and bridge charge storage components
Under one aspect, a battery heating circuit includes damping and current storage components connected with the battery to form a first part of a first loop. First and second switch units are connected with the first part of the first loop. Third and fourth switch units are connected with the first part of the first loop to form a second loop. A charge storage component is connected across the first and second loops. The first and third switch units and charge storage component form branches transferring energy between the battery and charge storage component, and the fourth and second switch units and charge storage component form branches transferring energy between the battery and charge storage component. The switching control module switches on and off the first through fourth switch units to control energy flow between the battery and charge storage component.
US09082733B2 Display unit and electronic apparatus
A display unit comprising an organic layer between a light-emitting section portion of a first electrode layer and a light-emitting section portion of a second electrode layer. Light is emissible from within the organic layer. An aperture-defining insulating film is between a contact section of the first electrode layer and a gap section portion of the second electrode layer. The thickness of the gap section portion of the second electrode layer is greater than the thickness of the light-emitting section portion of the second electrode layer.
US09082731B2 Manufacturing method of metal wire and thin transistor array panel, and organic light emitting diode display
A manufacturing method of a wire including: forming a lower layer on a substrate; forming a middle layer on the lower layer; forming an upper layer on the middle layer; forming, exposing, and developing a photoresist layer on the upper layer to form a photoresist pattern; and etching the upper layer, the middle layer, and the lower layer by using the photoresist pattern as a mask to form a wire such that the upper layer covers an end of the middle layer.
US09082728B2 Heat treatment method and heat treatment apparatus for heating substrate by emitting flashing light
A first flash heating is performed in which a flash lamp emits a first flashing light to a semiconductor wafer having been heated to a first preheating temperature equal to or lower than 650 degrees C. by a light emission from a halogen lamp so that the temperature of a surface of the semiconductor wafer reaches 1000 degrees C. or higher. Then, a second flash heating is performed in which a second flashing light is emitted to the semiconductor wafer having been further heated by a light emission of the halogen lamp. Performing the first flash heating can suppress diffusion of impurity in the subsequent second flash heating. In the second flash heating, the impurity is activated and introduced crystal defects are recovered.
US09082723B2 Semiconductor package and fabrication method thereof
A semiconductor package is provided, which includes: a first dielectric layer having opposite first and second surfaces and a cavity penetrating the first and second surfaces; a first circuit layer embedded in the first dielectric layer and exposed from the first surface of the first dielectric layer; at least an adhesive member formed in the cavity and adjacent to the first surface of the first dielectric layer; an electronic element disposed on the adhesive member; a second dielectric layer formed on the second surface of the first dielectric layer and in the cavity to encapsulate the adhesive member and the electronic element; a second circuit layer formed on the second dielectric layer; and a plurality of conductive vias formed in the second dielectric layer for electrically connecting the second circuit layer and the electronic element, thereby reducing the package size and cost and increasing the wiring space and flexibility.
US09082721B2 Structures comprising masks comprising carbon
The critical dimension (CD) of features formed during the fabrication of a semiconductor device may be controlled through the use of a dry develop chemistry comprising O2, SO2 and a hydrogen halide. For example, a dry develop chemistry comprising a gas comprising O2 and a gas comprising SO2 and a gas comprising HBr may be used to remove exposed areas of a carbon-based mask. The addition of HBr to the conventional O2 and SO2 dry develop chemistry enables a user to tune the critical dimension by growing, trimming and/or sloping the sidewalls and to enhance sidewall passivation and reduce sidewall bowing.
US09082720B2 Semiconductor device manufacturing method
A direction change of space formed in an etching target layer can be suppressed while maintaining an etching selectivity for the etching target layer against a mask. A semiconductor device manufacturing method MT includes exciting a first gas by supplying the first gas containing a fluorocarbon gas, a fluorohydrocarbon gas and an oxygen gas into a processing chamber 12 (ST2); and exciting a second gas by supplying the second gas containing an oxygen gas and a rare gas into the processing chamber (ST3), and a cycle including the exciting of the first gas (ST2) and the exciting of the second gas (ST3) is repeated multiple times.
US09082713B2 Method of grinding wafer stacks to provide uniform residual silicon thickness
A method of processing a device wafer in a wafer stack by chucking the wafer stack device side down and grinding the exposed side of the carrier wafer to parallel with the device wafer, and thereafter flipping the wafer stack and chucking the wafer stack carrier side down and grinding residual silicon from the device wafer.
US09082709B2 Hardening resin composition, sealing material, and electronic device using the sealing material
A hardening resin composition includes a base resin and a hardening agent. The base resin contains a maleimide compound having two or more maleimide groups in one molecule, and the hardening agent contains a diamine compound expressed by a general chemical formula (1), in which A is an oxygen atom or a sulfur atom, X is a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group with a carbon number of six or less, or an aryl group, and n is a natural number of 1 to 10.
US09082701B2 Trench forming method, metal wiring forming method, and method of manufacturing thin film transistor array panel
A method of forming a thin film transistor array panel includes: forming a first insulating layer on a substrate; forming an amorphous carbon layer on the first insulating layer; forming a second insulating layer on the amorphous carbon layer; forming an opening in the amorphous carbon layer by patterning the second insulating layer and the amorphous carbon layer; and forming a trench in the first insulating layer by etching the first insulating layer, the etching the first insulating layer using the amorphous carbon layer including the opening as a mask.
US09082700B2 Ultraviolet treatment of metal oxide electrodes
An ultraviolet treatment method is provided for a metal oxide electrode. A metal oxide electrode is exposed to an ultraviolet (UV) light source in a humid environment. The metal oxide electrode is then treated with a moiety having at least one anchor group, where the anchor group is a chemical group capable of promoting communication between the moiety and the metal oxide electrode. As a result, the moiety is bound to the metal oxide electrode. In one aspect the metal oxide electrode is treated with a photoactive moiety. Exposing the metal oxide electrode to the UV light source in the humid environment induces surface defects in the metal oxide electrode in the form of oxygen vacancies. In response to the humidity, atmospheric water competes favorably with oxygen for dissociative adsorption on the metal oxide electrode surface, and hydroxylation of the metal oxide electrode surface is induced.
US09082699B2 Method of manufacturing a semiconductor device
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device having a twin well structure is provided. The method includes ion-implanting of a first conductivity type impurity in a first region and a second region of a semiconductor substrate, the first and second regions being located adjacent to each other; forming a first resist pattern to cover the first region of the semiconductor substrate and to expose the second region of the semiconductor substrate; ion-implanting of a second conductivity type impurity at a higher concentration compared to the first conductivity type impurity in the second region of the semiconductor substrate, with the first resist pattern being used as a mask; and thermal-diffusing the first conductivity type of impurity and the second conductivity type of impurity.
US09082694B2 Substrate processing apparatus, method for manufacturing substrate, and method for manufacturing semiconductor device
A substrate processing apparatus includes: a processing chamber that accommodates a substrate; a heating portion that is provided so as to surround a accommodating region of the substrate within the processing chamber; a gas nozzle that is provided inside the heating portion and that supplies a processing gas to the accommodating region of the substrate; and a gas heating mechanism that is provided inside the heating portion and that supplies the processing gas from an upstream side of the gas nozzle into the gas nozzle. A ratio of a flow channel circumferential length to a flow channel cross-sectional area in a gas flow channel of the gas heating mechanism is larger than a ratio of a flow channel circumferential length to a flow channel cross-sectional area in a gas flow channel of the gas nozzle.
US09082692B2 Engineered substrate assemblies with epitaxial templates and related systems, methods, and devices
Engineered substrates having epitaxial templates for forming epitaxial semiconductor materials and associated systems and methods are disclosed herein. In several embodiments, for example, an engineered substrate can be manufactured by forming a first semiconductor material at a front surface of a donor substrate. The first semiconductor material is transferred to first handle substrate to define a first formation structure. A second formation structure is formed to further include a second semiconductor material homoepitaxial to the first formation structure. The method can further include transferring the first portion of the second formation structure to a second handle substrate such that a second portion of the second formation structure remains at the first handle substrate.
US09082682B2 Insulating sheet having heterogeneous laminated structure, method of manufacturing the same, and transistor including the insulating sheet
An insulating sheet has a heterogeneous laminated structure, and includes a graphene sheet and a hexagonal boron nitride sheet on the graphene sheet, the hexagonal boron nitride sheet having a root mean square (RMS) surface roughness of about 0.5 nm or less in a region having an area of about 200 nm×200 nm or less, and one or more of longitudinal and transverse lengths of about 1 mm or more.
US09082675B2 Partitioned silicon photomultiplier with delay equalization
A photon detection device includes a first wafer having an array of photon detection cells partitioned into a plurality of photon detection blocks arranged in the first wafer. A second wafer having a plurality of block readout circuits arranged thereon is also included. An interconnect wafer is disposed between the first wafer and the second wafer. The interconnect wafer includes a plurality of conductors having substantially equal lengths. Each one of the plurality of conductors is coupled between a corresponding one of the plurality of photon detection blocks in the first wafer and a corresponding one of the plurality of block readout circuits such that signal propagation delays between each one of the plurality of photon detection blocks and each one of the plurality of block readout circuits are substantially equal.
US09082664B2 Method for manufacturing thin-film transistor substrate and thin-film transistor substrate manufactured with same
The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a thin-film transistor substrate and a thin-film transistor substrate manufactured with the method. The method includes: (1) providing a substrate (20); (2) forming a gate terminal (22) having a predetermined structure on the substrate (20); (3) forming a gate insulation layer (24) on the gate terminal (22) and the substrate (20); (4) forming a metal signal line (26) having a predetermined structure on the gate insulation layer (24); (5) forming an oxide semiconductor layer (28) having a predetermined structure on the gate insulation layer (24); (6) forming a passivation layer (32) having a predetermined structure on the gate insulation layer (24), the metal signal line (26), and the oxide semiconductor layer (28); and (7) forming a source/drain terminal (34) having a predetermined structure on the metal signal line (26), the oxide semiconductor layer (28), and the passivation layer (32) so as to form a thin-film transistor substrate.
US09082662B2 SOI semiconductor device comprising a substrate diode and a film diode formed by using a common well implantation mask
When forming sophisticated SOI devices, a substrate diode and a film diode are formed by using one and the same implantation mask for determining the well dopant concentration in the corresponding well regions. Consequently, during the further processing, the well dopant concentration of any transistor elements may be achieved independently from the well regions of the diode in the semiconductor layer.
US09082660B2 Method of controlling threshold voltage and method of fabricating semiconductor device
A method of controlling a threshold voltage is provided. The method of controlling a threshold voltage includes performing a film-thickness measuring step to measure the thickness of a film layer on a wafer to obtain a film-thickness value. Then, at least one parameter is decided, selected, or generated according to the film-thickness value. Next, an ion implantation process is performed on the wafer, wherein the ion implantation process is executed according to the parameter to form a threshold voltage adjustment region in the wafer below the film layer.
US09082653B2 Semiconductor devices and methods of fabricating the same
A semiconductor device includes a lower insulating pattern on a semiconductor substrate, a lower gate pattern on the lower insulating pattern and formed of a doped polysilicon layer, a residual insulating pattern with an opening exposing a portion of a top surface of the lower gate pattern, an upper gate pattern on the residual insulating pattern, the upper gate pattern filling the opening, and a diffusion barrier pattern in contact with the portion of the top surface of the lower gate pattern and extending between the residual insulating pattern and the upper gate pattern.
US09082652B2 Semiconductor device, active matrix substrate, and display device
A semiconductor device that includes a substrate 37, a non-volatile memory (memory cell) 21 having a memory cell transistor (switching element) 33 and a floating gate electrode (memory storage part) 36, and a passivation insulating film (insulating layer) 40 and an organic polymer film (insulating layer) 41 both provided above the non-volatile memory 21, in which conductive wiring line layers (shielding part) 5a to 5c for shielding the floating gate electrode 36 are provided between the floating gate electrode 36 and both the passivation insulating film 40 and the organic polymer film 41 so that ions generated from the passivation insulating film 40 and the organic polymer film 41 can be prevented from reaching the floating gate electrode 36.
US09082651B2 Memory devices and method of forming same
A device comprises a control gate structure over a substrate, a memory gate structure over the substrate, wherein a charge storage layer formed between the control gate structure and the memory gate structure, a first spacer along a sidewall of the memory gate structure, a second spacer over a top surface of the memory gate structure, a first drain/source region formed in the substrate and adjacent to the memory gate structure and a second drain/source region formed in the substrate and adjacent to the control gate structure.
US09082637B2 Optoelectronic integrated circuit
A semiconductor device includes a substrate supporting a plurality of layers that include at least one modulation doped quantum well (QW) structure offset from a quantum dot in quantum well (QD-in-QW) structure. The modulation doped QW structure includes a charge sheet spaced from at least one QW by a spacer layer. The QD-in-QW structure has QDs embedded in one or more QWs. The QD-in-QW structure can include at least one template/emission substructure pair separated by a barrier layer, the template substructure having smaller size QDs than the emission substructure. A plurality of QD-in-QW structures can be provided to support the processing (emission, absorption, amplification) of electromagnetic radiation of different characteristic wavelengths (such as optical wavelengths in range from 1300 nm to 1550 nm). The device can realize an integrated circuit including a wide variety of devices that process electromagnetic radiation at a characteristic wavelength(s) supported by the QDs of the QD-in-QW structure(s). Other semiconductor devices are also described and claimed.
US09082632B2 Ramp-stack chip package with variable chip spacing
A chip package includes a stack of semiconductor dies or chips that are offset from each other, thereby defining a terrace with exposed pads. Moreover, surfaces of each of the semiconductor dies in the stepped terrace include two rows of first pads approximately parallel to edges of the semiconductor dies. Furthermore, the chip package includes a high-bandwidth ramp component, which is positioned approximately parallel to the terrace, and which has a surface that includes second pads arranged in at least two rows of second pads for each of the semiconductor dies. The second pads are electrically and mechanically coupled to the exposed first pads by connectors. Consequently, the electrical contacts in the chip package may have a conductive, a capacitive or, in general, a complex impedance. Furthermore, the chips and/or the ramp component may be positioned relative to each other using a ball-and-pit alignment technique.
US09082628B2 Trench schottky diode
A trench Schottky diode is described, which has a highly doped substrate of a first conductivity type and an epitaxial layer of the same conductivity type that is applied to the substrate. At least two trenches are introduced into the epitaxial layer. The epitaxial layer is a stepped epitaxial layer that has two partial layers of different doping concentrations.
US09082626B2 Conductive pads and methods of formation thereof
In one embodiment, a device includes a first conductive pad disposed over a substrate, and a etch stop layer disposed over a top surface of the first conductive pad. The device further includes a solder barrier disposed over the etch stop layer.
US09082624B2 Signal path of a multiple-patterned semiconductor device
A multiple-patterned semiconductor device is provided. The semiconductor device includes one or more layers with signal tracks defined by masks and a structure for transferring a signal between signal tracks and repowering the signal.
US09082619B2 Methods and apparatuses for forming semiconductor films
Described herein are systems and methods method for forming semiconductor films. In some embodiment, the methods comprising depositing the source solution containing a solvent and plurality of types of metal ionic species and a second type on a substrate heated to a temperature at or above the boiling point of the solvent. In some embodiments, methods and apparatus for exposing a substrate to a gas are also provided.
US09082614B1 Periphery coating apparatus, periphery coating method and storage medium therefor
There is provided a periphery coating method of coating a coating liquid on a periphery region of a substrate. The method includes performing a scan-in process of moving the coating liquid nozzle from an outside of an edge of the substrate to a position above the periphery region of the substrate while rotating the substrate and discharging the coating liquid from the coating liquid nozzle; and performing a scan-out process of moving the coating liquid nozzle from the position above the periphery region of the substrate to the outside of the edge of the substrate while rotating the substrate and discharging the coating liquid from the coating liquid nozzle. Further, in the scan-out process, the coating liquid nozzle is moved at a speed lower than a speed at which the coating liquid is moved to a side of an edge of the substrate.
US09082607B1 Molded leadframe substrate semiconductor package
A process for forming an optical package comprises at least partially encasing a first leadframe strip in a first mold compound thereby forming a molded leadframe strip, mounting at least one optical semiconductor device on the molded leadframe strip, at least partially encasing the molded leadframe strip, and singulating the molded leadframe strip to form discrete packages for optical applications. An apparatus for forming an optical package comprises means for at least partially encasing a first leadframe strip in a first mold compound thereby forming a molded leadframe strip, means for mounting at least one optical semiconductor device on the at least one molded leadframe strip, means for at least partially encasing the molded leadframe strip, and means for singulating the molded leadframe strip to form discrete and grid array packages.
US09082597B2 Data acquisition system for a spectrometer using an ion statistics filter and/or a peak histogram filtering circuit
A data acquisition system and method are described that may be used with various spectrometers. The data acquisition system may include an ion detector, an initial processing module, and a spectra processing module. The initial processing module is provided for processing the ion detection signals and for supplying processed signals to the spectra processing module. The spectra processing module generates spectra from the processed signals and supplies the generated spectra to an external processor for post-processing. The spectra processing module may include an ion statistics filter and/or a peak histogram filtering circuit.
US09082589B2 Hybrid impedance matching for inductively coupled plasma system
In one aspect, a system includes a generator configured to generate and tune a frequency of a supply signal. The system includes an auto-matching network configured to receive the supply signal and to generate an impedance-matched signal for use in powering a plasma system. In some implementations, during a first stage of an impedance matching operation, the generator is configured to tune the frequency of the supply signal until the generator identifies a frequency for which the reactance of the generator and the reactance of the load are best matched. In some implementations, during a second stage of the impedance matching operation, the auto-matching network is configured to tune a tuning element within the auto-matching network until the auto-matching network identifies a tuning of the tuning element for which the resistance of the generator and the resistance of the load are best matched.
US09082577B1 Adjustment method for electron beam device, and the electron beam device thus adjusted
An electron beam device including an electron source which generates an electron beam; three lenses for controlling the characteristics of the electron beam, including a first lens, second lens and third lens arranged in sequence from the upstream side in relation to the emission direction of the electron beam; and a beam definition aperture arranged on the second lens. The position of the second lens is adjusted such that the total lens magnification ratio obtained under maximum beam current substantially matches the ideal lens magnification ratio defined on the basis of electro-optical characteristics.
US09082562B2 Inrush-current suppressing device and inrush-current suppressing method
An inrush-current suppressing device includes: a residual-magnetic-flux calculating unit that calculates a residual magnetic flux in a reference phase of a three-phase transformer while assuming a maximum magnetic flux level generated at a time of applying a rated voltage as 1 PU based on a measurement result of a transformer-voltage measuring unit before and after opening a three-phase circuit breaker; a stationary-magnetic-flux calculating unit that calculates a stationary magnetic flux in the reference phase of the three-phase transformer with reference to the maximum magnetic flux level obtained as the 1 PU based on a measurement result of a power-supply-voltage measuring unit, in response to a closing command to the three-phase circuit breaker; and a control unit that actuates a switch of the three-phase circuit breaker corresponding to the reference phase at a timing when the stationary magnetic flux and the residual magnetic flux in the reference phase match each other.
US09082551B2 High dielectric nanosheet laminate, high dielectric element and method for producing the same
A high dielectric nanosheet laminate is produced by laminating nanosheets, each of which has a thickness of 10 nm or less and is formed of an oxide that has a perovskite structure wherein at least four NbO6 octahedrons, TaO6 octahedrons or TiO6 octahedrons are included in a unit lattice. Consequently, the high dielectric nanosheet laminate is capable of achieving a high dielectric constant and a satisfactory insulation property, which are preferable for high dielectric nanosheet multilayer capacitors or the like, at the same time even if formed very thin.
US09082545B2 Antenna device and communication device
An antenna device, capable of stable communications without increasing a space of the entire device by keeping a resonance frequency substantially constant even if the temperature changes, includes: an antenna circuit having an antenna coil with an electrically connected capacitor; the coil receiving a magnetic field transmitted from a reader/writer at a predetermined oscillation frequency; the circuit becoming communicable when inductively coupled to the reader/writer; and a magnetic sheet formed at a position superposed on the coil to change its inductance, wherein the coil has a temperature characteristic in which the inductance is changed with a temperature change, and the sheet has a temperature characteristic of changing the inductance to achieve a characteristic inverse to the inductance change with the temperature change in a predetermined use temperature range, and substantially matching a resonance frequency of the circuit with the oscillation frequency in the use temperature region.
US09082542B2 Reactor
A reactor, which enables costs to be reduced while ensuring specific specifications for an electric vehicle such as an HV vehicle, is provided. The reactor for an HV vehicle includes: a reactor core in which a pair of roughly U-shaped core members, which have been integrally formed using an Fe—Si magnetic powder, are arranged in a circular shape by aligning two leg sections of each core member opposite to each other with gaps therebetween; and coils wound around the periphery of the leg sections of the core members, which are positioned opposite to each other with the gaps therebetween.
US09082540B2 Common mode filter and method of manufacturing the same
The present invention relates to a common mode filter and a method of manufacturing the same. In order to implement a common mode filter with low shrinkage, high substrate sintered density, and high strength, the present invention provides a common mode filter including: a lower substrate; an insulating layer having a conductor pattern inside and provided on the lower substrate; an upper substrate provided on the insulating layer; and a ferrite core made of ferrite and provided in the center of the insulating layer, the lower substrate, and the upper substrate by penetrating the insulating layer, the lower substrate, and the upper substrate, and a method of manufacturing the same.
US09082537B2 R-T-B based permanent magnet
The present invention provides a permanent magnet which is excellent in the temperature properties and the magnetic properties of which will not be significantly decreased, compared to the conventional R-T-B based permanent magnet. In the R-T-B based structure, a stacked structure of R1-T-B based crystal layer and Y-T-B based crystal layer can be formed by alternatively stacking R1-T-B and Y-T-B. In this way, a high magnetic anisotropy field of the R1-T-B based crystal layer can be maintained while the temperature coefficient of the Y-T-B based crystal layer can be improved.
US09082535B2 Method and apparatus for orderly run-down of superconducting magnets
In a method and apparatus for maintaining operation of ancillary equipment associated with a superconducting magnet carrying a DC current, the DC current is directed through a DC-to-AC converter, and the magnitude of the current flowing through the superconducting magnet is ramped down at a controlled rate, thereby generating a controlled voltage across a controlled impedance, and powering the ancillary equipment by the controlled voltage and an associated current, and the ramping rate is controlled in order to maintain a required controlled voltage.
US09082528B2 Method for making carbon nanotube-loaded electrode, carbon nanotube-loaded electrode made by the method, and applications thereof
The present invention provides a method for fabricating a carbon nanotube-loaded electrode enabling that hybrid carbon nanotubes comprising dendrimer-encapsulated metal nanoparticles covalently immobilized on carbon nanotubes via a first covalent bond are made and such hybrid carbon nanotubes are then covalently immobilized on a metal electrode coated with a self-assembled monolayer via a second covalent bond. Also provided is a carbon nanotube-loaded electrode made by the method. The electrode thus made possesses high durability, reactivity and stability.
US09082520B2 Multi level multileaf collimators
A multilevel MLC includes a first set and a second set of a plurality of pairs of beam blocking leaves arranged adjacent one another. Leaves of each pair in the first set are disposed in an opposed relationship and longitudinally movable relative to each other in a first direction. Leaves of each pair in the second set are disposed in an opposed relationship and longitudinally movable relative to each other in a second direction generally parallel to the first direction. The first and second sets of pairs of leaves are disposed in different planes.
US09082514B1 Method and apparatus for physically unclonable function burn-in
A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and apparatus for performing physically unclonable function (PUF) burn-in are disclosed. For example, the method identifies, by a processor, a natural output of an integrated circuit before the integrated circuit is initialized, identifies, by the processor, a physical characteristic of the integrated circuit associated with the physically unclonable function, and ages, by the processor, the physical characteristic of the integrated circuit to burn-in the natural output of the integrated circuit.
US09082511B2 Redundancy evaluation circuit for semiconductor device
A redundancy evaluation circuit has (m+1) fuse boxes and a comparator, wherein the m fuse box output a fuse status address signal and the other one fuse box outputs a comparator enable signal. Each fuse box has a common stage circuit and k redundant cells. The k redundant cells shares the precharge transistor and an inverted latch of the common stage circuit, and the fuse in the selected redundant cell affects the output of the corresponding fuse box. The comparator enabled by the comparator enable signal compares the fuse status address signal and a defective element address signal to generate a redundancy enable signal. The redundancy evaluation circuit has a small layout area.
US09082504B2 Semiconductor memory device storing refresh period information and operating method thereof
A semiconductor memory device which stores refresh period information thereby adjusting a refresh period and a method of operating the same. The semiconductor memory device includes a cell array and a refresh information storing unit. The cell array includes one or more cell regions each having a plurality of memory cells. The refresh information storing unit is configured to store first information including a first refresh period and second information including a second refresh period in correspondence to each of the cell regions. Memory cells included in each of the cell regions are refreshed at the first refresh period according to the first information in a first refresh time band and are refreshed at the second refresh period according to the second information in a second refresh time band.
US09082501B2 Shift register apparatus and display system utilizing the same
A shift register apparatus including a first shift register cell is disclosed. The first shift register cell includes a first logic unit, a first control unit and a first output unit. The first logic unit generates a first control signal and a second control signal according to a start signal and a first setting signal. During a first period, the first control unit employs the first and second control signals to make a first clock signal update the first setting signal and the first output unit employs the first and second control signals to make a second clock signal update the first shifted signal. During a second period, the first output unit controls the first shifted signal according to the first and second control signals such that the first shifted signal does not follow the second clock signal.
US09082492B2 Nonvolatile memory device and memory management method thereof
Embodiments include a memory managing method of a nonvolatile memory device, which includes detecting whether sub-blocks of memory blocks are programmed, and programming write data at a memory block having a programmed sub-block from among the memory blocks, prior to programming a memory block having no programmed sub-blocks from among the memory blocks, according to the detection result. Embodiments also include programming the write data at a sub-block, closest to a common source line, from among unprogrammed sub-blocks of the memory block. Embodiments also include erasing at least one sub-block that is farthest from the common source line, prior to erasing other sub-blocks from among the programmed sub-blocks in the memory block. Embodiments also include selectively programming or erasing sub-blocks according to read merge times.
US09082487B2 Program method of nonvolatile memory device for having dense threshold voltage distribution by controlling voltage of bit line according to threshold voltage of memory cell
A program method of a nonvolatile memory device includes a pre-program verify step for verifying a threshold voltage of a selected memory cell; a step of setting a bit line voltage of the selected memory cell according to the threshold voltage of the selected memory cell which is determined through the pre-program verify step; a step of applying a program voltage to the selected memory cell set with the bit line voltage; and a post-program verify step for verifying a programmed state of the selected memory cell applied with the program voltage.
US09082486B2 Row decoding circuit and memory
A row decoding circuit and a memory are provided. The row decoding circuit is adapted for providing a word line operation voltage and a control-gate line operation voltage to a dual-bit split gate flash memory array, and includes a dummy row decoding unit, at least one row decoding unit and a driving voltage generating circuit. The dummy row decoding unit includes a first dummy control-gate line voltage output, a second dummy control-gate line voltage output and at least one dummy word line voltage output. The row decoding unit includes a first control-gate line voltage output, a second control-gate line voltage output and at least one word line voltage output. The driving voltage generating circuit is adapted for providing a third driving voltage to the first control-gate line voltage output and the second control-gate line voltage output.
US09082477B2 Set pulse for phase change memory programming
A memory device and method for programming the memory device, including a method for a melting phase change memory cell by applying an electronic signal at a first value and subsequently decreasing the signal value. The phase change memory cell can be substantially crystallized after the decrease in signal value.
US09082475B2 Nonvolatile memory device
A nonvolatile memory device includes an operation control unit, a reference voltage generating unit, and a sensing unit. The operation control unit is configured to select a unit cell from unit cells to perform reading and writing operations. The reference voltage generating unit is configured to voltage-divide a read voltage using series-connected resistors and generate a reference voltage based on the voltage-divided read voltage. The sensing unit is configured to compare a size of a voltage through an e-fuse of the selected unit cell based on the read voltage with the reference voltage, and sense data of the e-fuse of the selected unit cell. The nonvolatile memory device also includes a read current supply unit configured to output the read voltage to the unit cells during a reading operation of the nonvolatile memory device.
US09082465B2 Weak keeper circuit for memory device
A memory circuit is provided comprising a plurality of bit cells coupled to a bit line that permits accessing information from each of the plurality of bit cells. A sense inverter is coupled to an output of the bit line. A keeper circuit has an output coupled to the bit line to compensate for current leakage from the plurality of bit cells. The keeper circuit may comprise an n-channel metal-oxide-silicon (NMOS) transistor in series with a p-channel metal-oxide-silicon (PMOS) transistor.
US09082464B2 Memory module for high-speed operations
A memory module includes a plurality of buses. A plurality of memory chips is mounted on a module board and is connected to a first node, a second node, and a plurality of third nodes of the plurality of buses. The first node, the second node, and the third nodes branch off to a first memory chip, a second memory chip, and the third memory chips, respectively. A length of the plurality of buses between the first and second nodes is longer than a length of the plurality of buses between adjacent nodes from among the second node and the third nodes.
US09082458B1 Data storage device balancing and maximizing quality metric when configuring arial density of each disk surface
A data storage device is disclosed comprising a plurality of disk surfaces, and a head actuated over each disk surface. For each disk surface, a quality metric is measured at a plurality of discrete areal densities including a first areal density comprising a first radial density and a first linear density, and a second areal density comprising a second radial density different from the first radial density and a second linear density different from the first linear density. Based on a target capacity, an areal density is selected for each disk surface such that the combined areal densities satisfies the target capacity and such that the quality metrics across the disk surfaces are substantially equal and substantially maximized.
US09082452B2 Method for media reliving on demand
A method for viewing a collection of images or videos, includes analyzing the collection to determine properties of the images or videos and using the determined properties to produce icons corresponding to such properties; providing a time-varying display of the images or videos in the collection following an ordering of the images or videos in the collection and at least one of the corresponding icons; receiving a user selection of an icon; and changing the display of the images or videos in the collection following a reordering of the images or videos in the collection in response to the user selection.
US09082449B2 Disk drive device with structure that enables thinning and increase of recording capacity
A disk drive device includes: a chassis; an annular hub on which a recording disk is to be mounted; a fluid dynamic bearing mechanism that supports the hub freely rotatable relative to the chassis; an annular extended portion extending outwardly in a radial direction from the hub; and an annular recess which is provided in the chassis and where the annular extended portion at least partially enters in the radial direction, in which a gap between the annular recess and the annular extended portion includes a portion that forms a flexed labyrinth in a cross-sectional view.
US09082447B1 Determining storage media substrate material type
A method, system, and computer program product are disclosed for determining a material type of storage media substrates. The method includes using a first sensor to detect an object that indicates the presence of at least one storage media substrate, and using an inductive sensor to determine whether the at least one storage media substrate is of a metallic type.
US09082424B2 Side shield biasing layer separated from an air bearing surface
Various embodiments may configure a data storage device with at least a magnetic element having a magnetic stack that is configured with an air bearing surface (ABS) and is separated from a side shield. The side shield can be biased by a biasing layer that contacts the side shield and is separated from the ABS.
US09082399B2 Method and apparatus for processing an audio signal using window transitions for coding schemes
An apparatus for processing an audio signal and method thereof are disclosed. The present invention includes receiving, by an audio processing apparatus, an audio signal including a first data of a first block encoded with rectangular coding scheme and a second data of a second block encoded with non-rectangular coding scheme; receiving a compensation signal corresponding to the second block; estimating a prediction of an aliasing part using the first data; and, obtaining a reconstructed signal for the second block based on the second data, the compensation signal and the prediction of aliasing part.
US09082393B2 Acoustic treatment vessel and method for acoustic treatment
Methods and systems for acoustically treating material using a continuous process in which material may be caused to flow in a continuous or intermittent fashion into/out of an acoustic treatment chamber where the material is exposed to focused acoustic energy. The methods and systems may be arranged to permit continuous processing for extended periods while an acoustic energy source operates at a relatively high power output. Treatment chambers may include features such as an acoustic window and/or a chamber wall which may comprise an acoustically reflective material or a gas/wall interface that serves to reflect acoustic energy to form one or more secondary focal zones. Treatment system configurations relating to arrangements of a treatment chamber relative to an acoustic source and coupling medium, material flow paths, and others are provided.
US09082392B2 Method and apparatus for a configurable active noise canceller
A method and apparatus for active noise canceling. The method includes retrieving an input sample from at least one of a feedback or feedforward microphone digitized through the sigma-delta converter, retrieving the input sample and a related filter, wherein the filter is customized to the particular headset, outputting a filtered signal through a speaker without any interpolation and reducing order of CIC filters, and outputting a response sharply tapered down.
US09082391B2 Method and arrangement for noise cancellation in a speech encoder
The present invention relates to a method and arrangement for an improved noise canceller in a speech encoder. Sound signals are captured at a primary microphone in conjunction with a reference microphone. An adaptive shadow filter is adapted to the correlation between the signals captured at the primary and reference microphones. Further, a diffuse-noise-field detector is introduced which detects the presence of diffuse noise. When the diffuse-noise-field detector detects diffuse noise, the filter coefficients of the adapted shadow filter is used by a primary filter to cancel the diffuse noise at the signal captured by the primary microphone. Since the filter coefficients of the adapted shadow filter only is used for cancellation when diffuse noise is solely detected, cancellation of the speech signal is avoided.
US09082381B2 Method, system, and computer program for enabling flexible sound composition utilities
A computer system for enabling generation/controlling/modification of sound elements is provided. A computer program defines a sound engine. The sound engine includes or is linked to one or more musical composition interfaces that enable one or more users to access a music generator/controller/modifier utility (“music generator”), so as to graphically map one or more musical notes by tracing one or more Bezier paths defined that are processable by the music generator so as to define the four fundamental note qualities: Tone, pitch, volume and duration. The music generator enables user manipulation of the Bezier paths, including touch input modification of the paths (e.g. dragging, forming etc.) that modify fundamental qualities of the corresponding note.
US09082368B2 Semiconductor devices having image sensor and memory device operation modes
A semiconductor device may include a plurality of banks; and a control unit configured to receive a command from an external device and independently control the plurality of banks according to the received command. Each bank comprises a pixel array including a plurality of pixels; a row decoder configured to activate word lines connected to the plurality of pixels under control of the control unit; a column decoder configured to activate bit lines connected to the plurality of pixels under control of the control unit; a sense amplifier and write driver configured to control and detect respective voltages of the activated bit lines to provide respective amplified voltages; and an input/output buffer configured to output data states of the pixels based on the respective amplified voltages. Related methods of operation are also discussed.
US09082365B2 Liquid crystal display device and driving method of the same improving afterimage problem due to image data of black level
A liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal panel; a gamma voltage supplying unit establishing a gamma voltage corresponding to each gray level according to a predetermined T-V curve; and a data driving unit changing digital image data into analog image data using the gamma voltage and outputting the analog image data to the liquid crystal panel, wherein the gamma voltage corresponding to a black level is configured to have a value within a range of 0 V to 0.005 V.
US09082364B2 Integrated source driving system
A source driving system includes first and second source driving integrated circuits. The first driving integrated circuit includes a first source driver for receiving first display data and driving pixels in a first block of a display panel according to the first display data. The second source driving integrated circuit includes a second source driver electrically connected to the first source driver for receiving second display data and driving pixels in a second block of the display panel according to the second display data. The first and the second source drivers generate first and second display parameters according to the first and the second display data respectively. The second display parameter is transmitted from the second source driver to the first source driver. The first source driver generates a third display parameter according to the first and second parameters and transmits the third display parameter to the second source driver.
US09082353B2 Circuits for controlling display apparatus
The invention relates to methods and apparatus for forming images on a display utilizing a control matrix to control the movement of MEMS-based light modulators.
US09082338B2 Display apparatus configured for selective illumination of image subframes
Systems, apparatus, and methods are disclosed herein for displaying images. One such apparatus includes an input, subfield derivation logic, subframe generation logic, dark subframe detection logic, and output logic. The input is configured to receive image data associated with an image frame. The subfield derivation logic is configured to derive at least one color subfield for the received image frame. The subframe generation logic is configured to generate a plurality of subframes for each of the at least one derived color subfields. The dark subframe detection logic is configured to identify dark subframes. The output logic is configured to, in response to identification of a dark subframe, suppress the outputting of the dark subframe and to modify a display parameter associated with at least one other subframe based on a timing value associated with the identified dark subframe.
US09082337B2 Changing visual content communication
Techniques for presenting changing visual content, including video, animation and so on, as an overlay are discussed. Changing visual content, included in a visual presentation, may be identified from other visual elements included in the visual presentation. The changing visual content may be manipulated based on available resources associated with presenting the changing visual content as an overlay for a client.
US09082333B2 Integrated circuit configured to detect a short circuit therein and apparatus having the same
An integrated circuit is provided. The integrated circuit includes a plurality of output pads, a plurality of test pads, and a plurality of channel shift switches respectively connected between the plurality of output pads and the plurality of test pads and operated by a plurality of channel shift switch enable signals. A short path between the plurality of output pads may be detected when each of the plurality of channel shift switch enable signals are simultaneously at a high level.
US09082326B2 Self illuminated shaped and two-sided signage for printed graphics
Self illuminated back and front lit shaped and two-sided signage. The signage includes a turning film having a structured surface for redirecting light and a diffuser providing for diffusion. The shape of the signage from a viewer's perspective provides the content, such as letters, to be conveyed to the viewer. Two-sided signage includes two signs arranged back-to-back, each including a turning film having a structured surface for redirecting light, a diffuser providing for diffusion, and a printed graphic. In the two-sided signage, the turning films receive light from an ambient light source and direct the light via the structured surfaces toward viewers of the two graphics in order to passively illuminate the signage. The two-sided signage can be shaped to provide content via the shape and graphics.
US09082319B2 Method, apparatus, and system for computer-aided tracking, navigation and motion teaching
Methods, apparatuses, and systems for computer-aided tracking, navigation, and motion tracking. In one embodiment, a system for determining a spatial position, including a tracking device and a processor. The tracking devices has a working end, a reference end, a plurality of links connecting the working end to the reference end, wherein each link has at least one degree of freedom relative to an adjacent link, and a plurality of sensors measuring the orientation of the links in a plurality of degrees of freedom, wherein X is a minimum number of degrees of freedom about which information is required to define the spatial position. The processor receives information from the sensors and determine the spatial position of the working end of the tracking device relative to the reference end of the tracking device based on information from the sensors measuring Y degrees of freedom, wherein Y is greater than X.
US09082318B2 Tunnel entrance elevation specifying device, method for specifying tunnel entrance elevation, computer program for specifying tunnel entrance elevation, and storage medium that stores computer program
Systems for automatically specifying a tunnel entrance and methods that accomplish same. One method includes a target entrance selecting step for selecting, from a map data storing portion, a target entrance for specifying an entrance elevation of a tunnel, a target road link assigning step for assigning, from the map data storing portion, a road link, which includes the target entrance, as a target road link, a corrected point extracting step for extracting a certain point as a corrected point, the certain point being located along the target road link and away from the target entrance outwardly of the tunnel by a predetermined distance, a corrected point elevation specifying step for specifying an elevation of the corrected point as a corrected point elevation, and a first target entrance elevation specifying step for specifying the corrected point elevation as a first elevation of the target entrance.
US09082307B2 Circular antenna array for vehicular direction finding
The circular antenna array for vehicular direction finding applications is a circular disc having a plurality of microstrip antennas radially spaced around the disc at equal angles. In one embodiment, the circular antenna array includes V-shaped antennas, and in another embodiment, the antennas are Yagi antennas. The circular antenna array can operate under two modes, switched and phased, in the 2.45 GHz band with an operating bandwidth of at least 100 MHz. The circular antenna array is configured to be installed in vehicles. Selective transmittal of an RF signal from a key fob generates a response signal from a specific antenna element receiving the RF signal in line with the direction of origin thereof. An LED panel indicates proximity and direction to the vehicle being located.
US09082304B2 Enhanced barrel mounted traffic message board systems and methods
Systems and methods disclose an enhanced barrel mounted traffic message board system for displaying information to traffic. A traffic message board is adjustably coupled to a pole and configured to display the traffic information to the traffic. A battery provides power to the traffic message board and a solar panel provides power to the battery. A traffic barrel is positioned around the pole and over a base plate that supports the pole. An internal structure positioned within the barrel couples with the base plate to provide support to the pole.
US09082303B2 Generating visual information associated with traffic
Disclosed herein is a traveler information monitoring and dissemination system. The system disclosed herein provides real time information to a traveler, wherein the real time information may be pre-selected by the traveler. The system ensures consistent and quality data are produced and issued to the traveler.
US09082291B2 Virtual metering with partitioned metrology
A distributed metering platform virtualizes functions of a conventional metrology sensor and separates the virtualized functions from a metrology sensor. One or more virtual meters or applications may be instantiated at a network communication device that is remote from the metrology sensor and processes metrology data received from the metrology sensor. Each virtual meter may include multiple partitioned application spaces that are isolated from one another. In one example, a first application space includes a locked version of code and a second application space includes an unlocked version of code. Furthermore, each virtual meter may be isolated from other virtual meters such that each virtual meter is unable to affect operations and/or data associated with other virtual meters.
US09082289B2 Systems and methods for detecting and identifying dentures having embedded tunable loop-dipole RFID tag antenna
A radio frequency identification (RFID) system for detecting and identifying lost dentures in a facility, includes readers deployed in fixed locations in the facility. Each of the readers is configured to transmit a first signal and to detect from a distance a second signal, which is generated at an RFID transponder embedded in a denture in response to receiving the first signal by backscattering a part of the first signal. The second signal contains information related to the denture, including an identification of the denture owner. The RFID system also includes a first server located within the facility. The first server is configured to communicate with the readers over a network in the facility and to control operations of the readers. Each of the readers sends the information related to the denture to the first server when it detects the second signal from the RFID transponder.
US09082287B2 Methods for displaying and determining movement state of memory card slot, and memory card slot movement state displaying and determining system
A method for displaying the movement state of a memory card slot is disclosed. Detection is performed to determine whether a slot button has been touched for activating. A light intensity signal is received and transformed into an electrical signal when the slot button has been activated, in which the light intensity signal represents the movement of the memory card slot. Next, the electrical signal is processed through a processor for deriving a position of the memory card slot, and the movement state is displayed according to the position of the memory card slot.
US09082278B2 Surveillance system
A surveillance system includes an input unit to receive a plurality of video frames that are acquired through the use of a first camera, a video processing unit to perform prediction and encoding processes on the plurality of video frames, a moving-object tracking unit to track a moving object between the video frames based on at least part of the results from the prediction and encoding processes to generate location information of the moving object being tracked, and a control unit to generate a control signal based on the location information and to transmit the control signal to a second camera to control the movement of the second camera.
US09082263B2 Method and apparatus for conducting a game of chance
A system and method are provided for playing a game of chance. The game of chance may include, for example, a lottery-type game. A result of the game of chance is revealed to a player in another medium. In one example, the result is revealed during multiple game instances of one or more online games. In one example, the online game is a bingo game.
US09082260B2 Networked gaming system communication protocols and methods
A system, method and apparatus for a gaming system is provided. The gaming system includes a rewards server and a separate gaming or slot accounting server. The system may further include a separate player tracking server. The system further includes one or more game machines. The game machines may include a base game, rewards tracking module, and a game management module. Further details will be apparent from the description, drawings and claims.
US09082259B2 Enhanced game play awards and use in gaming environments
A method is shown for enhancing game play on a gaming machine. In one embodiment, the gaming machine may include a processor, a memory, and program logic stored in the memory that may be executable to play a game in exchange for a wager. The method includes receiving a Newprom award that is not issued by the gaming machine. The method may include altering, using the processor, the game to an enhanced game state in response to the Newprom award. The Newprom award may be configured to add one or more game play enhancements available to a player only by way of the Newprom award to the game. This may alter the game to the enhanced game state so that the game is played with the one or more game play enhancements.
US09082258B2 Method and system for providing download and configuration job progress tracking and display via host user interface
A slot management system including a download and configuration server-based sub-system and method is disclosed for use with game devices, systems, and methods is provided to enable users to monitor, control, and modify game devices and other related activities. A download tracking system and method is provided for providing dynamic monitoring and displaying of download progress.
US09082256B2 Backlight for video display
A gaming system including an electronic gaming machine (EGM) having a backlit video display, is described. In particular, the EGM can be configured with a display that allows display elements, such as mechanical stepper reels, positioned behind the display to be either revealed or obscured by using directional lighting. The display assembly can include an edge-lit light guide having different regions that can extract light coming from a particular direction.
US09082251B2 Systems for providing an interactive networked product container
Networked product containers such as vending machines identify the presence of a potential customer via sensors, and present customized interactive marketing content to consumers. Consumers interact with a touch screen to win prizes, make purchases, or have a fun and interactive experience. The prizes and purchases offered by the product container may be determined by the product container or by one or more content servers in communication with the container. The content server may also provide digital content for display on the product container and remotely update the product container's content. The networked product container also includes a wireless access point to provide nearby wireless-enabled devices network connectivity via the product container.
US09082234B1 Automatic guarantee delivery tracking and reporting for united states postal service postage refunds for paid computer-based postage
Various exemplary embodiments of the present invention will provide methods and systems for automatic tracking and reporting of refunds for parcels for which the United States Postage Service (the “USPS”) fails to provide delivery to the designated delivery address by a guaranteed delivery date. Various embodiments of the present invention will automatically detect a parcel for which a delivery date has been guaranteed, but for which the USPS failed to make delivery by the guaranteed delivery date. For such guaranteed delivery failures, various embodiments of the present invention will display an online report to the user, or will send an electronic report of the failure, such as by electronic mail (“email”), to the user that printed the corresponding USPS Express Mail postage, or will otherwise notify the user of, or make available to the user information regarding, such failures. Various embodiments of the present invention will automatically and periodically analyze electronic and/or digital scanning events provided by the USPS regarding postage printed by users that used the subject Internet postage provider to print Express Mail Postage with a corresponding USPS Express Mail Label Number. Various embodiments of the present invention will automatically and periodically analyze such electronic and/or digital scanning events in order to determine whether a scanned tracking event indicates a delivery corresponding to postage printed by a user using the subject Internet postage provider and in order, then, to determine whether the actual delivery date and/or time, if delivered, exceeds the guaranteed delivery and/or time.
US09082232B2 System and method for displaying cluster spine groups
A system and method for displaying spine groups is provided. Unique spine groups selected from a set of spine groups are placed around a shape defined in a display. One of the spine groups remaining in the set is selected and compared to each of the unique spine groups in the display. The unique spine group that is most similar to the selected spine group is identified. The selected spine group is placed adjacent to the unique spine group that is most similar.
US09082228B2 Analytical motion blur rasterization with compression
A rasterizer, based on time-dependent edge equations, computes analytical visibility in order to render accurate motion blur. An oracle-based compression algorithm for the time intervals lowers the frame buffer requirements. High quality motion blurred scenes can be rendered using a rasterizer with rather low memory requirements. The resulting images may contain motion blur for both opaque and transparent objects.
US09082227B2 Method and apparatus for a linear representation of an image histogram
A method comprising determining an image histogram associated with an image, determining a linear image histogram based, at least in part, on the image histogram, and causing display of a linear representation of the image histogram and, at least part of, the image is disclosed.
US09082226B2 Graph drawing using precise shape clipping
A computer-implemented method is provided for drawing a graph in which multiple nodes are connected by multiple edges. An image is displayed representing a node, and the image is processed to distinguish image foreground pixels and image background pixel. An edge is displayed incident to the node, the edge extending over selected background pixels and stopping short of selected foreground pixels. There results a graph drawing that is more aesthetically pleasing.
US09082221B2 Method for the real-time composition of a video
A method for real time construction of a video sequence comprising a modelled 3D object is provided. The method comprises pre-calculating data representative of a first image of a three-dimensional environment and a first associated depth information. A live calculating of data representative of a second image representing the modelled object on which is mapped a current image of a live video stream, and a second depth information associated with the second image is performed. The sequence is composed by combining the first image and the second image according to the first and second depth information.
US09082219B2 Orientation invariant object identification using model-based image processing
A system for performing object identification combines pose determination, EO/IR sensor data, and novel computer graphics rendering techniques. A first module extracts the orientation and distance of a target in a truth chip given that the target type is known. A second is a module identifies the vehicle within a truth chip given the known distance and elevation angle from camera to target. Image matching is based on synthetic image and truth chip image comparison, where the synthetic image is rotated and moved through a 3-Dimensional space. To limit the search space, it is assumed that the object is positioned on relatively flat ground and that the camera roll angle stays near zero. This leaves three dimensions of motion (distance, heading, and pitch angle) to define the space in which the synthetic target is moved. A graphical user interface (GUI) front end allows the user to manually adjust the orientation of the target within the synthetic images. The system also includes the generation of shadows and allows the user to manipulate the sun angle to approximate the lighting conditions of the test range in the provided video.
US09082218B2 Method for manipulating three-dimensional voxel data for on-screen visual
A method for modifying an onscreen rendering of three-dimensional data stored in a voxel cell of a voxel grid to produce an altered visual effect for the cell comprising the steps (a) for each vertex of the voxel cell, determining the data density ratio in neighboring voxel cells, or determining the material type of the voxel cell and or neighboring voxel cells, (b) for each vertex in the voxel cell, and based on the results of (a), determining to change the spatial position of the vertex, and (c) for each vertex in the voxel cell, and based on the decision in (b), generating three vertex location offset coordinates defining a new vertex location.
US09082199B1 Video processing architecture
A video processing device has an input for receiving video data, at least one processing circuit, for generating processed video data from the received video data, and a memory, for receiving the processed video data. An output circuit reads the processed video data from the memory, and generates frames of data including at least the processed video data. In order to be able to operate with an output clock frequency that may differ from the ideal output clock frequency, it is possible to vary the frame size, that is, the number of pixels of data in a frame. If an amount of processed video data stored in the memory exceeds an upper threshold, then the frame size can be reduced by reducing the number of pixels of blanking data in the output frame, thereby increasing the rate at which data is read from the memory. Conversely, if an amount of processed video data stored in the memory is lower than a lower threshold, then the frame size can be increased by increasing the number of pixels of blanking data in the output frame, thereby reducing the rate at which data is read from the memory.
US09082188B2 Optical topographic imaging
Methods and devices of studying a predefined portion of an object having a feature of interest are disclosed. The feature of interest defines a class of objects that includes the object. Light sources directly illuminate the object from different illumination directions. The light sources are maintained in a stable configuration relative to the object. For each illumination direction, an image is generated from light scattered from the object with a camera maintained in a stable configuration relative to the light sources. A methodology derived from machine learning for the class of objects is applied to filter the generated images are filtered for a characteristic consistent with the feature of interest. Surface gradients are determined from the filtered images and integrated to generate a topography of a surface of the object.
US09082187B1 Method and apparatus for correcting distortion in an image due to rotational motion of an image capture device occurring while the image is being captured
A system is operable to correct for distortion in an image. The distortion in the image was caused by rotation of an image capture device while the image was being captured by the image capture device. The system includes an orientation sensor configured to perform a first measurement concurrently with the image capture device capturing the image. The system further includes a rotation module configured to generate, based on the first measurement, a rotation matrix. The system further includes a correction module configured to, based on the rotation matrix, correct the distortion in the image caused by the rotation of the image capture device. The system further includes a restoration module configured to selectively reverse the correction of the distortion in the image based on (i) the image as corrected by the correction module and (ii) the rotation matrix.
US09082185B2 Information processing apparatus, processing method therefor, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium
An information processing apparatus generates pattern data including a plurality of measurement lines, and a reference line which has a plurality of intersection points with the plurality of measurement lines, respectively, and has a shape that is defined in an interval between the intersection points by a specific feature, captures an image of an object onto which projection pattern light, based on the generated pattern data, is projected, extracts the intersection points from the captured image, and obtains information, concerning the shape with a specific feature in the interval between the intersection points on the reference line in the captured image, as identification information used to identify the measurement lines.
US09082163B2 Image processing device
An image processing device having a brightness adjustment unit having a unit processing the brightness of each pixel and a frame buffer unfolding each brightness before and after processing, and a color adjustment unit having a unit processing the color of each pixel and a frame buffer unfolding each pixel color before and after processing. The ratio (f) of the brightness of each pixel before and after adjusting is input. When the ratio (f) is equal or larger than a color emphasis parameter (ColorRate), calculates anti-numerical value that subtract the ColorRate from the ratio (f), adds the ColorRate to this anti-numerical value, and multiplies a coordinate value of the color space by the added value. When the ratio (f) is smaller than the ColorRate, multiplies the ColorRate by the coordinate value of the color space, and outputs the color of each pixel to the frame buffer.
US09082146B1 System, method, and medium for generating cached product information pages
Enabling price updates is described, including: receiving a request from a customer to review a set of product information associated with a product; sending the set of product information including a price associated with the product to the customer; receiving an update to the price from a seller associated with the product; receiving a request to buy the product from the customer; in response to the request to buy the product, determining that the price has been updated by the seller; and sending a message associated with a change in price to the customer.
US09082129B2 Providing recommendations on a social networking system page
A social networking system provides tips to users about non-user entities within the social networking system. Tips include short questions, comments, reviews and non-user entities include businesses, products, bands, songs etc. Tips are provided by users of the social networking system, wherein the tips are displayed to other users of if the other users meet privacy criteria associated with the tips. Additionally, tips are ranked based on the likelihood that a user will view or read the tip. Tips with the greatest likelihood are ranked higher than those with a lower likelihood. Selected tips with a high likelihood to be viewed are displayed to a viewing user on the topic page or within the user's news feed story.
US09082126B2 Service plan web crawler
A web crawler for downloading and analyzing the contents of a merchant's website. The web crawler may analyze the products advertised and determine whether a service plan is properly associated. The crawler may also analyze the placement of the service plans on the website, and store the information in a database. A dynamic mapper is also provided which can determine what service plan should be associated with a particular product. The dynamic mapper may also suggest what type of control to use for a particular customer. A webserver containing software for updating a webpage is also disclosed. A process for updating a webpage is also disclosed.
US09082124B2 System and method for tracking authenticated items
A system for tracking an authenticated item is provided. The system includes an authentication device affixed to the item. An item registration system receives authentication device data from the authentication device and associated item data and stores the authentication device data and the associated item data. An owner registration system receives owner registration data after a buyer has acquired the item. A buyer verification system receives the authentication device data, the associated item data and the owner registration data and stores buyer verified data if the associated item data correlates to the owner registration data, such as if the external tag number or event data entered by the owner matches external tag number or event data for the item.
US09082121B2 System and method for guided passcode entry
Systems and methods are provided for facilitating guided entry of a passcode. The exemplary guided passcode entry system provides additional security to traditional secret PIN or passcode entry systems by generating a randomized input sequence (order of entry) and prompting the user to input the passcode according to the randomized input sequence. The system also causes a test of the user's input data against a database of passcodes associated with the particular user for an exact match. The testing step can include comparing the characters of the input data to a particular passcode associated with the user which is stored in a database in accordance with the randomized input sequence in regard to the order that the input data was received. Based on the comparison of the received pin to the stored pin, the system can advance the transaction with the user.
US09082119B2 Virtualization and secure processing of data
Systems, methods, and non-transient machine-interpretable data representing executable instruction sets and/or other products for the processing of data for the secure creation, administration, manipulation, processing, and storage of electronic data useful in the processing of payment transactions and other secure data processes. In various aspects and embodiments the disclosure provides secure means for the authorization of sensitive and other data processes subject to controlled access. Such processes include, for example the creation, administration, authorization, virtualization, storage, and other manipulation or processing of electronic data representing characteristics of, instructions for, and information associated with consumer, business, and other payment accounts, and other forms of secure payment elements, such as payment tokens; and data useful in processing transactions using such accounts and elements. Information associated with particular payment means, such as accounts or payment tokens, can be stored, for example, in a data set, usually secure, sometimes referred to as a virtual or electronic wallet, or a secure payment token.
US09082116B1 Location aware requests
A mobile payment network receives a payment request from a first user operating a first mobile device and identifies recipients of the payment request based at least in part on the proximity of other mobile devices to the first mobile device.
US09082104B2 Method and apparatus for managing system specifications
The invention includes a method and apparatus for managing a system specification. The method includes identifying a first system specification defined at a first refinement level where the first system specification includes specification data, generating a second system specification at a second refinement level where the second system specification inherits the specification data of the first system specification, modifying the inherited specification data of the second system specification, and storing the second system specification including the modified specification data.
US09082098B1 Systems and methods for monitoring location of a vehicle or freight carried by a vehicle
Monitoring location of a vehicle or freight includes receiving a request for information regarding the location of the vehicle or the freight, receiving an indication of consent to transmission of location information of the communications device, correlating the vehicle or the freight with the communications device, transmitting a request for location information of the communications device to a location information provider corresponding to a party or device other than the communications device, receiving the location information of the communications device from the location information provider, correlating the location information of the communications device to the location of the vehicle or the freight based on the correlation of the vehicle or the freight to the communications device, and transmitting the location of the vehicle or the freight.
US09082097B1 Systems and methods for monitoring location of a vehicle or freight carried by a vehicle
Monitoring location of a vehicle or freight carried by the vehicle includes receiving a request for information regarding the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle, correlating the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle to a communications device, transmitting a request for location information of the communications device to a location information provider, receiving an indication that a user of the communications device consented to transmission of location information, receiving the location information of the communications device from the location information provider, correlating the location information of the communications device to the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle based on the correlation of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle to the communications device, and transmitting the location of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle.
US09082093B2 System and method for non-production environment management
The present invention discloses a system and method for management of test or non-production environment. The method comprises planning the non-production environment design, wherein planning is based on plurality of inputs. The planning stage is preceded by engagement wherein engagement with functional groups takes place. The planned non-production environment design is analyzed based upon the requirements wherein analysis consists of reviewing plurality of non-production environment designs. This stage is followed by creation of non-production environment wherein non-production environment is built on analyzed design. After this stage the non-production environment is deployed. After deployment there is provision for on-going supports to test services via established Information Technology service management processes. Non-production environment services manage the on-going booking and allocation of the non-production environment through various in-house and third party tools. The non-production environment services constantly assess the non-production environment so that the non-production environment can be re-used wherever possible.
US09082090B2 System, method, and computer program product for resource collaboration optimization
A method including receiving a plurality of roles in a data processing system and adding a part-time resource to at least one role. The method also includes determining, in the data processing system, if a project duration has changed as a result of adding the part-time resource, and if the project duration has changed, repeating the process at the adding step. The method also includes storing results corresponding to the resources assigned to roles. There is also a similar data processing system and machine-usable medium.
US09082088B2 Dynamic assignment of qualification block to person
A method for matching an object with a set of qualifications to an object with a set of requirements includes examining the object with the set of qualifications to produce a list of qualifications without a hierarchy, removing duplicate qualifications, and matching list of qualifications without a hierarchy with removed duplicates to the set of qualifications.
US09082081B2 Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program
There is provided an information processing apparatus including a reward estimator generator using action history data, including state data expressing a state, action data expressing an action taken by an agent, and a reward value expressing a reward obtained as a result of the action, as learning data to generate, through machine learning, a reward estimator estimating a reward value from inputted state data and action data. The reward estimator generator includes: a basis function generator generating a plurality of basis functions; a feature amount vector calculator calculating feature amount vectors by inputting state data and action data in the action history data into the basis functions; and an estimation function calculator calculating an estimation function estimating the reward value included in the action history data from the feature amount vectors according to regressive/discriminative learning. The reward estimator includes the plurality of basis functions and the estimation function.
US09082080B2 Systems and methods for organizing data sets
A method is provided for organizing data sets. In use, an automatic decision system is created or updated for determining whether data elements fit a predefined organization or not, where the decision system is based on a set of preorganized data elements. A plurality of data elements is organized using the decision system. At least one organized data element is selected for output to a user based on a score or confidence from the decision system for the at feast one organized data element. Additionally, at least a portion of the at least one organized data element is output to the user. A response is received from the user comprising at least one of a confirmation, modification, and a negation of the organization of the at least one organized data element. The automatic decision system is recreated or updated based on the user response. Other embodiments are also presented.
US09082078B2 Neural processing engine and architecture using the same
A neural processing engine may perform processing within a neural processing system and/or artificial neural network. The neural processing engine may be configured to effectively and efficiently perform the type of processing required in implementing a neural processing system and/or an artificial neural network. This configuration may facilitate such processing with neural processing engines having an enhanced computational density and/or processor density with respect to conventional processing units.
US09082067B2 Image processing apparatus and method thereof
This invention provides a sample print which allows the user to easily set color adjustment parameters. To this end, upon outputting images which undergo color processing using a plurality of different parameter sets, a sample print mode of parallelly outputting a reference image and images which have different parameter sets of the image processing from the reference image, and are arranged around the reference image, and a sample print mode of parallelly outputting the reference image which is arranged at a corner of an image group including images in a specific hue direction, and images which have different parameter sets of the color processing from the reference image and are arranged between the corner and other corners, are prepared.
US09082062B2 Method of, and system and label for, authenticating objects in situ
A method of, and a system and a label for, authenticating an object in situ create an authentication pattern signature for the object to be authenticated, associate a random distribution of multiple, three-dimensional elements with the object, aim a portable, handheld, image capture device at the object to capture return light from the elements as a single image, verify from the single image that the elements are three-dimensional, process the single image to generate an image pattern of the elements, compare the image pattern with the authentication pattern signature, and indicate that the object is authentic when the image pattern matches the authentication pattern signature.
US09082059B2 Method and device for producing individually coded read patterns
A device for producing individually coded read patterns, especially resonators for use in RFID chips. The device includes a structuring apparatus for producing a basic pattern with at least one group of individual patterns on a carrier substrate, and a processing apparatus for forming at least one individually coded read pattern flat a time with read elements from a subset of a total set of the individual patterns of each group. The invention also relates to a corresponding method and a read structure, produced according to the described method and/or the described device.
US09082058B2 Antenna construction, for example for an RFID transponder system
The invention relates to an antenna construction for an RFID chip for long ranges, which comprises a substrate, an antenna of conducting material supported by the substrate, and coupling means for coupling the antenna to a circuit. In accordance with the invention the antenna is a magnetic dipole, and the coupling means are formed by extensions of the antenna conductor.
US09082056B2 Token and reader
A token (2) for storing data to be read by a reader device comprises wireless communication circuitry (10), a processor and a memory (8) for storing the data, and further comprises a communication device (12) for communicating to a user.
US09082052B2 Generating a hybrid quick response (QR) code
An apparatus supporting hybrid quick response (QR) codes may include: a computer chassis; a dynamic display on the exterior of the computer chassis, the dynamic display configured to render dynamic QR code portions; and a static display that includes static QR code portions, where the static display is adapted to the chassis such that the static QR code portions and dynamic QR code portions rendered by the dynamic display comprise a single, hybrid scannable QR code.
US09082046B2 Method for creating and using affective information in a digital imaging system
An image file for storing a still digital image and metadata related to the still digital image, the image file including digital image data representing the still digital image, and metadata that categorizes the still digital image as an important digital image, wherein the categorization uses a range of levels and the range of levels includes at least three different integer values.
US09082044B2 Image process with spatial periodicity measure
An image manipulation process is controlled by a spatial periodicity measure formed for an image or an image block by measuring the sparseness of the two-dimensional spatial frequency spectrum of the image on a scale of zero to unity in which a two-dimensional spatial frequency spectrum having all equal values has a sparseness of zero and in which a two-dimensional spatial frequency spectrum having only one non-zero value has a sparseness of unity. Sparseness may be measured by allocating values of the spectrum to frequency bins and counting the number of bins that contain non-zero values; comparing values of the spectrum with a threshold and counting the number of values that exceed the threshold; or forming a function of the mean-square value and the mean value of the spectrum values.
US09082038B2 Dram c adjustment of automatic license plate recognition processing based on vehicle class information
Methods and systems for improving automated license plate recognition performance. One or more images of a vehicle can be captured via an automated license plate recognition engine. Vehicle class information associated with the vehicle can be obtained using the automated license place recognition engine. Such vehicle class information can be analyzed with respect to the vehicle. Finally, data can be dynamically adjusted with respect to the vehicle based on a per image basis to enhance recognition of the vehicle via the automated license plate recognition engine.
US09082036B2 Method for accurate sub-pixel localization of markers on X-ray images
A method and system of determining a sub-pixel point position of a marker point in an image. Embodiments of the invention allow a marker point sub-pixel localization module executable by an electronic processing unit to obtain an image, including a marker point, and to derive both a background corrected marker point profile and a background and baseline corrected marker point profile. Additionally, embodiments of the invention allow defining of a sub-pixel position of the marker point as a center of a peak of the background corrected marker point profile. Thus, embodiments of the invention allow for rapidly detecting and localizing external markers placed on a patient in projection images.
US09082034B2 Barcode reader having multiple illumination systems and multiple sets of imaging optics
A barcode reader comprises a first lens assembly with a first field of view and a first optical path for first illumination from the first field of view to project to a first image sensor section. The barcode reader further comprises a second lens assembly with a second field of view and a second optical path for second illumination from the second field of view to project to a second image sensor section. The barcode reader further comprises a first illumination system positioned outside of the first field of view projecting the first illumination into the first field of view at a first angle from the first optical path. The barcode reader further comprises a second illumination system positioned between the second lens assembly and a point from which the first illumination system projects the first illumination into the first field of view.
US09082029B2 Optical code scanner with a high dispersion optical lens
An optical code scanner is presented that includes image capture technology to scan optical codes. The image capture technology uses a fixed aperture, a fixed standard optical lens, a fixed high dispersion optical lens and at least one illumination device that generates different colors of light. Together, these elements increase the effective depth of field of the optical code scanner by capturing images of an item presented to the optical code scanner using different colors of light.
US09082027B2 Near field communication tag reader, mobile terminal for interworking with the reader, and operating method thereof
A mobile terminal acquires an item group identifier and an item identifier from a near field communication tag reader which recognizes an item group identification tag and an item identification tag. The mobile terminal acquires item group information related to an item group corresponding to the item group identifier, and extracts information related to an arrangement location of an item corresponding to the item identifier from the item group information. The mobile terminal checks whether or not the item has been correctly arranged based on the arrangement location and an identified location of the item corresponding to the item identifier, so as to display information indicating that the item has been incorrectly arranged.
US09082013B2 Image recognition device, image recognition method, program, and integrated circuit
An image recognition device including: a first recognition unit that performs image recognition within an image to find a first object; an obtaining unit that obtains an attribute of the first object found by the first recognition unit; an object specifying unit that refers to object correspondence information showing identifiers of second objects and associating each identifier with an attribute, and specifies an identifier of one of the second objects that is associated with the attribute of the first object; an area specifying unit that refers to area value information showing values that are associated with the identifiers of the second objects and are related to a first area occupied by the first object, and specifies a second area within the image by using a value associated with the identifier of the one of the second objects; and a second recognition unit that performs image recognition within the second area to find the one of the second objects.
US09082011B2 Person identification using ocular biometrics with liveness detection
A method of assessing the identity of a person by one or more of: internal non-visible anatomical structure of an eye represented by the Oculomotor Plant Characteristics (OPC), brain performance represented by the Complex Eye Movement patterns (CEM), iris patterns, and periocular information. In some embodiments, a method of making a biometric assessment includes measuring eye movement of a subject, making an assessment of whether the subject is alive based on the measured eye movement, and assessing a person's identity based at least in part on the assessment of whether the subject is alive. In some embodiments, a method of making a biometric assessment includes measuring eye movement of a subject, assessing characteristics from the measured eye movement, and assessing a state of the subject based on the assessed characteristics.
US09082009B2 Method of defect image classification through integrating image analysis and data mining
A method for classifying defect images is provided. Defect images are processed through an automatic optical detection. The present invention integrates image analysis and data mining. Defects are found on the images without using human eye. The defects are classified for reducing product defect rate. Thus, the present invention effectively enhances performance on finding and classifying defects with increased consistency, correctness and reliability.
US09082004B2 Methods and apparatus to capture images
Methods and apparatus to capture images are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a resolution determiner to determine that a first frame of image data is to undergo processing at a first resolution and that a second frame of image data is to undergo processing at a second resolution lower than the first resolution; and a controller to activate an illuminator when an image sensor is to capture the first frame and to deactivate the illuminator when the image sensor is to capture the second frame.
US09082002B2 Detection device and detection method
A detection device capable of reliably detecting an object to be detected. An intersection region pattern setting unit (106) sets a configuration pattern of a first intersection region pattern group in sequence for each unit image pair. Each intersection region pattern is defined by set image information which denotes locations and sizes of regions (where n is a natural number greater than 1) within respective unit images (e.g., unit image plane coordinates), as well as whether each region is set within either or both of a first unit image and a second unit image. A detection unit (108) detects the object to be detected, based on a total feature value relating to each configuration pattern of the first intersection region pattern group, computed by a feature value computation unit (107), and a strong identification apparatus configured from a plurality of weak identification apparatuses and stored in an identification apparatus storage unit (112).
US09082001B2 Method, apparatus and computer program product for tracking face portion
Method, apparatus, and computer program product are provided. The method includes detecting a face portion in a frame of a plurality of frames of a multi-media content. The method further includes tracking the face portion in at least one subsequent frame of the frame. A color-tracking of the face portion is performed on losing a track of the face portion in the at least one subsequent frame. The color-tracking is performed for re-tracking the face portion in the at least one subsequent frame.
US09081998B2 Method for utilizing soft X-ray microimaging for cancer cell image recognition
This invention discloses a method for utilizing soft X-ray microimaging for cancer cell image recognition. The method comprises the steps of 1) sample preparation; 2) pathological examination; 3) soft X-ray imaging; and 4) analysis and recognition. This invention applies soft X-ray microimaging for cancer cell image recognition, successfully obtains the soft X-ray microscopic image of a cancer cell by scanning the cancer cell with synchrotron radiation soft X-ray microimaging, provides recognition steps and experimental data, and establishes a method for utilizing soft X-ray microimaging for cancer cell image recognition. This invention creates a method for analyzing soft X-ray microscopic images, provides a novel synchrotron radiation soft X-ray pathological diagnosis method for cancer diagnosis, and provides an extremely valuable basis for the creation and clinical application of soft X-ray pathology in the 21st century.
US09081990B2 Preventing unauthorized data extraction
An electronic device (22, 48, 50) includes an array (26) of memory cells, which are configured to store data values. One or more sense amplifiers (40) have respective inputs for receiving signals from the memory cells and are configured to output the data values corresponding to the received signals. Switching circuitry (36, 52) is coupled between the array of the memory cells and the sense amplifiers and is configured to receive an indication of a temporal pattern and to route the signals from the memory cells among the inputs of the sense amplifiers in accordance with the temporal pattern.
US09081980B2 Methods and systems for enterprise data use monitoring and auditing user-data interactions
A method for managing data use of an enterprise is disclosed. The method includes receiving login parameters from a user associated with user identification information. The method authenticates the login parameters and the user information to determine if the login parameters match the user identification information. The method provides access to specific data in a database that stores enterprise information. Upon providing access, initiating video capture of a viewing space for the screen, the viewing space being configured to include a location where the user associate with the user identification information is predefined to reside when accessing the specific data. During the video capture, capturing image data presented on the screen and input received for the user interface of the screen. The method acts to bind the video capture and the captured image data presented on the screen and the input received.
US09081971B2 Method of parsing optional block data
A computer program product is provided and includes a tangible storage medium readable by a processing circuit and on which instructions are stored for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method. The method includes initially verifying a presence of parameters passed to a parameter database and that a selected group of the parameters are greater than or equal to zero, parsing optional block data to validate the optional block data, determine a length thereof and a number of optional blocks contained therein and proceeding with one of a secondary info-parsing and a secondary data-parsing operation with respect to the optional block data in accordance with content of the parameters passed to the parameter database.
US09081969B2 Apparatus and method for remotely deleting critical information
An apparatus and method for remotely deleting critical information is provided. The apparatus includes a storage unit, an identity determination unit, and a broadcast unit. The storage unit stores an input value and an output value for the input value with respect to a physically unclonable function (PUF) of each of a plurality of mobile terminals. The identity determination unit determines the identity of a corresponding mobile terminal based on received information about the loss of the mobile terminal. The broadcast unit extracts the input and output values of the PUF of the corresponding mobile terminal from the storage unit based on information transferred from the identity determination unit, and broadcasts the extracted input and output values to all the mobile terminals.
US09081961B2 System and method for analyzing malicious code using a static analyzer
Analyzing computer code using a tree is described. For example, a client device generates a data request for retrieving data from a non-trusted entity via a network. A gateway is communicatively coupled to the client device and to the network. The gateway is configured to receive computer code from the non-trusted entity via the network. The gateway builds a tree representing the computer code. The tree has one or more nodes. A node of the tree represents a statement from the computer code. The gateway analyzes the statement to identify symbol data. The symbol data describes a name of the variable and the value of the variable. The gateway stores the symbol data in a symbol table.
US09081950B2 Enabling host based RBAC roles for LDAP users
Provided are techniques for receiving, from a user, a first Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) request for access to a resource; correlating the first RBAC request to a first originating host device; mapping an ID corresponding to the user, the first originating host device and the resource to a first role; generating, based upon the first role, a first set of permissions corresponding to the resource; and enabling to the user to access the resource from the first originating host device in conformity with the first set of permissions. In addition to ID, host and resource, a communication medium may be factored into the mapping.
US09081949B2 Information processor, authentication control method, and storage medium
An information processor is disclosed that includes an authentication part configured to authenticate a user based on predetermined information; an information obtaining part configured to obtain first information to be used to authenticate the user from an external device; and an authentication control part configured to cause the authentication part to authenticate the user by inputting information based on the first information to the authentication part as the predetermined information. The information obtaining part is configured to obtain the first information using a program module whose correlation with the information obtaining part is recorded in a recording medium.
US09081945B2 Information processing device and method
An information processing device includes a meeting determination unit, an authentication reception unit, and an authentication determination unit. The meeting determination unit determines whether a user who is an authenticatee meets a user who is an authenticator based on information received from terminals used by the users. The authentication reception unit receives information indicating that an authentication operation is performed for the authenticatee from the terminal of the authenticator who is determined to have met the authenticatee. The authentication determination unit permits the authenticatee to use a predetermined information service, when receiving, from a predetermined number of terminals of authenticators, the information indicating that the authentication operation is performed for the authenticatee.
US09081942B2 Use of user location information for remote actions
Architecture that provides location broker services which share the user location with other parties (e.g., based on user consent). Stationary computing devices can also determine the location of the user operator and interact accordingly. In one embodiment, the user location is retrieved from the user mobile device (e.g., smart phone) and is transmitted to other mobile or non-mobile devices with which the user interacts. Moreover, existing infrastructure and systems can be employed using a device driver that emulates the user location so that any software that uses the location services does not need modification.
US09081932B2 System and method to design and test a yield sensitive circuit
A method includes identifying at least a portion of a design of a semiconductor device to be fabricated as a yield sensitive circuit. The method also includes, in response to identifying the yield sensitive circuit, forming a scan chain. Forming the scan chain includes inserting the yield sensitive circuit between a pair of flip flops and connecting the yield sensitive circuit to the pair of flip flops.
US09081921B2 Method for simulating rubber compound
A computerized simulation method to obtain a loss tangent of a rubber compound comprising a rubber matrix and filler particles, wherein a model of the rubber compound is generated; as deformation conditions thereof, two different values of strain are defined; deformation simulations are made under the two different values of the strain, to compute a normal strain and a shear strain of each element under each of the two different values of the strain, and to compute an energy loss of each element by the use of the computed strain; and the loss tangent of the rubber compound is computed from the sum of the energy losses of all of the elements, a strain amplitude caused by the difference between the two different values of the strain, and an elastic modulus of the rubber compound model.
US09081912B2 Method and apparatus for node hot-swapping
The present invention discloses a method and an apparatus for node hot-swapping, which simplify the node hot-adding procedure, and improve the operation efficiency of the hot-adding procedure. The present invention includes: obtaining, by a server from a baseboard management controller BMC of a node device to be added, static hardware information of the node device to be added, and storing it into a storage device of the server, where the static hardware information is obtained through an out-band channel by the BMC of the node device to be added; receiving, by the server, a node hot-adding command sent by a user, where the hot-adding command carries identifier information of the node device to be added; obtaining the static hardware information of the node device to be added corresponding to the identifier information from the storage device; and adding, according to the static hardware information, the node device to be added.
US09081910B2 Methods and structure for fast context switching among a plurality of expanders in a serial attached SCSI domain
Methods and structure for enabling Fast Context Switching (FCS) among a plurality of FCS enhanced Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) expanders of a SAS domain. The FCS enhanced SAS expander is further adapted to detect completion of utilization of the first connection that utilizes an upstream PHY and a downstream PHY of the expander. The expander is further adapted, responsive to detecting completion, to determine whether a second connection between the initiator device and a second target device could be established utilizing the existing coupling between the upstream PHY and the downstream PHY. The expander de-couples the upstream PHY from the downstream PHY within the expander in response to determining that the second connection does not utilize the existing coupling and maintains the existing coupling in response to determining that the second connection utilizes the coupling between the upstream PHY and the downstream PHY.
US09081898B1 Automatic capture of minimal portable executable bug repros
A minimal portable executable bug repro contains the inputs to a query optimizer, metadata, statistics, process and thread specific information such as stack traces, and state at the time of a crash necessary to reproduce the problem. Objects register with a handler prior to use, and the handler pre-allocates sufficient buffer space to store each. Upon a crash, the handler requests each object to serialize itself into the pre-allocated space, and captures the relevant information in a transactionally consistent way. The executable file may be loaded onto a debugging system, and the execution sequence replayed to analyze the problem.
US09081890B2 Rehabilitation training system and method
Provided are a rehabilitation training system and method that provide active rehabilitation training to a patient requiring rehabilitation treatment. The rehabilitation training system and method provide rehabilitation-related information to the patient to provoke a rehabilitation intent of the patient, and continuously measure a biological signal of the patient to monitor a state of the patient, thereby providing active rehabilitation training suitable for the state of the patient.
US09081888B2 Collecting and aggregating log data with fault tolerance
Systems and methods of collecting and aggregating log data with fault tolerance are disclosed. One embodiment includes, one or more devices that generate log data, the one or more machines each associated with an agent node to collect the log data, wherein, the agent node generates a batch comprising multiple messages from the log data and assigns a tag to the batch. In one embodiment, the agent node further computes a checksum for the batch of multiple messages. The system may further include a collector device, the collector device being associated with a collector tier having a collector node to which the agent sends the log data; wherein, the collector determines the checksum for the batch of multiple messages received from the agent node.
US09081884B2 Systems and methods for processing and displaying patient electrocardiograph data
A method is disclosed for displaying patient ECG data. The method includes receiving ECG data including an ECG waveform; receiving analyzed ECG data including arrhythmic events; generating an indicia of the detected arrhythmic event; and displaying the indicia of the detected arrhythmic event in relation to the ECG waveform at a position associated with a time of the detected arrhythmic event. A system for displaying patient ECG data is also disclosed.
US09081873B1 Method and system for information retrieval in response to a query
A machine-implemented system and method of information retrieval, comprising: receiving queries including an ordered set of clause definitions, each clause definition including a clause pipeline, wherein a clause pipeline includes an ordered set of clause specifications that comprises an expansion operation and/or a filter operation, where the queries are received from a calling application; parsing the queries into a collection of expression pools; processing data by the expression pools in the collection to generate a current object set; and returning the current object set to the calling application in response to the queries.
US09081869B2 System, method and computer program product for communicating data between a database and a cache
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for communicating data between a database and a cache. These mechanisms and methods for communicating data between a database and a cache can enable improved application quality and performance, enhanced client application interaction, increased system performance, etc.
US09081867B2 System and method to transform results of client requests using client uploaded presentation formats
Method and apparatus to facilitate access to a network-based publication system. In an embodiment, a user or third party affiliate of a network-based publication system uploads a style sheet or other presentation format file to a database in the network-based publication system. Thereafter, the user or third party affiliate sends a request to the network-based publication system, and the publication system uses one or more of the uploaded style sheets to format the response to be transmitted back to the third party affiliate.
US09081866B2 Dynamic display of web page content based on a rules system
A rules system can store one or more rules within a data store, and can deploy the one or more rules as one or more rule scripts, so that the one or more rule scripts are loaded by a rules server. The rules system can then receive requests from a browser engine contained within a web page and execute the one or more rule scripts loaded by the rules server to generate data. The rules system can then transmit the generated data to the browser engine contained within the web page.
US09081865B2 Identifying selected elements in dynamic content
Selectable elements in dynamic content may be identified. Analytics data may be received that may include a hierarchical position identifier corresponding to a location of a selectable element in the content. A current selectable element of a current version of the network content may be matched to the analytics data. Analytics data, which may include hierarchical position identifier, may be generated in response to a first selection of a selectable element of content. The hierarchical position identifier may be usable to match to the same corresponding current selectable element of a current version of the content.
US09081863B2 One-click segmentation definition
A system displays and filters reports including website vitiation data in response to receiving user input. The system allows users to launch various reports onto a workspace and filter the entire result set by selected criteria. The system allows the user to specify and configure segments while viewing reports, simply by clicking next to the desired criteria within the report alone or in combination with various keyboard functions. Filtered reports can be further adjusted per additional filters and criteria. The results are returned virtually instantaneously, enabling users to analyze the effects of combinations of factors.
US09081854B2 Multilabel classification by a hierarchy
A technique of extracting hierarchies for multilabel classification. The technique can process a plurality of labels related to a plurality of documents, using a clustering process, to cluster the labels into plurality of clusterings representing a plurality of classes. The technique classifies the documents and predicts a plurality of performance characteristics, respectively, for the plurality of clusterings. The technique selects at least one of the clusterings using information from the performance characteristics and adds the selected clustering into a resulting hierarchy.
US09081853B2 Information display system based on user profile data with assisted and explicit profile modification
A data processing system for delivering an open profile personalization system based profile data structures that contain one or more interest nodes. The interest nodes include respective sets of targets and qualifiers, where the targets and qualifiers comprise typed-attributes to be used in the filtering of information files for delivery as a result set for the interest nodes. Targets and qualifiers are applied the typed-attributes of available information files to produce the filtered set. Web pages showing the personalized results include tools based on sophisticated content analysis to assist the user in creation and editing of the open profile. A method for presenting and updating the web pages is responsive to the use of these tools.
US09081837B2 Scoped database connections
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for scoping the context used to access a database partition. Embodiments of the invention enable data isolation using partitions in multi-tenant databases, while relieving client applications from dealing with the partitions. For example, a computer system that includes a distributed database system comprising a plurality of database partitions in a federation receives a context to use when performing database access operations within the distributed database system. The context identifies specified relevant portion of the federation. The computer system also receives a database access operation that is associated with the context. The computer system modifies the semantics of the database access operation in accordance with the associated context, to direct application of the database access operation to the specified relevant portion of the federation.
US09081827B2 Digital file distribution in a social network system
Systems and methods for obtaining a digital file similar to one used by a device associated with a member of a social network are provided. Digital file information about the digital file is stored on a web-based social network database. The digital file may be located on the same server as the web-based social network database or a third party server such as a mobile phone carrier. A user of the web-based social network database requesting the digital file may require a different format of the digital file than that used by the device of the member. If a different format is requested by the user, a server finds or converts the digital file to be compatible for use by a device specified by the user.
US09081820B2 Flexible connector framework for data feed generation
A data feed engine allows a user to create a data feed without protocol and/or formatting knowledge for the data source. The data feed engine dynamically selects a connector for any one of a variety of different types of data sources. The date feed engine can then build a search command with search parameters and a data source identity based on the automatically selected data source connector. The data feed engine publishes a reference to the generated data feed definition in a catalog of data feeds. A framework that utilizes such functionality allows creation of a mashup to with a combination of data feeds from different types of data sources.
US09081809B2 Scalable deduplication system with small blocks
Exemplary method, system, and computer program product embodiments for scalable data deduplication working with small data chunk in a computing environment are provided. In one embodiment, by way of example only, for each of the small data chunk, a signature is generated based on a combination of a representation of characters that appear in the small data chunk with a representation of frequencies of the small data chunk. A signature is generated based on a combination of a representation of characters that appear. The signature is used to help in selecting the data to be deduplicated. Additional system and computer program product embodiments are disclosed and provide related advantages.
US09081805B1 Tenant-aware database for software as a service
A system for providing a tenant-aware database includes a relational database management system comprising a query engine, a transaction manager, a buffer manager, a recovery manager and a storage manager. The storage manager includes a tenant table, a tenant/user table, a tenant/object table, a multi-tenant table structure and multi-tenant index structure. The tenant table, the tenant/user table, the tenant/object table, the multi-tenant table structure and the multi-tenant index structure cooperate to provide a mechanism that has a single schema definition with multiple data instances for tables and their associated indexes, one for each tenant. The present invention also includes a variety of methods including: a method for reading or writing using the storage manager, a method for reading or writing using the multi-tenant table structure and the multi-tenant index structure, a method for determining the tenant of a user and a method for making multi-tenant schema changes.
US09081789B2 System for prefetching digital tags
Systems and methods described herein can take advantage of the caching abilities of the browser and the idle time of the user to prefetch tag libraries of one or more tags for execution in a subsequent content page. For example, these systems and methods can provide the ability to prefetch and not execute a tag library on a content page before it is required so the tag library is cached in the browser. When the browser hits the page that uses the tag library, the tag library can be quickly retrieved from memory and executed.
US09081787B2 Customizable file-type aware cache mechanism
A caching mechanism is provided in a computer server system including at least one host coupled to at least one disk, one or more virtual machines, one or more images of the one or more virtual machines created in a file system of the disk, and a virtual machine manager for assigning hardware resources of the computer server system to the one or more virtual machines. The mechanism provides a masking cache layer between the one or more virtual machines and the virtual machine manager, the masking cache layer including at least one separate entry for every cacheable data block of the file system to be referenced, collects profiling information related to one or more of the cacheable data blocks (58) and stores the profiling information in the masking cache layer and configures the masking cache layer according to the profiling information, or provides a configuration for the masking cache layer.
US09081786B1 Systems and methods for creating self-extracting files
Systems and methods are disclosed for creating a self-extracting file from any given input file type with minimum user interaction. The systems and methods include, in response to a single action, receiving an input file, compressing the input file, transforming the compressed input file into a self-extracting file, configuring the self-extracting file to, upon execution, decompress and launch the original input file with the appropriate application software, and generating a name for the resulting self-extracting file. The systems and methods may operate directly on the input file regardless of file type, transforming the input file into an executable file and increasing the ease and speed of creating a self-extracting file that automatically launches the original input file upon execution of the self-extracting file.
US09081785B2 Inferring valid values for objects in a glossary using reference data
Method, system, and computer program product to improve a coverage of a plurality of classifications between a plurality of terms in a glossary and a set of values in a reference data management system, by identifying a first classification, of the plurality of classifications in the glossary, between a first term in the glossary and a first set of values in the reference data management system, detecting a relationship between the first set of values and a second set of values in the reference data management system, and upon determining that a relevance score for a relevant value from the second set of values exceeds a predefined threshold, identifying the relevant value to be classified with the term in the glossary, wherein the glossary is configured to create a second classification between the first term and the relevant value.
US09081776B2 Method and apparatus for directly writing multimedia data on digital device
A method and apparatus for directly writing multimedia data onto a digital device are provided. The method includes sensing multimedia data written on a storage medium; displaying a user interface screen to display the multimedia data and a folder for a digital device; receiving a command to write the multimedia data in the folder; converting the multimedia data to a format which is playable by the digital device; and writing the converted data in the folder. The apparatus includes a sense unit which senses multimedia data written on a storage medium; a display unit which displays a user interface screen; an input unit which provides input in the form of a command to write the multimedia data in a folder; and a converting and writing unit which converts the multimedia data to a format which is playable by the digital device and writes the converted multimedia data in the folder.
US09081775B2 Digital content supply system
The invention concerns a method of generating and electronically transmitting to at least one distribution platform a digital media product, the method involving: generating product parts of a first product based on a plurality of digital media files retrieved from a database (112), and storing the product parts in a product memory (140); transmitting the first product comprising the product parts to a first distribution platform; and determining, based on scheduling data, whether, after transmission to the first distribution platform one or more of the product parts is scheduled to be transmitted to another distribution platform, and if not, deleting the one or more product parts from the product memory.
US09081772B1 Method and apparatus for acid validation within a distributed relational database under controlled concurrent workloads
Testing a database is disclosed. A test description defining a test of a database is received. The test description specifies a relative timing between an issuance of a first command via a first session of the database when the test is conducted and an issuance of a second command via a second session of the database when the test is conducted. The database is configured to conduct the test defined in the test description.
US09081769B2 Providing translation assistance in application localization
Methods and systems for providing translation assistance are disclosed. A method includes: storing translation data representing changes to translations during a time interval between a first time and a second time; building the source code project into a reference application in the second language, comprising: replacing an identifier of each text message in the source code project with a translation of the text message in the second language made at the second time, and for a text message whose translation has changed during the time interval, inserting the identifier of the text message whose translation has changed as hidden information associated with the translation of the text message; and rendering the reference application for presentation to a user for translation checking, including highlighting the text messages that have an associated hidden identifier.
US09081767B2 Browsing of contextual information
Systems and methods for searching and browsing a data store of contextually related data objects. The system includes a search/browse module that receives a search query. The search/browse module identifies data objects that match the search query and generates sentences from data objects that are contextually related to the matching data objects. The sentences are human-readable sentences, for example in subject-verb-object format, where each sentence represents the relationship between two data objects. The sentences are output for display as a hierarchy of sentences. Additionally, a user can browse the data store of contextually related data objects by selecting a sentence that is displayed to the user. The search/browse module then outputs attributes of the data object represented by the sentence for display in two separate regions of a user interface.
US09081766B2 Memory and process sharing via input/output with virtualization
Embodiments of the present invention provide an approach for memory and process sharing via input/output (I/O) with virtualization. Specifically, embodiments of the present invention provide a circuit design/system in which multiple chipsets are present that communicate with one another via a communications channel. Each chipset generally comprises a processor coupled to a memory unit. Moreover, each component has its own distinct/separate power supply. Pursuant to a communication and/or command exchange with a main controller, a processor of a particular chipset may disengage a memory unit coupled thereto, and then access a memory unit of another chipset (e.g., coupled to another processer in the system). Among other things, such an inventive configuration reduces memory leakage and enhances overall performance and/or efficiency of the system.
US09081754B1 Method and apparatus for cascaded replication using a multi splitter
Conventional method of replication do not allow cascaded replication with journaling. However, in example embodiments of the present invention, a splitter in storage or in the data path may split a single volume to multiple DPA targets. The splitter will intercept data arriving to the volume and split the data to another DPA, thereby allowing cascaded replication. In certain embodiments, the DPA may notify the splitter about a point of consistency because the DPA does not distribute IOs with write order fidelity at all times and only some points are write order fidelity consistent. Thus, the DPA may notify the splitter about a consistent point and the splitter will send notifications about the consistent points to the second DPA, allowing the volumes to have consistent points.
US09081748B2 Dynamic redundancy management
The different advantageous embodiments comprise a system for redundancy management of a computing system comprising a number of processors, a number of service managers executable on the number of processors, and a configuration module. The number of processors is associated with a number of processor groups. Each service manager is capable of being configured as a primary service manager adapted to manage a number of commands. Each command is operative to execute a program on one or more of the number of processors. The configuration module is in communication with the number of service managers to control operational redundancies of the computing system. Each primary service manager executes one or more programs on the one or more processors included in different processor groups of the number of processor groups.
US09081747B1 Computer program deployment to one or more target devices
Each target device to which a full operating system (O/S) or other image is to be deployed using a deployment solution undergoes pre-O/S processing before booting into a temporary O/S, where preparatory processing includes a real-time hardware scan that generates a hardware device ID list that is compared to a driver repository accessed by the target device using a special communication channel between the target device and the driver repository. Drivers corresponding to listed hardware devices IDs are delivered to the target device and are staged by the target device before booting into a full O/S that installs the drivers. During full O/S operation post-deploy processing includes one or more additional real-time hardware scans performed to discover additional hardware devices missed in earlier scans, again with drivers delivered to the target device for installation.
US09081743B2 Communication system and communicaton method
A communication system includes a first interface module which can be coupled to a first logic unit and a second interface module which can be coupled to a second logic unit. The first and second interface modules are interconnected by a virtual channel over a routing network. The first interface module is configured to receive messages from the first interface module and to send the received messages over the virtual channel to the second interface module. The second interface module is configured to transmit the received messages to the second logic unit. The second interface module is further configured to receive a processing complete signal from the second logic unit when the received messages have been processed in the second logic unit and is further configured to send an acknowledgement signal to the first interface module after reception of the processing complete signal. Further a communication method is provided.
US09081729B2 Generating fault tolerant connectivity API
To make a connection between a user application and a data source fault tolerant, a user may use a wrapper generator to create an API wrapper that retries request that may have failed due to a service disruption. Generally, the wrapper manages a cache and contains the necessary information for retrying a connection after a service disruption. To create the wrapper, the wrapper generator may identify the different commands used by the user application to access the data source. The wrapper generator presents these commands to the user who organizes the commands to generate usage patterns for the different requests the user application may send to the data source. The user may also define a caching preference associated the commands in the usage patterns. To restart the connection, the wrapper may use the cache data to generate a new request to complete the original failed request.
US09081727B2 Method, apparatus and computer program for loading files during a boot-up process
A method, apparatus and computer program are provided for loading files during a boot-up process. In the context of a method, the method includes identifying at least one new file to be loaded in a computing device during a boot-up process of said computing device. Also, determining if loading at least one of the identified new file(s) causes the computing device to crash. Also, updating a list on the computing device in dependence on whether the loading of the identified new file(s) causes the computing device to crash. Also, loading at least one file in the computing device during a boot-up process in dependence on the list, to prevent the computing device crashing during the boot-up process.
US09081726B2 Controller to be incorporated in storage medium device, storage medium device, system for manufacturing storage medium device, and method for manufacturing storage medium device
Provided is a controller capable of preventing card makers from conducting unauthorized acts. The controller includes: a controller key storage unit configured to hold a controller key that has been embedded by a controller manufacturing device in advance; a decryption unit configured to receive encrypted media key information that has been generated by a key issuance center that is authorized and to decrypt the received encrypted media key by using the controller key, the encrypted key information generated through encryption of key information with use of the controller key; and an encryption unit configured to encrypt the decrypted media key again by using an individual key that is unique to the controller.
US09081720B2 Information processing apparatus, setting information management method and recording medium
An disclosed information processing apparatus includes a memory unit for storing first setting-values for setting-items for a program in accordance with multiple priority levels, a given one of the setting-items being for one or more of the first setting-values, and each of the first setting-values having one of the priority levels assigned thereto; a setting information management unit for obtaining the first setting-values from the memory unit, and creating second setting-values by selecting, as one of the second setting-values, one of the first setting-values for any given setting-item from the first setting-values for the given setting-item such that the one of the first setting-values selected for the given setting-item has a highest priority level among the first setting-values for the given setting-item; and a program management unit for starting the program that operates based on the created second setting values.
US09081716B1 Solid-state disk cache-assisted redundant array of independent disks
A system including a write module to receive first data for writing over second data stored on a first member of a stripe of a RAID. A read module reads the second data and first parity from a SSD or the RAID. Before receiving third data for writing over fourth data stored on a second member of the stripe, the read module reads the fourth data from the second member and stores the fourth data in the SSD. A parity module generates second parity based on the first data, the second data, and the first parity. The write module writes the second parity on the SSD. On receiving the third data, the parity module generates the third parity based on the third data, the fourth data, and the second parity.
US09081705B2 Methods and apparatus for reliable detection and enumeration of devices
Methods and apparatus for reliable detection and enumeration of devices. In one embodiment, the controller comprises serialized bus protocol (e.g., a Universal Serial Bus (USB)) controller capable of supporting different bus architectures (e.g., USB 2.0 and USB 3.0) of the USB protocol (e.g., eXtensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) controller). In one variant, when a USB-compliant device is detected over multiple bus architectures of a controller, the controller waits an additional period to allow the device to properly identify which bus architecture to use. After the time period has elapsed, if the device has been determined to be connected over the USB 3.0 bus architecture, the controller waits an additional period of time before enumerating the device. If the device is still present on the USB 3.0 bus architecture, the device continues to enumerate as a USB 3.0 advice to be made available to a host system.
US09081699B2 Relay device
While software in a relay device is being rewritten by an external diagnosis device, a processing unit of the relay device prohibits transfer processing of data from each ECU connected to CAN bus and allows transfer processing of data, which is transmitted from the external diagnosis device and which indicates at least either one of transmission prohibition of periodic transmission data and storage prohibition of a failure code into each ECU by not receiving the periodic transmission data in each ECU, to the CAN buses.
US09081697B2 Storage control apparatus and storage control method
A storage control apparatus receives a write request for a storage apparatus. When the storage control apparatus receives the write request, the storage control apparatus duplicates into a specific storage area, data stored in a storage area of the storage apparatus and parity data whose generation source is the data. The storage control apparatus determines whether one of the storage apparatuses is started up for which a writing process is executed in response to the write request. When the storage apparatus is re-started, the storage control apparatus writes the data duplicated in the specific storage area into the storage area of the duplication source of the storage apparatus and writes the parity data duplicated in the specific storage area into the storage area of the duplication source of the storage apparatus.
US09081690B2 Storage system and management method of control information therein
An embodiment of this invention divides a cache memory of a storage system into a plurality of partitions and information in one or more of the partitions is composed of data different from user data and including control information. The storage system dynamically swaps data between an LU storing control information and a cache partition. Through this configuration, in a storage system having an upper limit in the capacity of the cache memory, a large amount of control information can be used while access performance to control information is kept.
US09081689B2 Methods and systems for pushing dirty linefill buffer contents to external bus upon linefill request failures
Methods and systems are disclosed for recovering dirty linefill buffer data upon linefill request failures. When a linefill request failure occurs and the linefill buffer has been marked as dirty, such as due to a system bus failure, the contents of the linefill buffer are pushed back to the system bus. The dirty data within the linefill buffer can then be used to update the external memory. The disclosed embodiments are useful for a wide variety of applications, including those requiring low data failure rates.
US09081687B2 Method and apparatus for MONITOR and MWAIT in a distributed cache architecture
A method and apparatus for monitor and mwait in a distributed cache architecture is disclosed. One embodiment includes an execution thread sending a MONITOR request for an address to a portion of a distributed cache that stores the data corresponding to that address. At the distributed cache portion the MONITOR request and an associated speculative state is recorded locally for the execution thread. The execution thread then issues an MWAIT instruction for the address. At the distributed cache portion the MWAIT and an associated wait-to-trigger state are recorded for the execution thread. When a write request matching the address is received at the distributed cache portion, a monitor-wake event is then sent to the execution thread and the associated monitor state at the distributed cache portion for that execution thread can be reset to idle.
US09081686B2 Coordinated hypervisor staging of I/O data for storage devices on external cache devices
A management technique for input/output operations (JO) leverages a hypervisor's position as an intermediary between virtual machines (VMs) and storage devices servicing the VMs to facilitate improvements in overall I/O performance for the VMs. According to this new I/O management technique, the hypervisor sends write requests from VMs destined for storage devices to an I/O staging device that provides higher I/O performance than the storage devices, for caching in the I/O staging device in a write-back mode. Once the I/O staging device has received and acknowledged the write request, the hypervisor immediately provides an acknowledgement to the requesting VM. Later on and asynchronously with respect to the write requests from the VMs, the hypervisor reads the write data from the I/O staging device and sends it over to the storage devices for storage therein.
US09081684B2 Data recovery of data symbols received in error
In one or more embodiments, a data processing apparatus is configured to receive data symbols transmitted from one or more endpoint devices. Each of the data symbols is transmitted in a respective temporal position assigned for communication by one of the plurality of endpoints. The data processing apparatus is configured to recover data from two or more transmission(s)/retransmission(s) (of the same data) that are received in error and have different temporal positions. The corresponding data symbols in error are phase-aligned per a common reference point and energy is accumulated therefrom. The data processing apparatus discerns correct data values from the accumulated energy.
US09081681B1 Method and system for implementing compressed normal maps
A method for compressing normal maps in a computer system. The method includes accessing a map of input normals. A memory block having a first portion and a second portion is defined. A table of indices is stored in the first portion of the memory block and a table of normals is stored in the second portion of the memory block. The indices of the first portion of the memory block reference the normals of the second portion. The normals in the second portion of the memory block are unit normals of a sphere defined to represent the map of input normals.
US09081672B1 Methods and apparatus for information storage and retrieval using a caching technique with external-chain hashing and dynamic resource-dependent data shedding
A method and apparatus for performing storage and retrieval in an information storage system cache is disclosed that uses the hashing technique with the external chaining method for collision resolution. In order to prevent performance deterioration due to an unrestrained growth in the length of chains, an on-the-fly record removal technique is combined with background chain-pruning processes that continually trim long chains to keep chain lengths at an acceptable equilibrium without triggering abrupt, disruptive action at the time the system senses that it is stressed. More specifically, each insertion, retrieval, or deletion of a record is an occasion to rid an entire linked list of its records that have aged out. Additionally, concurrent background processes continually navigate the hash table, trimming those chains that are deemed excessively long. The aggressiveness of chain-pruning varies dynamically as the local and global state of the system fluctuates, pruning more when chains are long and the system is heavily loaded, and pruning less when chains are short and the system load is light.
US09081666B2 Non-volatile memory channel control using a general purpose programmable processor in combination with a low level programmable sequencer
A system includes a control processor, a non-volatile memory device interface, and a micro-sequencer. The control processor may be configured to receive commands and send responses via a command interface. The non-volatile memory device interface may be configured to couple the system to one or more non-volatile memory devices. The micro-sequencer is generally coupled to (i) the control processor and (ii) the non-volatile memory device interface. The micro-sequencer includes a control store readable by the micro-sequencer and writable by the control processor. In response to receiving a particular one of the commands, the control processor is enabled to cause the micro-sequencer to begin executing at a location in the control store according to the particular command and the micro-sequencer is enabled to perform at least a portion of the particular command according to a protocol of the one or more non-volatile memory devices coupled to the non-volatile memory device interface.
US09081665B2 Apparatus, methods and architecture to increase write performance and endurance of non-volatile solid state memory components
A solid-state mass storage device for use with host computer systems, and methods of increasing the endurance of non-volatile memory components thereof that define a first non-volatile memory space. The mass storage device further has a second non-volatile memory space containing at least one non-volatile memory component having a higher write endurance than the memory components of the first non-volatile memory space. The second non-volatile memory space functions as a low-pass filter for host writes to the first non-volatile memory space to minimize read accesses to the first non-volatile memory space. Contents of the second non-volatile memory space are managed using a change counter.
US09081664B2 Memory system capable of preventing data destruction
According to one embodiment, a memory system includes a memory unit, a first controller, and a second controller. In the memory unit, first to fourth levels (first level
US09081654B2 Common lease agent for cluster communication
Detecting failures of interconnected machines. A method includes establishing a machine to machine lease at a first machine using a first lease agent at the first machine to a second lease agent at a second machine as a result of an application on the first machine requesting to establish a lease with an application on the second machine. Using the machine to machine lease, the method further includes detecting a communication failure between the first machine and the second machine or a machine failure of the second machine.
US09081647B2 System and method of reconstructing complex custom objects
A system and method is provided for reconstructing one or more collections of objects across platforms. More particularly, Java Annotations are used to assist a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) wizard in reconstructing a collection of objects. In implementation, the system and method parses the object types such that a wizard can recreate or reconstruct the collection of objects for use by a receiving service. The method includes reconstructing a collection using one or more annotations that document a base object of the collection.
US09081646B2 Building packages of functionally different programs from source code of a single program
Build-result packages are created for functionally different programs from a source code package of a single program.
US09081640B2 Apparatus, method and medium for calculating an update order on a service level objective
An update apparatus used in a system that provides service using software and performing update of the software, including a processing apparatus configured to calculate a difference between a possible down time of the service according to a service level and a down time of the service indicated by operation performance stored in storage unit, and when there are a plurality of pieces of software as update targets, to calculate an update order of the plurality of pieces of update target software according to a degree of influence to the difference by service down when update of software fails, and to perform update of the plurality of pieces of update target software according to the update order.
US09081638B2 User experience and dependency management in a mobile device
A method, system, and device supporting installation of updates to software and/or firmware in memory of an electronic device is described. The update information may be automatically generated based upon a list of all software components or packages already present on the electronic device, and may comprise software components for all dependencies of an application being installed by the update that are not already present on the electronic device.
US09081635B2 Provision to an application of a random number not generated by an operating system
A data processing system includes data storage that stores an operating system and an application that performs a security operation and a processor communicatively coupled with the data storage and a random number generator separate from the operating system. The processor executes the operating system and the application. The processor receives a random number from the random number generator and provides the received random number to the application for use in the security operation.
US09081631B2 Method for executing a toolkit action in an IC card
An approach for executing a toolkit action in an IC card includes storing in the IC card one or more identifiers and corresponding toolkit actions, and passing a web page in input to a converter in the IC card. The converter is configured to identify one or more of the identifiers in the html page and related text information associated with the identifiers. The approach includes sending the toolkit actions corresponding to the identifiers identified and the related text information to an application SIM Application Toolkit (SAT) of the IC card, for displaying the text information of the web page as SIM Application Toolkit menu.
US09081622B2 Automated scaling of applications in virtual data centers
A system and method for autoscaling a multi-tier application, that has components executing on a plurality of tiers of a virtual data center, allocates resources to each of the plurality of tiers based on cost and performance. An application performance is determined, and a new application performance is estimated based at least partially on an application reservation and an application limit. An optimized utility of the application is calculated based on the cost to execute the application, the application reservation, and the application limit. A scaling factor for each tier is then determined to scale up or down a number of virtual machines operating in each of the tiers.
US09081620B1 Multi-grid mechanism using peer-to-peer protocols
A multi-grid mechanism using peer-to-peer (P2P) platform protocols. An autonomic grid computing mechanism may be used to implement a multi-grid grid computing system. In the multi-grid grid computing system, there may be multiple master nodes, and thus multiple smaller grids (or grid cells) each including one or more compute nodes, in a single (larger) grid. A job submitter node may use one or more P2P platform protocols to discover the master nodes and to obtain information about the grid cells, including information that may be used by the job submitter to automatically select one of the grid cells that is suitable to execute a particular job. After selecting the grid cell, the job submitter may submit the particular job to the master node of the grid cell using the P2P platform protocols.
US09081617B1 Provisioning of virtual machines using an N-ARY tree of clusters of nodes
Various systems and methods for management and provisioning of virtual machines are disclosed. This invention may be used, e.g., in conjunction with clusters of nodes that are potentially capable of hosting one or more virtual machines. In one aspect of this invention, the nodes may rank themselves, or be ranked, based on their ability to support a requested virtual machine configuration. Each of the clusters may also be ranked based on, for example, the aggregate ranks of the nodes within that cluster. After the nodes and/or clusters have been ranked, a cluster and/or a node may be selected to host the virtual machine, and the virtual machine may be provisioned on that cluster and/or node.
US09081608B2 Residue number arithmetic logic unit
Methods and systems for residue number system based ALUs, processors, and other hardware provide the full range of arithmetic operations while taking advantage of the benefits of the residue numbers in certain operations. In one or more embodiments, an RNS ALU or processor comprises a plurality of digit slices configured to perform modular arithmetic functions. Operation of the digit slices may be controlled by a controller. Residue numbers may be converted to and from fixed or mixed radix number systems for internal use and for use in various computing systems.
US09081606B2 Asynchronous persistent stores for transactions
A processor includes a processor core, a cache, and a tracker. The processor core is configured to execute persistent write instructions and receive notifications of completed persistent write instructions. The tracker is configured to track the completion state of a persistent write instruction.
US09081598B2 Ensuring hardware redundancy in a virtualized environment
An Availability Management Framework (AMF) configuration is generated, in which service units of a service group are allocated to node groups and the node groups are allocated to physical nodes. Each service unit is a unit of redundancy for services provided and protected by the service group. Each node group includes a group of virtual machines. Each node group is mapped to a different host group that includes one or more physical nodes. Collocation and separation rules are generated for the virtual machines to specify which virtual machines are collocated in a same node group and which virtual machines are separated by different node groups. Each service unit of the service group is mapped to a different node group to guarantee hardware separation in the AMF configuration for different service units of the service group and for the virtual machines allocated to the different service units.
US09081596B2 Information processing device, virtual machine creation method, and application distribution system
A device (110) according to an implementation of the present invention, having a plurality of virtual machines (1002, 1003, 1004, and 1005), includes a virtualization software (1001) which manages the virtual machines. The virtualization software includes an application VM creating unit (1300) which creates a virtual machine for executing a program. A first virtual machine (1002) determines whether a first program is to be executed on the first virtual machine or to be executed on a virtual machine other than the first virtual machine. When the first virtual machine determines that the first program is to be executed on the other virtual machine, the application VM creating unit creates a second virtual machine for executing the first program.
US09081595B1 Displaying violated coding rules in source code
A device performs a verification analysis of source code, where the verification analysis includes a coding rules check of the source code based on coding standards, and run-time error check of the source code. The device provides, for display, results of the coding rules check of the source code, and provides, for display, results of the run-time error check of the source code. The device provides, for display, from the results of the coding rules check of the source code, at least one of a coding rule error violation associated with the source code, or a coding rule warning violation associated with the source code.
US09081593B2 Information processing apparatus, method for controlling same, installation method, and storage medium
A PC 1 recognizes a connection of the multipurpose machine 3 to the network 4, and a first driver, which corresponds to information equipment provided by the recognized device, is installed on the PC 1. The PC 1 acquires a supplement installer that installs a second driver, which enables the functions of the device to be used, on the PC 1 from the IHV Web server 100 upon installation of the first driver on the PC 1. Then, the supplement installer determines whether or not the second driver needs to be installed on the PC 1. When the second driver needs to be installed on the PC 1, the second driver is installed on the PC 1.
US09081588B2 Execution time profiling for interpreted programming languages
Aspects of the invention are directed towards profiling computer programs that include interpreted functions. Various implementations provide for profiling a computer program, written in a first programming language, which includes an interpretive function that can execute a computer program, written in a second programming language. During profiling, when the interpretive function is called, the functions of the computer program written in the second programming languages are profiled.
US09081587B1 Multiversioned functions
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving source code that contains a hot function that calls a multiversioned function, where a function definition of the multiversioned function specifies a first version and an alternative second version, and generating compiled code that includes a first and a second clone of the hot function, and a first and a second version of the multiversioned function. In the compiled code, the first clone of the hot function includes a direct call to the first version of the multiversioned function, and the second clone of the hot function includes a direct call to the second version of the multiversioned function.
US09081586B2 Systems and methods for customizing optimization/transformation/ processing strategies
A method for tailored compiler optimization is provided. The method includes extracting kernels from an application program, performance tuning the kernels to determine a tailored optimization strategy for each of the kernels, the tailored optimization strategy different than a default optimization strategy of a compiler for each of the kernels, and annotating the application program, using a computer, to identify the tailored optimization strategy determined for each of the kernels. In an embodiment, the method also includes the design and implementation for adjusting a compiler to customize optimization strategies for different kernels.
US09081580B2 Real-time menu architecture
A system and method for implementing a dynamic menu characterized by a real-time menu architecture. An example method includes determining a menu structure, with reference to a data set, for use with user interface software. A menu is then displayed, wherein the menu includes menu items arranged according to the menu structure. An initial drop-down menu list of the menu includes one or more of the menu items. Each menu item is associated with a data object of the data set. A signal is generated when a change is made to a data set corresponding to a menu item. The menu is then updated based on the signal. In an illustrative embodiment, the example method further includes employing a browser to trigger implementation of the method. The browser communicates with a web server, which communicates with an application that is adapted to analyze the data set and associated data structure and provide an update in response thereto via, the signal, to the web server. The web server includes software for enabling the browser to render an updated menu or graphical representation thereof.
US09081576B2 Task scheduling method of a semiconductor device based on power levels of in-queue tasks
A task scheduling method of a semiconductor device, the method including: determining whether a power level of a first queue task disposed in a first queue and a power level of a first core task are the same as each other, wherein the first queue task is to be processed by a first core after the first core task; and in response to the power level of the first queue task and the power level of the first core task being different, moving the first queue task to a second queue, wherein the second queue corresponds to a second core that processes a second core task having the same power level as that of the first queue task.
US09081566B2 Dynamic chip control
Methods and systems for operating a semiconductor device (e.g., a microprocessor) are described. The microprocessor is initially operated at a voltage and frequency that would be within operating limits at any device temperature. Using models that relate device temperature, operating limits and power consumption with voltage and frequency, the amount of supply voltage and a new operating frequency can be selected. The models are periodically consulted thereafter to continue adjusting the supply voltage and operating frequency, so that the microprocessor is caused to operate at very close to its capacity, in particular in those instances when, for example, processor-intensive instructions are being executed.
US09081565B2 Communication network system for detect and wake up a network node that does not properly recognize a wake up frame
A communication system includes a plurality of nodes performing communication via a common communication channel based on a communication protocol and including a first node or a second node. The first node transmits, to the communication channel, a wake-up frame as the communication frame for enabling the second node to transition from a sleep state to a normal state, determines whether or not the second node transitions to the normal state due to the wake-up frame, and generates an abnormal waveform pattern in the communication channel when determined that the second node does not transition to the normal state. The second node stores the identification information allocated to the second node, and enables the second node to transition from the sleep state to the normal state under on condition that the identification information included in the wake-up frame received from the communication channel is identical to the stored identification information.
US09081564B2 Converting scalar operation to specific type of vector operation using modifier instruction
A data processing apparatus having processing circuitry, a scalar register bank and a vector register bank, including decoding circuitry arranged to decode a sequence of instructions to generate control signals for the processing circuitry. The decoding circuitry is responsive to a decode modifier instruction within the sequence of instructions to alter decoding of a subsequent scalar instruction in the sequence by mapping at least one scalar operand specified by the subsequent scalar instruction to at least one vector operand in the vector register bank, and, in dependence on the scalar operation specified by the subsequent scalar instruction, determining a vector operation to be performed on at least a subset of the operand elements within the at least the one vector operand. Such an approach enables a wide variety of vector operations to be specified without the need to individually define separate vector instructions for those vector operations.
US09081562B2 Unpacking packed data in multiple lanes
Receiving an instruction indicating first and second operands. Each of the operands having packed data elements that correspond in respective positions. A first subset of the data elements of the first operand and a first subset of the data elements of the second operand each corresponding to a first lane. A second subset of the data elements of the first operand and a second subset of the data elements of the second operand each corresponding to a second lane. Storing result, in response to instruction, including: (1) in first lane, only lowest order data elements from first subset of first operand interleaved with corresponding lowest order data elements from first subset of second operand; and (2) in second lane, only highest order data elements from second subset of first operand interleaved with corresponding highest order data elements from second subset of second operand.
US09081561B2 Method for improving execution performance of multiply-add instruction during compiling
The present invention relates to a method for improving execution performance of multiply-add instructions during compiling, comprising the following steps of: compiling a source code by a compiler to acquire internal representation; optimizing; generating a machine code on the basis of a target processor, and allocating a physical register to a pseudo-register in the machine code; and improving results of register allocation to multiply-accumulate instructions. The method for improving execution performance of multiply-add instructions during compiling provided by the present invention has the following advantages: the compiler is allowed to realize procedure optimization by acquiring the optimal MAC (multiply-accumulate) instruction use gain.
US09081557B2 Dynamically allocating a power budget over multiple domains of a processor
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for determining a power budget for a multi-domain processor for a current time interval, determining a portion of the power budget to be allocated to first and second domains of the processor, and controlling a frequency of the domains based on the allocated portions. Such determinations and allocations can be dynamically performed during runtime of the processor. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09081538B1 Data center with multi-level roof structure
The methods and apparatuses described herein include a data center having a three-level roof structure including an overarching rainfly roof to protect the data center from severe weather events. The three-level roof structure further includes a secondary roof structure below the rainfly roof structure as well as a lower redundant roof structure coupled together. A data hall within the data center has a ceiling below the lower redundant roof structure and is adapted to store a plurality of cabinets to hold electronic equipment. The lower redundant roof structure can be coupled with the secondary roof structure using an airtight seal such that the data center is airtight allowing for the data hall below to be positively pressurized to facilitate air flow through the electronic equipment. Heated air emitted from the electronic equipment is conducted through into a hot air return region above the data hall ceiling, while cold air is supplied to the electronic equipment below the data hall ceiling.
US09081535B2 Automatic topology configuration through automatic hardware profiles across multiple display units
Disclosed are methods, an apparatus and a system of automatic topology configuration through automatic profiles across multiple display units. A method of a display driver involves automatically identifying a hardware profile data associated with a plurality of display units, applying a logic function to the hardware profile data to create a set of automatic topology display settings when a match of the hardware profile data with a set of settings in a hardware profile lookup table is not found, and automatically applying the set of automatic topology display settings to simultaneously display a sequence of graphics signals across the plurality of display units. The method may also include automatically designating one display unit from the plurality of display units as a sample display unit and setting a scaling factor based on an automatic designation of the one display unit from the plurality of display units as the sample display unit.
US09081533B1 System and method for searching and remotely printing social networking digital images for pickup at a retail store
The method and system allow a user to launch, on an web-enabled device, a client application that retrieves images from a social networking database. The client application displays the retrieved images available for printing to a user, and in response to receiving a selection of an image, the client application retrieves social networking attributes associated with the selected image from the social networking database. In response to receiving one or more social networking attributes from the user, the client application transmits the selected image and associated social network attributes to a proprietary server. Moreover, upon receiving print order information, the client application additionally executes a location awareness application that determines a current location of the web-enabled device and subsequently, determines a proximal retail store to the current location of the web-enabled device. Thereafter, the remote printing system creates and transmits a print order that includes the selected image to the retail store for pickup.
US09081525B2 Image processing apparatus, information processing method, and storage medium for reducing image formation time after a fireware update
An image processing apparatus includes an image processing unit configured to perform image processing on input data, a storage unit configured to store image-processed data obtained by the image processing performed by the image processing unit, an output unit configured to output the image-processed data to a printing unit, an update unit configured to update firmware related to the image processing unit, and a control unit configured to, when the image processing by the image processing unit is changed by the updating of the firmware by the update unit, cause the image processing unit to perform the image processing on input data corresponding to the image-processed data stored in the storage unit and cause the storage unit to store image-processed data obtained by the image processing.
US09081521B2 Networked printing systems for providing a la carte reproduction services
A system and method provide a la carte reproduction services wherein a printing system is capable of performing multiple operational printing modes, but is configured, in a normal operational printing state, to perform a subset of the multiple operational printing modes. The printing system includes a user interface to enable a user to select an operational printing mode. The printing system, in response to a user selecting an operational printing mode not included in subset of the multiple operational printing modes, communicates with a printer service provider server to request authorization to perform the user selected operational printing mode. The printer service provider server requests predetermined information from the printing system, and, upon processing and verification of information received from the printing system, configures the printing system to perform the selected operational printing mode.
US09081519B2 Print head pre-alignment systems and methods
Systems and methods for pre-aligning print head(s) to alignment adapter(s) to increase print resolution of printed matter, and to reduce offline time of a printing system due to print head alignment, include the use of an alignment adapter to which a print head is pre-aligned and which includes precision alignment features which precisely engage cooperating precision alignment features on the print head carriage mounting plate of the print head carriage. Print head(s) can be pre-aligned and fine-tuned to alignment adapter(s) even while the printing system is still in print production. Pre-aligned print head/alignment adapter assemblies can then be quickly mounted on the print head carriage using the cooperating precision alignment features of the adapter and print head carriage mounting plate. Duplicate sets of print head mounting sockets can include print heads aligned at different relative offsets (e.g., half a pixel) to increase the print resolution.
US09081516B2 Application memory preservation for dynamic calibration of memory interfaces
A calibrating memory interface circuit is described wherein prior to a calibration operation at least a portion of application information contained in a memory circuit is moved or copied to an alternate location to preserve that information. At the completion of the calibration operation, the information is restored to the same location of the memory circuit. Thus, the calibration operation can be performed from time to time during normal operation of a system containing the memory circuit. Non-limiting examples of calibration operations are described including operations where a capture clock for a memory read circuit is calibrated, and operations where CAS latency compensation is calibrated for a DDR memory interface.
US09081510B2 Background migration of virtual storage
Described is a technology by which a virtual hard disk is migrated from a source storage location to a target storage location without needing any shared physical storage, in which a machine may continue to use the virtual hard disk during migration. This facilitates use the virtual hard disk in conjunction with live-migrating a virtual machine. Virtual hard disk migration may occur fully before or after the virtual machine is migrated to the target host, or partially before and partially after virtual machine migration. Background copying, sending of write-through data, and/or servicing read requests may be used in the migration. Also described is throttling data writes and/or data communication to manage the migration of the virtual hard disk.
US09081507B2 Shared storage access management systems and methods
Shared storage access management systems and methods are presented. A method can comprise: performing an endpoint I/O source authority tracking process in which permission of an endpoint I/O source to perform an I/O with at least a portion of an endpoint storage target is tracked at least in part based on a corresponding endpoint I/O source ID value, and performing an I/O operation based upon results of the endpoint I/O source authority tracking process. In one embodiment, the endpoint I/O source ID value is associated with an endpoint I/O source that is a virtual machine. The endpoint I/O source ID value can be unique and can be bound to an endpoint I/O source. In one exemplary implementation, the endpoint I/O source ID value does not depend upon intermediate communication channel characteristics between a corresponding endpoint I/O source and endpoint storage target.
US09081505B1 Method and system for improving disk drive performance
A method of writing data to a storage device that uses a first data block size, from a host system that uses a second data block size, different from the first data block size, includes receiving a request from the host system to write a host data block to the storage device, reading a storage device data block from a first location on the storage device to a buffer, where the storage device data block corresponds to the host data block, modifying the storage device data block based on the host data block, restricting writing of the modified storage device data block into the first location, and storing the modified storage device data block to a second location, different from the restricted first location. After acknowledging success of the storing, the restricting of writing of the modified storage device data block into the first location may be lifted.
US09081497B2 Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program
There is provided an information processing apparatus including a press-down detection unit for detecting a press-down operation, and an information processing unit for performing, in a case a plurality of press-down operations are successively detected by the press-down detection unit in a state where first information and second information related to the first information are held, a paste operation of the first information by a first press-down operation and processing according to the second information by a second press-down operation following the first operation.
US09081487B2 System and method for manipulating an image
A method and system for receiving input from a touch-sensitive device for manipulating an image shown in a display area. The method and system involve receiving an initial input for initializing an image manipulation for generating a mirror image in a mirroring direction, the mirroring direction is defined by a start and an end, the initial input corresponds to an initial location within the display area; receiving a first subsequent input corresponding to a first location, the first location corresponds to the start of the mirroring direction; receiving a second subsequent input corresponding to a second location, the second location corresponds to the end of the mirroring direction, the first and second locations are positioned on opposite sides of the initial location; and in response to the second subsequent input, generating the mirror image by mirroring the image according to the mirroring direction.
US09081486B2 Method, device and system for acquiring virtual keyboard
Embodiments, relating to the field of virtual keyboard technologies, of the present invention provide a method for acquiring a virtual keyboard key. The method includes: receiving layout of a universal virtual keyboard and a mapping relationship between terminals and universal virtual keyboard key value mapping tables from a server; acquiring a corresponding universal virtual keyboard key value mapping table according to the identifier of the terminal and the mapping relationship between terminals and universal virtual keyboard key value mapping tables; and acquiring a universal virtual keyboard according to the layout of the universal virtual keyboard and the universal virtual keyboard key value mapping table of the terminal. According to the embodiments of the present invention, a universal virtual keyboard key value mapping table of a terminal is acquired according to the identifier of the terminal and a mapping relationship between terminals and universal virtual keyboard key value mapping tables, and a universal virtual keyboard is acquired according to layout of the universal virtual keyboard and the universal virtual keyboard key value mapping table of the terminal. In this way, virtual keyboards of different terminals have uniform user interface display, thereby reducing operation costs of users to adapt different virtual keyboards due to use of different terminals, and improving user experience.
US09081485B1 Conference screening
A method and apparatus of providing a teleforum. The method includes generating simultaneous outbound invitation calls to multiple invitees and transmitting a message to each invitee, inviting him or her to become a teleforum participant. Teleforum participants who accept the invitation are connected to the teleforum in a listen-only mode. During the teleforum, a teleforum participant may request active participation in the teleforum. The method also includes allowing the participant to actively participate in the teleforum. Active participation may include but is not limited to such activities as: speaking to the teleforum, asking a question, responding to a poll, making a donation, providing information, leaving a message, being transferred to a subconference, receiving feedback from participants, leaving a voicemail, volunteering for future activities or receiving media transmitted outside of the teleforum.
US09081479B1 User interface systems and methods
Systems and methods for providing user interfaces are disclosed. In certain embodiments, a menu having a number of icons can be provided on a display device such that the icons are arranged around an initial cursor position, or an area that is touched by a user's finger or stylus, for example. Due to the icons being arranged around the initial cursor position, any one of the icons from the menu can be chosen with relatively small cursor movement. In certain embodiments, the menu can be divided into regions that overlap with the icons, such that cursor movement from the initial cursor position into a given region has a similar effect as movement into the corresponding icon itself (without actually moving the cursor onto the desired icon).
US09081472B2 Dynamic enhancement of context matching rules for business scenario models
A definition of a new user interface feature of a business software architecture supporting a business configuration used by an organization can be received and a rule in a scenario model of a business scenario can be accordingly modified to associate the new user interface feature with business process feature(s) of the business scenario. A selection of a business process feature received as a user interaction with first user interface elements arranged in a linear order in a navigation pane of a user interface to represent at least some of the plurality of business process features of the business process can result in the concurrent display via the user interface of a work frame comprising the new user interface feature.
US09081470B2 Single action selection of data elements
Various aspects and attributes of a single-click list selection user interface are described herein. A user can toggle the list inclusion status of any item by single clicking on the item in a selection pane of the user interface. When the user single-clicks a storage container item, the selection pane navigates to and displays items in the selected storage container. In order to prevent inadvertent selections, the user interface may provide graphical feedback indicating the inclusion status of an item prior to the user single clicking that item, e.g., responsive to mouse hover over that item. The user interface may further include a list pane which displays all items presently included in the list, regardless of each item's original storage container.
US09081467B2 Display apparatus and non-transitory storage medium storing program
A display apparatus, including: a display switching unit which, when at least one image is being displayed, cyclically switches the image to be displayed in an ascending order or a descending order; a command receiving unit which receives a predefined-image display command which causes a predefined image to be displayed; an image-number obtaining unit which, when the predefined-image display command is received, obtains the number of images within a range from the image being displayed to the predefined image for each of the ascending order and/or the descending order; and a switching-order determining unit which determines, as a switching order, the ascending order or the descending order with a fewer number of images being present in the range. When the predefined-image display command is received, the display switching unit displays the predefined image by switching the image to be displayed in the determined switching order.
US09081464B2 Object selection
In an example embodiment, a system and method is illustrated that includes receiving a first cursor actuation signal from a cursor controlling device where the first cursor actuation signal received at a first cursor position in a graphical user interface. Further, the system and method includes determining an old hierarchy level, determining a new hierarchy level based on the first cursor position and the old hierarchy level, and selecting a target object based on the new hierarchy level and the first cursor position.
US09081462B2 Touch panel and manufacturing method thereof
The present disclosure provides a manufacturing method for a touch panel comprising: disposing an electrode layer extending from touch area of a substrate to periphery area of the substrate, wherein the periphery area surrounds the periphery of the touch area. The method further includes disposing an insulation layer in the periphery area of the substrate to form a shielding layer, making the shielding layer cover the overlapping electrode in the periphery area and making the electrode layer of the touch area and the overlapping electrode locate on the same layer of the substrate so as to avoid fluctuation of resistance value in the electrode layer due to height difference. Meanwhile, adopting the disposition method also maintains insulating performance of the shielding layer. The present disclosure also provides a touch panel made by the manufacturing method.
US09081461B2 Display device
A display device includes a display panel, and a flexible printed circuit that is a wiring connected to a terminal on a glass substrate of the display panel, and transmitting an image signal. The display panel includes a master driver circuit element, a slave driver circuit element, and an inter-driver signal line that is a wiring on the glass substrate for conducting a communication between the master driver circuit element and the slave driver circuit element. The flexible printed circuit includes a connection terminal portion that is connected to the terminal on the glass substrate, and an electromagnetic wave blocking portion that extends from the connection terminal portion toward the display area side, and is arranged on the inter-driver signal line, and has a rear surface conductive pattern which is a planer conductive pattern formed on a surface facing the glass substrate.
US09081460B2 Electronic device, method for manufacturing the same and touch panel including the same
Provided are an electronic device, a method of manufacturing the same, and a touch panel including the device. The electronic device includes a nanostructure having a plurality of metal oxide nanorods vertically aligned at predetermined intervals in intersection regions between bottom electrodes and top electrodes that perpendicularly cross each other. The nanorods are formed to the same diameter and the same height so that the electronic device can exhibit uniform performance. Also, a method of manufacturing an electronic device includes selectively vertically growing the same number of metal oxide nanostructures with a uniform size only on the bottom electrodes using a nano-template with a plurality of vertical holes. Furthermore, a touch panel includes a nanostructure having a plurality of piezoelectric nanorods disposed in a plurality of touch cells arranged in a matrix.
US09081459B2 Touch panel and display device provided with same
The touch panel of the present invention is a touch panel (1) that applies drive signals to drive electrodes (2) and carries out detection on the basis of the variation in the amount of charge that has been induced on detection electrodes (3), and is configured such that when drive signals are being applied to the drive electrodes, complementary signals having a different phase from the drive signals are applied to complementary electrodes (4), and the complimentary electrodes (4) are configured such that the amplitude (ΔVcm) of the complimentary signals satisfies the following formula: ΔVcm=−ΔVdr×(Cfo+Ccr)/Ccm.
US09081453B2 Single layer capacitive imaging sensors
Embodiments of the invention generally provide an input device that includes a plurality of sensing elements that are interconnected in desired way to acquire positional information of an input object, so that the acquired positional information can be used by other system components to control a display or other useful system components. One or more of the embodiments described herein, utilizes one or more of the techniques and sensor electrode array configuration disclosed herein to reduce or minimize the number of traces and/or electrodes required to sense the position of an input object within a sensing region of the input device.
US09081447B2 Display device with touch detection function, touch detection device, and electronic unit
A display device with a touch detection function includes a plurality of touch detection electrodes arranged in parallel to extend in one direction, formed with a predetermined electrode pattern including an electrode portion and aperture portions, and each outputting a detection signal based on a change of an electrostatic capacitance in response to an external proximity object, a plurality of display elements formed in a layer different from a layer provided with the touch detection electrodes, and arranged by a predetermined number in a width direction in a region corresponding to the touch detection electrode, and a plurality of dummy electrodes arranged in an inter-detection-electrode region of the plurality of touch detection electrodes. The aperture portions are provided to allow an arrangement area ratio of the touch detection electrode to be almost equal to an arrangement area ratio of the dummy electrodes in the inter-detection-electrode region.
US09081446B2 Touch display panels and manufacture methods thereof
A touch display panel is provided and includes a substrate, a plurality of gate lines, a plurality of data lines, a plurality of data output lines, a plurality of thin film transistors, and a plurality of detection capacitors. The gate lines are disposed on the substrate. The data lines are disposed on the substrate. The data lines and the gate lines define a plurality of pixel regions on the substrate. The data output lines are disposed on the substrate, and each data output line is disposed next to one data line. The thin film transistors are respectively disposed in the pixel regions. Each thin film transistor is electrically connected to the corresponding gate line and the corresponding data line. The detection capacitors are respectively disposed in the pixel regions. Each detection capacitor is electrically connected to the corresponding gate line and the corresponding data line.
US09081436B1 Force and/or motion measurement system and a method of testing a subject using the same
A force measurement system includes a force measurement assembly configured to receive a subject thereon, at least one visual display device having an output screen, and one or more data processing devices configured to generate a screen image comprising a plurality of substantially concentric bands on the output screen of the at least one visual display device that is configured to create a visual stimuli for the subject disposed on the force measurement assembly. A plurality of methods for testing a subject is also disclosed herein. The methods for testing a subject utilize a force measurement assembly and/or augmented reality glasses. A measurement system including a motion detection system, an object position detection system, and/or an eye movement tracking device is additionally disclosed herein.
US09081435B2 Display apparatus
In a display apparatus, one frame includes a first sub-frame in which a previous image is held and a second sub-frame in which a present image is displayed. A plurality of sensors recognizes an object disposed on a display panel and sequentially outputs sensing signals in response to scan signals. Sensing signals are divided into a first sensing signal read out during a first sub-frame and a second sensing signal read out during a second sub-frame, and a control circuit generates a noise free signal using the first and second sensing signals. Thus, a coordinate value indicating the position of the object may be generated based on the noise free signal, thereby preventing mis-operation or malfunction caused by the noise.
US09081433B2 Method of processing touch-sensor data and apparatus for performing the same
A method of processing touch-image data includes calculating a plurality of motion vectors using a plurality of low-resolution touch-image data frames, aligning sensing data corresponding to an object detected in the low-resolution touch-image data frames using the motion vectors to generate an overlapped touch-image data frame, generating high-resolution data corresponding to the detected object using the overlapped touch-image data frame and detecting the touch position and generating touch position data of the detected object using the high-resolution touch position data corresponding to the detected object.
US09081426B2 Image controller
An image controller structured for allowing inputs to be converted or translated into electrical outputs, one preferred controller structured with at least a sufficient number of sensors to aid in controlling three-dimensional objects and navigating a three-dimensional viewpoint shown by a display. An active tactile feedback vibrator is mounted as a component of the controller for providing vibration to be felt by a user. Inputs to the controller include a move forward command, a move back command, a move left command, a move right command, a move up command, and a move down command.
US09081416B2 Device, head mounted display, control method of device and control method of head mounted display
A device includes a detection unit that detects states of eyelids of a user, and a control unit that performs operations in response to the states of the eyelids of the user detected by the detection unit.
US09081414B2 Image manipulation based on tracked eye movement
The disclosure relates to controlling and manipulating an image of an object on a display device based on tracked eye movements of an observer. When the object is displayed according to an initial view, the observer's eye movement is tracked and processed in order to determine the focus of the observer's attention or gaze on the image. Thereafter, the displayed image is modified to provide a better view of the part of the object in which the observer is most interested. This is accomplished by modifying at least one of the spatial positioning of the object within the viewing area, the angle of view of the object, and the viewing direction of the object.
US09081411B2 Rapid development of virtual personal assistant applications
A platform for developing a virtual personal assistant (“VPA”) application includes an ontology that defines a computerized structure for representing knowledge relating to one or more domains. A domain may refer to a category of information and/or activities in relation to which the VPA application may engage in a conversational natural language dialog with a computing device user. Re-usable VPA components may be linked to or included in the ontology. An ontology populating agent may at least partially automate the process of populating the ontology with domain-specific information. The re-usable VPA components may be linked with the domain-specific information through the ontology. A VPA application created with the platform may include domain-adapted re-usable VPA components that may be called upon by an executable VPA engine to determine a likely intended meaning of conversational natural language input of the user and/or initiate an appropriate system response to the input.
US09081408B2 Acceleration device
Each of a cross sectional shape of a contacting portion of a stopper arm and a cross sectional shape of an outer peripheral surface of a pedal shaft is formed in a circular shape, wherein a curvature radius is equal to each other. Each of a cross sectional shape of a stopper surface of a supporting body and a cross sectional shape of an inner peripheral surface of a bearing portion is formed in a circular shape, wherein a curvature radius is equal to each other. A distance between a center of a first virtual circle formed by the contacting portion and a center axis of the pedal shaft is made to be equal to a distance between a center of a second virtual circle formed by the stopper surface and a center axis of the bearing portion. An angle of the stopper arm with respect to the supporting body is not changed, even when the center axis of the pedal shaft is displaced with respect to center axis of the bearing portion.
US09081405B2 Systems, methods and apparatus for encouraging energy conscious behavior based on aggregated third party energy consumption
Accessing an energy management policy for a plurality of devices is described, wherein the devices are coupled with a first structure. The energy usage of the devices is monitored. An energy usage rule and energy usage is then compared. The energy management policy and energy usage is also compared. Based on the comparing, an instruction is generated to modify an energy usage profile of said device to correlate with the energy usage rule associated with the devices and the energy management policy, thereby enabling efficient energy management.
US09081398B2 Adaptive startup control for boost converter
This document discusses apparatus and methods for a boost converter start-up circuit. In an example, a start-up circuit can include a linear current generator configured to couple a supply terminal of the voltage converter to an output terminal of the voltage converter. The linear current generator can include a modified current mirror and a feedback circuit configured to provide a first representative of an output voltage of the output terminal to an input of each of a first and a second adjustable current source of the modified current mirror.
US09081397B2 Constant on time multi-phase switching converter and control method thereof
A multi-phase switching converter comprising a plurality of switching circuits, a comparing circuit and a control circuit. The comparing circuit generates a comparison signal based on a reference signal and the output voltage of the multi-phase switching converter. The control circuit can turn on the following switching circuit based on the comparison signal only after the time from the current switching circuit being turned on reaches a first time threshold or the off-time of the current switching circuit reaches a second time threshold, wherein the first time threshold is longer than the second time threshold.
US09081395B2 DC power supply apparatus configured to correct input polarity of DC power
A direct current (DC) power supply apparatus includes an input unit configured to receive an outside DC power; a plurality of polarity correction units configured to correct the polarity of the outside DC power; a plurality of switch units installed to correspond to each of the plurality of polarity correction units; a detection unit configured to detect a flow of current of the plurality of polarity correction unit; and a control unit configured to determine a polarity correction unit, at which current of DC power flows, among the plurality of correction units based on a detection signal of transmitted from the detection unit, and control the switch unit corresponding to the determined polarity correction unit at an ON position such that the current of DC power flows through the switch unit which is controlled at the ON position.
US09081391B2 Valve assembly for pressure storage vessel
A pressure shut-off valve unit for a pressure accumulator vessel. A valve housing has a valve chamber with an accumulator region, an intake opening and an outlet opening facing the pressure accumulator vessel. A piston has at least one axial connecting channel, a first effective piston surface facing an inlet region of the valve chamber and a second effective piston surface adjacent to the accumulator region, the piston being axially movable via a change in pressure of the accumulator region of the valve chamber. Sealing elements are arranged in the valve chamber and which are configured to guide in an axially movable manner the piston. A sealing body of the at least two sealing elements or the valve housing form a valve seat, and a passage opening arranged between the intake opening and the outlet opening is reversibly closed and opened via a change in pressure of the accumulator region of the valve chamber. In a unpressurized state, the passage opening is kept open by at least one spring. The accumulator region of the valve chamber is configured for connection to the inlet region of the valve chamber.
US09081383B1 Enhancing basic roadway-intersection models using high intensity image data
Systems and methods are provided that may optimize basic models of an intersection in a roadway with high intensity image data of the intersection of the roadway. More specifically, parameters that define the basic model of the intersection in the roadway may be adjusted to more accurately define the intersection. For example, by comparing a shape of the intersection predicted by the basic model with extracted curbs and lane boundaries from elevation and intensity maps, the intersection parameters can be optimized to match real intersection-features in the environment. Once the optimal intersection parameters have been found, roadgraph features describing the intersection may be extracted.
US09081375B1 Method and system for music program selection
In providing a music program, a personal music player displays personal activity choices. A user selects a personal activity and provides a time duration for the activity. The player sends a request to a music program server for a music program. The request includes the personal activity and the time duration. The music program server selects a music program record from a plurality of music program records that has an activity attribute which matches the personal activity and a program duration which matches or is less than the time duration. The server extracts location information for the music program from the program entry in the music program record, and sends this to the player. The player uses the location information to obtain the music program. In this manner, a music program is provided to a user based on the personal activity of the user.
US09081366B2 Timepiece to display a value of a time unit
A timepiece for displaying a value of a time unit is provided, comprising a read element (5), wherein a rotation of the read element (5) can be controlled manually, and a form element (4), which rotates according to the time unit, wherein the rotation of the form element (4) is independent of a manually induced rotation of the read element (5), wherein the value of the time unit can only be read when the read element (5) and the form element (4) coincide, in that the angular position of the coincidence indicates the value of the time unit.
US09081364B2 Optical information recording/reproducing apparatus, optical information recording/reproducing method, and optical information recording medium
In an optical information recording/reproducing apparatus using holography, there are provided the optical information recording/reproducing apparatus, method thereof, and optical information recording medium which correct a zero point and variation of unit quantity of a reference beam angle between apparatus and perform recording or reproducing operation with high compatibility between apparatus. The optical information recording/reproducing apparatus detects a reference beam angle suitable to reproduce angle correction data recorded on the optical information recording medium and corrects a zero point and unit quantity of the reference beam angle at the time of recording or reproducing operation based on the detection angle information.
US09081363B2 Apparatus and method for fast generation of three-dimensional (3D) hologram
An apparatus for generating a hologram that may generate a three-dimensional (3D) hologram pattern at a high speed may include a pattern setting unit to set points for which hologram patterns are to be generated with respect to a one-eighth area of an entire area for which a hologram pattern is to be generated, a calculation unit to calculate pattern values for a plurality of reference points selected with respect to the one-eighth area of the entire area, and to generate a pattern for the one-eighth area using recurrent interpolation, and a pattern duplicating unit to complete a pattern for the entire area by duplicating the generated pattern for the one-eighth area.
US09081359B2 Image forming apparatus and process cartridge
An image forming apparatus, having process cartridges each including a photosensitive drum and a developing roller, includes a movable member movable between an inside and an outside of a main assembly of the image forming apparatus in a movement direction crossing a longitudinal direction of the photosensitive drum, and a mounting portion for supporting the process cartridges, wherein the process cartridges are detachably mountable to the mounting portion from a direction crossing the longitudinal direction and the movement direction. In addition, and an interrelating member, movable in interrelation with movement of the movable member, moves the developing roller relative to the photosensitive drum so that a distance between a rotation center of the photosensitive drum and a rotation center of the developing roller is decreased with respect to the movement direction when the movable member is moved from the inside to the outside of the main assembly.
US09081358B2 Fixing apparatus, and image forming apparatus equipped with fixing apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes a main assembly; a fixing unit including a fixing rotatable member for fixing an unfixed image formed on a recording material, and a frame for accommodating the fixing rotatable member, the fixing unit is detachably mountable to the main assembly; and an air feeding member for feeding air to the fixing rotatable member provided in the main assembly, wherein the frame is provided with an opening for applying the air fed from the air feeding member to the fixing rotatable member, and an openable member movable between a first position for closing the opening and a second position for opening the opening, wherein the openable member moves from the second position to the first position in response to an operation of taking the fixing unit out of the main assembly.
US09081354B2 Image forming apparatus
A high-voltage power source can change a set value of a current to be supplied to an electroconductive brush from a first set current that has been set when the image formation has been started, to a second set current smaller than the first set current, at a previously set timing after the image formation for a recording material has been started. An absolute value of a potential difference between potentials of a photosensitive drum and an intermediate transfer belt, when a secondary transfer residual toner that has been charged by the electroconductive brush to which the second set current has been supplied is positioned in a primary transfer portion, is not larger than an absolute value of a potential difference which is shown when a toner image formed on the photosensitive drum is primarily transferred in the primary transfer portion.
US09081351B2 Supporting mechanism and image forming apparatus
Disclosed is a supporting mechanism including a bearing support portion that supports a bearing and is open so that the bearing is removed in a first direction that crosses a rotating shaft that is supported by the bearing, a driving shaft coupling that transmits a driving force to the rotating shaft by being connected to a rotating shaft coupling that is provided at one end of the rotating shaft, and a contact member that includes a bearing contact portion that makes contact with the bearing.
US09081334B2 Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes an image carrying member for carrying a toner image; an intermediary member for carrying the toner image transferred from the image carrying member; a first transfer member for transferring the toner image from the intermediary member onto a sheet, the first transfer member having a first resistance and being contacted to the intermediary member; a second transfer member for transferring the toner image from the intermediary member onto the sheet, the second transfer member having a second resistance higher than the first resistance and being contacted to the intermediary member at a position downstream of the first transfer member; and a voltage applying source, connected to both of said first and second transfer members, for applying the same voltage to the first and second transfer members to transfer the toner image onto the sheet.
US09081328B2 Method to adjust the hue of print images in an electrophotographic printer
In a method to adjust hue of a print images by toner layer thickness a photoconductor element is charged to a charge potential. A potential image of the print image made up of image points is generated via exposure and discharge of the photoconductor element. The potential image is inked by charged toner via a developer element at a BIAS potential. With a character generator, generating a potential of an individual image point of the print image via local discharge of the photoconductor element, the potential of the image point lying between the BIAS potential and a potential established by a maximum achievable discharge depth of the photoconductor element, and so that the individual image points have same or different potentials, depending on the exposure, so that the exposed area overall has a resulting potential, and a depositing of toner on this area and therefore the toner layer thickness on this area is proportional to the resulting potential.
US09081327B2 Apparatus and method for preventing an information storage device from falling from a removable device
An information storage device installed in a removable device configured to be removably installed in an image forming apparatus body, includes: an information storage unit that stores information communicated between the image forming apparatus body and the removable device; a terminal that comes in contact with a body side terminal; and a substrate that holds the information storage unit and the terminal and includes a hole configured to be engaged with a protruding section installed in the image forming apparatus body. The terminal includes a plurality of terminals each including one of a plurality of metallic plates arranged in a transverse direction thereof. An earth terminal, which comes in contact with a body side earth terminal formed in the protruding section, is formed in the hole. The hole is disposed at a position sandwiched between two metallic plates among the plurality of metallic plates.
US09081326B2 Toner cartridge with memory for image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus mounted with a toner cartridge having a memory unit includes a toner cartridge which stores a plurality of control data depending on toner in the memory unit, an acquisition unit which selects one of the plurality of control data in the memory unit and acquires image formation-related information and a setting unit which sets image formation parameters on the basis of the image formation-related information.
US09081325B2 Image forming device, and non-transitory computer readable recording medium
Provided is an image forming device including an image holding member that is rotatable at a first speed and a second speed, a developing unit that includes a developing part that is rotatable at a third speed and a fourth speed, and a carrying part that is rotatable at a fifth speed and a sixth speed, and a control unit that executes a change of a high speed mode in which the image holding member is operated at the first speed, the developing part is operated at the third speed and the carrying part is operated at the fifth speed to perform development and a low speed mode in which the image holding member is operated at the second speed, the developing part is operated at the fourth speed and the carrying part is operated at the sixth speed to perform development.
US09081319B2 Electrophotographic photoconductor, manufacturing method thereof, and electrophotographic device
Provided is an electrophotographic photoconductor that has good coating solution stability and metal oxide dispersibility, is free of image defects including ground fogging and black spots, and affords good image characteristics in various environments, as well as a manufacturing method therefore and a device including the same. The electrophotographic photoconductor includes a conductive substrate; an undercoat layer; and a photosensitive layer. The undercoat layer contains, as a main component, a resin obtained by polymerizing, as starting materials, an aromatic dicarboxylic acid, at least one aliphatic dicarboxylic acid having 8 or more carbon atoms, and at least one diamine having a cycloalkane structure, and further contains a metal oxide. The aromatic dicarboxylic acid in the resin is present in an amount that ranges from 0.1 to 10 mol %, and the resin has an acid value and a base value that are each no greater than 10 KOH mg/g.
US09081316B2 Electrophotographic toner and method of preparing the same
An electrophotographic toner including a binder, a colorant and a releasing agent, and a method of preparing the electrophotographic toner.
US09081314B2 Method for producing structured particles
Method for producing structured particles specifically nanoparticles, toners for laser printers and photocopiers, particularly chemical toner with particular product properties. The method produces toners of improved performance. Method relates particularly to the selection and properties of the base materials and utilizing these properties to design the toner product properties that result in improved performance.
US09081313B2 Electrophotographic photoconductor, production method thereof, and electrophotographic device
An electrophotographic photoconductor including, in the order recited: a conductive substrate; an undercoat layer provided on the conductive substrate; and a photoconductive layer provided on the undercoat layer and containing at least a phthalocyanine compound as a charge generation material and, as a resin binder, a polyvinyl acetal resin composed of a repeating unit represented by formula (1): where, in formula (1), R is a hydrogen atom, a methyl group, an ethyl group or a propyl group; x, y and z represent mol % of the respective structural units, where x+y+z=100; n is an integer from 1 to 5; a degree of acetalization (x+z) is 86 to 99 mol %; and a molar ratio (x:z) of the structural units is 95:5 to 50:50.
US09081312B2 Method to define multiple layer patterns with a single exposure by E-beam lithography
The present disclosure provides a method that includes forming a first resist layer on a substrate; forming a second resist layer over the first resist layer; and performing an electron-beam (e-beam) lithography exposure process to the first resist layer and the second resist layer, thereby forming a first latent feature in the first resist layer and a second latent feature in the second resist layer.
US09081306B2 Method of optimizing lithography tools utilization
A lithography cluster includes at least two lithography cells having a first lithography cell and a second lithography cell, an interface unit configured to integrate with the first lithography cell and the second lithography cell. The first lithography cell includes a first track and a first exposing tool and a second lithography cell includes a second track and a second exposing tool. The interface station includes a first interface buffer configured to couple the first track, a second interface buffer configured to couple the second track, a conveyor configured to couple the first interface buffer and the second interface buffer, and a robot configure to move along the conveyor, where in the robot transfers a substrate between functions of multiple functions within the first lithography cell, the second lithography cell, or between the first lithography cell and the second lithography cell.
US09081302B2 Inspection apparatus and method, lithographic apparatus and lithographic processing cell
An “angle-resolved” version of FD-OCT is used to measure reflectance properties. An inspection apparatus comprises an illumination source configured to provide an illumination beam, an interferometer configured to use the illumination beam to illuminate a target on a substrate at an incidence angle and to use radiation reflected from the substrate with a reference beam derived from the illumination beam to produce an output beam, a sampling device arranged to select a portion of the output beam, a spectrometer configured to receive the selected portion of the output beam and to measure a spectrum of the received selected portion of the output beam, and a processor configured to determine from the measured spectrum reflectance properties of the target such as raw spectrometer spectral data, the Fourier transformed data, the extracted intensity components or carrier phase or the calculated complex reflectance.
US09081296B2 Replacement apparatus for an optical element
A replacement apparatus for an optical element mounted between two adjacent optical elements in a lithography objective has a holder for the optical element to be replaced, which holder can be moved into the lithography objective through a lateral opening in a housing of the same.
US09081295B2 Catadioptric projection optical system, exposure apparatus, and exposure method
A catadioptric projection objective for imaging a pattern provided in an object plane of the projection objective onto an image plane of the projection objective. The projection objective includes a first objective part that includes one or more refractive optical elements to image the pattern provided in the object plane into a first intermediate image, a second objective part that consists of reflective optical elements including at least one concave mirror to image the first intermediate image into a second intermediate image, and a third objective part that includes one or more refractive optical elements to image the second intermediate imaging onto the image plane. The projection objective includes at lease one double asphere having a first aspheric surface and a second aspheric surface immediately adjacent to the first aspheric surface, the double asphere being formed by facing adjacent aspheric surfaces of two consecutive lenses.
US09081294B2 Method for measuring an angularly resolved intensity distribution and projection exposure apparatus
A method for measuring an angularly resolved intensity distribution in a reticle plane (24) of a projection exposure apparatus (10). The apparatus includes an illumination system (16), irradiating a reticle (22) arranged in the reticle plane (24) and having a first pupil plane (20). All planes of the projection exposure apparatus which are conjugate thereto are further pupil planes, and the reticle plane (24) and all planes which are conjugate thereto are field planes. The method includes: arranging a spatially resolving detection module (44) in the region of one of the field planes (24, 30) such that the detection module is at a smaller distance from this field plane than from the closest pupil plane (20), radiating electromagnetic radiation (21) onto an optical module (42) from the illumination system, and determining an angularly resolved intensity distribution of the radiation from a signal recorded by the detection module.
US09081291B2 Resist stripping solution composition, and method for stripping resist by using same
Disclosed is a resist stripping solution composition, which is highly capable of removing a resist pattern and an etching residue after dry etching or wet etching, manifests excellent anticorrosive effects on metal wiring including aluminum and/or copper because a predetermined polyol compound is used, and also can process a number of substrates because a predetermined amide compound is used, thus greatly contributing to reducing the cost. A method of stripping a resist using the resist stripping solution composition is also provided.
US09081288B2 Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) mask, method of fabricating the EUV mask and method of inspecting the EUV mask
An out-of-band (OoB) suppression layer is applied on a reflective multiplayer (ML) coating, so as to avoid the OoB reflection and to enhance the optical contrast at 13.5 nm. A material having a low reflectivity at wavelength of 193-257 nm, for example, silicon carbide (SiC), is used as the OoB suppression layer. A method of fabricating an EUV mask having the OoB suppression layer and a method of inspecting an EUV mask having the OoB suppression are also provided.
US09081287B2 Methods of measuring overlay errors in area-imaging e-beam lithography
One embodiment relates to a method of measuring overlay errors for a programmable pattern, area-imaging electron beam lithography apparatus. Patterned cells of an overlay measurement target array may be printed in swaths such that they are superposed on patterned cells of a first (base) array. In addition, the overlay array may have controlled-exposure areas distributed within the swaths. The superposed cells of the overlay and base arrays are imaged. The overlay errors are then measured based on distortions between the two arrays in the image data. Alternatively, non-imaging methods, such as using scatterometry, may be used. Another embodiment relates to a method for correcting overlay errors for an electron beam lithography apparatus. Overlay errors for a pattern to be printed are determined based on within-swath exposure conditions. The pattern is then pre-distorted to compensate for the overlay errors. Other embodiments, aspects and features are also disclosed.
US09081282B1 Pattern formation using electroless plating and articles
A conductive pattern can be formed using a polymeric layer that contains a reactive composition that comprises a reactive polymer that is metal ion-complexing, water-soluble, and crosslinkable. This reactive polymer comprises pendant groups comprising crosslinkable —C(═O)—CR═CR1—Y— groups wherein R and R1 are defined in the disclosure, as well as metal ion-complexing and water solubilizing groups. The reactive composition can be patternwise exposed to suitable radiation to induce crosslinking within the reactive polymer. The reactive composition and reactive polymer in the non-exposed regions can be removed due to their aqueous solubility, but the exposed regions of the polymeric layer are contacted with electroless seed metal ions, which are then reduced. The resulting electroless seed metal nuclei are electrolessly plated with a suitable metal to form the desired conductive pattern. Various articles can be prepared during this process, and the product article can be incorporated into various electronic devices.
US09081276B2 Photosensitive resin composition production kit, and use thereof
The object of the present invention is to provide a photosensitive resin composition which is excellent in: storage stability in a long-term storage; microfabricability; developability; low-temperature curability; flexibility in a cured film; electrical insulation reliability; solder heat resistance; resistance to an organic solvent; and flame retardancy and low in post-curing warpage when processed into a substrate. The object can be attained by use of a photosensitive resin composition production kit which includes at least two or more components including an A component and a B component. The A component contains a (A) compound having a carboxyl group. The B component contains a (B) compound having a reactive group which is reactive to a carboxyl group, a (C) oxime ester photopolymerization initiator, and a (D) compound having a photosensitive group but no carboxyl group.