Document	Document Title
US09167730B2	Electronics compartment An electronics compartment with a component space which is sealed off from a surrounding environment by walls, including an internal panel arranged in the component space along a wall of the electronics compartment for delimiting an internal channel between the wall and the internal panel. Air flowing in the internal channel can improve transfer of heat through the wall, and consequently, cools electric components in the component space.
US09167725B2	Backplane structure and server system utilizing the same A server system utilizing a backplane structure comprises first and second hard disk modules; a first backplane comprising a first wiring board comprising air vents and passive components and a second wiring board connected to a bottom portion of the first wiring board at a first angle and comprising first active components; and a second backplane comprising a third wiring board comprising second air vents and second passive components and a fourth wiring board connected to a bottom portion of the third wiring board at a second angle and comprising second active components thereon; wherein the first and second backplanes are disposed between the first and second hard disk modules; the first wiring board is directly corresponding to the first hard disk module; the third wiring board is directly corresponding to the second hard disk module; the first backplane is higher than the second backplane.
US09167724B1	Alternative data center building designs A multi-floor data center, comprising in one implementation, a plurality of floors; a first set of server racks disposed about a first vertical center axis on each floor, the first set of server racks formed in a substantially closed shape, with a substantially vertical open center comprising a first airflow plenum at least for air flow; a first opening in each of the floors, with the first opening aligned with the substantially vertical first airflow plenum on it respective floor, wherein the substantially vertical first airflow plenums on the floors are aligned for communication through the first openings in the floors; outer wall; a roof with a roof opening therein.
US09167719B2	Systems and methods for managing heat generated by electronic equipment in an electronic equipment enclosure A system for managing heat generated by electronic equipment in an electronic equipment enclosure is provided. The system includes a duct adapted to receive a first portion of the electronic equipment. The first portion of the electronic equipment includes an air intake opening. The duct forms a barrier between the first portion of the electronic equipment and a second portion of the electronic equipment. The second portion of the electronic equipment includes an air exhaust opening. The barrier separates cooled air entering the air intake opening and heated air exiting the air exhaust opening.
US09167715B2	Display device The present invention relates to a display device, which comprises a rear cover, a display panel, a drive device and an adhesive member, the adhesive member including a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface; the first surface is bonded to the upper end of the rear cover, and the second surface is bonded to the upper end of the display panel, which is bonded at the lower end to the lower end of the rear cover; the drive device is arranged in the rear cover and electrically connected to the display panel to drive the display panel.
US09167714B2	Reverse wedgelock device A reverse wedgelock device with multiple draw blocks disposed about a lead screw passing through the draw blocks, wherein the draw blocks may be compressed together and caused to displace about respective wedge surfaces upon tightening of the screw. Compression and displacement of the draw blocks can function to draw anchors associated with the draw blocks inward, which, when engaged with opposing objects, functions to draw the objects together.
US09167705B2	Chassis drawer for modular information handling resources A drawer for receiving components may comprise an inner member, and intermediate member, and a carrier member. The carrier member may comprise a substantially planar top generally parallel to an inner member bottom, a substantially planar bottom generally parallel to the top, a carrier spine mechanically coupled between the top and the bottom, a plurality of bays, each bay having one or more structural components for receiving a modular information handling resource and configured such that the bay is accessed for insertion or removal of the modular information handling resource via a carrier member side of the carrier member generally parallel to an inner member side, and at least one web generally parallel to the inner member sides and mechanically coupling the carrier member to the intermediate member such that when the drawer is translated to an open position, each of the plurality of bays is accessible.
US09167704B2	Lead-free solder alloy for printed circuit board assemblies for high-temperature environments A solder alloy suitable for high temperature environments, such as for example electronic systems used in an oil or gas well where the temperature may be in the region of 175° C., the solder alloy having a Silver weight % in the range of 3.5 to 7.0, a Copper weight % in the range of 1.0 to 4.0, and an Antimony weight % in the range of 1.0 to 3.0. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09167699B2	Semiconductor device Aspects of the invention are directed to a power module including a metal base, an insulating substrate which is attached to the metal base, a semiconductor chip and a control terminal which are attached to a circuit pattern of the insulating substrate, and a resin case which is attached to the metal base. The control terminal can include a penetration portion which penetrates a cover of the resin case, an L-shaped processed portion which is connected to the penetration portion, and a connection portion which is connected to the L-shaped processed portion. A protrusion portion can be installed in a portion of the control terminal, which penetrates the cover. The protrusion portion can be in contact with a protrusion receiving portion which is configured with a front surface of the cover. The L-shaped processed portion can be in contact with a convex portion in a rear surface of the cover.
US09167698B2	Surface mount clip A surface mount clip including: a solder joint part in which a lower surface thereof is to be a solder joint surface to be soldered and connected to a conductor pattern on a printed circuit board. A pair of support parts are connected to the solder joint part and, when the solder joint part is soldered and connected to the printed circuit board, are supported in a position above the printed circuit board at an interval between the pair of support parts. The interval allows a conductive member, other than the printed circuit board, to be inserted therein. A resilient contact part, that is connected at least to one of the pair of support parts, is resiliently deformed and pressed by the conductive member, when the conductive member is inserted between the pair of support parts, and electrically connects the conductor pattern and the conductive member.
US09167695B2	Electronic device module An electronic device module includes a first substrate having a first wiring layer and a first alignment mark, the first alignment mark being transparent in a visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, and a second substrate facing a part of the first substrate and having a second wiring layer and a second alignment mark facing the first alignment mark.
US09167686B2	3D stacked package structure and method of manufacturing the same A 3D stacked package structure includes a first unit, a molding unit, a conductive unit and a second unit. The first unit includes a first substrate and at least one first electronic component, and the first substrate has at least one runner and at least one first conductive pad. The molding unit includes a top portion, a frame, and at least one connection connected between the top portion and the frame. The conductive unit includes at least one conductor passing through the frame and electrically connected to the first conductive pad. Therefore, the first unit can be stacked on the second unit through the frame of the molding unit, and the first unit can be electrically connected to the second unit through the conductor of the conductive unit.
US09167685B2	Circuit board A circuit board includes a plate-shaped dielectric body with a first and a second main surface and including a first area not to be bent and a second area to be bent such that the first main surface becomes an outer side, a first reinforcing member located in the first area nearer the first main surface in relation to a center of the second area in a thickness direction and away from the second area, and a second reinforcing member located in the first area nearer the second main surface in relation to the center of the second area and contacting with a border between the first and the second areas. The first main surface curves from an edge of the first reinforcing member closest to the second area, and the second main surface curves from an edge of the second reinforcing member on the border.
US09167680B2	Plasma processing apparatus, plasma generating apparatus, antenna structure and plasma generating method A plasma processing apparatus includes: a mounting table, disposed in a processing chamber, configured to mount thereon the substrate; an inductively coupled antenna disposed outside the processing chamber to be opposite to the mounting table, the inductively coupled antenna being connected to a high frequency power supply; and a window member forming a wall of the processing chamber which faces the inductively coupled antenna. The window member includes a plurality of conductive windows made of a conductive material, and dielectric portions disposed between the conductive windows. The inductively coupled antenna is extended in a predetermined direction on the window member and electrically connected to one of the conductive windows, and electrical connection by conductors is sequentially performed from the one of the conductive windows to the other conductive windows in the same direction as an extension direction of the inductively coupled antenna.
US09167662B2	Mixed load current compensation for LED lighting In at least one embodiment, a system and method provide current compensation in a lighting system by controlling a lamp current to prevent a current through a triac-based dimmer from undershooting a holding current value. In at least one embodiment, at least one of the lamps includes a controller that controls circuitry in the lamp to draw more lamp current for a period of time than needed to illuminate a brightness of the lamp at a level corresponding to particular phase-cut angle of the supply voltage. By drawing more current than needed, the controller increases the dimmer current during the period of time to prevent the dimmer current from falling below the holding current value. In at least one embodiment, the period of time corresponds to a compensating pulse of the lamp current at a time when the dimmer current would otherwise fall below the holding current value.
US09167661B2	Power supply device and lighting device and lighting fixture using the same A power supply device comprises: a DC power supply section that outputs a DC voltage; a voltage conversion section that supplies a DC power to a load by ON/OFF drive of a switching element; a resistor; a control section that performs the ON/OFF drive of the switching element; and an auxiliary winding. The control section comprises: a calculation section that calculates a drive period of the switching element; a count section compares a calculation result obtained in the calculation section with an upper limit value of the drive period; and a flip-flop. When the calculation result is shorter than the upper limit value, the flip-flop sets the drive period, using the calculation result. When the calculation result is longer than the upper limit value, the flip-flop sets the drive period, using the upper limit value.
US09167656B2	Lifetime correction for aging of LEDs in tunable-white LED lighting devices A lighting system having at least three light sources receives an input relating to color coordinates of a target point representing a desired color characteristic for a combined output from the light sources. The system provides color tunable output and/or dimmable output in response to differences in user input. The system also corrects changes in performance of the light sources due to lifetime degradation in each of the light sources. After a period of system operation, outputs of the sources are measured. The system increases the luminosity outputs of each of the light sources by a respective amount relative to the degradations measured in all the light sources; in this manner, the luminosity outputs of the light sources remain substantially constant in relations to each other over the lifetime of the light sources.
US09167650B2	Light source drive circuit A light source drive circuit is disclosed which uses a low withstanding voltage transistor is discussed. The light source drive circuit can enhance price competitiveness. Also, the light source drive circuit can allow a current flowing through an LED portion to be eliminated when a PWM signal is not applied. Therefore, the light source drive circuit can enhance a contrast ratio.
US09167648B2	Lighting device and luminaire A lighting device that lights up an LED and includes a DC power source, a buck converter and a control circuit. The buck converter includes a switching element, an inductor and a diode. The control circuit includes a current detection circuit that detects an electric current flowing through the switching element, a voltage detection circuit that detects a voltage across the inductor, a delay circuit that generates a delay time according to the voltage detected by the voltage detection circuit, and a drive circuit that generates and outputs a control signal to the switching element, the control signal turning OFF the switching element after a lapse of the delay time generated by the delay circuit from when the electric current detected by the current detection circuit reaches a predetermined current command value.
US09167638B2	LED controller circuit An LED controller circuit for use in an LED drive circuit in which a coil current control scheme is used to deliver power to an LED arrangement from a phase cut dimmer. The controller circuit includes means for determining, based on an analysis/signal processing of the on-time of the transistor, the dimmer characteristics, including the on state and off states of the ac dimmed voltage signal. This avoids the need for the controller circuit to process the dimmer output.
US09167635B2	Light emitting apparatus, driving circuit of light emitting element, and driving method A light emitting apparatus includes a light emitting element, a driving circuit which has a driving transistor having a gate, a drain, and a source, and a capacitor having one end connected to the gate, a power line, and first and second voltage lines, and, in a period in which the gate and the drain are short-circuited and the drain and the light emitting element are blocked, the source is connected to the first voltage line and the other end of the capacitor is connected to the second voltage line to hold a voltage in the capacitor, and, in a period in which the gate and the drain are disconnected and the drain and the light emitting element are connected, the source is connected to the power line, and the other end of the capacitor is connected to the source to supply a current to the light emitting element.
US09167634B2	Sensor system for bottom electrodes of an electric arc furnace A sensor system for monitoring and controlling the performance of the bottom electrode and the deflection of an electric arc in an electric steel making furnace includes an organized matrix of anode pins interspersed with refractory material and extending toward an electrically conductive plate secured to distal ends of the anode pins. A sensing device includes two temperature sensors at spaced apart locations along each of a distributed select group of anode pins for providing corresponding electrical signals and a current sensor responsive to electrical current flowing through the anode pins of the distributed select group of anode pins for providing a corresponding electrical signal. A controller responsive to the electrical signals derived at the anode pins of the select group operates the power supply and a display for monitoring the electrical performance of the elongated anode pins for heating by the electric arc in the furnace.
US09167626B1	Fiber stripping methods and apparatus An apparatus for removing at least one coating from a lengthwise section of an optical fiber includes a heater configured for heating a heating region to a temperature above a thermal decomposition temperature of the at least one coating; a securing mechanism configured for securing the optical fiber so that the lengthwise section of the optical fiber is positioned in the heating region; and a controller operatively associated with the heater, wherein the controller is configured for deactivating the heater not later than immediately after removal of the at least one coating from the lengthwise section of the optical fiber in the heating region, and the heater may be deactivated before the removal of the at least one coating from the lengthwise section of the optical fiber.
US09167623B2	Communication system, communication method, mobile terminal, and mobile base station device To establish an appropriate communication path of a mobile terminal to a local network in accordance with a connection configuration of a mobile base station. A mobile base station device of the present invention includes: a base station processing unit that receives a connection request from a mobile terminal accommodated by the mobile base station device; and a switching processing unit that switches connection of the mobile terminal to a local network to either of local IP connection or remote IP connection, in accordance with backhaul media to which the mobile base station device is connected, based on the connection request from the mobile terminal.
US09167616B2	System, apparatus and method for establishing a call from a mobile device A system, method and mobile device for initiating a voice call from the mobile device is provided. An expiration time is determined based on a time reference synchronized with a mobile call server. The mobile device transmits to the mobile call server a session initiation protocol (SIP) call initiation request including a destination number and the expiration time. A second call initiation request to a secondary contact number is initiated to establish the voice call to the destination number, when a response to the SIP call initiation request is not received from the mobile call server prior to the expiration time enabling reliable establishment of the voice call when the first attempt is unsuccessful. The mobile device does not have to wait on the mobile call server to determine a call failure and ensure that subsequent call initiation by the mobile device does not result in a call establishment collision with the mobile call server.
US09167612B2	Minimal synchronized network operations A method for minimal synchronized network operations includes making an initial connection between a client and a network, the initial connection being made through a first access point managed by a home controller, the home controller recording session information and authentication data for the client. A subsequent connection is made between the client and the network through a second access point managed by a second controller, the subsequent connection being made communicating the session information and authentication data between the home controller and the second controller, without client reauthentication, and without disrupting existing communication.
US09167610B2	Layer-2 IP networking method and apparatus for mobile hosts A method and apparatus to enable IP networking for mobile hosts without requiring changes to be made to the TCP/IP stack in the operating system installed on the mobile hosts. The apparatus is an “intelligent device” that can be installed on or connected to a mobile host, and may comprise a software-only logical module, physical hardware, or a combination of both. To a mobile host, the intelligent device emulates a network interface such as an Ethernet card or a telephone modem. The intelligent device appears to an access network just like any regular IP host connected to the access network through a physical network interface device. The intelligent device handles all mobile networking functions for the mobile host, and may control multiple different physical network interface devices to enable a connection to an access network available to the mobile user at his location.
US09167608B2	Access point and method for connecting wireless communication An access point and a method for connecting wireless communication thereof are provided. The method includes, if a connecting device is connected to the access point, registering information of the connecting device, if the connecting device transmits a first signal in response to a beacon message of the access point after having been disconnected from the access point and connected to a host device, determining whether the connecting device is already registered using the first signal, and, if it is determined that the connecting device is already registered, connecting to the host device via the wireless communication connection.
US09167607B2	Communication apparatus, and communication method A communication apparatus includes a main control portion corresponding to a terminal determination portion and a connection management portion. Upon determining, from identification information such as IP addresses, that a session establishment request has been received from a gateway that relays facsimile communication between an Internet network and a telephone network, the main control portion establishes a session corresponding to the session establishment request within a range of a preset first maximum number of simultaneous connections. Upon determining that the communication destination terminal is not the gateway, the main control portion establishes a session corresponding to the request within a preset second maximum number of simultaneous connections which is smaller than the first maximum number of simultaneous connections and is obtained by subtracting a preset secured number from the first maximum number of simultaneous connections which is the maximum number of simultaneous connections between the communication apparatus and the gateway.
US09167605B2	Method and system for allowing incoming emergency communications on a disabled device A system and method to allow a disabled device to receive an incoming communication after the termination of an emergency communication session with a service provider. A disabled device is a device having a portion of its service plan that allows the device to send or receive communications either temporarily or permanently disabled. In some embodiments, the system allows the disabled device to receive all incoming communications during a defined period of time after the emergency communication session. In some embodiments, the system allows the disabled device to receive all incoming communications from numbers or URIs contained in a repository of allowed numbers. In some embodiments, the system allows the disabled device to receive all incoming communications if the service provider initiating the communication enters an authenticated routing key or passcode.
US09167602B2	Method and apparatus for assigning radio resources and controlling transmission parameters on a random access channel A method and apparatus for assigning radio resources and controlling parameters for transmission over a random access channel in wireless communications by enhancing a random access channel is disclosed.
US09167600B2	Radio system, radio base station and radio terminal One of a plurality of radio terminals that transmit radio signals to a radio base station under a space multiplexing scheme, including a receiving unit that receives an access right request signal with respect to the radio base station from an other radio terminal, a prevention unit that prevents transmission of radio signals when receiving radio signals directed to an other radio terminal, a cancellation unit that cancels the prevention of transmission when receiving an access right assignment signal during the prevention of transmission and a transmitting unit that transmits a data signal to the radio base station according to the assignment signal, wherein radio signals are transmitted to the radio base station simultaneously with the other radio terminals and under the space multiplexing scheme.
US09167597B2	Methods and apparatus for transmission of uplink sounding reference signals in a communication system with large number of antennas Methods for preventing timing collisions in a wireless communication network include transmitting a data uplink symbol of normal duration via a first base pair using a first timing advance (TA) corresponding to the first base pair. Scheduling to transmit a second uplink symbol via a second base pair (BP) corresponding to the transmit RF chain. Predicting a timing collision will occur based on a different between the first TA and a second TA corresponding to the second BP. Preventing the timing collision by: reducing the duration of the second symbol by an adjustment amount calculated based on the first TA and the second TA; inserting a guard interval to delay transmission of the second symbol by the calculated adjustment amount; and increasing the duration of a cyclic prefix of the second symbol but refraining from transmitting a portion of the enlarged CP.
US09167596B2	Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving scheduling request using shared resource based filtering in radio communication system Disclosed herein is a method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving a scheduling request using a shared resource based filtering method in a radio communication system. The method for supporting scheduling request using shared resources at a base station including assigning each of one or more users to each of one or more subsets of Scheduling Request (SR) resources of a set consisting of a number, M, of SR resources, receiving scheduling request for the one or more users, determining SR resources used for the scheduling request among M SR resources, determining one or more users associated with the received scheduling request based on the assigned SR resources and the determined SR resources, and transmitting scheduling control information to determined one or more users.
US09167593B2	Cell monitor system for 4G cellular networks An apparatus that includes a base-band input port and a processor and a method for operating the same are disclosed. The base-band input port receives digital base-band communications including a plurality of communication channels utilized in communications between an RF module and a plurality of user equipment (UE) in a cell serviced by that RF module. The processor demodulates specific channels in the digital base-band communications and extracts therefrom information specifying a unique identity for each of the UEs and a temporary identification used for communicating with that UE. The processor also extracts scheduling information identifying when one of the UEs is scheduled to upload information to the RF module and the communication channels over which the information is to be uploaded. The processor does not demodulate others of the communication channels.
US09167592B1	Signaling radio bearer timer for dual-sim dual-active user equipment transmitter sharing Methods and apparatuses are presented controlling access to a radio resource of a multi-subscriber identity module (SIM) user equipment (UE). For example, an example method is presented that includes initiating a call on a first subscription of the UE, and generating, during the call, a message for transmission to a network entity associated with a second subscription of the UE. Additionally, the example method may include starting a timer upon receiving the message at a transmission buffer of the UE. Moreover, the example method may include determining, upon expiration of the timer, that the message is pending transmission at the transmission buffer to the network entity, and transmitting the response based at least in part on determining that the message is pending transmission upon expiration of the timer. Responses may also be transmitted during inactivity gaps in the call.
US09167586B1	Interference mitigation at cell edge region of enhanced node B of LTE wireless network An enhanced Node B (eNB) and method for interference mitigation at a cell edge region in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless network are provided. The eNB in one example embodiment includes a transceiver system for communicating with a User Equipment (UE) registered with the eNB and a processing system coupled to the transceiver system and configured to receive a signal strength and an interference information from the UE via the transceiver system, with the processing system configured to determine if the UE is located at a cell edge region of the eNB, determine if the UE is experiencing interference, and allocate by Resource Elements (REs) in the communications being transferred from the eNB to the UE if the UE is located at the cell edge region and if the UE is experiencing an unacceptable level of interference.
US09167569B2	Method and apparatus for allocating resources of a control channel in a mobile communication system using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing Methods and apparatuses are provided for wireless communication. Control symbols are mapped to a plurality of resource element groups (REGs), which are not assigned to a physical channel format indication channel (PCFICH) or a Physical hybrid automatic repeat request indicator channel (PHICH). The REGs are allocated in a time first manner. The mapped control symbols are transmitted on a packet dedicated control channel (PDCCH). Each of the REGs in a first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol of a first slot in a subframe comprises two resource elements (REs) for transmission of a cell-specific reference signal and four REs for transmission of a control signal.
US09167553B2	GeoNexus proximity detector network A GeoNexus proximity network provides quick determination of proximity of a large group of associated mobile devices (e.g., ‘friends’, all devices associated with those who ‘like’ a given posting, etc.) To respond to a given proximity request, a list of identities is obtained for the group of associated mobile devices for which proximity is to be determined. A bucket index is determined of a place to which proximity is to be determined for each of the plurality of associated mobile devices. A target geonexus node associated with the determined bucket index is queried, which in turn queries geonexus nodes adjacent thereto, to quickly determine which of the group of mobile devices are proximate, without the need to individually query for location of each mobile device in the group.
US09167545B2	Receiver, method of calculating time difference, and program There is provided a receiver including a first delay time calculating unit configured to calculate a first delay time indicating a time lag between transmission of a transmission signal by a transmitter and reception of the transmission signal by the receiver, a second delay time calculating unit configured to calculate a second delay time indicating a time lag between transmission of a response signal by the receiver and reception of the response signal by the transmitter, and a time difference calculating unit configured to calculate a time difference between a time of a clock in the transmitter and a time of a clock in the receiver.
US09167535B2	Method and apparatus for uplink transmit power adjustment The present invention relates to a method and a user equipment for use in a wireless communication system. The method and user equipment allow for transmit power adjustment of the transmit power of a selected of a plurality of antennas of the user equipment. The method comprised a transmit power adjustment phase during which it is test (23) is performed to decrease the transmit power of the selected antenna. A number of TPC commands are then analyzed (24) to determine a result of the decreased transmit power indicating a change in received power at a base station. Based on the determined result it is decided to continue (27) with the decreased transmit power or to resume (26) the previous transmit power of the selected antenna after completion of the transmit power adjustment phase.
US09167519B2	Methods and apparatus for power saving in discontinuous reception—adaptive neighbor cell search duration Methods and apparatus for adaptively adjusting temporal parameters (e.g., neighbor cell search durations). In one embodiment, neighbor cell search durations during discontinuous reception are based on a physical channel metric indicating signal strength and quality (e.g. Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), Reference Signal Receive Quality (RSRQ), etc.) of a cell. In a second embodiment, neighbor cell search durations are based on a multitude of physical layer metrics from one or more cells. In one variant, the multitude of physical layer metrics may include signal strength and quality metrics from the serving base station as well as signal strength and quality indicators from neighbor cells derived from the cells respective synchronization sequences.
US09167518B2	Power save method, access point device, and station device A power save method, an AP device and an STA device are provided. According to whether power save is allowed in a current TXOP and whether a station STA is newly added in an operation object identifier of a subsequent frame of each frame of the current TXOP, the AP device respectively sets a TXOP power save indication of each frame, and when the TXOP power save indication of the current frame is power save allowed, the STA device determines whether to enter the Doze state according to a judgment result for a doze condition. The adoption of the method and the device can expand the power save application range, and enhance the power save effect.
US09167514B2	Unequal amplifier gain compression via shaping table A communication device, such as a smart phone, includes an envelope tracking power supply that provides a voltage supply signal for a power amplifier. The envelope tracking signal input to the envelope tracking power supply arises from application of a shaping table on a desired transmit signal. The shaping table implements non-uniform gain compression across a range of output powers, and in particular may aggressively compress the power amplifier for low output powers, and less aggressively compress the power amplifier at high output powers. The non-uniform gain implemented via the shaping table may provide significant power savings, while still allowing the transmitter to meet spectral mask requirements.
US09167513B2	Intelligent network selection based on quality of service and applications over different wireless networks A system and method for selecting a wireless network is disclosed. The method relates to selecting a wireless network from plurality of wireless networks. A variation of the invention includes selecting a new platform from a plurality of platforms offered by the current service provider according to a service request from the wireless device. The method comprises determining a requested service associated with the wireless device, determining whether one of the plurality of wireless networks can provide the requested service, and, if one of the plurality of wireless networks can provide the requested service, choosing the one wireless network of the plurality of wireless networks. The method further involves using a variety of parameters in determining which wireless network to choose for servicing the requested service from the wireless device.
US09167512B2	Methods and apparatus for use in controlling connections to wireless networks In one illustrative example, a wireless device receives a communication policy from a private network. The communication policy includes allowable service provider identifiers (e.g. domain names, realms) corresponding to allowable service providers. The wireless device stores these identifiers in its memory. When roaming, the wireless device encounters a wireless network (“hotspot”) and receives via the wireless network one or more reachable service provider identifiers corresponding to one or more reachable service providers. In a work mode of operation, the wireless device allows a connection to the wireless network based on a match between one of the allowable and reachable service provider identifiers, but otherwise disallows the connection. The communication policy may additionally or alternatively include device types for P2P networks, and/or allowable private network identifiers (e.g. ESSIDs), and/or allowable hotspot aggregator service identifiers or names, for use in the work mode.
US09167509B2	Intelligent wireless access point notification In one or more embodiments, one or more methods and/or systems described can determine whether a first encounter of a mobile device with a wireless access point is concluded. The determination may include determining whether a first period of time has expired, the mobile device continuously receiving a signal from the wireless access point during the first period of time, and determining whether a second period of time following the first period of time has expired. The methods and/or systems may increment a count of encounters with the wireless access point in response to determining that the second encounter with the wireless access point is concluded.
US09167506B2	System and method for enabling discovery of local service availability in local cellular coverage LIPA PDN Connectivity indicates a PDP Context (in the case of a GERAN or UTRAN femto cell connected to a GPRS core network) or a PDN Connection (in the case of an E-UTRAN femto cell connected to a GPRS core network) that gives access to services located in the local IP network of the femto cell subsystem. SIPTO PDN Connectivity indicates a PDP Context or PDN Connection that allows offload of selected types of IP traffic (e.g. internet traffic) towards a defined IP network close to the UE's point of attachment to the access network. Remote PDN Connectivity indicates a regular PDP Context or PDN Connection established neither according to LIPA PDN Connectivity nor SIPTO PDN Connectivity. Systems, devices and methods are described herein that enable the identification of the type of connectivity available to a UE and enable session continuity for local cellular coverage.
US09167502B2	Method and system for automatic seamless mobility A telecommunication system and method for automatically and seamlessly switching voice calls on a wireless mobile device between different wireless network services during the same conversation without user interaction and without being noticeable to the parties on the call. For example, a voice call at a mobile device using the services of a wireless wide area network (e.g., GSM/GPRS cellular network) may be switched over to a wireless local area network (e.g., 802.11 wireless network), and vice versa, while the call is in progress and without any input from the parties on the call. The system and method also provide a mechanism for maintaining a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call while the mobile device moves between wireless access points (AP) and has automatic reconnection in case there is a dropped call.
US09167498B2	Caching over an interface between a radio access network and a core network A method is provided which introduces user plane caching over an interface between a first node in a radio access network and a second node in a core network. At the first node: receiving first uplink tunnel parameters relating to the second node, selecting first downlink tunnel parameters relating to the first node, sending the first uplink and downlink tunnel parameters to a cache node designated to the first node, receiving second uplink and downlink tunnel parameters relating to the cache node, and sending the second downlink tunnel parameters to the second node. A first tunnel is established between the first node and the cache node based on the second uplink tunnel parameters and the first downlink tunnel parameters, uplink user plane data is sent to the second node through the first and second tunnels via the cache node, and downlink user plane data is received from the second node.
US09167494B2	Method and device for enabling high-speed communication services in multi-technology wireless network A method and mobile device (UE) for enabling services in multi-RAT networks which support at least HSPA and LTE, comprising: identifying an initial radio technology on which a UE requesting service is camped, within a current cell; determining an indication of coverage of another radio technology available on the current cell which provides higher speed access than the initial one; deciding carrying the service, either through the initial radio technology or the other one of higher speed access, according to the previous indication. The indication of coverage can be based on any of the following criteria or a combination of them is met: 1) Terminal is camped on a HSDPA capable or LTE capable cell, 2) HSDPA signal strength is higher than a threshold, 3) LTE signal strength is higher than a threshold, 4) Measurements on the Peak Rate of the UE in a past time and in a location.
US09167490B2	Method, apparatus and system for relocating user equipment between radio network controllers The present invention, relating to the field of communications technologies, discloses a method, an apparatus, and a system for relocating a user equipment between radio network controllers. The present invention is directed to configuring the coding scheme configured for the user equipment UE to a coding scheme consistent with the coding scheme supported by a target radio network controller to relocate the UE to the target RNC. The present invention is mainly applicable to inter-RNC handovers.
US09167486B2	Inter-VPLMN handover via a handover proxy node The invention relates to a method for performing a handover of a mobile node (MN) from a source to a target network, wherein a handover proxy node (HPN) is used to relay the handover of the MN to one of previously measured cells. The MN discovers an appropriate HPN and triggers the handover to the HPN by reporting the measurements together with the HPN ID as destination of the handover. When receiving the Handover Initiation message for handing over the MN to the HPN, the HPN will not proceed with the handover but adapts said handover to indicate a handover of the MN from the HPN to the target base station. Upon receiving the Handover Initiation message in the target network, system resources are configured for data forwarding between the source and target network, and for the data path used by the MN when attaching to the target base station.
US09167481B2	Access feedback by a multimode terminal A method for providing access feedback when a User Equipment, UE, with an established a connection over multiple accesses towards a Gateway, GW, initiates a set-up of a new service for a service session. The method comprises a step where the GW or a Policy and Charging Rules Function, PCRF, initiates a Quality of Service, QoS, resource reservation as a response of the set-up of the new service initiated by the UE. The GW or the PCRF in the QoS resource reservation selects a first access as present access.The method is particularly characterized in a step where the UE rejects said first access as present access and sends a reject message to the GW, wherein the GW or the PCRF as a result of the reject message initiates a new QoS resource reservation selecting a second access as present access.
US09167476B2	Method and apparatus for transmitting/receiving packet in wireless communication system A method for simultaneously transmitting packets having different lengths to two or more users in a wireless communication system includes: generating the packets to transmit to the respective users, the packets containing information on the maximum transmission length of the packets having different lengths; and simultaneously transmitting the generated packets to the respective users. The maximum transmission length is represented by the number of symbols, and each of the packets sequentially contains control information required for transmitting the packet, data, a tail field, and a PHY pad field, and is generated by inserting a MAC pad between the control information and the data such that the tail field and the PHY pad field are positioned at the last byte of the last symbol of the maximum transmission length.
US09167473B2	Communication processing method, apparatus and gateway device The communication processing method is used in a network gateway device, wherein the network gateway device is coupled to a wireless terminal through a first wireless network and to a base station through a second wireless network different from the first wireless network. The method maintains a first TCP link between the network gateway device and the wireless terminal through the first wireless network; maintains a second TCP link between the network gateway device and a service providing server through the second wireless network; and performs a TCP transmission optimization on the first TCP link or the second TCP link to be optimized by a corresponding optimization method so as to improve a transmission performance between the wireless terminal and the service providing server. The optimization may be performed more specifically and a transmission performance between the wireless terminal and the service providing server may be improved.
US09167472B2	Methods and apparatus for enhanced UL RLC flow control for MRAB calls Systems, devices, and methods for wireless enhanced uplink (UL) radio link control (RLC) flow control for multi-radio access bearer (MRAB) calls. In one aspect, a device configured to manage a wireless connection in a voice and data communication is provided. The device includes a receiver configured to receive radio link control (RLC) control information. The device further includes a controller configured to detect one or more radio frequency (RF) conditions. The controller is further configured to dynamically adjust, independent of the received RLC control information, RLC flow control in response to the RF conditions.
US09167464B2	Method for reporting measurement information of terminal in wireless communication system and apparatus therefor The present invention relates to a method for enabling a terminal to process a signal in a wireless communication system. Specifically, the method includes the steps of: selecting a cell according to a measurement based on a first sub-frame pattern; transmitting a first message to the cell; and receiving a second message from the cell on the basis of a second sub-frame pattern, wherein the first message indicates that the measurement is performed on the basis of the first sub-frame pattern.
US09167451B2	Method and apparatus for measuring interference in wireless communication system A method and apparatus for measuring inter-cell measurement in a wireless communication system are discussed. The method includes: receiving information regarding a predetermined resource region to which a sounding signal allocated for user equipments (UEs) connected to base stations (BSs) contained in the same coordinated cluster is transmitted, the sounding signal being used to detect a UE causing inter-cell interference; determining whether transmission of the sounding signal is granted for a serving UE in the predetermined resource region; and if transmission of the sounding signal is granted, transmitting a transmission grant message of the sounding signal to the serving UE, wherein whether the sounding signal transmission is granted is determined based on a random number, or is determined based on information of an available resource region of each BS if information regarding the available resource region of each BS is received with the information regarding the predetermined resource region.
US09167450B2	Excluding roaming users from area based MDT data transmission It is provided an apparatus, comprising base station means adapted to provide a base station functionality of a visited mobile network; selecting means adapted to select a user equipment, which is operably connected to the base station means, to report a result of a predefined measurement to the apparatus, wherein the selecting means is adapted to select the user equipment only if a roaming information of the user equipment received from a mobility management entity by which mobility of the user equipment is controlled indicates that a user of the user equipment is subscribed to one of one or more predefined mobile networks.
US09167446B2	Apparatus and method for mitigating voltage droop in a dual-transceiver wireless communication device Aspects of the present disclosure relate to a user equipment (UE) and a method of wireless communication using the UE that includes a first transceiver and a second transceiver. The method includes determining that the first transceiver is scheduled to communicate using a first transmission simultaneous to the second transceiver being scheduled to communicate using a second transmission, and altering an operation of at least one of the first and second transceivers to mitigate battery voltage droop due to simultaneous transmissions of the transceivers. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also claimed and described.
US09167438B2	Mobility detection for edge applications in wireless communication networks Various embodiments detecting wireless communication device mobility in a wireless communication network. In one embodiment, one or more Internet Protocol (IP) data packets associated with a wireless communication device are analyzed. The wireless communication device is coupled with the edge entity. A determination is made, based on the analyzing, that the wireless communication device is a newly coupled device at the edge entity. A central entity disposed within the wireless communication network is notified that the wireless communication device is currently coupled to the edge entity.
US09167436B2	Configuring subscriber systems in wireless mesh networks A wireless network may be managed by identifying one or more wireless subscriber systems included in a lobe pool of a wireless network, identifying at least one candidate subscriber system outside of the lobe pool with which to enable communications, and reconfiguring the antenna such that the lobe pool includes the identified candidate subscriber system.
US09167423B2	Wireless handheld configuration device for a securable wireless self-organizing mesh network A self-organizing mesh network is made up of individual devices configured to use other network devices to pass data from one point to another. The network also includes a secondary operating mode that accommodates handheld and other non-fixed transient network nodes. Each device in the network maintains a configuration link that is used to detect the presence of a handheld device. The handheld device uses the configuration link to identify nearby network devices. A user of the handheld device can then select one of the network devices and establish a small point-to-point subnetwork between the handheld device and the selected network device.
US09167419B2	Discovery and launch system and method A method, apparatus and/or system related to automatic detection of a similar application stored on a networked media device through a multicast capability of an operating system of a mobile device. In one embodiment, a method of a mobile device includes accessing a multicast capability of an operating system through an application of the mobile device, determining if there is a similar application locally stored on a networked media device to the application on the mobile device when a multicast message is broadcast to the networked media device communicatively coupled to the mobile device through a local area network, and automatically launching the similar application on the networked media device based on a communication of the multicast message from the mobile device to the networked media device.
US09167417B2	Application based network information maintenance Various communication systems may benefit from notifications of network information. For example, cellular optimization may be accomplished by selective use of a data technique by applications on network devices, which may further benefit from notifications that may reduce the need for external data requests, used in coordination with application observations of current network conditions. According to certain embodiments, a method can include monitoring network service viability for a user or application. The method can also include sending a push message to a user equipment when network service viability is detected for the user or the application. The push message can indicate at least one threshold associated with network service viability.
US09167416B2	Method for reporting capability information and dual mode user equipment adapted thereto A system and a method that reports capability information regarding a dual mode User Equipment (UE) are provided. The UE supports Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD). The UE capability transmitting method includes receiving a message requesting UE capability information from an evolved Node B (eNB), generating first capability information and second capability information according to the UE capability information requesting message, and transmitting UE capability information including the first and second capability information to the eNB. The first capability information comprises FDD capability information applicable to an FDD mode or TDD capability information applicable to a TDD mode. The second capability information comprises capability information applicable to both the FDD mode and the TDD mode. The system and method can allow a dual mode UE to efficiently report its capability information.
US09167414B2	Management of subscriber data in mobile system The present invention relates to a mobile system comprising a mobile network having a mobile services switching center (MSC, MSCA) for switching connections in the mobile network, and at least one subscriber database server (CSE) for maintaining data on the subscribers of the mobile network. The mobile services switching center (MSC, MSCA) comprises means for querying for and receiving subscriber data from the subscriber database server (CSE) wherein subscriber data are maintained in www page format, and the subscriber database server (CSE) comprises at least one www page for each subscriber in the mobile network, in which page the subscriber's subscriber data are stored, the search address of the www page being created based on the subscriber's identity.
US09167411B2	Evaluating accuracy of mobility data maintained by a communication network A computer-implemented method for systematically evaluating accuracy of data in a home location register, independent of call processing and in the absence of interference with resources required for call processing at the home location register. The method includes operational steps of: identifying, from among a plurality of subscribers, a subscriber serviced by a visited location register and identifying the visited location register servicing the identified subscriber. The method also includes forwarding a message to the identified visited location register to determine if there is a corresponding record for the identified subscriber, and determining, based on a reply to the forwarded message or lack thereof, the accuracy of home location register's record for the identified subscriber.
US09167410B1	Policy-based roaming control for wireless communication devices Systems, methods, and software for controlling roaming of wireless communication devices onto wireless communication networks are provided herein. In one example, method of operating a wireless communication network is provided. The method includes, during a communication session initiation process between the wireless communication device and the roaming wireless communication network, receiving a request for policy information for the wireless communication device. Responsive to the request for the policy information, the method includes identifying a network address of a roaming gateway serving the wireless communication device and a paging tracking area identifier for the wireless communication device in the roaming wireless communication network. The method includes processing the network address and the paging tracking area identifier to determine a roaming authorization status for the communication session, and transferring the roaming authorization status for delivery to the roaming wireless communication system.
US09167394B2	In-vehicle messaging In-vehicle messaging includes intercepting an incoming communication on a mobile communication device. The incoming communication is received by a messaging application on the mobile communication device. The in-vehicle messaging also includes parsing the communication, associating elements of the communication with metadata of a digital music application, and transmitting the communication, as well as instructions for handling the communication, over a communication link between the mobile communication device and a vehicle stereo system for presentation on a component of the vehicle stereo system.
US09167389B1	Clustering location data to determine locations of interest Systems and methods are disclosed for determining locations visited by a mobile device. In an embodiment, a first location point is identified from a plurality of location points associated with the mobile device. The first location point may be combined with one or more of the plurality of location points to construct a time block. A time block may indicate a continuous period of time when the mobile device is in the same location. An aggregate location is calculated for the time block based on the plurality of points in the time block. One or more time blocks may be grouped based on the aggregate location of each time block, and a spatial clustering procedure is applied to transform the aggregate locations of time blocks in the group into one or more locations of interest.
US09167385B2	Method and apparatus for ranging using channel estimation with interference rejection A ranging procedure is performed using interference cancellation using preamble messages from a plurality of objects, each of which includes a pre-defined orthogonal design coded modulation patterns. A channel for an object may be estimated using the pre-defined orthogonal design coded modulation patterns in the preamble messages received from objects to remove interference of the preamble message received from other objects. A range to an object may be determined based on a determined delay in the preamble message from that object. The range may be used to assist in determining the position of the object. The pre-defined preamble message may be transmitted by receiving a schedule for an access point in a network for a ranging procedure and periodically transmitting a pre-defined preamble message for the ranging procedure, the pre-defined preamble message includes an orthogonal design coded modulation pattern.
US09167384B2	Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and recording medium There is provided an information processing apparatus including a positional relationship information acquirer that acquires information indicating a position relationship between a first user and a second user, a nearness determiner that determines whether or not the first user and the second user are near each other, on the basis of the information indicating the position relationship, and a contact manager that sorts, on the basis of a result of the determination, a contact list which is provided to the first user and which includes contact information for the second user.
US09167373B2	Multiple SIM support with single modem software architecture Disclosed are methods, apparatus and computer program products that provide an enhanced multi-SIM wireless communication device. For example, a method includes providing in a wireless communication device a protocol stack software component composed of a first native protocol stack software and a second native protocol stack software each comprising layer 1, layer 2 and layer 3 protocol stack functionality. The first native protocol stack software and the second native protocol stack software are each associated with a respective subscriber identity module and are independent of one another. The method further includes providing in the wireless communication device a common software component that includes protocol stack framework software elements, a hardware arbitration layer and a hardware adaptation layer. The method further includes linking the protocol stack software component and the common software component into a modem software executable capable of operation with hardware of the wireless communication device.
US09167371B2	Wireless communication system, and wireless communication device and control method for establishing a connection with another wireless device before an elapsed time period without the intervention of a base station This invention has as its object to set a one-to-one relationship upon establishing a wireless communication channel between a wireless communication device on the information transmitting side and a wireless communication device that receives and processes the information even in an environment including a plurality of wireless communication devices, and to assure simple user's operations at least until the communication channel is established. To this end, when the user inputs a wireless communication channel establishment instruction to both a digital camera and printer having wireless communication functions, these devices execute wireless communication establishment processes within an allowable time period which is specified by a time set in a timer and a retry count. When the devices can seize each other within that time period, the communication channel is established. After that, the digital camera sends a sensed image to the printer, which prints the sensed image.
US09167369B2	Speaker array apparatus A speaker array device includes a first speaker array and a second speaker array. The first speaker array has plural first speaker units arranged in a first surface and output a first sound. The second speaker array has plural second speaker units arranged in a second surface that is different from the first surface and output a second sound. When the second speaker array and the first speaker array are installed in a room having a ceiling, the second speaker array is installed in such a manner that a normal direction to the second surface is match with a direction in which the second sound emitted from the second speaker array reaches, only indirectly, through reflection or diffraction, a sound receiving point or that the normal direction to the second surface is match with a direction in which the second sound reaches the sound receiving point with a predetermined sound volume.
US09167368B2	Event notification on a mobile device using binaural sounds In one example, information is presented to a user through an electronic device in a non-visual manner. In this example, an informational event is received. Next, a determination is made if the informational event has been previously associated with a binaural sound sequence, the binaural sound sequence includes a user's nominal ear spacing for sound localization in a 3D space. The binaural sound sequence is presented to a multimedia port, in response to a binaural sound sequence being previously associated with the event. The localization in the 3D space using a binaural sound can be associated with importance, future times, source of information associated with the event, a person associated with the event, or a combination thereof.
US09167362B2	Implantable receptacle for a hearing aid component An implantable receptacle for receiving a hearing aid component includes a body having a proximal portion, a distal cylindrical portion and a joining portion joining the proximal portion to the distal cylindrical portion. First flexible tines extending from an outer wall of the distal cylindrical portion in the general direction of the proximal portion are configured to engage with and lock the distal cylindrical portion to a wall of a fenestration in a bone of the patient in a permanent fashion in response to pressing the sleeve into the fenestration. Second flexible tines extending from an outer wall of the distal cylindrical portion in a direction generally tangential to the circumference of the distal cylindrical portion are configured to engage with and prevent rotation of the distal cylindrical portion within the wall of the fenestration.
US09167360B2	Antennas for custom fit hearing assistance devices An embodiment of a hearing assistance device comprises an enclosure that includes a faceplate and a shell attached to the faceplate, a power source, a flex antenna, a transmission line connected to the flex antenna, and radio circuit connected to the transmission line and electrically connected to the power source. The flex antenna has a shape of at least a substantially complete loop around the power source, and maintains separation from the power source.
US09167357B2	Method for the binaural left-right localization for hearing instruments A method and system for improving signal-to-noise ratio of output signals of a microphone system having two or more microphones due to acoustic useful signals occurring at sides of the system, is used in hearing instruments, especially hearing aids worn on the head. High and low frequency portions (cut-off frequency between 700 Hz and 1.5 kHz, approx. 1 kHz) are processed differently. In low frequency ranges, differential microphone signals directed towards left and right are produced to determine lateral useful and noise sound levels using two directional signals. These levels are used for individual Wiener filtering for every microphone signal. The natural head shadowing effect is used in high frequency ranges as a pre-filter for noise and useful sound estimation for subsequent Wiener filtering. The methods are used in hearing instruments worn on the head individually for high or for low frequencies and in combination complement each other.
US09167350B2	Magnetic circuit and coaxial speaker using the same A magnetic circuit for coaxial speaker includes a first magnetic unit, at least one second magnetic unit arranged around the first magnetic unit and at least one third magnetic unit arranged around the at least one second magnetic unit. The magnetic pole arrangement of the second magnetic unit is reversed to the magnetic pole arrangement of the first magnetic unit and the third magnetic unit, enabling a first magnetic loop to be established between the first magnetic unit and the at least one second magnetic unit and a second magnetic loop to be established between the at least one second magnetic unit and the at least one third magnetic unit. The magnetic circuit is practical for use in the inner and outer drivers of a coaxial speaker, providing uniform magnetic field distribution, and facilitating speaker miniaturization.
US09167348B1	Wireless waterproof headphone system A wireless dual-functioning headset, which is waterproof and allows a user to make and receive phone calls through voice recognition as well as listen to music on a smartphone. It all can be customized by setting the preferences on a mobile software application. An implementation is an earbud headphone system that is both wireless and waterproof running off of RF waves that has the ability to sync with music on a smartphone.
US09167320B2	Transmission method and node device A transmission method for transmitting a lower-speed signal transmission frame using a node device in a network by accommodating the lower-speed signal transmission frame into time slots of a higher-speed signal transmission frame includes supplying, when a number of the time slots accommodating the lower-speed signal transmission frame is to be increased, the time slots to input numbers of a cross-connection part of the node device in accordance with an order of time slot numbers of the time slots; and re-establishing cross-connections where the input numbers are cross-connected to corresponding output numbers of the cross-connection part so that the cross-connections are prevented from crossing each other, wherein the input numbers input the time slots and the output numbers output the time slots.
US09167313B1	Methods and system for transferring data for remote storage A method of transferring video data for storage at a remote location includes storing the video data recorded at a site to a local storage device at the site. The local storage device is coupled to a remote storage device by way of a network connection. Available bandwidth of the network connection between the local storage device and the remote storage device is automatically monitored. Upon one or more predetermined criteria being met for available bandwidth, video data from the local storage device is transferred to the remote storage device over the network connection. The time of initiation of transfer of the video data or the rate of transfer of the video data over the network connection may be based on the available bandwidth of the network connection at one or more times.
US09167305B2	Authorable content rating system Techniques for generating customized rating systems for use in a DVR are described. According to one technique, a user submits a rating system definition that comprises two or more different ratings of the user's choosing. The rating system definition is stored. The rating system definition defines a customized ratings system. That system's creator and other users may then associate various entities, such as channels, series, and episodes, with ratings from the customized rating system. DVRs may use these associations between entities and ratings for various purposes. For example, DVRs may use these associations to allow a user to search for entities that satisfy specified rating criteria. For another example, DVRs may use these associations to restricting which entities and information about those entities can be displayed or recorded when the DVR is in a restricted mode of operation. Customized rating systems may be modified by multiple users in collaboration.
US09167304B2	System and method for recognition of items in media data and delivery of information related thereto The system and method disclosed herein relate to the establishment of both the location and identity of individual items in pictures or videos. Once the one or more items in the picture/video are identified and matched to images in a reference database, the locations of the items is established and additional information relating to the items is accessed. Collectively, the position data and additional data is merged in the electronic pictures or videos and then provided to a user as a merged data stream. Additional functionality related to those identified items can occur when those identified locations are “pointed to”, “clicked” or otherwise selected (e.g., purchase an item, request information, select another video stream, play a game, share the item, rate, “Like”, and the like).
US09167303B2	Method and apparatus for manipulating MPEG video A computer implemented method of manipulating and displaying an MPEG stream is described. In one embodiment of the invention, a computer implemented method comprises defining a spatial location across a series of pictures of an MPEG stream; and for each picture of the series of pictures in the MPEG stream, partially decoding the picture to determine an area of the picture falling within the spatial location.
US09167300B2	Muting notification system A television and remote control system, where the television receives data over a channel and produces outputs that create a television display. The television also receives notifications over a data connection indicating events that are other than the television display, like emails, alerts and the like. The television displays visual and audible notifications and mutes those notifications based on commands from a remote control.
US09167295B2	Multi-source content retrieval An apparatus, method, and system are provided for providing content to a user. In some embodiments the content may be transmitted using a first transmission technique. In some embodiments, when the user “catches up to” the content as it is being received via the first transmission technique, a switch may be made to obtain the content via a second transmission technique, allowing reception of the content via the first transmission technique to be terminated. In some embodiments, a user equipment device may include a buffer that may be used to store the content received via the second transmission technique, which may support earlier termination with respect to receiving content via the first transmission technique. In some embodiments, the buffer may support a rewind operation.
US09167288B2	System and method for optimizing memory usage in a universal controlling device A method for optimizing memory usage in a device having a universal controlling application includes receiving into the device data for use in configuring the universal controlling application wherein the data is used to identify from within a library of command code sets stored in a memory of the device a command code set that is appropriate for use in commanding functional operations of the appliance and causing a non-identified one or more of the command code sets of the library of command code sets stored in the memory of the device to be discarded to thereby create freed space in the memory of the device.
US09167281B2	Transport stream packet header compression A demultiplexer 630 routes only one or more transport stream packets with a single packet identifier value to each physical layer pipe. A header compression unit 620 replaces the packet identifier of the transport stream packet with a short packet identifier of one bit length indicating at least whether the transport stream packet is a NULL packet.
US09167279B2	Method for payload formatting and deformatting for burst loss recovery Disclosed are payload formatting and deformatting methods for burst data loss recovery. The payload formatting method according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: generating an XOR operation packet by performing an XOR operation on the basis of a base layer packet and any one of enhancement layer packets of a group of pictures (GoP), the GoP including the base layer packet and the enhancement layer packets; and adding the XOR operation packet to the GoP.
US09167277B2	Dispersed storage network data manipulation A method begins by a processing module receiving data for dispersed storage, wherein the data has an associated user identification (ID), and obtaining a codec flag based on the associated user ID. The codec flag may indicate one or more codec types and a codec execution order. The codec types may include two or more of: a null data manipulation, one or more versions of a data integrity function, one or more versions of a compression function, and/or one or more versions of an encryption function. The method continues with the processing module manipulating the data to produce manipulated data utilizing the one or more codec types in the codec execution order, encoding the manipulated data using an error coding dispersal storage function to produce a plurality of encoded data slices, and sending the slices and codec flag to a plurality of DS storage units for storage.
US09167276B2	Method and system for providing and handling product and service discounts, and location based services (LBS) in an automatic content recognition based system An automatic content recognition (ACR) enabled display communication device may present a linear advertisement campaign. A second screen communication device (SSCD) that is paired with an ACR-enabled display communication device, may detect when content associated with a linear advertisement campaign is available for display on the SSCD. A location of the SSCD may be determined when the SSCD detects that the content associated with the linear advertisement campaign is available for display. The SSCD may customize content for presentation in order to offer one or more products and/or services to a viewer of the SSCD based on the determined location. The SSCD determines assets that are required and/or utilized for the customization of the content so that it may be presented on the SSCD. The SSCD may acquire the determined assets from one or more servers and control presentation of the content based on information corresponding to the acquired assets.
US09167264B2	Image decoding method, image coding method, image decoding apparatus, image coding apparatus and integrated circuit for generating a code stream with a hierarchical code structure An image decoding method decodes a coded stream which includes processing units and a header of the processing units, and which is generated by coding a moving picture using inter prediction. The processing units includes at least one processing unit divided in a hierarchy, the hierarchy including a highest hierarchical layer in which a coding unit exists as a largest processing unit and a lower hierarchical layer in which a prediction unit exists. The method includes identifying, by parsing hierarchy depth information stored in the header and indicating a hierarchical layer higher than a lowest hierarchical layer in which a smallest prediction unit exits, a hierarchical layer which is indicated by the hierarchy depth information or a hierarchical layer higher than the indicated hierarchical layer. The hierarchical layer includes a prediction unit in which a reference index is stored. The prediction unit is decoded using the reference index.
US09167261B2	Video decoder with constrained dynamic range A technique for decoding video including receiving quantized coefficient level values representative of a block of video representative of a plurality of pixels and a quantization parameter related to the block of video. The technique includes de-quantizing the quantized coefficient level values based upon the quantized coefficient level values and the quantization parameter only if the quantized coefficient level values and the quantization parameter are jointly within a predefined range of acceptable values. The technique also includes inverse transforming the dequantized coefficients to determine a decoded residue.
US09167258B2	Fast mode determining method and apparatus in scalable video coding A prediction mode determining method in scalable video coding based on a structure of multiple layers is provided. The prediction mode determining method includes: deriving a coded block pattern (CBP) value of a luma component for a 16×16 mode of an encoding target picture; determining first candidate modes for the encoding target picture according to the derived CPB value; and determining a final prediction mode for the encoding target picture based on the determined first candidate modes. According to the present invention, encoding efficiency may be improved, and complexity may be reduced.
US09167255B2	Region-of-interest aware video coding An encoder comprising an encoding module and an adaptation module. The encoding module is configured to encode video in at least one region-of-interest and outside the region-of-interest. The encoding comprises quantization, and the encoding module is operable to apply a difference in quantization granularity between the encoding inside and outside the region-of-interest. The adaptation module is configured to determine at least one metric representative of a difference in benefit of the quantization inside and outside the region-of-interest, and to adapt the difference in quantization granularity in dependence on this metric.
US09167246B2	Method and apparatus for decoding an enhanced video stream A method of decoding an enhanced video stream composed of base layer video access units and enhancement layer video access units, each access unit comprising a plurality of syntax structures, includes passing the syntax structures of the base layer access units to a base layer buffer, passing syntax structures of the enhancement layer access units to an enhancement layer buffer, outputting the syntax structures passed to the base layer buffer in a predetermined sequence, outputting the syntax structures passed to the enhancement layer buffer in a predetermined sequence, and recombining the sequences of syntax structures output by the base layer buffer and the enhancement layer buffer respectively to form a complete enhanced access unit, composed of base layer syntax structures and enhancement layer syntax structures in a predetermined sequence.
US09167242B1	Sensor measurement system and method Systems and methods for using sensors with electronic devices are described. In one embodiment, a resistive-type sensor, such as a force sensor, is connected between the audio input and audio output of the electronic device. The device is programmed to provide a signal to the audio output and measure a signal at the audio input. The resistance of the sensor, and thus sensor measurement, may thus be determined.
US09167241B2	Video quality testing by encoding aggregated clips A method includes receiving a first video clip and a second video clip. The first video clip and the second video clip are variable-bit-rate (VBR)-encoded to form a VBR-encoded aggregated video content item. The VBR-encoding of the first video clip is based on an encoding complexity of the second video clip.
US09167239B2	System and moving modulated target with unmodulated position references for characterization of imaging sensors Embodiments of a system for characterization of an imaging sensor using a moving modulated target with unmodulated position references is generally described herein. A target pattern comprises through-holes in a slide and resolved patches on the slide. The slide and patch have different emission intensities in the sensor' detection band. A modulation is applied to only the emission intensities of the through-holes. The target pattern is moved across the field-of view (FOV) of the imaging sensor to present the target pattern across different frames at different positions. Frames of images of the moving target pattern as seen in the FOV of the imaging sensor are captured to generate modulated image data outputs. The unmodulated position references provided by the resolved patches are measured and used to align the modulated image data outputs, which are processed to generate data products representative of a response of the imaging sensor.
US09167237B2	Method and apparatus for providing 3-dimensional image A method and apparatus for providing a three-dimensional (3D) image are provided. The method includes receiving a left-eye image and a right-eye image, estimating an overlap region of the left-eye image and right-eye image; generating an overlap image based on the estimated overlap region; and controlling the left-eye image, the right-eye image and the overlap image to be output.
US09167226B2	Selecting viewpoints for generating additional views in 3D video A method of encoding a video data signal (15) is provided, the method comprising providing at least a first image (21) of a scene (100) as seen from a first viewpoint, providing rendering information (22) for enabling the generation of at least one rendered image of the scene (100) as seen from a rendering viewpoint, providing a preferred direction indicator (23), defining a preferred orientation of the rendering viewpoint relative to the first viewpoint, and generating (24) the video data signal (15) comprising encoded data representing the first image, the rendering information and the preferred direction indicator.
US09167216B2	Image processing apparatus, image capture apparatus and image processing method An image processing apparatus which enables to suppress coloring in an image after image recovery processing, and a control method for the image processing apparatus are disclosed. After the chromatic difference of magnification of an optical imaging system is corrected, a first value relating to coloring is obtained before application of an image recovery filter. Then, an image recovery filter which, preferably, does not correct a chromatic difference of magnification and is based on a function indicating the aberrations of the optical imaging system is applied. A second value associated with coloring is obtained from the image after application of the image recovery filter. According to the difference between the first and second values obtained before and after application of the image recovery filter respectively, pixel value correction for correcting coloring is performed.
US09167214B2	Image processing system using unified images An image processing system has a plurality of cameras and a display that are mounted on a machine. The plurality of cameras are configured to generate image data for an environment of the machine. The image processing system also has a processor connected to the plurality of cameras and the display. The processor is configured to access the image data from the plurality of cameras, access parameters associated with the plurality of cameras, generate a unified image by combining the image data from the plurality of cameras based at least in part on the parameters, access state data associated with the machine, select a portion of the unified image based at least in part on the state data, and render the portion of the unified image on the display.
US09167211B2	Method for transmitting an IPTV streaming service by P2P transmission, and method for receiving an IPTV streaming service by P2P transmission According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method for transmitting an IPTV streaming service by P2P transmission comprises the steps of collecting TS packets of n skipped units to generate an encapsulation unit for an IPTV streaming service (where n is a natural number); adding an extension header containing type information to the generated encapsulation unit (wherein, said type information is information for identifying the sequence of the encapsulation unit, which is required for decoding the IPTV streaming service); adding an IP header to the encapsulation unit to which the extension header containing the type information is added, in order to generate an IP packet; and transmitting the generated IP packet to at least one super peers.
US09167203B2	Method and apparatus for video call in communication system A method for a video call in a terminal for performing the video call includes receiving at least one of a video of another party user side or a video of a terminal user side; determining whether a preset capture condition is satisfied based on the received video; capturing an image satisfying the preset capture condition; determining whether the video call is terminated; and displaying at least one of the captured images on a display unit when the video call is terminated.
US09167199B2	Image input apparatus with high-speed, high-quality still image successive capturing capability and still image successive capturing method using the same An apparatus and a method of successively capturing high quality image data at high speed are provided. The image input apparatus includes an image sensor for capturing image data from a subject; an image signal processor encoding the image data transmitted from the image sensor to produce digital image data; and a memory for storing the digital image data. The image signal processor decodes the digital image data according to an operating signal from a user and provides the user with the decoded digital image data. Therefore, the high quality image data can be obtained at high speed, and the lifespan of an external memory can be increased.
US09167198B2	Image processing apparatus and image processing method There is provided an image processing apparatus including a converting unit for converting a level range of an input image signal into a predetermined level range, and an outputting unit for outputting the converted image signal and first identification information which indicates the predetermined level range, the first identification information being correlated with the converted image signal.
US09167195B2	Preservation/degradation of video/audio aspects of a data stream In one aspect, a method related to data management. In addition, other method, system, and program product aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and/or text forming a part of the present application.
US09167193B2	Image display device A display device is provided that controls, considering affection due to a watcher's age and his viewing distance as human-visual characteristics, a display-screen brightness level at which the watcher does not feel glare. The display-screen brightness is most suitably set by simple calculation using relationships among watcher's ages, display sizes, glare levels, and screen-illuminance levels, etc. obtained by a subjective-assessment experiment. According to this display device, considering watcher's various conditions such as the age, the visual acuity, and the viewing distance, even if the watcher watches the display for a relatively long time, the watcher does not feel tiredness; thus, comfortable watching can be achieved.
US09167191B2	Display control system and method, display control apparatus and method, and program A display control system for controlling display of images on a plurality of display units, the plurality of display units being arranged in an array, includes a determining unit determining whether or not information of interest is being displayed; a first recording control unit controlling recording of a first image displayed on the display units when the determining unit determines that the information of interest is being displayed; a second recording control unit controlling recording of a second image displayed on the display units when a user performs a recording operation; and a display control unit controlling display of the first image or the second image on the display units.
US09167174B1	Systems and methods for high-dynamic range images A system, method, and computer program product are provided for high-dynamic range images. In use, a first pixel attribute of a first pixel is received and a second pixel attribute of a second pixel is received. Next, a scalar based on the first pixel attribute and the second pixel attribute is identified. Finally, the first pixel and the second pixel are blended, based on the scalar, wherein the first pixel is brighter than the second pixel. Additional systems, methods, and computer program products are also presented.
US09167172B2	Image capture apparatus and method of controlling the same An image capture apparatus comprises an image sensor, an acquisition unit which acquires information concerning distances to objects in a plurality of areas in an image capturing area, and a control unit which controls a charge accumulation period for each of a plurality of segmented areas of the image sensor, wherein the plurality of areas for which information concerning distances to the objects are acquired by the acquisition unit respectively correspond to the plurality of segmented areas, and the control unit controls the charge accumulation periods for the respective segmented areas at the time of light emission by a light-emitting device based on the information concerning the distances to the objects in the corresponding areas.
US09167156B2	Photographing apparatus for photographing panoramic image and method thereof A photographing method and apparatus is provided. The photographing apparatus includes a photographing unit; a sensing unit for sensing motion of the photographing apparatus; a display unit for displaying at least one guide image for panorama photographing; a controller for controlling the photographing unit to automatically photograph, if a photographing direction that changes in accordance with motion of the photographing apparatus corresponds to one of the at least one guide image; and a storage unit for storing the photographed image data.
US09167155B2	Method and system of spacial visualisation of objects and a platform control system included in the system, in particular for a virtual fitting room The disclosure relates to a method and a system for virtual visualization of objects and a platform control system included in the system, in particular for a virtual fitting room. Users can combine garments and accessories and watch the presented objects in a virtual environment in different perspectives. The system includes a rotatable platform with a control system thereof, wherein on the platform there is situated a spatial pattern. The rotatable platform is connected to an image or video capture device, which in turn is connected to a processing device. The processing device includes a processing module. The processing module comprises an input module, which cooperates with a comparator module. The comparator module cooperates with or without a coherence module, which in turn cooperates with a combination creating module for matching objects on the spatial pattern through a segmentation module.
US09167152B2	Image capturing apparatus and method for calculating focusing parameter value An image capturing apparatus includes: an image capturing element in which a plurality of pixels and phase difference pixels are formed within an effective pixel region; a photographing lens; a phase difference amount detecting unit analyzing a captured image signal and obtaining a phase difference amount from detection signals of two of the phase difference pixels that make a pair; and a control unit obtaining a defocus amount of a photographic subject image from the detected phase difference amount and performing a focusing control, in which the control unit obtains a parameter value regarding a ratio of the defocus amount and the phase difference amount based on photographing lens information of the photographing lens and a light receiving sensitivity distribution indicating sensitivity for each incident angle of incident light for the two of the phase difference pixels that make the pair, and obtains the defocus amount.
US09167148B2	Image capture apparatus that performs focus detection with a phase difference detection method An image capture apparatus includes: an image sensor having a plurality of pixels that photoelectrically convert an object image formed by an imaging optical system, each of the pixels having one microlens and a photoelectric conversion portion that has been divided into a plurality of portions; a focus detection unit configured to correct an image shift amount detected with a phase difference detection method using focus detection signal arrays of two images obtained by the photoelectric conversion portions divided into a plurality of portions; and a controller that calculates information corresponding to a movement amount of a lens of the imaging optical system based on the image shift amount detected and corrected by the focus detection unit, and controls movement of the lens of the imaging optical system.
US09167145B2	Receiving device for receiving a wireless operation signal for controlling a lens or a camera by a first or a second method An image pickup apparatus includes a photographic lens including a photographic optical system, a photographic camera configured to be attachable to and detachable from the photographic lens and including an image sensor configured to receive light from the photographic lens, and a receiving device connected to the photographic lens via a cable and configured to receive an operation signal for controlling the photographic lens or the photographic camera from a remote operation device, wherein the receiving device is configured to be fixable to the photographic lens or the photographic camera by a plurality of different methods.
US09167140B2	Imaging device for an in-vehicle camera An imaging device includes a welded part on a lens barrel side that is hardened after a contact portion of a lens barrel or a contact part on the lens barrel side is softened, where the contact portion of the lens barrel and the contact part on the lens barrel side are fixed, and a welded part on a light-receiving circuit side that is hardened after a contact portion of the light-receiving circuit or a contact part on a light-receiving circuit side is softened, where the contact portion of the light-receiving circuit and the contact part on the light-receiving circuit side are fixed.
US09167138B2	Pattern projection and imaging using lens arrays A method for projection includes generating a pattern of illumination, and positioning an array of lenses so as to project different, respective parts of the pattern onto a scene.
US09167124B2	Portable document scanner having user interface and integrated communication means A portable document scanner (PDS) is provided that need not be in communication with a local computer. The PDS includes an image scanner for scanning an input document to generate a scan image, a processor, a wireless communications port that enables wireless communications with remote computing services, and a memory that stores instructions for execution by the processor to locally process the scan image. Such processing includes, for example, extracting identity, position, and/or orientation of one or more optical semaphores from the scan image, where the extracted semaphores include (1) optical characters including letters, numerals, and/or punctuation, (2) informational indicia including bar codes, data graphs, pictures, and/or icons, and (3) document formatting indicators including lines, bars, arrows, and/or grids. The extracted semaphore data is communicated to a remote computing service via the wireless communications port. The processing operations may be managed by the user through an integrated display interface.
US09167123B2	Image reader apparatus and method of driving the same The present invention provides an image reader apparatus capable of obtaining an image having stable brightness while suppressing an increase of the cost of the apparatus. The image reader apparatus 1 for reading an image on a document 2 being fed and outputting an image signal includes a synchronization signal generation circuit 4 for generating a synchronization signal SS synchronous with a feed timing and a feed cycle of the document 2, a CCD 6 for reading an image on the document 2 in synchronism with the synchronization signal SS, an LED 9 for emitting white light, and a lighting control circuit 7 for turning the LED 9 on in synchronism with the synchronization signal SS and turning the light source off so that a lighting period is equalized for each line irrespective of a variation of the feed cycle of the document 2. The lighting control circuit 7 turns the LED 9 off so that the lighting period of the LED 9 is equal to a predetermined preset period.
US09167122B2	Image reading device and image forming device An image reading device, includes an illumination optical system which has a light source unit configured to emit light being illuminating light to an illuminated object; an optical member configured to have a plurality of reflecting plates and collect the light emitted from the light source unit; and a plurality of reflecting members, the light emitted from the light source unit being collected by the optical member, and the collected light being reflected by the plurality of reflecting members to illuminate a reading target area on the illuminated object, and at least one reflecting surface of the optical member or the plurality of reflecting members having a relief structure.
US09167121B2	Lighting unit and image scanner using same A lighting unit is provided with: LED arrays in which light-emitting elements are positioned in an array in a main scanning direction; cylindrical parabolic mirrors that project light emitted from the LED arrays on an illumination region of an illuminated item; and a housing that houses or holds the LED arrays and the cylindrical parabolic mirrors. Each cylindrical parabolic mirror forms a shape in which a cylindrical paraboloid having curvature with respect to a sub-scanning direction has been clipped by an axial plane that is perpendicular to the vertex of the cylindrical paraboloid in the main scanning direction. The LED arrays are positioned so as to include the focal position of the cylindrical paraboloid in the light-emitting region, the central axis in the light-emitting direction being perpendicular to the axial plane.
US09167118B2	Device management apparatus and device management method A device management apparatus determines whether or not each device connected to the device management apparatus has a device management page for managing the device and a remote operation function for remotely operating the device, and stores the result of the determination. The device management apparatus searches for the devices and creates a device list page. If any of the found devices has a device management page, reference information for referencing the device management page of the device is embedded into the device list page. Further, if any of the found devices has a remote operation function, trigger information for triggering the remote operation function is embedded into the device list page.
US09167112B2	Image forming system, image forming apparatus, information converter, server, and computer-readable recording medium An image forming system comprises a calling part for calling up customized information which is operation setting information customized for a specific user, a converter for dividing an operation to be executed in a specific function mode which is installed in a first image forming apparatus and not installed in a second image forming apparatus into a plurality of jobs and changing execution information of the specific function mode to converted execution information described by using combination of pieces of execution information on the plurality of jobs when the specific function mode is included in the customized information, and a controller for executing an operation to implement the same function as that of the specific function mode in the second image forming apparatus by using the converted execution information.
US09167111B2	Information processing apparatus and image forming apparatus An information processing apparatus according to the invention includes a manipulating unit receiving an instruction based on a user manipulation and outputting an instruction signal, a setting unit for setting a rule for arranging a file or files based on the instruction signal from the manipulating unit, a detecting unit for detecting a file number, and a controlling unit for arranging the file or files based on the rule set with the setting unit in a case where the file number exceeds a threshold value.
US09167106B1	Solar-powered cell phone The solar-powered cell phone is a cell phone wherein a back surface includes at least one solar cell thereon. The solar cell being in wired communication with a charge controller that is in turn in wired communication with an energy storage member and a light sensor. The energy storage member is in wired communication with an inverter that in turn supplies electricity to a cell phone CPU, cell phone display, and a SIM card. The solar cell(s) generate electricity when exposed to light, and the electricity generated is either stored on the energy storage member or is actively used via the cell phone.
US09167104B2	Telecommunications data usage management Telecommunications data usage management may be provided. A network state associated with a communication network may be identified. Upon determining that the network state is not in compliance with a data usage policy, access to the communication network may be restricted for at least one application.
US09167092B1	Method and apparatus of analyzing customer call data to monitor customer call behavior A method and apparatus of processing a customer call is disclosed. The customer call may be initiated for an interactive voice response (IVR) type call system. One example method may include processing an interactive voice response (IVR) customer call. The method may include receiving customer call input to IVR call menu prompts, evaluating customer call interactions with the IVR call menu prompts, and calculating at least one usability score of the customer's interactions with the IVR call menu prompts. The method may also include displaying the results of the at least one usability scores on a user interface.
US09167084B2	Apparatus and method for providing call connection notification to a caller by displaying public relation (PR) information of a callee Apparatus and method for providing call connection notification. In order to provide a call connection notification service, a telephone number of a callee may be received when a caller transmits a call connection request to the callee. Based on the telephone number of the callee, public relations (PR) information may be searched for. A result of the searching may be provided to a user equipment of the caller.
US09167083B2	Identifying recycled telephone numbers An automated method begins by receiving a list of numbers that have been de-activated by a carrier. Periodically, and for each number, a request is made to identify a current carrier for the number. If the current carrier matches the carrier that provided the de-activation information, the mobile number is considered to be in a first state, i.e., shut off and returned to a pool of numbers that are available to this same carrier. Upon a determination that the number is in the first state, the provider issues a request to any opt-in database to delete any express consent or other similar data associated with the number. If, however, the number does not match the carrier of deactivation, the number is considered to be in a second state, i.e., likely to have been ported by the same user to a new carrier. This state is logged in an audit trail.
US09167082B2	Methods and systems for voice augmented caller ID / ring tone alias A communication device and method can include one or more processors operatively coupled to memory and an audible output device, where the one or more processors receive a call from a calling party that includes caller identification information and a voice or video message associated with the caller identification information, presenting the caller identification information, present the voice message or video message as an alias of or to a ring tone or interleaved with the ring tone before the call from the calling party is answered or rejected. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09167081B1	Systems and methods for scoring phone numbers Certain implementations of the disclosed technology include systems and methods for determining a reachability score of a phone number. A method includes receiving personally identifiable information associated with the subject; querying one or more public or private databases with the personally identifiable information; receiving, in response to the querying, phone number information related to the personally identifiable information; extracting, from the phone number information, one or more phone numbers associated with the subject; determining, with one or more computer processors, based at least in part on the one or more phone numbers, a phone type corresponding to the respective one or more phone numbers; determining, with the one or more computer processors, a reachability score for at least one of the one or more phone numbers, wherein the reachability score is based, at least in part, on the phone type; and outputting an indication of the reachability score.
US09167079B1	Subscriber cable pair identification A capability for subscriber cable pair identification is presented. The capability for subscriber cable pair identification may be configured to support subscriber cable identification for Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) cable pairs, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) cable pairs, or both POTS and ISDN cable pairs. The subscriber cable pair identification may be performed using a subscriber cable pair identification assembly including a computing device, a probe interface device, and a probe, where the computing device is configured to run a control program configured to control subscriber cable pair identification, the probe interface device is configured as an interface between the computing device and the probe, and the probe is configured to be connected to a unit supporting subscriber cable pairs.
US09167078B2	Systems and methods of processing inbound calls Methods and systems for reducing the impact of fraudulent or spam calls are disclosed. One or more calls to a first phone address are received, the first phone address not currently associated with a communication for a customer prospect. The calling party phone addresses associated with the calls received prior to the association of the first phone address to the first communication are stored. Then the first phone address is associated to the first communication. A first call to the first phone address is received. Prior to answering the first call and at least partly in response to a determination that a calling party phone address of the first call matches one of the previously stored calling party phone address, the first call is identified as a spam or otherwise undesirable call candidate and may be rejected.
US09167071B2	Wireless device multimedia feed switching Methods for enabling group switching of paired wireless devices are disclosed. The method includes receiving signals indicative of setting of each of a plurality of wireless devices in pairing mode. Then, detecting a physical contact between two or more of the plurality of wireless devices. The physical contact setting a pairing of the wireless devices to a group for communication with the base computing system, and enabling the group to participate in interaction with a first multimedia feed. The method further includes detecting switch signal from one of the wireless devices of the group. The switch signal discontinuing the first multimedia feed and enabling interaction with a second multimedia feed, such that each of the wireless devices of the group switch together as a group from the first multimedia feed to the second multimedia feed.
US09167068B2	Methods for barring MT calls and apparatuses using the same An embodiment of a method for call management, performed by a processing unit of a mobile device, is introduced. A telecommunications network is notified to block MT (mobile-terminated) calls through a base station after the mobile device has successfully associated with a WLAN (wireless local area network) AP (access point) deployed in a region in which noises should be avoided or limited, so as to avoid sounding a ringtone in response to a receipt of a paging reques
US09167066B2	Mobile communication terminal having a light guide plate for indicating receipt of a signal Disclosed is a mobile communication terminal having a light guide plate for indicating the receipt of a signal. This mobile communication terminal comprises an upper frame. A light guide plate is mounted in the upper frame. The light guide plate has an opening corresponding to a region of an image display window. In addition, at least one LED is arranged adjacent to the light guide plate so as to introduce light into the light guide plate. Since the light guide plate is used for indicating the receipt of a signal, it is possible to provide a mobile communication terminal allowing a user to easily recognize a state where a signal has been received.
US09167054B2	Remote browsing session management A remote browsing process is directed to the generation and management of a remote browse session at a network computing and storage provider. A client computing device loads a local browser process and obtains network content from content providers. The local browser process additionally requests a browse session instance corresponding to the network content at a network computing and storage provider. The network computing and storage provider instantiates a browser process in response to the request. The remote browser process retrieves the network content, and generates a processing result corresponding to a first representation of the network content. The processing result may be provided to the client computing device for display. The local browser process may display either the first representation of the network content corresponding to the processing result or a second representation of the network content processed locally at the client computing device.
US09167053B2	Advanced network characterization Some embodiments include a method for determining whether to establish a connection between a computer and a network. In some embodiments, the method includes: receiving first network information from a network; determining a first trust level for the network by matching the network information to provisioning information, wherein the provisioning information indicates the first trust level and an authentication method of the network; verifying that network supports the authentication method, wherein the verifying includes exchanging information with the network; after verifying that the network supports the authentication method, establishing a connection to the network, wherein the connection provides access to an Internet.
US09167050B2	Control pool based enterprise policy enabler for controlled cloud access A method for controlling access to a Cloud, comprising receiving traffic from an Enterprise user at a gateway, wherein the traffic carries a first key specific to the Enterprise user for use internal to the gateway, replacing the first key with a second key, wherein the second key is a Cloud-negotiated key generic to a plurality of Enterprise users which permits access to the Cloud, and sending traffic to the Cloud.
US09167044B2	Communication system for receiving authentication data from an external service A communication system includes a communication device and a relay apparatus that are connected to a network with an external service. The communication device includes a communication unit connected to a browser-installed device and a controller configured to transmit data location information to the browser installed device and output location of the communication device. The relay apparatus includes a communication unit and a controller configured to receive a request, transmit predetermined data based on the request, get the communication-device location information, instruct the browser-installed device to output the communication-device location information, receive authentication data, get the communication-device location information or the correspondence information output by the browser-installed device, and instruct the browser-installed device to transmit the authentication data to the communication device.
US09167039B2	Caching large objects with multiple, unknown, and varying anchor points at an intermediary proxy device Methods and arrangements for caching video object portions. A request for stand-alone content in a video object is received, the content neither being cached nor being adjacent to a cached video object portion, and a first portion of the video object is cached. A value is assigned to the first video object portion. A subsequent request for content in the video object is received, the subsequent request corresponding to access to the first video object portion and a second, uncached portion of the video object. The value of the first video object portion is updated. For the second video object portion, an amount to cache and a value are determined.
US09167037B2	Server and method, non-transitory computer readable storage medium, and mobile client terminal and method Systems and methods for operating in connection with mobile devices are described. The mobile devices may move between online and offline areas. In some instances, a prediction may be made as to when a mobile device will enter an offline area. The prediction may be based on sensor information. Data or a key may be transferred to the mobile device prior to entering the offline area.
US09167028B1	Monitoring distributed web application transactions The present technology monitors a web application provided by one or more services. A service may be provided by applications executing on a virtual machine. The monitoring system provides end-to-end business transaction visibility, identifies performance issues quickly and has dynamical scaling capability across monitored systems including cloud systems, virtual systems and physical infrastructures. Agents may be installed on one or more application servers at an application level, virtual machine level, or other level. An agent may monitor the virtual machine, application and application communications, may communicate with a controller, and may provide monitoring data to the controller. The controller may evaluate the performance of the application and/or virtual machine, model service and/or application flow, and determine information regarding distributed service and/or application performance. The monitoring technology determines how each service and/or application portion is operating, establishes a baseband for operation, and determines the architecture of the distributed system.
US09167027B2	Fast file server methods and systems The invention provides, in one aspect, an improved system for data access comprising a file server that is coupled to a client device or application executing thereon via one or more networks. The server comprises static storage that is organized in one or more directories, each containing, zero, one or more files. The server also comprises a file system operable, in cooperation with a file system on the client device, to provide authorized applications executing on the client device access to those directories and/or files. Fast file server (FFS) software or other functionality executing on or in connection with the server responds to requests received from the client by transferring requested data to the client device over multiple network pathways. That data can comprise, for example, directory trees, files (or portions thereof), and so forth.
US09167022B2	Website compatability shims Various embodiments provide compatibility shims that can be utilized by a web browser to dynamically change web browser platform features per domain or website. The compatibility shims can be deployed to the web browser and updated in a manner similar to that of a webpage. In one or more embodiments, the compatibility shims can be utilized to change a browser's behavior and/or the manner in which the browser represents itself per domain or website. Further, the compatibility shims can enable the web browser to dynamically remove or change support for web platform features. In addition, in at least some embodiments, users can apply their own compatibility shims to their own list of websites or webpages.
US09167021B2	Measuring web browsing quality of experience in real-time at an intermediate network node A method including acquiring a current HTTP transaction; determining whether the current HTTP transaction relates to web browsing for a specific client; acquiring a previous transactions set of the specific client; evaluating whether the current HTTP transaction belongs with the previous transactions set; if the current HTTP transaction belongs with the previous transactions set, adding the current HTTP transaction to the previous transactions set; and if the current HTTP transaction does not belong with the previous transactions set, creating a boundary of a page unit that includes the HTTP transactions of the previous transactions set for computing a page unit time.
US09167012B2	Method and apparatus for sharing media upon request via social networks An approach is provided for determining requests for media and responding in substantially real-time utilizing a single user interface. The social network client determines one or more requests from one or more requesting users to capture media related to at least one social networking status of one or more sharing users. The social network client then causes, at least in part, an indication of the one or more requests to the one or more sharing users related to the at least one social networking status.
US09167003B2	Devices, systems, and methods for detecting proximity-based mobile malware propagation Devices, systems, and methods are disclosed. An agent resides in a mobile communication device. The agent detects Proximity-based Mobile Malware Propagation. The agent injects one or more trigger network connections in the candidate connection list. These connections appear as legitimate networks and devices, but instead trigger connection to an agent server on a service provider's network. By attempting to connect through the trigger network connection, the malware reveals itself. The system helps collect the malware signature within a short period of time after the malware outbreak in local areas, though such attacks typically bypass network based security inspection in the network.
US09166992B1	Methods and apparatus for providing network traffic monitoring services Methods and apparatus for providing network traffic monitoring such as intrusion detection to clients of a provider network. An interface and methods are provided via which a client can select traffic monitoring as a functionality to be added to their configuration on the provider network, for example as part of a load balancer layer. Via the interface, the client can configure new or existing components and specify that traffic monitoring be added on or at the components. Traffic monitoring technology is automatically and transparently added to the client's configuration on or at the components. By adding traffic monitoring functionality to an existing layer, the client does not have to separately manage traffic monitoring on the client's configuration. Traffic monitoring technology may be added at a network substrate level rather than at an overlay network level to insure that all traffic is available to the traffic monitoring technology.
US09166989B2	Storing log data efficiently while supporting querying A logging system includes an event receiver and a storage manager. The receiver receives log data, processes it, and outputs a column-based data “chunk.” The manager receives and stores chunks. The receiver includes buffers that store events and a metadata structure that stores metadata about the contents of the buffers. Each buffer is associated with a particular event field and includes values from that field from one or more events. The metadata includes, for each “field of interest,” a minimum value and a maximum value that reflect the range of values of that field over all of the events in the buffers. A chunk is generated for each buffer and includes the metadata structure and a compressed version of the buffer contents. The metadata structure acts as a search index when querying event data. The logging system can be used in conjunction with a security information/event management (SIEM) system.
US09166988B1	System and method for controlling virtual network including security function Disclosed therein are system and method for controlling a virtual network with a security function which can manage security states of virtual machines in a cloud datacenter, analyze security states of malicious virtual machines, and isolate and treat the malicious virtual machines in order to cope with intrusion of a virtual network under a cloud computing environment. The virtual network controlling system and method reduce the number of packets to which the IPS carries out a signature matching inspection through a DPI test by diffusing blocking against the previously detected intruder by the network level, so as to enhance performance of the virtualized network IPS.
US09166980B2	Content management system, management server, memory media device and content management method A terminal device includes a transmission/reception unit that transmits, to a server device, information necessary for judgment as to whether to permit use of content. The server device includes a judgment unit that judges whether to permit the terminal device to use the content, based on terminal device management information set by a content provider, and the information necessary for the judgment and received from the terminal device. A notification data storage unit stores notifications to be presented to a user of the terminal device; and a transmission/reception unit transmits either information necessary for use of the content or one of the notifications according to a result of the judgment by the judgment unit.
US09166971B1	Authentication using an external device In some embodiments, techniques for computer security comprise receiving request data, wherein the request data includes identity-related information relating to a provider of the request data and information relating to an input specification; requesting authentication from a second computing device via a network, wherein requesting the authentication includes transmitting the information related to the provider of the request data and the information relating to the input specification; and receiving authentication data from the second computing device, wherein the authentication data is associated with the input specification, wherein the authentication data is encrypted, and wherein a key used for the encryption is associated with the identity-related information.
US09166969B2	Session certificates A client device requests permission from a network access device to access a network associated with the network access device. The client device sends credentials of a user associated with the client device for authenticating with the network access device. The client device receives from the network access device permission to access the network along with a session certificate and an associated key. The session certificate and the key are associated with the credentials of the user. The client device establishes a network session using the network based on receiving the permission. During the network session, the client device establishes a secure communications channel with a website. The client device authenticates the user to the website by sending the session certificate to the website over the secure communications channel. The client device then receives permission from the website to access contents of the website.
US09166966B2	Apparatus and method for handling transaction tokens According to one embodiment, an apparatus may store a plurality of token-based rules. A token-based rule may facilitate the processing of transactions. The apparatus may receive a transaction token indicating that a transaction associated with an entity has been requested. The apparatus may determine at least one token-based rule based at least in part upon the transaction token. The at least one token-based rule may indicate that there is a risk that the transaction is fraudulent. The apparatus may determine that the transaction should be denied based at least in part upon the risk that the transaction is fraudulent.
US09166964B2	Secure challenge system for verifying access rights to media content Described is a technique for securely verifying access rights to a media file stored on a user device. By verifying the access rights to the media file, a server may provide access to a licensed version of the media from a media library in a remote location such as server for a cloud-based service. When a media file is confirmed to be available in a media library, a cryptographic a hash function that incorporates a random value or “salt” is used to verify that a user is in possession of an entire media file. Accordingly, the techniques described herein improve the security for verifying that a user is in possession of a media file by preventing the use of pre-calculated hashes.
US09166956B2	Priority-based ordering of cryptographic processing in wireless communication apparatus Wireless communication apparatus (WAP) which comprises means of receiving data streams such as Access Stratum User Plane (AS UP), Access Stratum Control Plane (AS CP), and Non-Access Stratum Control Plane (NAS CP), each at least partly requiring a cryptographic processing operation, a cryptographic module comprising a cryptoprocessor, and management means configured to deliver at least some of the data streams to the crypto-processor according to an order of priority defined from the data types and cryptographic processing types assigned to each data stream.
US09166951B2	Strict communications transport security Strict transport security controls are arranged to detect a first navigation command of a network-enabled application to navigate from a secure connection established with a first network address and to navigate to a second network address using an unsecure reference. A filter is used to filter, in response to the detection of the first navigation command, referring information in a second navigation command used to establish a second address secure connection with a device having the second network address. The strict transport security controls service is optionally arranged to provide a warning signal upon detecting formation of the second navigation command.
US09166946B2	Method, apparatus and system for AP to manage wireless repeater Embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of communications technologies, disclose a method, an apparatus and a system for an access point (AP) to manage a wireless repeater, and include: receiving an internet protocol (IP) address request message that includes a domain name of a repeater to be managed and that is sent by a management console; parsing the IP address request message to obtain the domain name of the repeater to be managed; obtaining, from a domain name management list, an IP address of the repeater that corresponds to the domain name of the repeater to be managed, where correspondence between an IP address of a repeater and domain name information of the repeater is recorded in the domain name management list; and sending, to the management console, the IP address of the repeater that corresponds to the domain name of the repeater to be managed.
US09166944B2	Systems and methods for using social network analysis to schedule communications Systems and methods for improving the effectiveness of communications over a social network. A method for controlling network communication, comprises analyzing a social network in response to a request made by a user to send a message to a node in the social network, delaying for a period of time sending of the message based on a result of the analyzing, and sending the message to the node in the social network after the period of time has elapsed.
US09166937B2	Peer-to-peer email A peer-to-peer email system and methods are provided for distributed email distribution, prevention of SPAM, and efficient email storage. Each email client also serves as a node in the peer-to-peer system, relaying email messages and/or attachments. Large attachments may be transmitted directly from sender to receiver, and if the receiver is not online at the time the sender sends the attachment, the receiver can request the attachment from the sender at a later time.
US09166935B1	System and method for managing and displaying data messages A system and method for managing and displaying data messages includes a computing device configured to receive stream data, assign data messages of the stream data to one or more display columns of a graphical user interface, and display the data messages in the assigned columns. The stream data may be embodied as short data messages such as text messages having predetermined maximum character length. The data messages may be assigned to the display columns based on meta-data associated with the data messages such as the author of the data message, the source of the data message, and/or the type of the data message.
US09166934B2	System and method for operating mesh devices in multi-tree overlapping mesh networks Methods, systems, and devices described herein can allow a mesh device to participate in multiple mesh networks. The method comprises associating with a first access point over a first mesh network, wherein the first access point manages the first mesh network; responsive to receiving a neighbor information broadcast from a neighboring mesh device, updating a neighborhood table stored in an accessible memory, wherein the neighbor information includes a neighboring mesh device information and a neighboring mesh device network identifier; responsive to a request to transmit a message to a destination, determining a next device, wherein the next device is on a calculated path towards the destination, the path including mesh devices from a plurality of mesh networks; and transmitting the message to the next device.
US09166931B2	Method and device for improving robustness of context update message in robust header compression A method and system for improving robustness of context update messages in robust header compression are disclosed in the present document, wherein, the method includes: when sending the context update message, a compressor performing check processing on important fields in the context update message, generating a check code, and sending the check code and the context update message out together; and after receiving the context update message and the check code of the important fields in the context update message, a decompressor firstly performing checking on the important fields in the context update message, if the checking is passed, continuing to execute decompression processing, and if the checking is failed, discarding the context update message. With the present document, the probability of mistaking other compression packets for IR/IR-DYN messages due to bit errors of packet format fields can be reduced, and the correctness of packet format identification can be improved.
US09166930B2	Waved time multiplexing Technologies generally described herein relate to waved time multiplexing. In some examples, a command flit can be transmitted from a sender node of a network-on-chip (“NOC”) to a destination node of the NOC via an intermediate node along a circuit-switched path. The command flit can include an interval period and a release duration. When the command flit has been transmitted, one or more data flits can be transmitted from the sender node to the destination node via the intermediate node along the circuit-switched path. The sender node, the destination node, and the intermediate node can be configured to reserve router resources of the sender node, the destination node, and the intermediate node respectively for circuit-switched traffic during a use duration of the interval period and to release the router resources for packet-switched traffic during the release duration in a waved time multiplex arrangement.
US09166928B2	Scalable 3-stage crossbar switch Systems and methods are presented relating to a three stage crossbar based switching system and a scheduling method for transmission of data packets and associated request and grant tokens. The first stage and third stage portions of the switching system contain TDM crossbars, which are interconnected by a middle stage set of crossbars. In an embodiment, the system switching module is a m×m crossbar switch comprising m inputs and m outputs. The switch has a size m2×m2 formed from m×m crossbar modules. Scheduling of data packet servicing is on a frame by frame basis relating to selection based on port addresses and port address groups. Further, time slot interchange is utilized to address time slot mismatch.
US09166927B2	Network switch fabric dispersion Methods and apparatus for communicating data traffic using switch fabric dispersion are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a first tier of switch elements; and a second tier of switch elements operationally coupled with the first tier of switch elements. In the example apparatus, the first tier of switch elements is configured to receive a data packet from a source. The first tier of switch elements is also configured to route the data packet to the second tier of switch elements in accordance with a dispersion function, where the dispersion function is based on a dispersion tag associated with the data packet. The first tier of switch elements is still further configured to transmit the data packet to a destination for the data packet after receiving it from the second tier of switch elements.
US09166923B2	Network congestion notification preservation and modification during transmission of network data between physical network and virtual network A virtual network is implemented on a physical network. A virtual network data packet is tunneled through the physical network via encapsulation within a physical network data packet and via transmission of the physical network data packet through the physical network. A network congestion notification capability of the virtual network is preserved and modified during transmission of virtual network data through the physical network and vice-versa. Congestion notification metadata can be copied from a header of a virtual network data packet to a header of a physical network data packet when the virtual network data packet is encapsulated into the physical network data packet. Congestion notification metadata can be copied from a header of a physical network data packet to a header of a virtual network data packet when the virtual network data packet is decapsulated from the physical network data packet.
US09166921B2	Selective packet sequence acceleration in a network environment At least one first frame of a first data flow is inspected by a general processing unit to at least determine whether a subsequent portion of the first data flow can be delegated to a network processing unit for accelerated processing. A deceleration trigger is defined for the first data flow from the inspection of the first frame. A first subsequent portion of the first data flow is delegated to a network processing unit for accelerated processing based, at least in part, on the defining of the first deceleration trigger. The first deceleration trigger defines at least one first condition that, when met during accelerated processing of the first data flow, prompts returning processing of the first data flow from the network processing unit to the general processing unit for further inspection of subsequent packets.
US09166914B2	FIFO affinity for multiple ports A mechanism is provided in a data processing system for shared buffer affinity for multiple ports. The mechanism configures a physical first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffer with a plurality of FIFO segments associated with a plurality of network ports. The plurality of network ports share the physical FIFO buffer. The mechanism identifies a FIFO segment under stress within the plurality of FIFO segments. The mechanism reconfigures the physical FIFO buffer to assign a portion of buffer space from a FIFO segment not under stress within the plurality of FIFO segments to the FIFO segment under stress.
US09166904B2	Method and apparatus for transferring BGP state information during asynchronous startup A method of transferring application layer network information comprises the computer-implemented steps of electronically transferring, from a first electronic digital data processor to a second electronic digital data processor, one or more transport layer connections associated with one or more application layer sessions; creating and sending, to the second processor, one or more application layer messages that appear to initiate a new application session with a peer; creating and sending, to the second processor, one or more application update messages that transfer application data from the first processor to the second processor; repeating the creating and sending steps for all application layer sessions that are active at the first processor. One embodiment provides stateful switchover of BGP sessions when one BGP host in a redundant system restarts asynchronously with respect to another host, without problems associated with bulk transfer of BGP route information.
US09166903B2	System, method and apparatus to resolve RPF-vector attribute conflicts Systems, methods and apparatus to resolve join packet RPF vector attribute conflicts in a network by adding an identified proxy to a proxy list, the proxy being valid if it is reachable and if a valid PIM adjacency exists on one of the next route hops, and selecting one of multiple valid proxies within the proxy list according to a hierarchy of selection mechanisms.
US09166900B2	Automatic setup of reflector instances A method of establishing a service operations administration and maintenance (OAM) session between an originator and a reflector in a communication network includes continuously monitoring, by the reflector, any test packets transmitted by the originator. The originator transmits to the reflector, at a time indicated by a first timestamp, a test packet. The reflector receives the test packet at a time indicated by a second timestamp and generates a unique flow identifier that identifies the reflector. The reflector transmits the test packet to the originator. The reflector assigns a sequence number to the test packet. The originator receives the test packet at a time indicated by a fourth timestamp. The reflector stores the unique flow identifier at least for the duration of the OAM session.
US09166891B2	Policy-enabled dynamic deep packet inspection for telecommunications networks Provided herein is a method including the steps of: establishing at least one policy in a centralized policy management framework (PMF), wherein the policy includes at least one policy condition; monitoring data traffic; determining if the data traffic at least substantially meets one of the policy conditions; sending a trigger to the PMF, if at least one of the policy conditions is at least substantially met; generating an enforcement decision at the PMF, wherein the enforcement decision includes at least one enforcement action; sending the enforcement decision to an enforcement function; and enforcing the enforcement decision. A system for realizing this method is also provided.
US09166887B2	Multicast convergence A method in a network element is provided for improved convergence in a network that includes the network element. The network element is one of a plurality of network elements in the network each of which implement the method. The network element includes a database to store the topology of the network. The topology of the network includes a plurality of network elements and links between the network elements. The method classifies convergence actions for the network element to identify convergence actions that can be implemented prior to complete digest synchronization during a convergence process to simplify and reduce convergence latency once digest synchronization is achieved.
US09166877B2	Distinguishing between connectivity verification availability and forwarding protocol functionality in a computer network In one embodiment, a local network device transmits a connectivity verification protocol control message over a link to a remote network device to attempt to establish a connectivity verification protocol session with the remote network device. In response to non-receipt of a returned connectivity verification protocol control message from the remote network device, the local network device determines that there is an inability to establish a connectivity verification protocol session with the remote network device. The local network device then sends a connectivity verification protocol echo message over the link to the remote network device without establishment of a connectivity verification protocol session. The echo message is sent using a forwarding protocol. In response to receipt of a reply to the connectivity verification protocol echo message from the remote network device, the local network device determines that the forwarding protocol is functioning and uses the link to forward data traffic to the remote network device.
US09166876B2	Power communications monitor for power line carrier and audio tone communication systems An apparatus for monitoring and measuring analog signal levels, current and reflected power (SWR) in an electric utility substation environment. The apparatus includes selective measurement capabilities for at least five individual frequencies, respectively, and includes programmable event recording and remote alarms. The apparatus will provide data to support in-band spectral analysis of recorded events, and can be located at any point along an associated communication path. The apparatus is non-intrusive and will not affect any existing signals present on an associated communication path.
US09166871B2	Data communication A management device is used in an access network including a plurality of data connections between end user devices and an aggregation transceiver device where the connections are aggregated for onward connection through the access network. The access network stores a plurality of different profiles, each of which specifies a set of values for a plurality of parameters associated with each data connection. The device applies one of the stored profiles to each connection, and receives a notification in the event of one of a predetermined set of notifiable events occurring on the connection. It is determined if more than a predetermined number of notifications are received within a predetermined period for a respective connection and, in the event of such a determination being made, a different one of the profiles is caused to be applied to the connection.
US09166846B1	Eye diagram construction display apparatus An eye diagram construction display apparatus includes an amplifier, a first equalizer, an addition unit, a second equalizer, a bit error rate check unit, a clock recovery unit, a clock synthesizer, a processing unit and a display unit. The first equalizer is electrically connected to the amplifier. The addition unit is electrically connected to the first equalizer. The second equalizer is electrically connected to the addition unit. The bit error rate check unit is electrically connected to the addition unit. The clock recovery unit is electrically connected to the addition unit and the bit error rate check unit. The clock synthesizer is electrically connected to the clock recovery unit. The processing unit is electrically connected to the addition unit, the bit error rate check unit and the clock recovery unit. The display unit is electrically connected to the processing unit.
US09166843B2	Digital pulse width generator and method for generating digital pulse width A digital pulse width generator and a method for generating a digital pulse width are provided. The method for generating a digital pulse width includes the following. Generating a first period according to first set of bits of pulse data. The first period includes an interval. First phase signals are set to a first logic value in the interval and are generated according to first phase clock signals after an end of the interval. Second phase signals are set to the first logic value in the first period and are generated according to second phase clock signals after an end of the first period. Selecting a first signal from the first phase signals and the second phase signals according to second set of bits of the pulse data as a pulse width signal.
US09166842B2	RF repeater circuit RF repeater circuits may be used to regenerate an RF signal. A method and apparatus is described for regenerating a received RF signal the RF signal comprising a plurality of channels, each channel comprising a plurality of channel symbols, the method comprising producing a digitized RF signal from the received RF signal, extracting spectral information of each of the channels from the digitized RF signal, recovering one or more channel symbols from each of the plurality of channels, remodulating the channel symbols, and converting the remodulated channel symbols to an analog signal resulting in a regenerated RF signal.
US09166841B2	Receiving apparatus and receiving method A receiving apparatus includes a channel estimating unit that performs channel estimation by using a reception signal and obtains a channel estimation value, a demodulation processing unit that performs demodulation processing by using the channel estimation value and the reception signal, a weight calculating unit that calculates weight for decoding for each of channels by using the channel estimation value, and a decoding unit that performs decoding processing by using the weight and a result of the demodulation processing.
US09166826B2	Transport stream generating device, transmitting device, receiving device, and a digital broadcast system having the same, and method thereof A transport stream (TS) generating apparatus, a transmitting apparatus, a receiving apparatus, a digital broadcast system having the above, and a method thereof are provided. The digital broadcast system includes a transport stream (TS) generating apparatus which generates a multi transport stream (TS) by multiplexing a normal stream and a turbo stream having a variable coding rate, a transmitting apparatus which re-constructs the multi TS by processing the turbo stream, and transmits the re-constructed multi TS, and a receiving apparatus which receives the re-constructed multi TS, and decodes the normal stream and the turbo stream respectively, to recover normal data and turbo data. Accordingly, a multi TS, which includes normal stream and a turbo stream of various coding rates, can be transmitted and received efficiently.
US09166823B2	Generation of a context-enriched message including a message component and a contextual attribute Messaging Service Plus Context Data. A message of a specified mobile device communications protocol is parsed. The message is analyzed to identify a message data. A signal associated with the message is evaluated to determine a context data. The context data provides a contextual attribute of the message. The message data is algorithmically associated with the context data. Further, the other message includes the message data and the context data. A context enhancement data is determined to enrich a meaning of the context data. The context enhancement data is acquired from a database. The other message may be generated. The other message includes the message data, the context data and context enhancement data.
US09166822B2	Transmission of instant messages according to availability Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to presence awareness for instant messaging and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for adaptive instant messaging awareness. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for adaptive instant messaging awareness can be provided. The method can include receiving an instant message for transmission to a user of an instant messaging system and determining that the user is not currently available to receive an instant message. The method can further include delaying transmission of the instant message to the user until a later determination that the user is available to receive an instant message.
US09166807B2	Transmission of layer two (L2) multicast traffic over multi-protocol label switching networks Principles of the invention relate to techniques for transmission of Layer 2 (L2) traffic over a point to multi-point (P2MP) label switched path (LSP) within a multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network. A source or ingress network device may implement the techniques to connect multiple L2 interfaces to a P2MP LSP within an MPLS network via a P2MP Pseudo-Wire (PW) mechanism that emulates delivery of L2 data units over a packet switched network, such as the MPLS network. The ingress network device first establishes the P2MP LSP and then connects two or more L2 interfaces to the P2MP LSP via the P2MP PW mechanism. Egress network devices may also implement the techniques to terminate the P2MP LSP and de-multiplex traffic arriving via multiple P2MP PWs carried over the same P2MP LSP.
US09166805B1	Scalable IP-services enabled multicast forwarding with efficient resource utilization Methods, apparatus and data structures are provided for managing multicast IP flows. According to one embodiment, a network switch module includes a memory and multiple processors partitioned among multiple virtual routers (VRs). Each VR maintains a data structure containing therein information regarding the multicast sessions, including a first value for each of the multicast sessions, at least one chain of one or more blocks of second values and one or more transmit control blocks (TCBs). Each first value is indicative of a chain of one or more blocks of second values. Each second value corresponds to an outbound interface (OIF) participating in the multicast session and identifies a number of times packets associated with the multicast session are to be replicated. The TCBs have stored therein control information to process or route packets. Each second value is indicative of a TCB that identifies an OIF of the network device through which packets are to be transmitted.
US09166800B2	Authentication method, authentication system, and authentication chip using common key cryptography A method is disclosed for authenticating, by a processor that controls a parent device, a child device includes: authenticating the child device by making a comparison between a value obtained by operating, for a first response value, a third transform function, which is decided based on a number of a difference between the value set in an authentication chip of the parent device and the value set in an authentication chip of the child device, and the second response value, wherein a first and a second response values are obtained by operating a first and a second transform functions for output values generated by operating an encryption function for performing encryption for secret keys in authentication chips of the parent device and the child device, respectively.
US09166798B2	System and method for secure provisioning of an information handling system Systems and methods for reducing problems and disadvantages associated with provisioning of information handling systems, including without limitation those associated with bare metal provisioning of information handling systems, are disclosed. A system may include a processor, and a memory and an access controller each communicatively coupled to the processor. The access controller may store an enterprise public key associated with an enterprise private key and a platform private key associated with the system. The access controller may be configured to: (i) authenticate communications received from a provisioning server communicatively coupled to the access controller based at least on an enterprise public certificate associated with the provisioning server and (ii) establish an asymmetrically cryptographic communications channel between the access controller and the provisioning server based at least on a platform public key associated with the platform private key, the platform private key, the enterprise public key, and the enterprise private key.
US09166796B2	Secure biometric cloud storage system A secure and scalable data storage system that includes a server and a plurality of clients. The server maintains an access permission file that includes a file-group name, a plurality of client access blocks, a first and second public key, and a signature that is based on a first private key. The signature ensures that only clients who have a certain level of access can modify the contents of the access blocks. Each client access block includes at least one of a first access key, a second access key and a third access key. The access keys are encapsulated within biometric information of the client. The server grants one of a first level of access based on a successful verification of a signed request with the first public key and a second level of access based on a successful verification of the signed request with the second public key.
US09166794B2	Securing private key access for cross-component message processing Often, for reasons of wireless bandwidth conservation, incomplete messages are provided to wireless messaging devices. Employing cryptography, for secrecy or authentication purposes, when including a received message that has been incompletely received can lead to lack of context on the receiver's end. By automatically obtaining the entirety of the message to be included, an outgoing message that includes the received message can be processed in a manner that securely and accurately represents the intended outgoing message. Alternatively, a server can assemble a composite message from a new message and an original message and, in cooperation with a wireless messaging device, sign the composite message. Since signing the composite message involves access to a private key, access to that private key is secured such that such access to the private key can only be arranged responsive to an explicit request for a hash that is to be signed using the private key.
US09166788B2	Method and device for obtaining a security key A method comprises obtaining scan information by scanning a quick response QR code in a quick response key QRkey card, wherein the QR code includes a website link and a public key; opening a network platform page corresponding to the website link in the QR code; and obtaining a private key matching with the public key in the QR code and sending the private key to a user corresponding to the QRkey card, so that the user corresponding to the QRkey card can encrypt preset information by using the public key and decrypt the encrypted information by using the private key. A device comprises a first acquisition module, an open module and a second acquisition module. In the present invention a public key and a private key can be obtained by scanning a QR code in a QRkey card, thus a simple and convenient method for obtaining a key is provided.
US09166778B2	Secure group messaging A method for securing at least one message transferred in a communication system from a first computing device to a second computing device in a peer-to-peer manner. At the first computing device, an identity based authenticated key exchange session is established with a third computing device operating as a peer authenticator. The identity based authenticated key exchange session has an identity based authenticated session key associated therewith. The first computing device obtains from the third computing device a random key component of the second computing device, wherein the random key component of the second computing device is encrypted by the third computing device using the identity based authenticated session key prior to sending the random key component of the second computing device to the first computing device. A peer-to-peer messaging key is computed at the first computing device using the random key component of the second computing device.
US09166774B2	Decoupling bang-bang CDR and DFE An apparatus including a bang-bang clock data recovery module and a decision feedback equalizer. A phase detector of the bang-bang clock and data recovery module may be configured to eliminate coupling between the bang-bang clock and data recovery module and the decision feedback equalizer based upon an error signal of the decision feedback equalizer and a predetermined coefficient.
US09166773B2	System timing margin improvement of high speed I/O interconnect links by using fine training of phase interpolator Methods and apparatus for improving system timing margin of high speed I/O (input/output) interconnect links by using fine training of a phase interpolator are described. In some embodiments, I/O links use forward clock architecture to send data from transmit driver to receiver logic. Moreover, at the receiver side, Phase Interpolator (PI) logic may be used to place the sampling clock at the center of the valid data window or eye. In an embodiment, a Digital Eye Width Monitor (DEWM) logic may be used to measure data eye width in real time. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
US09166771B2	Reception circuit A reception circuit includes: an equalizer; a comparator to compare an output signal of the equalizer with first, second, and third thresholds at a first-timing to output first, second, and third comparison-results, respectively; a selector to select any one of the first and second comparison-results based on a determination-result at a timing before the first-timing, and update the determination-result; a detector to detect a phase information based on the first or second comparison-result not selected; a shifter to adjust a sampling clock phase based on the phase information detected; and a controller to set a third threshold based on the first and second thresholds by either adjusting the first and second thresholds based on the output signal amplitude or adding/subtracting a first value to/from the output signal, detect an equalization-result based on the third comparison-result by the set third threshold, and adjust an equalization coefficient based on the detected equalization-result.
US09166756B2	Method and apparatus for transmitting SRS in LTE TDD system A method and apparatus are provided for transmitting and receiving an uplink Sounding Reference Signal (SRS). The method includes determining a number of single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) symbols in an uplink pilot time slot (UpPTS); receiving index information for a sounding reference signal (SRS); determining an SRS offset, based on the index information; and transmitting the SRS, based on the SRS offset. If the index information includes an integer from 0 to 9, and if the UpPTS includes two SC-FDMA symbols, a first symbol is indicated by SRS offset 0 and a second symbol is indicated by SRS offset 1. If the index information includes an integer from 0 to 9, and if the UpPTS includes one SC-FDMA symbol, a first symbol is indicated by the SRS offset 1.
US09166749B2	Serial data transmission system and method A serial data transmission system includes a sending terminal for sending data, a receiving terminal for receiving the data sent by the sending terminal, a first connecting capacitor connected between the sending terminal and the receiving terminal, and a second connected capacitor connected between the sending terminal and the receiving terminal. The sending terminal includes a sending terminal driving unit, and an amplitude detecting unit connected to the sending terminal driving unit. The sending terminal driving unit outputs a pair of differential signals according to signals of the received data. The amplitude detecting unit detects changes in amplitudes of the differential signals outputted by the sending terminal driving unit, and outputs an indicating signal for indicating whether the sending terminal is properly connected to the receiving terminal. A serial data transmission method is further provided.
US09166748B2	Apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving the hybrid-ARQ ACK/NACK signal in mobile communication system An apparatus and method are provided for transmitting a symbol group in a mobile communication system. The method includes generating the symbol group to which an orthogonal sequence is applied; mapping the generated symbol group to an orthogonal frequency division multiple (OFDM) symbol and a multiple antenna array based on a symbol group index and a physical hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) indicator channel (PHICH) group index; and transmitting the mapped symbol group. The generated symbol group is mapped to the OFDM symbol and the multiple antenna array in an alternating pattern in accordance with the symbol group index.
US09166737B2	Extension of physical downlink control channels in a communication system Methods and apparatuses are described for a User Equipment (UE) to receive enhanced Control CHannels (eCCHs), including enhanced Physical Downlink Control CHannels (ePDCCHs), transmitted in a set of Resource Blocks (RBs) over a Transmission Time Interval (TTI). A method includes transmitting a first control signal to a first UE over a first number of Resource Elements (Res) in a subset of the RBs and over a first number of the transmission symbols in the TTI; transmitting a second control signal to a second UE over a second number of the REs in the subset of the RBs and over a second number of the transmission symbols in the TTI; and transmitting a reference signal of the first type over a third number of the REs in the subset of the RBs and over a third number of the transmission symbols in the TTI.
US09166734B2	Method and device for frame aggregation transmission of wireless network system The invention directed to an efficient frame aggregation transmission scheme with network coding to improve transmission efficiency in 802.11n/ac networks. According to network conditions, the proposed scheme can dynamically utilizes either modified systematic network coding or mixed generation coding to efficiently transmit the aggregated frame.
US09166725B2	Optical network element and optical transmission system The invention relates to an optical network element, particularly an optical line terminal, OLT, for transmitting and receiving signals wire an optical network that comprises at least one optical fiber link and at least one further optical network element. The optical network element provides a primary optical pumping mean for emitting optical pump power to set at least one optical fiber link. The emitted optical pump power forms at least one gain medium outside the optical network element to provide optical pump power to the network for amplifying the singles to receive so that outside of the domain of the optical network element no electrical energy supply is needed.
US09166722B2	Method and apparatus for increasing a transmission performance of a hybrid wavelength division multiplexing system A hybrid wavelength division multiplexing system wherein one or more intensity modulated signals generated by optical amplitude modulators are co-propagated with one or more phase modulated signals generated by optical phase modulators, wherein a drive voltage of said optical amplitude modulator is adapted to reduce an extinction ratio of the intensity modulated signal to minimize a cross-phase modulation impact on the co-propagating phase modulated signals.
US09166718B2	Downlink control indication for a stand-alone new carrier type (NCT) Technology for determining a common search space (CSS) from a physical resource block (PRB) indication for a stand-alone carrier type is disclosed. In an example, a user equipment (UE) configured for determining a common search space (CSS) from a physical resource block (PRB) indication for a stand-alone carrier type can include a processing module to: Determine a PRB set in the CSS from an enhanced physical hybrid automatic repeat request (ARQ) indicator channel (ePHICH) configuration information in a master information block (MIB); and decode an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) or the ePHICH from PRB region candidates in the PRB set.
US09166705B2	Semiconductor apparatuses having optical connections between memory controller and memory module Semiconductor apparatuses having optical connections between a memory controller and a memory module are provided. A semiconductor apparatus includes a memory controller, at least one socket configured to receive a memory module, and a first optical-electrical module. A second optical-electrical module is mounted in the socket and optically coupled to the first optical-electrical module via at least one optical channel.
US09166695B2	Optical frequency locking method and device for optical data transmission An optical frequency locking method tunes each of a plurality of narrow-band optical channel transmit signals (having arbitrary channel frequency spacings) to a dedicated optical channel frequency. The method includes tapping-off a portion of the optical power of the respective channel transmit signal and filtering the tapped-off channel transmit signal using at least one optical filter device. The method also includes monitoring, as an optical input signal, the optical power of the respective channel transmit signal supplied to the at least one optical filter device and, as an optical output signal, the optical power of the filtered channel transmit signal. The method further includes tuning, within a predetermined locking range for the dedicated optical channel frequency, the optical frequency of the respective channel transmit signal such that a predetermined value for the ratio of the output signal and the input signal is reached.
US09166693B2	Optical transceiver having reset sequence An electronic apparatus is disclosed where the apparatus provides the I2C bus and enables to resume the I2C bus even after the apparatus receives external RESET independent of the status of the I2C communication. A circuit unit communicating with the controller by the I2C bus, which is necessary to be reset, is further coupled with the controller by an internal RESET. The controller, receiving the external RESET, first completes the communication on the I2C bus, then sends the internal RESET to the circuit unit, finally resets itself.
US09166690B2	Power distribution module(s) for distributed antenna systems, and related power units, components, systems, and methods A power distribution module can be installed in and connected to a power unit for providing power to a power-consuming DAS component(s), such as a remote unit(s) (RU(s)) as a non-limiting example. The RU may include an antenna, and may sometimes be referred to as a remote antenna unit or RAU. Power from the power distribution module is distributed to any power-consuming DAS components connected to the power distribution modules including but not limited to remote units. The power distribution modules distribute power to the power-consuming DAS components to provide power for power-consuming components in the power-consuming DAS components. In a first configuration, the power distribution module uses two power links to provide power to a single RU. In a second configuration, the power distribution module uses two power links to provide power to two RUs.
US09166680B2	Apparatus and method for measuring IQ imbalance for optical receiver Provided is an apparatus and method for measuring IQ imbalance, and in particular, is an apparatus and method for measuring IQ imbalance for an optical receiver. The apparatus for measuring IQ imbalance for an optical receiver includes a light generating unit generating optical and reference signals to provide the optical and reference signals to an optical receiver, a graph creating unit creating a Lissajous figure by using an in-phase (I) signal and a quadrature-phase (Q) signal output from the optical receiver in response to the optical and reference signals, and a calculating unit calculating IQ imbalance for the optical receiver with reference to the Lissajous figure.
US09166678B1	Heterogeneous microwave photonic circuits Embodiments of the invention describe (M)MPICs, which include RF processing components and heterogeneous silicon photonic components that include a first region of silicon material and a second region of non-silicon material with high electro-optic efficiency (e.g., III-V material). Said heterogeneous silicon components are fabricated from the silicon and non-silicon material, and therefore may be interconnected via silicon/non-silicon waveguides formed from the above described regions of silicon/non-silicon material. The effect of interconnecting these components via said optical waveguides is that an RF signal may be processed using photonic components consistent with the size of an MMIC, without the need for any optical fibers; therefore, embodiments of the invention describe a chip scale microwave IC that has the broad optical bandwidth of photonics without any optical interfaces to fiber. Furthermore, in some embodiments, the RF processing components, heterogeneous photonic components, and control circuitry may be included in the same chip-scale package.
US09166676B2	Telematics communication system and method A communication system included in a telematics unit is provided. A GPIO communication port connects a plurality of communication modules included in the telematics unit, and thus enables each of the communication modules to transmit/receive data depending on the data transmission/reception state of the other communication module. Accordingly, provided are a telematics communication system and method that prevents a data transmission/reception speed from being reduced due to frequency interference between the plurality of communication modules.
US09166674B2	Satellite communication device, and remote control method An object of the present invention is to provide a satellite communication device which receives instructions from a remote place and automatically carries out a predetermined process. The satellite communication device includes an acquiring section, a storing section, and a control section. The acquiring section acquires instruction information through an artificial satellite by line switching type communication. The storing section stores the instruction information and a registered process by established correspondence. The control section reads out a process corresponding to the instruction information acquired by the acquiring section based on storage contents of the storing section, and carries out the process that has been read out.
US09166667B2	Antenna selection diversity scheme for zigbee or other wireless devices and related apparatus and method A method includes identifying, at a wireless device, transmit and receive link costs respectively associated with transmitting data to and receiving data from one or more neighboring nodes of the wireless device. The method also includes selecting at least one of multiple antennas to be used to further communicate with the neighboring node(s). The at least one antenna is selected using the link costs. At least some of the link costs are identified using link status messages received from the neighboring node(s). For each neighboring node, one antenna can be selected as a unicast antenna for unicast communications with that neighboring node. Also, one antenna can be selected as a broadcast/multicast antenna for broadcast or multicast communications with multiple neighboring nodes. An identity of the at least one antenna selected to communicate with the neighboring node(s) may not be communicated from the wireless device.
US09166663B2	System and method for open-loop MIMO communications in a SCMA communications system A method for transmitting data includes mapping a first coded information bit stream intended for a first transmit antenna onto at least one first spreading sequence of a plurality of first spreading sequences to generate a first data stream, mapping a second coded information bit stream intended for a second transmit antenna onto at least one second spreading sequence of a plurality of second spreading sequences to generate a second data stream. The method also includes transmitting the first data stream and the second data stream on respective transmit antennas.
US09166661B2	Method and device for providing control information for uplink transmission in wireless communication system supporting uplink multi-antenna transmission The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, and more particularly, a method and device for providing control information for uplink transmission in a wireless communication system supporting uplink multi-antenna transmission. An uplink multi-antenna transmission scheduling method, according to one embodiment of the present invention, comprises the following steps: creating downlink control information (DCI) containing respective modulation and coding scheme (MCS) information for a first and a second transport block; transmitting said created downlink control information, which schedules uplink transmissions from one or more of first and second transport blocks through a downlink control channel; and receiving uplink transmission, scheduled according to the downlink control information, through an uplink data channel, wherein one transport block can be disabled, if MCS information for one transport block among of the first or the second transport blocks has a predetermined value.
US09166659B2	Method and device for selecting precoding matrices based on representations of speed of related devices Communication may be provided from a first communication device over a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) wireless channel to a second communication device. More particularly, feedback may be received at the first communication device from the second communication device, with the feedback including a precoding matrix selection from the second communication device. A representation of a speed of the second communication device relative to the first communication device may be generated. Responsive to the representation of the speed of the second communication device indicating a speed that is greater than a selection threshold, a generalized precoding matrix may be selected that is different than a precoding matrix indicated by the precoding matrix selection from the second communication device. Related devices are also discussed.
US09166645B2	Cooperative management of business devices A method includes receive network information for a network at an intelligent cellular router modem associated with a business device. The method also includes compressing the network information. Business device information associated with the business device is received. The business device information is also compressed. The method includes sending the compressed business device information and network information to the intelligent management host device via the network. The method also includes determining whether a response based on the compressed business device information and network information is received within a predetermined response time. An action is determined based on a received response in response to a determination that the response has been received. An action is also determined based on absence of a received response in response to a determination that the response has not been received.
US09166641B1	Method and apparatus for receiver VGA adaptation One embodiment relates to a receiver circuit for a data link. The receiver circuit includes a linear equalizer for receiving an input data signal and outputting an equalized signal, and a variable gain amplifier for receiving the equalized signal and outputting an amplified signal. Adaptation circuitry is connected to the linear equalizer and the variable gain amplifier. The adaptation circuitry adapts both a gain of the variable gain amplifier and a direct current voltage setting of the linear equalizer. Other embodiments and features are also disclosed.
US09166640B2	Adjustable impedance matching network An adjustable impedance matching network includes a first terminal, a second terminal, a reference potential terminal, a transmission line transformer with a first inductor path and a second inductor path. A semiconductor switching element is configured to bridge a sub-section of the first inductor path or the second inductor path to thereby adjust an inductance of the first inductor path or the second inductor path. According to an alternative embodiment, the impedance matching network includes a selector switch to selectively connect one of a plurality of inductor nodes with at least one of the first terminal and the second terminal. Further embodiments relate to an integrated circuit for adjustable impedance matching with a transmission line transformer formed by first and second inductor paths that are implemented as conductive paths at or in a substrate of the integrated circuit.
US09166636B2	Rejection of RF interferers and noise in a wireless communications transceiver The invention provides a radio receiver or transceiver having one or more low noise amplifiers corresponding to one or more antenna inputs wherein one or more outputs of the one or more low noise amplifiers is/are combined at a single output current summing node, a tunable, shunt notch filter is coupled or connected to the summed output node that allows for the attenuation of a Tx blocker or interferer, an external blocker or interferer or an internal on-chip interferer.
US09166630B1	Adaptive radio communications systems and methods An illustrative adaptive radio communications system comprises a cluster of waveform and application processor entities coupled and a plurality of transceivers. The transceivers convert radio frequency (RF) signals into digital in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) data, which is sent to the waveform processor entities via a network fabric. The waveform processor entities perform low-level waveform processing and the application processor entities perform high-level, distributed signal processing. The system and related methods are capable of processing multiple programmable waveforms of varying complexity.
US09166627B2	Combination error and erasure decoding for product codes In one embodiment, a system for combination error and erasure decoding for product codes includes a processor and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor, the logic being configured to receive captured data, generate erasure flags for the captured data and provide the erasure flags to a C2 decoder, set a stop parameter to be equal to a length of C1 codewords in a codeword interleave used to encode the captured data, and selectively perform, in an iterative process, error or erasure C1 decoding followed by error or erasure C2 decoding until decoding is successful or unsuccessful. In more embodiments, a method and/or a computer program product may be used for combination error and erasure decoding for product codes.
US09166625B2	Circuits, integrated circuits, and methods for interleaved parity computation Circuits, integrated circuits, and methods are disclosed for interleaved parity computation. In one such example circuit, an interleaved parity computation circuit includes a first parity circuit that receives a first set of bits and a second parity circuit that receives a second set of bits. The first set of bits includes a first parity bit, and is received in the first parity circuit during a first clock cycle. The first parity circuit generates a first signal indicative of the parity of the first set of bits. The second set of bits includes a second parity bit, and is received in the second parity circuit during a second clock cycle. The second parity circuit generates a second signal indicative of the parity of the second set of bits. A combining circuit combines the first signal and the second signal into an alert signal.
US09166621B2	Capacitance to code converter with sigma-delta modulator An apparatus and method of converting a capacitance measured on a sensor element to a digital value. The apparatus may include a matrix-scanning device including drive lines and sense lines. A sense element is located at an intersection of one of the drive lines and one of the sense lines. The apparatus also includes a modulation circuit coupled to the drive lines and the sense lines, and a switching circuit having first switches controlled by a clock. The modulation circuit is configured to measure a mutual capacitance on the sense element and to convert the measured mutual capacitance to a first digital value. The modulation circuit is configured to measure a self-capacitance on at least one of the drive lines and to convert the measured self-capacitance to a second digital value.
US09166613B2	A/D conversion circuit and solid-state imaging device An A/D conversion circuit and a solid-state imaging device are able to reduce current consumption, and two input terminals of a NAND element included in a latch circuit receive a corresponding one of a plurality of clock signals and an enable signal. The enable signal is not input to the NAND element before an end timing of A/D conversion, and is input to the NAND element at the end timing of the A/D conversion and at a timing at which latching is performed. The latch circuit latches no clock signal when the enable signal is not input.
US09166612B2	Semiconductor device To provide a semiconductor device capable of accurately controlling the cycle of an internal clock signal. This semiconductor device, by using signal that is output from a sequence register of an asynchronous successive approximation type ADC when N times of comparison are completed, detects whether or not the signal and its delay signal are output when the period transitions from a comparison period to a sampling period, and generates, on the basis of the detection result, a delay control signal for controlling the cycle of an internal clock signal by controlling the delay times of the delay circuits.
US09166606B2	Reference-frequency-insensitive phase locked loop A phase locked loop may be operable to generate, utilizing a frequency doubler, a reference clock signal whose frequency is twice a frequency of a crystal clock signal and is keyed on both rising and falling edges of the crystal clock signal. The phase locked loop may enable usage of both rising and falling edges of the crystal clock signal, based on the generated reference clock signal. The phase locked loop may perform an operation of the phase locked loop based on the enabling. The phase locked loop may perform a phase comparison function, based on both rising and falling edges of the crystal clock signal. By utilizing a sampled loop filter in the phase locked loop, the phase locked loop may eliminate, at an output of a charge pump in the phase locked loop, disturbance which is associated with duty cycle errors of the crystal clock signal.
US09166605B2	Low-power and all-digital phase interpolator-based clock and data recovery architecture The proposed invention is about an improved method for serial-in and serial-out transceiver applications. The proposed system includes a dual loop phase locked loop (PLL) architecture having a PLL and a phase rotator (PR)-based delay locked loop (DLL). An advantage of this architecture is that a single PLL offers decoupled bandwidths; a wide jitter-tolerance (JTOL) bandwidth for receiving data and a narrow jitter transfer (JTRAN) bandwidth for the data transmission. Thus, the amount of jitter at the output can be substantially reduced relative to the input while offering sufficient jitter tracking bandwidth. Also, this architecture is suitable for low-power applications since a phase shifter in the data path, which is one of the most power-hungry blocks in conventional DPLL designs, is not required.
US09166604B2	Timing monitor for PLL Representative implementations of devices and techniques provide error detection for a phase-locked-loop (PLL) device. A timing monitor is arranged to count pulses output by one or more portions of the PLL device, a quantity or pattern of the pulses indicating an error of the PLL device.
US09166575B2	Low threshold voltage comparator A voltage comparator includes an amplifier coupled to receive an input signal at an amplifier input and generate an output signal at an amplifier output in response to the input signal. The amplifier includes a current generation circuit coupled to generate a first current flowing through a first branch and a second current flowing through a second branch. A first transistor has a first terminal coupled to the amplifier input and a second terminal coupled to the first branch. A second transistor has a third terminal coupled to the second branch, a fourth terminal coupled to a reference voltage. A second control terminal of the second transistor is coupled to the first control terminal. An output circuit is coupled to the amplifier output to generate a comparator output signal in response to the output signal. The amplifier output is coupled to the second branch.
US09166572B2	Semiconductor device, semiconductor system including the semiconductor device, and method for driving the semiconductor system A semiconductor device includes a plurality of pads, a plurality of data input/output units connected with the plurality of pads and enabled in response to a plurality of enable signals, and a group programming unit suitable for grouping the plurality of pads into a number of pad groups in response to a mode register set (MRS) code and group information, and generating a number of groups of enable signals corresponding to the number of pad groups, wherein a number of groups of the data input/output units are sequentially enabled in response to respective groups of the enable signals.
US09166571B2	Low power high speed quadrature generator An apparatus comprising a latch comprising a differential inverter configured to receive a differential input signal and generate a differential output signal, a pair of cross-coupled inverters coupled to the differential inverter, and a first clock switch configured to couple the differential inverter to a voltage source, a second clock switch configured to couple the differential inverter to a ground, wherein the first clock switch and the second clock switch are configured to receive a differential clock signal, and wherein the first clock switch and the second clock switch are both open or both closed depending on the differential clock signal, a second latch, wherein the first latch and the second latch are configured as a frequency divider, and a logic circuit coupled to each latch, wherein the logic circuits are configured to generate both an in-phase reference output signal and a quadrature output signal.
US09166563B2	Asynchronous sample rate converter An asynchronous sample rate converter and method for converting an input signal to a resampled output signal is disclosed. An efficient and cost-effective sample rate converter for converting an input signal of arbitrary sample rate to a resampled output signal of a second sample rate is disclosed. A hardware-efficient sample-rate converter for resampling an audio input signal with an arbitrary sample rate to an output audio signal with a known sample rate for use in an audio processor is disclosed.
US09166551B2	Apparatus and method for matching impedance using standing wave ratio information An apparatus and method for matching impedance of an antenna by using Standing Wave Ratio (SWR) information is provided. While the impedance of the impedance matching unit is controlled, a region of a Smith chart in which initial total impedance of the impedance matching unit and the antenna is located by using an SWR calculated by an SWR operation unit, and the impedance of the impedance matching unit is controlled according to the determined region, thus correctly matching the impedance of the antenna.
US09166547B2	Electronic device and method for adjusting volume levels of audio signal outputted by the electronic device An electronic device includes an audio sensor, an audio output unit, a pulse width modulation (PWM) unit connected to the audio output unit, and a control chip. When the audio output unit outputs the audio signal, the audio sensor detects a volume level of the environment sound. The control chip determines a volume level of the audio signal according to the volume level of the environment sound and preset associations between volume levels of the audio signal outputted by the audio output unit and volume levels of the environment, and determines a duty cycle of the PWM unit according to the determined volume level and the maximum volume level. The control chip then outputs the duty cycle to the PWM unit, to adjust a current volume level of the audio signal outputted by the audio output unit to the determined volume level.
US09166538B2	Integrated circuit wireless communication unit and method for providing a power supply An integrated circuit is described for providing a power supply to a radio frequency (RF) power amplifier (PA). The integrated circuit comprises a low-frequency power supply path comprising a switching regulator and a high-frequency power supply path arranged to regulate an output voltage of a combined power supply at an output port of the integrated circuit for coupling to a load. The combined power supply is provided by the low-frequency power supply path and high-frequency power supply path. The high-frequency power supply path comprises: an amplifier comprising a voltage feedback and arranged to drive a power supply signal on the high-frequency power supply path; and a high-frequency-path supply module arranged to provide a high frequency supply to drive the amplifier, where the high-frequency-path supply module comprises a pulse-width modulator operably coupled to the high frequency supply via a filter and arranged to provide a filtered pulse-width modulated signal to the high frequency supply.
US09166534B2	Tunable loadline A tunable loadline is disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, an apparatus includes an amplifier configured to output an amplified signal having a selected power level and a first impedance network coupled to receive the amplified signal at an input terminal and generate a first output signal having a first power level at a first output terminal. The first impedance network being configured to load the amplified signal to convert the selected power level to the first power level. The apparatus also includes a second impedance network configured to selectively receive the first output signal and generate a second output signal having a second power level at a second output terminal. The second impedance network being configured to combine with the first impedance network to load the amplified signal to convert the selected power level to the second power level.
US09166531B2	Semiconductor integrated circuit device and high-frequency power amplifier module The invention provides a semiconductor integrated circuit device and a high-frequency power amplifier module capable of reducing variations in the transmission power characteristics. The semiconductor integrated circuit device and the high-frequency power amplifier module each include, for example, a bandgap reference circuit, a regulator circuit, and a reference-voltage correction circuit which is provided between the bandgap reference circuit and the regulator circuit and which includes a unity gain buffer. The reference-voltage correction circuit corrects variations in a bandgap voltage from the bandgap reference circuit. The reference-voltage correction circuit includes first to third resistance paths having mutually different resistance values, and corrects the variations by selectively supplying a current which reflects an output voltage of the unity gain buffer to any one of the first to third resistance paths. The selection in this case is performed by connecting a bonding wire to any one of the terminals REF1 to REF3.
US09166519B2	Motor control device A motor control device includes: a frequency instruction setting section for outputting a plurality of frequency instructions; an AC voltage instruction generation section for generating and outputting an AC voltage instruction based on each of the frequency instructions; a voltage application section for applying voltage to a motor based on the AC voltage instruction; a current detection section for detecting motor current flowing in the motor; and a type determination section for determining the type of the motor based on a transfer characteristic of the motor calculated from the motor current, the AC voltage instruction, and the frequency instruction.
US09166518B2	Rotor temperature estimation for an electric vehicle In accordance with exemplary embodiments, rotor temperature estimation is provided for estimating rotor temperatures of an electric motor in an electric vehicle. A method comprises estimating a rotor temperature in a controller for an electric motor of a vehicle using a fast-mode rotor temperature estimator for a time interval, and then deactivating the fast-mode rotor temperate estimator after the time interval and activating a normal-mode rotor temperature estimator in the controller for the electric motor of the vehicle. A system comprises an electric motor, a resistance rotor temperature estimator including a limit value limiting a temperature estimate increase for temperature estimates, and a controller for the electric motor, which uses the temperature estimate and is configured to temporarily increase the limit value of the resistance rotor temperature estimator providing a fast-mode rotor temperature estimate.
US09166497B2	Switching power source device with discharge circuit A switching power source device includes a switching power supply main body switching an input voltage via a switching element to obtain a predetermined DC output voltage, a control circuit performing on/off-driving of the switching element; and a capacitor connected to the control circuit to be charged by an external power supply via an activation switch circuit during activation and charged by a voltage generated in the switching power supply main body after completion of activation to supply a control power voltage to the control circuit. The control circuit further includes a latch circuit set according to a latch signal emitted when an abnormality is detected, to stop the driving of the switching element, a discharge circuit receiving the latch signal to be turned on and discharging charges accumulated in the capacitor, and a comparator resetting the latch circuit when the control power voltage decreases to an operation stop voltage.
US09166495B2	Wind power converter A wind power converter includes a multiple of phase power converters, each of which being adapted to convert power output from a corresponding phase of a wind generator to a corresponding phase of a grid. Each of the phase power converters includes a full-wave rectifier, being adapted to rectify the power input through a first terminal and a second terminal from the corresponding phase of the wind generator; a capacitor being adapted to be charged by the power rectified by the full-wave rectifier; and a full-wave active inverter, being adapted to invert the power stored in the capacitor and output the inverted power to the corresponding phase of the grid through a third terminal and a fourth terminal. The first terminal or the second terminal is connected to a first virtual neutral; and the third terminal or the fourth terminal is connected to a second virtual neutral. By having such topology, each phase power converter serves as a power conversion module independent of the others. Thus, the electrical coupling between any two of the phase power converter is removed. The details of the phase power converter will be described thereafter. It is therefore an objective of the invention to decrease the cost and at the same increase the feeding electrical power quality.
US09166485B2	Quantization error reduction in constant output current control drivers An electronic system and method includes a controller to control a switching power converter in at least two different modes of operation, a normal mode and an error reduction mode. The controller controls an amount of charge pushed (i.e. delivered) by the switching power converter to a load to reduce a charge quantization error. The charge quantization error represents an amount of charge pushed to the load beyond a target charge amount. The controller determines an amount of charge to be pushed to the load. Based on the amount of charge to be pushed to the load, the controller generates a current control signal that controls a current control switch in the switching power converter. Determination of the control signal depends on whether the controller is operating in normal mode or error reduction mode. The controller attempts to reduce the charge quantization error to avoid power fluctuations.
US09166478B2	Power supply device, method for managing power supply thereof and wireless communication terminal In the patent document, the wireless communication terminal includes a baseband working unit, a RF working unit and a DC power converter connected with the baseband working unit and the RF working unit, further including a power supply device, a CPU and an envelope detection device; the power supply device is configured to receive a voltage supplied by the DC power converter, supplying an output voltage to a PA in the RF working unit, receiving a control signal sent from CPU, adjusting the output voltage according to the control signal; the envelope detection device is configured to detect the envelope signal of output signal of the PA in real time and send the envelope signal to the CPU; the CPU is configured to receive the voltage supplied by the DC power converter, convert the envelope signal into a control signal and send the control signal to the power supply device.
US09166474B2	Power supply device with switching control device controlling switching based on pulse control signal A power supplying device performs both of a suppression of EMI noise and a reduction in an output voltage. In the power supply device, a switching control device that controls a switching element according to a pulse control signal includes a PPM circuit that modulates a pulse position; a PWM circuit that modulates a pulse width; and a pulse generator circuit that generates a pulse modulated by the PPM circuit and the PWM circuit. When a pulse interval of the pulse modulated in the pulse position by the PPM circuit is sparser than the pulse interval of the pulse before the modulation, the PWM circuit lengthens the pulse width. On the contrary, when the pulse interval of the pulse modulated in the pulse position by the PPM circuit is denser than the pulse interval of the pulse before the modulation, the PWM circuit shortens the pulse width.
US09166473B2	DC/DC power converter with feedback control operable in linear and non-linear modes A current mode power conversion system and method operates in cycles. Each cycle includes an on time and an off time. The system includes an inductor connected to store energy during the on time of each cycle and use the energy during the off time of each cycle. The system provides a stable output voltage and a maximum-limited output current to a load during constant load conditions. The system comprises a feedback control linearly operable so as to control the output voltage across the load during constant load conditions, and non-linearly operable so as to control the output voltage across the load during certain detected changes in load conditions as a function of the derivative of the current in the inductor so as to speed up the transient response of the power conversion system when a fault condition exists.
US09166472B2	EMI filtering for active rectifier power systems A system for filtering electromagnetic interference (EMI) includes a power source that provides alternating current (AC) power; a load; an active rectifier that converts AC power from the power source to direct current (DC) power for the load; and a filter connected between the power source and the active rectifier, wherein the filter comprises at least one notch filter that filters selected frequencies of EMI generated by the active rectifier.
US09166463B2	Linearly deployed actuators A method for making an actuator includes forming a substantially planar actuator device of an electrically conductive material, the device incorporating an outer frame, a fixed frame attached to the outer frame, a moveable frame disposed parallel to the fixed frame, a motion control flexure coupling the moveable frame to the outer frame for coplanar, rectilinear movement relative to the outer frame and the fixed frame, and an actuator incorporating a plurality of interdigitated teeth, a fixed portion of which is attached to the fixed frame and a moving portion of which is attached to the moveable frame, moving the moveable frame to a deployed position that is coplanar with, parallel to and spaced at a selected distance apart from the fixed frame and fixing the moveable frame at the deployed position for substantially rectilinear, perpendicular movement relative to the fixed frame.
US09166451B2	Stator of electric machine, electromotor having the same, and electric vehicle having the electromotor A stator of an electric machine of the power saving interval may include a stator core having a plurality of slots, and a stator winding wound around the slot, wherein the stator winding has a plurality of winding portions connected in parallel with one another for each phase, and each of the winding portions has a segment conductor inserted into three or more slots for each pole. As a result, it may be possible to increase the number of rotations and reduce the external size thereof while maintaining the same output.
US09166444B2	Control circuit and motor device A control circuit has an input terminal for receiving an input voltage, an energy accumulator for storing electric energy from the input terminal and supplying power to an electrical load, and an over-voltage protection unit for lowering the voltage at the input terminal when the voltage at an output terminal of the energy accumulator exceeds a predetermined threshold value. A motor device combines the control circuit with an electric motor as the load.
US09166442B1	Adaptive input current limiting for switch-mode chargers A system includes a voltage regulator module, a voltage comparator module, and a current limiting module. The voltage regulator module regulates an input voltage supplied by a power supply and supplies an output current to a load. The voltage comparator module compares the input voltage to a first threshold. The current limiting module decreases the output current when the input voltage decreases to less than or equal to the first threshold, decreases the output current until the input voltage increases to greater than the first threshold, and decreases the output current by an additional predetermined amount after the input voltage increases to greater than the first threshold.
US09166440B2	System for transferring power inductively to items within a container An inductive power transfer system includes an inductive power transmitter in the shape of a container that is capable of holding one or more electrical devices. The system is operable to transfer power inductively to devices stowed within the container via inductive power receivers. The inductive power transmitter includes at least one primary inductor configured to couple inductively with at least one secondary inductor and at least one driver configured to provide a variable electric potential at a driving frequency across said primary inductor. The inductive power receiver may comprise at least one secondary inductor connectable to a receiving circuit and an electric load, said secondary inductor configured to couple inductively with said at least one primary inductor such that power is transferred to said electric load.
US09166433B2	Self-contained motorization system The invention relates to a self-contained motorization system comprising at least one electric motor (9), a controller (8) adapted to drive the operation of the electric motor (9), a set of accumulators of power type (5) adapted to feed the motor (9), a central control unit (7), a base (3) adapted for removably receiving a set of accumulators of energy type (4) and a direct current converter (2) adapted for connecting the set of accumulators of energy type (4) to the set of accumulators of power type.The self-contained motorization system makes it possible to meet both high power needs and significant self-containment needs, while allowing easy maintenance and the use of technologies not subject to transport restrictions.
US09166428B2	Charging device A charging device includes a fixing member fixed to a fixed object, a cable holder mounted on the fixing member in an attachable and detachable manner and a charging cable unit mounted on the cable holder.
US09166422B2	Battery based portable power supply A portable power supply includes a housing, and power circuitry providing an output AC waveform having a first positive voltage step level, a second higher positive voltage step level, a third lower positive voltage step level, a fourth negative voltage step level, a fifth higher negative voltage step level, and a sixth lower negative voltage step level.
US09166412B2	Power managers for an integrated circuit A system for an integrated circuit comprising a plurality of power islands includes a first power manager and a second power manager. The first power manager manages a first power consumption for the integrated circuit based on needs and operation of the integrated circuit. The second power manager communicates with the first power manager and manages a second power consumption for one of the power islands.
US09166405B2	Energy harvesting load control switch A method, device, and system for controlling power delivered to a power-consuming device. The device can harvest power from a conductor carrying a high voltage using a power harvesting device. The device can include a power storage device to power a hardware processor and a communication component when there is no voltage flowing through the conductor. The device can determine when a control event is to occur. At such time, the device terminates control power delivered to the power-consuming device and continues to withhold the control power until the control event expires. When the control event has ended, the device allows control power to flow to the power-consuming device. The device uses a timer and the communication component to send and receives signals associated with a control event to a user. The device can also operate in a limited mode to conserve power when the device is not in use.
US09166402B2	Electrostatic discharge protection apparatus ESD protection apparatus disclosed herein include an ESD trigger circuit to sense the occurrence of an ESD event and an ESD discharge device to provide a low impedance path to ground through which to discharge energy associated with the ESD pulse. Some embodiments also include a VDD turn-on clamp to prevent the ESD discharge device from switching to a conductive state during a VDD power-on event. Some embodiments further include a VDD glitch clamp to prevent a switching pulse triggered by a transient disruption in the VDD supply from propagating to the ESD discharge device and causing the ESD discharge device to conduct in the absence of an ESD event.
US09166396B2	Power conditioning, distribution and management A power conditioning, distribution and management system includes a switch circuit that enables coupling of an AC power supply to a load though an overcurrent device. A control circuit switches the switch circuit from a non-conductive state to a conductive state when a supply voltage signal is between first overvoltage and undervoltage thresholds. The control circuit records an overvoltage event and maintains the switch circuit in the conductive state when the supply voltage signal exceeds a second, higher overvoltage threshold and switches the switch circuit to a nonconductive state when the supply voltage signal exceeds a third, highest overvoltage threshold. The control circuit records an undervoltage event and maintains the switch circuit in the conductive state when the supply voltage signal falls below a second, lower under-voltage threshold and switches the switch circuit to the non-conductive state when the supply voltage signal falls below a third, lowest undervoltage threshold.
US09166394B2	Device and method for limiting leakage currents A device including a mechanism detecting a position of a neutral of a power supply source for an electrical energy apparatus, such as a battery charger of an electric or hybrid motor vehicle, and a mechanism connecting a capacitor for limiting leakage currents between the neutral and an electrically conducting structure in which the apparatus is placed. The device can be used to limit leakage current during recharging of an electric or hybrid traction motor vehicle.
US09166392B2	Electrical cord connection covering techniques According to techniques of the present application, an apparatus for covering at least a portion of a cord includes a lower portion and an upper portion. The lower portion may include a bowl region having an upper rim. The lower portion may also include flexible tabs that substantially surround or completely surround the upper rim. Each of the flexible tabs may extend outwardly or downwardly from the upper rim. The upper portion may have a lower rim that extends below the outer edges of each of the flexible tabs when the upper portion is engaged to the lower portion. The upper portion may contact each of the flexible tabs when the upper portion is engaged to the lower portion. The apparatus may include a securing member extending downwardly from the lower portion to secure the apparatus to a resting surface.
US09166385B2	Portable cable management device A portable cable management device that includes various attachment mechanisms adapted for securing the device to various surfaces and structures including an I-beam flange attachment mechanism, a 2″×4″ attachment mechanism, one or more drywall attachment mechanisms, a metal framing stud attachment mechanism, and one or more hooks including a throat for holding cables.
US09166384B2	Switchgear A housing of a switchgear includes: a framework formed by joining vertical frames to depth directional frames and width directional frames, the vertical frames being arranged in a standing condition at four corners of a cuboid shape; at least a left and right pair of intermediate vertical frames each provided at an intermediate portion in the depth direction; and steel partition plates fixed over the whole in the vertical direction of the intermediate vertical frames, the partition plates being provided for separating the front and the back of the intermediate vertical frames. Then, the depth directional frame on the floor side is formed with a fixing hole near a lower portion of the intermediate vertical frame, the fixing hole being provided for fixing the housing to a foundation surface.
US09166383B2	Load center and switchgear mounting assembly therefor A switchgear mounting assembly for a load center includes a base assembly, an electrical bus assembly, and a bracket. The base assembly includes a base and a central protrusion extending outwardly from the base. Bus bars are electrically connected and mechanically coupled to the central protrusion and include stabs, which extend radially outwardly from the central protrusion. The bracket is coupled to the central protrusion and includes supporting elements. Each supporting element maintains a corresponding electrical switching apparatus in electrical communication with a corresponding one of the stabs. The switchgear mounting assembly is therefore structured to mount the electrical switching apparatus in a radial array extending around the central protrusion.
US09166378B2	Spark plug, in particular swirl chamber spark plug A spark plug includes: a center electrode having at least one first spark surface and extending along a longitudinal axis of the spark plug; and a ground electrode having at least one second spark surface, the first spark surface being situated diametrically opposed to the second spark surface, so that an ignition spark may be generated between the first and second spark surfaces, the center electrode being rotatable coaxially to the longitudinal axis with respect to the ground electrode, and the first and second spark surfaces being inclined in such a way that rotating the center electrode with respect to the ground electrode makes it possible to set a distance between the first and second spark surfaces.
US09166372B1	Gallium nitride containing laser device configured on a patterned substrate A gallium and nitrogen containing laser diode device. The device has a gallium and nitrogen containing substrate material comprising a surface region. The surface region is configured on either a non-polar crystal orientation or a semi-polar crystal orientation. The device has a recessed region formed within a second region of the substrate material, the second region being between a first region and a third region. The recessed region is configured to block a plurality of defects from migrating from the first region to the third region. The device has an epitaxially formed gallium and nitrogen containing region formed overlying the third region. The epitaxially formed gallium and nitrogen containing region is substantially free from defects migrating from the first region and an active region formed overlying the third region.
US09166367B2	Operating vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are provided for operating a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser. Operating a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser can include sending a signal to a driver to decrease an optical power of a vertical cavity surface emitting laser transmitter, and sending a signal to the driver associated with increasing the optical power by a particular amount in response to determining that the optical power is insufficient for reception by a receiver.
US09166338B2	Connecting elements for producing hybrid electronic circuits A connecting system having a female element including a hollow flared part for receiving and guiding a male element and a hollow mating part for mating with the male element. A part to be mated of the male element has an outside diameter that before the mating is larger than an inside diameter of the mating part of the female element, and the part to be mated of the male element is made of a material that can be strained and has a corrugated transverse cross section, so as to contract when it is plugged into the mating part of the female element, and/or the mating part of the female connection element is made of a material that can be strained and has a corrugated transverse cross section, so as to dilate when the part to be mated of the male element is plugged into it.
US09166336B1	Power cord male end having an irregular octogonal body with hourglass-shaped slots with concave sidewalls A power cord male end alignment aid providing visual and tactile cues for accurate alignment of and insertion of each of a prong disposed on a male end of the power cord with and into an electrical connector of an electrical energy source by including an irregular octagonal adapter body having an aperture disposed proximal a bottom edge of a continuous perimeter thereof and at least a single one of and not more than a pair of an hourglass-shaped slot disposed between a pair of outer side edges of the perimeter. Each slot has a pair of mirror image concave side walls that securingly receive and retain the respective prong of the power cord male end. The aperture is configured to align with a ground prong receptacle of the three-hole wall outlet or a center of the charging port of a personal electronic device.
US09166328B2	Connector, in particular an electrical connector A connector is provided having an outer housing, an inner housing and a seal. The seal includes a first sealing device that positioned between the outer housing and the inner housing such that a mating connector receiving gap is provided between an inner side of the outer housing and the first sealing device.
US09166327B2	Circuit board connector system An inline connector is coupled to a first substrate and operable to receive at least one prong. A second receptacle is coupled to a second substrate and operable to receive the prong. A plug having an elongated prong that, when inserted through the first receptacle and into the second receptacle operates to provide electrical connections between the substrates. The substrates may be circuit boards and the receptacle may be mounted along the edges of the circuit board to allow for easier installation. Some embodiments may provide for identical receptacle providing for lower costs and easier installation.
US09166326B1	Electrical connector with contact guard An electrical connector has a plastic body and a blade contact in a terminal cavity in the body. A guard extends across the mouth of the cavity over an adjacent edge of the blade. A physical interlock connection holds the guard on the blade edge to shield the blade and prevent an object inserted into the mouth from contacting the blade.
US09166317B2	High-speed connector assembly A receptacle connector includes a housing having a socket configured to receive a plug connector. The housing includes a cavity having datum surfaces therein. The receptacle connector includes a contact assembly received in the cavity and located in a fixed location relative to the datum surfaces. The contact assembly has a dielectric base holding a plurality of contacts configured to mate with the plug connector received in the socket. The dielectric base has datum surfaces. At least one of the housing or the dielectric base comprising crush ribs forcing the datum surfaces of the dielectric base to engage corresponding datum surfaces of the housing.
US09166316B2	Data storage connecting device A data storage connecting device includes a circuit board, a first connector, a second connector and a third connector. The circuit board has a first connecting end and a second connecting end. The first connector and a second connector are both disposed on the first connecting end and respectively at two sides of a long axis of the circuit board, a location of the second connector connecting with a data storage device being opposite to that of the first connector connecting with another data storage device. The third connector is disposed on the second connecting end for transmitting data from two data storage devices connected to the first connector and the second connector, respectively, via the circuit to a server device, or vice versa.
US09166303B2	Full tension swaged connector for reinforced cable An improved cable connector includes a connector insert having an axial bore dimensioned to receive the core of a reinforced cable. A connector body has a substantially cylindrical outer surface and a substantially cylindrical cavity. A distal portion of the cavity is dimensioned to receive the connector insert. A second portion of the cavity proximally displaced from the distal portion is dimensioned to receive the conductor strands of the cable. The connector body may be configured with one or more additional portions of the cavity having progressively increasing diameters, the number of such portions depending on the size of the cable. Alternatively, the inner surface of the cavity may have a slight taper. Using a single die, the connector body is compressed with a swaging tool at several axially spaced-apart locations to grip the conductor strands and also to grip the connector insert.
US09166299B2	Ridged waveguide slot array A ridged waveguide slot array includes a waveguide slot body and a ridged waveguide section attached to the waveguide slot body. The waveguide slot body includes one or more walls having a plurality of slots disposed thereon. The ridged waveguide section includes two spaced apart opposing ridges disposed on the one or more walls of the waveguide slot body, and extends along the longitudinal axis of the waveguide slot body.
US09166295B2	Antenna A bowtie antenna is presented. The antenna includes a substrate with a metal layer. The bowtie-shaped dipole antenna is formed in the metal layer with two triangle elements and a gap between the two triangle elements. The bowtie-shaped antenna is shaped to receive signals in a lower portion of the UHF band. A pair of transmission lines is formed in the metal extending from the gap. At least one pair of tuning stubs is formed in the metal. The pair of tuning stubs extends from the transmission lines and is tuned to a frequency band that is different than the lower portion of the UHF band.
US09166294B2	Quad-band PCB antenna A surface mount antenna includes a ground plane, a feed line, and a radiating element. The ground plane extends in a first direction on a first side of a substrate. The feed line extends in a second direction on a second side of the substrate. The radiating element includes a plurality of segments disposed on the first side of the substrate and is configured to resonate in a plurality of frequency modes.
US09166291B2	Antenna device and communication terminal apparatus An antenna device includes an antenna coil including a first conductive pattern disposed on a first major surface of a magnetic sheet, a second conductive pattern disposed on a first major surface of a non-magnetic sheet, and an interlayer conductor connecting the first conductive pattern and second conductive pattern. The antenna coil including the first conductive pattern and second conductive pattern defines a spiral or substantially spiral pattern. The antenna device is a resin multilayer structure in which its base body is a laminate of the magnetic layer and non-magnetic layer and the predetermined patterns are disposed inside and outside the laminate.
US09166288B2	Beam steering antenna structure Disclosed is a beam steering antenna structure, including two parallel metallic boards, an antenna perpendicularly disposed between the two metallic boards, a plurality of substrates perpendicularly disposed between the two metallic boards and radially disposed around the antenna, and a bias voltage circuit. Each of the substrates has a plurality of metal units cyclically aligned thereon, and each of the metal units includes two metallic regions oppositely disposed and in no contact with each other and a transistor disposed between the two metallic regions for coupling the two metallic regions. The transistors are electrically connected to the bias voltage circuit to thereby control the steering direction of beam radiation by switching the transistors.
US09166284B2	Package structures including discrete antennas assembled on a device Methods of forming a microelectronic packaging structure and associated structures formed thereby are described. Those methods and structures may include forming a package structure comprising a discrete antenna disposed on a back side of a device, wherein the discrete antenna comprises an antenna substrate, a through antenna substrate via vertically disposed through the antenna substrate. A through device substrate via that is vertically disposed within the device is coupled with the through antenna substrate via, and a package substrate is coupled with an active side of the device.
US09166272B2	Artificial microstructure and metamaterial using the same The present invention provides an artificial microstructure including a first metal wire, a second metal wire parallel to the first metal wire, at least one first metal wire branch and at least one second metal wire branch. The at least one first metal wire branch and the at least one second metal wire branch are distributed in an interlacement arrangement. One end of the at least one first metal wire branch is connected to the first metal wire; the other end is a free end facing towards the second metal wire. One end of the at least one second metal wire branch is connected to the second metal wire, and the other end of the at least one second metal wire is a free end facing towards the first metal wire. The present invention also discloses a metamaterial with the artificial microstructures.
US09166261B2	Method for reusing secondary battery A method for reusing a secondary battery by reusing unit cells or battery modules constituting reclaimed assembled batteries (or battery packs) to reconstruct a new assembled battery is disclosed. Assembled batteries are reclaimed, and disassembled into battery modules. The battery modules are selected based on battery characteristics such as an open-circuit voltage (OCV) and the like using an absolute acceptable range and a relative acceptable range, and a new assembled battery is rebuilt. The relative acceptable range is an acceptable range which is set for each assembled battery, and is set to have its center at an average value of a battery characteristic distribution.
US09166255B2	Lithium-sulphur (Li-S)-type electrochemical battery and production method thereof The invention relates to a novel lithium-sulphur type electrochemical battery A.According to the invention, the positive electrode (1) is made solely from a porous electronic conductor substrate forming a current collector and the electrolyte contains lithium polysulphides (Li2Sn) as sources of lithium and sulphur ions, said lithium polysulphides being formed ex-situ and not in the battery.The invention also relates to a method for the production of said device.
US09166252B2	Surface-controlled lithium ion-exchanging energy storage device A surface-controlled, lithium ion-exchanging battery device comprising: (a) A positive electrode (cathode) comprising a first functional material having a first lithium-capturing or lithium-storing surface; (b) A negative electrode (anode) comprising a second functional material having a second lithium-capturing or lithium-storing surface; (c) A porous separator disposed between the two electrodes, and (d) A lithium-containing electrolyte (preferably liquid or gel electrolyte) in physical contact with the two electrodes; wherein at least one of the two electrodes contains therein a lithium source (e.g., lithium foil, lithium powder, stabilized lithium particles, etc) prior to the first charge or the first discharge cycle of the battery device. This new generation of energy storage device exhibits the best properties of both the lithium ion battery and the supercapacitor.
US09166241B2	Enzyme electrode, and bio fuel cell equipped therewith An enzyme electrode having an electroconductive base member, an oxidoreductase and an electron mediator has at least a portion (a) in which the oxidoreductase is immobilized on the electroconductive base member, and a portion (b) in which the electron mediator is immobilized on the electroconductive base member but the oxidoreductase is not immobilized on the electroconductive base member. A bio fuel cell having the enzyme electrode as at least one of an anode and a cathode allows optimization of a reaction condition of each one of a plurality of reaction steps, including an “enzymatic reaction”, an “electron transfer reaction”, etc. Thus, the bio fuel cell provides high output.
US09166237B2	Passive temperature supervision device for a compressed gas fuel tank Passive temperature supervision devices for detecting temperature changes in compressed gaseous fuel storage systems of fuel cell systems. More specifically, systems and methods for detecting temperature changes in compressed gaseous fuel storage systems such as compressed gaseous fuel tanks of motor vehicles, where increases and decreases in temperature can be detected without the need for electric supervision systems.
US09166233B2	Fuel cell system and operating method thereof An anode gas non-recirculation type fuel cell system includes a fuel cell, a buffer tank for purging impurity gas included in anode off-gas from the fuel cell stack, an impurity gas concentration detector for detecting impurity gas concentration in the buffer tank, and an anode gas supply unit for supplying anode gas to the fuel cell stack. When pressure-supplying impurity gas in the fuel cell stack to the buffer tank while pulsating a supply pressure by the anode gas supply unit, an activation control is executed by changing, by the anode gas supply unit, at least one of a pulsative pressure and a pulsative cycle of anode gas supply according to impurity gas concentration in the buffer tank. According to the system, it is possible to get adequate hydrogen gas concentration in a fuel cell stack and to remove impurity at its activation.
US09166227B2	Aluminum-based hydride anodes and galvanic elements containing aluminum-based hydride anodes A hydride anode containing aluminium of the formula (M1)m(M2)3−mAlH6, where M1 and M2 are an alkali element selected independently from one another from Li, Na and K; m is a number between 1 and 3; n is a number ≧3, and galvanic elements, such as lithium batteries, containing as anodes said hydride anodes containing aluminum. Methods for the production of galvanic elements having hydride anodes containing aluminium is also provided.
US09166224B2	Lithium titanate, negative electrode including the lithium titanate, and secondary lithium battery containing the electrode A negative electrode for a lithium secondary battery that includes, as a negative active material, a lithium titanate (Li4Ti5O12) compound containing 0.004 parts by weight or less of phosphorous (P) and 0.007 parts by weight or less of potassium (K) based on 100 parts by weight of lithium titanate, a binder, and a conductive agent, and a lithium secondary battery including the negative electrode.
US09166219B2	Electric storage device An electric storage device includes: an external terminal having an exposed face exposed outside from an outer covering; a current collector disposed inside the outer covering and connected to the external terminal; and an electrode assembly disposed inside the outer covering and connected to the current collector. The electrode assembly is formed by winding sheet-shaped positive electrode and negative electrode into a flat shape with a separator interposed therebetween and housed in the outer covering so that curved portions obtained by the winding are positioned on a lid body side and a bottom face side. A lid body has an electrolyte solution filling portion that opens to a clearance formed between the curved portion of the electrode assembly and the outer covering.
US09166217B2	Secondary battery Provided is a secondary battery, which can prevent explosion and fire of the battery by melting a safety film formed on an electrode tab to quickly clear a sealed state of a case when the internal temperature or pressure of the battery rises. The secondary battery includes an electrode assembly including a first electrode tab and a second electrode tab, and a case accommodating the electrode assembly such that the electrode tab is exposed to the outside. At least one of the first and second electrode tabs has a recess formed lengthwise on at least one of top and bottom surfaces of the at least one of the first and second electrode tabs, and a safety film is positioned in the recess.
US09166206B2	Prismatic storage battery or cell with flexible recessed portion A battery includes a cell casing that has recessed portion on a major surface of the casing, the recessed portion being substantially planar and bordering a remainder of the major surface at ridge portions on at least three sides of the recessed portion, whereby the recessed portion, the ridge portions, and the remainder of the major surface cooperate under an increase of gauge pressure to cause a plane defined by a boundary between the ridge portions and the remainder of the major surface to move.
US09166199B2	Organic electroluminescence device An organic electroluminescence device comprises a plurality of Pixel Defining Layers (PDLs) formed on a substrate, first electrodes formed in a space that is defined by the substrate and the PDLs, white light emitting layers formed in a space that is defined by the first electrodes and the PDLs, a second electrode formed on the white light emitting layers, first black matrices formed on the second electrode, and a color filter layer located adjacent to the first black matrices and spaced apart from the first black matrices.
US09166196B2	Organic electroluminescence device An organic EL device includes a metal layer which is provided with a nano-order-sized unevenness on one surface and plural organic layers which include a light emitting layer provided on the one surface side of the metal layer, and a height of each unevenness at respective interfaces in the organic layer is made smaller than an unevenness provided on the metal layer. According to the above configuration, the unevenness on one surface of the metal layer changes a surface plasmon to a propagation light and a light loss can be suppressed, and moreover, each unevenness of respective interfaces of the respective organic layers is made smaller than the unevenness on the surface of the metal layer, so that a short circuit inside the device can be suppressed.
US09166195B2	Organic light emitting display An organic light emitting display is discussed. The organic light emitting display includes a substrate, an organic light emitting diode positioned on the substrate, and a bather covering the organic light emitting diode. The organic light emitting diode includes a first electrode, an organic layer, and a second electrode. The barrier includes at least one first block monomer layer and at least one second block monomer layer including inorganic precursors. The at least one first block monomer layer and the at least one second block monomer layer are alternately stacked in a vertical direction.
US09166193B2	Light emitting device, method of manufacturing the same, and electronic apparatus Disclosed is an organic EL device as an light emitting device according to this application example includes a base material as a substrate, and an organic EL element as a plurality of light emitting elements having a light emitting functional layer as a functional layer in which an organic light emitting layer is included between a pixel electrode as an anode and an opposed electrode as a cathode and a sealing layer sealing the plurality of organic EL elements which are formed on the base material, and the opposed electrode is formed over the plurality of organic EL elements as a common cathode, and the sealing layer is formed so as to cover the common cathode in the same region where the common cathode is formed or inwards from the region.
US09166187B2	Organic light emitting device and power supply device thereof An organic light emitting device including a first substrate, at least an organic light emitting unit, a plurality of first electrode contacts and a plurality of second electrode contacts. The organic light emitting unit is disposed on the first substrate. The first electrode contacts are disposed on the first substrate at a margin of the organic light emitting unit, wherein adjacent two first electrode contacts are spaced by a first interval, and an end of each first electrode contact is electrically connected to the organic light emitting unit. The second electrode contacts are disposed on the first substrate at a margin of the organic light emitting unit, wherein adjacent two second electrodes are spaced by a second interval, an end of each second electrode contact is electrically connected to the organic light emitting unit, and the second interval is different from the first interval.
US09166178B2	Organic electronic device and dopant for doping an organic semiconducting matrix material An organic electronic device includes a substrate, a first electrode arranged on the substrate, at least a first functional organic layer arranged on the first electrode and a second electrode arranged on the first functional organic layer. The first functional organic layer includes a matrix material and a p-dopant with regard to the matrix material, wherein the p-dopant includes a copper complex containing at least one ligand.
US09166177B2	Ditriphenylene derivative and organic electroluminescent device using the same The present invention discloses a novel ditriphenylene derivative is represented by the following formula (I), the organic EL device employing the ditriphenylene derivative as host material or dopant material of emitting layer can lower driving voltage, prolong half-life time and increase the efficiency. Wherein m, n represent an integer of 0 to 10. X is a divalent bridge selected from the atom or group consisting from O, S, C(R3)(R4), NR5, Si(R6)(R7). Ar1, Ar2, R1 to R7 are substituents and the same definition as described in the present invention.
US09166160B1	Resistive random access memory and method of fabricating the same Provided is a resistive random access memory including a first electrode layer, a second electrode layer, and a variable resistance layer disposed between the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer, wherein the second electrode layer includes a first sublayer, a second sublayer, and a conductive metal oxynitride layer disposed between the first sublayer and the second sublayer.
US09166150B2	Electric field enhanced spin transfer torque memory (STTM) device Spin transfer torque memory (STTM) devices incorporating a field plate for application of an electric field to reduce a critical current required for transfer torque induced magnetization switching. Embodiments utilize not only current-induced magnetic filed or spin transfer torque, but also electric field induced manipulation of magnetic dipole orientation to set states in a magnetic device element (e.g., to write to a memory element). An electric field generated by a voltage differential between an MTJ electrode and the field plate applies an electric field to a free magnetic layer of a magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) to modulate one or more magnetic properties over at least a portion of the free magnetic layer.
US09166149B2	Magnetic device with a substrate, a sensing block and a repair layer A magnetic device includes a substrate, a sensing block and a repair layer. The substrate has a bottom electrode, a registration layer and a barrier layer disposed on the registration layer. The sensing block is patterned to distribute on the barrier layer. The repair layer is disposed substantially on the barrier layer, wherein the barrier layer is configured to have a tunneling effect when a bias voltage exists between the sensing block and the registration layer.
US09166148B2	Manganese oxide thin film and oxide laminate A manganese oxide thin film is formed on a plane of a substrate and has a composition RMnO3, where R is at least one and preferably two trivalent rare earth elements selected from lanthanoids, and where both R and Mn form the same atomic layer parallel to the plane of the substrate. An oxide laminate, includes the manganese oxide thin film; and at least one strongly-correlated oxide thin film that is contiguous to the manganese oxide thin film, wherein a total thickness, t, of the oxide laminate, a thickness, tm, of the manganese oxide thin film, and a thickness, t1, of the strongly-correlated oxide thin film satisfy a relation, relative to a critical thickness, tc, by which the strongly-correlated oxide thin film has a metallic phase, as follows: t=tm+t1>tc and t1
US09166140B2	Piezoelectric material, piezoelectric element, and electronic device There is provided a piezoelectric material not containing any lead component, having stable piezoelectric characteristics in an operating temperature range, a high mechanical quality factor, and satisfactory piezoelectric characteristics. The piezoelectric material according to the present invention includes a main component containing a perovskite-type metal oxide that can be expressed using the following general formula (1), and subcomponents containing Mn, Li, and Bi. When the metal oxide is 100 parts by weight, the content of Mn on a metal basis is not less than 0.04 parts by weight and is not greater than 0.36 parts by weight, content α of Li on a metal basis is equal to or less than 0.0012 parts by weight (including 0 parts by weight), and content β of Bi on a metal basis is not less than 0.042 parts by weight and is not greater than 0.850 parts by weight (Ba1-xCax)a(Ti1-y-zZrySnz)O3 (1) (in the formula (1), 0.09≦x≦0.30, 0.025≦y≦0.085, 0≦z≦0.02, and 0.986≦a≦1.02).
US09166134B2	Light emitting element, backlight module, liquid crystal display device A light emitting element comprises: a printed circuit board, a chip disposed on a first face of the printed circuit board, a first encapsulation body and a second encapsulation body. The first encapsulation body covers the chip, and the second encapsulation body covers a second face of the printed circuit board or a part of the second face of the printed circuit board. A first pipe and a second pipe are extended respectively from two positions of the first encapsulation body and are respectively connected to two positions of the second encapsulation body. Fluid is encapsulated within the first encapsulation body, the first pipe, the second encapsulation body and the second pipe.
US09166132B2	Light-emitting element mounting package having heat radiation route, manufacturing method of the same, and light-emitting element package A light-emitting element mounting package including a first wiring forming a first light-emitting element mounting portion, which is provided on one surface of a substrate to mount a light-emitting element, and a first through wiring having one end and another end, the one end being electrically connected to the first light-emitting element mounting portion so as to be thermally transferable, and the other end protruding from another surface of the substrate.
US09166129B2	Batwing LED with remote phosphor configuration A lens is formed over one or more light-emitting devices disposed over a substrate. The lens includes a trench that circumferentially surrounds the one or more light-emitting devices. The trench is filled with a phosphor-containing material.
US09166124B2	Light emitting device package and headlight for vehicle having the same A light emitting device package according to example embodiments includes a plurality of light emitting device chips arranged linearly and spaced apart from each other on a substrate, and a plurality of wavelength conversion units on upper surfaces of the plurality of light emitting device chips. The plurality of wavelength conversion units may each have portions that extend over regions between the plurality of light emitting device chips. A vehicle headlight may include the light emitting device package.
US09166120B2	LED device having improved luminous efficacy There are provided a light emitting diode (LED) device including an LED chip emitting light within a specific wavelength region, a transparent resin layer covering a light emission surface of the LED chip, and a color conversion layer formed to be spaced apart from the LED chip by the transparent resin layer to cover the transparent resin layer and including at least one type of phosphor converting light emitted from the LED chip into light within a different wavelength region, wherein a mean free path of phosphor particles included in the color conversion layer is 0.8 mm or more at a temperature of 5500 K.
US09166119B2	Light-emitting device A highly reliable light-emitting device is provided, which is capable of effectively suppressing detrimental effects of sulfuric gas. A light-emitting device comprising a solid light-emitting element 1, a metal member 2 reacting with sulfuric gas and a phosphor-containing layer 5 that contains a phosphor 3, the phosphor-containing layer 5 containing a sulfuric gas-adsorbing substance 4 that adsorbs sulfuric gas, and, when the phosphor-containing layer 5 is tripartitioned from the side near the metal member to far into a proximal layer portion, an intermediate layer portion and an outer layer portion, the concentration of sulfuric gas-adsorbing substance 4 in the proximal layer portion is made to be higher than those for the intermediate layer portion and the outer layer portion.
US09166117B2	Light emitting device and method for mixing light thereof An exemplary light emitting device includes a blue-green light source and a orange-red light source. The blue-green light source emits blue-green light and the orange-red light source emits orange-red light when they are activated. The blue-green light and the orange-red light are mixed together to obtain white light.
US09166114B2	Stabilization structure including sacrificial release layer and staging cavity A method and structure for stabilizing an array of micro devices is disclosed. The array of micro devices is held within an array of staging cavities on a carrier substrate. Each micro device is laterally surrounded by sidewalls of a corresponding staging cavity.
US09166111B2	Light-emitting element, light-emitting element unit, and light-emitting element package In a light-emitting element 1, a light-emitting layer 4, a second conductivity type semiconductor layer 5, a transparent electrode layer 6, a reflecting electrode layer 7 and an insulating layer 8 are stacked in this order on a first conductivity type semiconductor layer 3, while a first electrode layer 10 and a second electrode layer 12 are stacked on the insulating layer 8 in an isolated state. The light-emitting element 1 includes a plurality of insulating tube layers 9, discretely arranged in plan view, passing through the reflecting electrode layer 7, the transparent electrode layer 6, the second conductivity type semiconductor layer 5 and the light-emitting layer 4 continuously from the insulating layer 8 and reaching the first conductivity type semiconductor layer 3, first contacts 11, continuous from the first electrode layer 10, connected to the first conductivity type semiconductor layer 3 through the insulating layer 8 and the insulating tube layers 9, and second contacts 13, continuous from the second electrode layer 12, passing through the insulating layer 8 to be connected to the reflecting electrode layer 7.
US09166108B2	Semiconductor light-emitting device and method of forming the same A semiconductor light-emitting device has a first principal surface, a second principal surface formed on a side opposite to the first principal surface, and a light-emitting layer. A p-electrode on the second principal surface is in the region of the light-emitting layer and surrounds an n-electrode. An insulating layer on the side of the semiconductor layer surrounds the p-and the n-electrodes. A p-metal pillar creates an electrical connection for the p-electrode, and an n-metal pillar creates an electrical connection for the n-electrode. A resin layer surrounds the end portions of the p-and the n-metal pillars, and also covers the side surface of the semiconductor layer, the second principal surface, the p-electrode, the n-electrode, the insulating layer, the p-metal pillar and the n-metal pillar.
US09166095B2	Image sensor module and method of manufacturing the same An image sensor module includes a transparent substrate having recesses defined in a lower face thereof. A light concentration member includes transparent light concentration parts each of which are disposed in a corresponding one of the recesses. Color filters are disposed over each of the light concentration parts and photo diode units having photo diodes are disposed over each of the color filters. An insulation member covers the photo diode units and input/output terminals disposed over the insulation member are each electrically connected to a corresponding photo diode unit.
US09166094B2	Method for forming solar cells A method for forming a thin film solar cell that includes one or more moisture barrier layer made of a water-insoluble material for protection against water and oxygen damage to the top electrode layer material is disclosed.
US09166093B2	Photo detection device, photo detection package including the photo detection device, and portable device including the photo detection package A photo detection package including a package body configured to have an upward opened groove unit formed in the package body, a photo detection device mounted on a bottom surface of the groove unit and electrically connected externally, and a Light-Emitting Diode (LED) mounted on an inner surface of the groove unit that is formed of an inclined surface on a periphery of the bottom surface and electrically connected externally.
US09166092B2	Light detection device Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relates to a light detection device including a substrate, a non-porous layer disposed on the substrate, a light absorption layer disposed on the non-porous layer, the light absorption layer including pores formed in a surface thereof, a Schottky layer disposed on the surface of the light absorption layer and in the pores, and a first electrode layer disposed on the Schottky layer.
US09166070B2	Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing semiconductor device A semiconductor device includes: an organic substrate; an integrated circuit and a chip part provided on the organic substrate; a molded section including a central portion and a peripheral portion, and forming, as a whole, a concave shape, the central portion sealing the integrated circuit and the chip part on the organic substrate, and the peripheral portion standing around the central portion; and a solid-state image pickup element provided on the central portion of the molded section, the solid-state image pickup element having a top edge that is lower in position in a thickness direction than a top edge of the peripheral portion of the molded section.
US09166068B2	Semiconductor heterobarrier electron device and method of making An electronic device comprising a substrate; a pair of stacks of polar semiconductor materials which create a charge by spontaneous and/or piezoelectric polarization; one of the pair of stacks having a spontaneous and/or piezoelectric polarity which is in a direction opposite to the other of the pair of stacks; whereby due to the opposing polarities, the polarization is balanced. A method of substantially eliminating the bias required to offset polarization charges in an electronic device having a heterobarrier comprising providing a substrate; growing at least one pair of stacks of semiconductor materials; one of the pair of stacks having a spontaneous and/or piezoelectric polarity which is opposite to the other of the pair of stacks; whereby due to the opposing polarities, the polarization is balanced to substantially eliminate the need for a voltage bias.
US09166064B2	Junction field effect transistor In a high voltage JFET, a p-floating region is provided in the surface layer of an n-drift region, thereby increasing the resistance R of the n-drift region and minimizing the voltage divided at a pn junction. This makes it possible to improve ESD capacity without increasing device size and without making the cutoff current smaller.
US09166063B2	Nonvolatile memory devices and methods of operating the same Nonvolatile memory devices including three transistor unit cells are provided. The nonvolatile memory device includes a selection transistor having a first terminal and a second terminal, a first charge trap transistor electrically connected in series to the first terminal of the selection transistor, a second charge trap transistor electrically connected in series to the second terminal of the selection transistor, and a word line electrically connected to gate electrodes of the selection transistor, the first charge trap transistor and the second charge trap transistor. Related methods are also provided.
US09166057B2	Semiconductor device having the bottom gate type transistor formed in a wiring layer The present invention makes it possible to increase the selectivity of a gate insulation film in an active element formed in a wiring layer.A semiconductor device according to the present invention has a bottom gate type transistor using an antireflection film formed over an Al wire in a wiring layer as a gate wire.
US09166055B2	Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same A transistor including an oxide semiconductor layer and having electric characteristics required depending on an intended use, and a semiconductor device including the transistor are provided. In a transistor in which a semiconductor layer, a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer, a gate insulating film, and a gate electrode layer are stacked in this order over an oxide insulating film, an oxide semiconductor stack composed of at least two oxide semiconductor layers having different energy gaps is used as the semiconductor layer. Oxygen and/or a dopant may be introduced into the oxide semiconductor stack.
US09166054B2	Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof A semiconductor device is provided in which ESD is less likely to occur in a manufacturing process thereof. In manufacture of a semiconductor device including a long lead wiring A, during steps with direct exposure to a plasma atmosphere, a plurality of island-shaped wirings is formed for the wiring A and then electrically connected to one another in series. Specifically, a plurality of island-shaped wirings is formed, covered with an insulating layer, and electrically connected to one another in series by a wiring formed over the insulating layer. The island-shaped wiring and the wiring formed over the insulating layer are electrically connected to each other through an opening formed in the insulating layer.
US09166047B2	Switch circuit using LDMOS device The present invention relates to a switch circuit, and more particularly, to a switch circuit that uses an LDMOS (lateral diffusion metal oxide semiconductor) device inside an IC (Integrated Circuit). In the switch circuit that uses the LDMOS device according to an embodiment of the present invention, a gate-source voltage (VGS) of the LDMOS device may be stably controlled through a current source and resistances, the characteristics of a switch may be maintained regardless of the voltages of both terminals (A and B) by using an N-type LDMOS and a P-type LDMOS in a complementary manner, and the current generated by the current source is offset inside the switch without flowing to the outside of the switch.
US09166043B2	Semiconductor device A semiconductor device includes a pillar-shaped silicon layer. A sidewall having a laminated structure including an insulating film and silicon resides on an upper sidewall of the pillar-shaped silicon layer. The silicon of the sidewall is electrically connected to a top of the pillar-shaped silicon layer.
US09166037B2	Power semiconductor device with electrostatic discharge structure A power semiconductor device with an electrostatic discharge (ESD) structure includes an N-type semiconductor substrate, at least one ESD device, and at least one trench type transistor device. The N-type semiconductor has at least two trenches, and the ESD device is disposed in the N-type semiconductor substrate between the trenches. The ESD device includes a P-type first doped region, and an N-type second doped region and an N-type third doped region disposed in the P-type first doped region. The N-type second doped region is electrically connected to a gate of the trench type transistor device, and the N-type third doped region is electrically connected to a drain of the trench type transistor device.
US09166032B1	Non-volatile memory device According to one embodiment, a non-volatile memory device includes a plurality of electrodes, at least one semiconductor layer, conductive layers, and first and second insulating films. The electrodes are arranged side by side in a first direction. The semiconductor layer extends into the electrodes in the first direction. The conductive layers are provided between each electrode and the semiconductor layer and separated from each other in the first direction. The first insulating film contacts the conductive layers, and extends in the first direction along the semiconductor layer between the conductive layers and the semiconductor layer. The second insulating film is provided between the first insulating film and the semiconductor layer. The first insulating film includes a first portion located between the conductive layers and the second insulating film, and a second portion located between the interlayer insulating film and the second insulating film.
US09166028B2	Circuit configured to adjust the activation state of transistors based on load conditions Disclosed is a circuit arrangement, including a transistor component with a gate terminal, a control terminal, and a load path between a source and a drain terminal, and a drive circuit connected to the control terminal and configured to determine a load condition of the transistor component, to provide a drive potential to the control terminal, and to adjust the drive potential dependent on the load condition.
US09166022B2	Fin-like field effect transistor (FinFET) device and method of manufacturing same A FinFET device and method for fabricating a FinFET device is disclosed. An exemplary method includes providing a semiconductor substrate; forming a first fin structure and a second fin structure over the semiconductor substrate; forming a gate structure over a portion of the first and second fin structures, such that the gate structure traverses the first and second fin structures; epitaxially growing a first semiconductor material on exposed portions of the first and second fin structures, such that the exposed portions of the first and second fin structures are merged together; and epitaxially growing a second semiconductor material over the first semiconductor material.
US09166019B2	Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same A miniaturized transistor is provided with high yield. Further, a semiconductor device which has high on-state characteristics and which is capable of high-speed response and high-speed operation is provided. In the semiconductor device, an oxide semiconductor layer, a gate insulating layer, a gate electrode layer, an insulating layer, a conductive film, and an interlayer insulating layer are stacked in this order. A source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer are formed in a self-aligned manner by cutting the conductive film so that the conductive film over the gate electrode layer and the conductive layer is removed and the conductive film is divided. An electrode layer which is in contact with the oxide semiconductor layer and overlaps with a region in contact with the source electrode layer and the drain electrode layer is provided.
US09166015B1	Three dimensional semiconductor integrated circuit having gate pick-up line and method of manufacturing the same A 3D semiconductor integrated circuit having a gate pick-up line and a method of manufacturing the same, wherein the semiconductor integrated circuit includes a plurality of active pillars formed in a gate pick-up region, buffer layers formed on the respective active pillars in the gate pick-up region, gates each surrounding an outer circumference of the corresponding active pillar and the corresponding buffer layer, and a gate pick-up line electrically coupled to the gates.
US09166006B1	Methods to improve the performance of compound semiconductor devices and field effect transistors Three methods will be described which may be used to improve the performance of compound semiconductor devices and Field Effect Transistors. In the first method, implementation of more than one sheet of 2DEG or high-density electrons in compound semiconductor devices will be described which may be used to improve the performance of compound semiconductor diodes, resistors and transistors. In the second method, implementation of at least one discontinuity in sheet or sheets of 2DEG or high-density electrons will be discussed which can be used to improve the performance of compound semiconductor diodes, resistors and transistors. In the third method, a way to form an electrical connection between an electrode and a sheet of 2DEG or high density electrons will be presented which may be implemented in compound semiconductor devices to reduce the contract resistance between an electrode and a sheet of 2DEG or high-density electrons.
US09165993B2	Capacitor device, organic light emitting display apparatus including the capacitor device, and method of manufacturing the organic light emitting display apparatus A capacitor device includes two top capacitor electrodes separated from each other and symmetrical to each other, two intermediate capacitor electrodes symmetrical to each other and respectively overlapping the top capacitor electrodes, a bridge coupling the intermediate capacitor electrodes without overlapping the top capacitor electrodes, and a driving voltage line coupled to the bridge and configured to apply a common voltage to the intermediate capacitor electrodes.
US09165990B1	Organic electroluminescence device and manufacturing method thereof The present invention provides an organic electroluminescence device and a manufacturing method thereof. The organic electroluminescence device includes: an organic backing layer (22), which provides a flexible base and isolates external moisture; a light absorption layer (24), which is arranged on the organic backing layer (22); an active thin-film transistor pixel array, which is arranged on the light absorption layer (24), the active thin-film transistor pixel array comprising at least a crystalline semiconductor layer that is formed by means of laser annealing; and an organic electroluminescence layer (29), which is arranged on the active thin-film transistor pixel array. The light absorption layer (24) absorbs the laser that transmits through the active thin-film transistor pixel array and irradiates the light absorption layer (24) during the laser annealing in order to prevent the organic backing layer (22) from being affected by the laser and getting deteriorated.
US09165979B2	Resistive memory A memory device includes an upper conductive layer, a lower layer, and a resistive, optical or magnetic matrix positioned between the upper and lower layers.
US09165975B2	Solid-state imaging device, method for manufacturing solid-state imaging device, and imaging apparatus A solid-state imaging device includes, in a semiconductor substrate, a pixel portion provided with a photoelectric conversion portion, which photoelectrically converts incident light to obtain an electric signal and a peripheral circuit portion disposed on the periphery of the pixel portion, wherein a gate insulating film of aMOS transistor in the peripheral circuit portion is composed of a silicon oxynitride film, a gate insulating film of aMOS transistor in the pixel portion is composed of a silicon oxynitride film, and an oxide film is disposed just above the photoelectric conversion portion in the pixel portion.
US09165971B2	Atomically precise surface engineering for producing imagers High-quality surface coatings, and techniques combining the atomic precision of molecular beam epitaxy and atomic layer deposition, to fabricate such high-quality surface coatings are provided. The coatings made in accordance with the techniques set forth by the invention are shown to be capable of forming silicon CCD detectors that demonstrate world record detector quantum efficiency (>50%) in the near and far ultraviolet (155 nm-300 nm). The surface engineering approaches used demonstrate the robustness of detector performance that is obtained by achieving atomic level precision at all steps in the coating fabrication process. As proof of concept, the characterization, materials, and exemplary devices produced are presented along with a comparison to other approaches.
US09165969B2	Apparatus having thinner interconnect line for photodetector array and thicker interconnect line for periphery region An apparatus of one aspect includes a photodetector array, and a peripheral region at a periphery of the photodetector array. A thinner interconnect line corresponding to the photodetector array is disposed within one or more insulating layers. A thicker interconnect line corresponding to the peripheral region is disposed within the one or more insulating layers. Other apparatus, methods, and systems are also disclosed.
US09165961B2	Solid-state imaging device A solid-state imaging device includes a dielectric substrate, a solid-state imaging element disposed on the dielectric substrate, and including a photosensitive unit at a portion of a front surface thereof, an adhesive between the dielectric substrate and the solid-state imaging element, connection conductors, a sealant, and an upper package part. The solid-state imaging element includes a photosensitive unit at a portion of a front surface thereof, and is bonded to the dielectric substrate by the adhesive such that the adhesive is in contact with a portion of a rear surface of the solid-state imaging element so as to permit air flow along other portions of the rear surface of the solid-state image element. The connection conductors electrically connect the solid-state imaging element and the dielectric substrate. The upper package part is provided on the front surface of the solid-state imaging element so as to hermetically seal the photosensitive unit.
US09165959B2	Image sensor with pixel units having mirrored transistor layout An image sensor includes a first pixel unit horizontally adjacent to a second pixel unit. Each pixel unit includes plurality of photodiodes and a shared floating diffusion region. A first pixel transistor region of the first pixel unit has a plurality of pixel transistors. A second pixel transistor region of the second pixel unit is horizontally adjacent to the first pixel transistor region and also has a plurality of pixel transistors. A transistor layout of the second pixel transistor region is a minor image of a transistor layout of the first pixel transistor region.
US09165958B2	Solid-state imaging device and camera A solid-state imaging device including is provided. The solid-state imaging device includes: pixels arrayed; a photoelectric conversion element in each of the pixels; a read transistor for reading electric charges photoelectrically-converted in the photoelectric conversion elements to a floating diffusion portion; a shallow trench element isolation region bordering the floating diffusion portion; and an impurity diffusion isolation region for other element isolation regions than the shallow trench element isolation region.
US09165948B2	Thin film transistor array substrate and liquid crystal display device The present invention provides a thin film transistor array substrate and a liquid crystal display device including the thin film transistor array substrate that are preferably applicable to a liquid crystal display device including the three-layered electrode structure that enables high response speed and high transmittance, and can have a high aperture ratio. The thin film transistor array substrate of the present invention includes: a thin film transistor element, gate bus lines, and source bus lines, in which the thin film transistor array substrate includes electrodes, the electrodes include a first electrode and a second electrode, the first electrode includes a linear portion along the source bus lines, the first electrode includes a linear portion along the gate bus lines, at least one linear portion along the source bus lines is disposed transversely to the linear portion along the gate bus lines in a plan view of main face of the substrate and is connected to a drain electrode of the thin film transistor element at a position overlapping the gate bus lines, and the second electrode is a planar electrode.
US09165944B2	Semiconductor device including SOI butted junction to reduce short-channel penalty A semiconductor device comprises first and second gate stacks formed on a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. The SOI substrate includes a dielectric layer interposed between a bulk substrate layer and an active semiconductor layer. A first extension implant portion is disposed adjacent to the first gate stack and a second extension implant portion is disposed adjacent to the second gate stack. A halo implant extends continuously about the trench. A butting implant extends between the trench and the dielectric layer. An epitaxial layer is formed at the exposed region such that the butting implant is interposed between the epitaxial layer and the dielectric layer.
US09165943B2	ON-SOI integrated circuit comprising a thyristor (SCR) for protection against electrostatic discharges An integrated circuit includes an UTBOX insulating layer under and plumb with first and second electronic components, and corresponding ground planes and oppositely-doped wells made plumb with them. The wells contact with corresponding ground planes. A pair of oppositely doped bias electrodes, suitable for connecting corresponding bias voltages, contacts respective wells and ground planes. A third electrode contacts the first well. A first trench isolates one bias electrode from the third electrode and extends through the layer and into the first well. A second trench isolates the first bias electrode from one component. This trench has an extent that falls short of reaching an interface between the first ground plane and the first well.
US09165932B2	Memory cell and method of manufacturing a memory cell A memory cell and a method of manufacturing a memory cell are provided. The memory cell includes a substrate; at least one first electrode disposed above the substrate; at least one second electrode disposed above the at least one first electrode; a moveable electrode disposed between the at least one first electrode and the at least one second electrode; wherein the moveable electrode is configured to move between the at least one first electrode and the at least one second electrode; wherein the moveable electrode comprises metal.
US09165926B2	Dynamic threshold MOS and methods of forming the same A chip includes a semiconductor substrate, a well region in the semiconductor substrate, and a Dynamic Threshold Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (DTMOS) transistor formed at a front side of the semiconductor substrate. The DTMOS transistor includes a gate electrode, and a source/drain region adjacent to the gate electrode. The source/drain region is disposed in the well region. A well pickup region is in the well region, and the well pickup region is at a back side of the semiconductor substrate. The well pickup region is electrically connected to the gate electrode.
US09165922B2	Semiconductor device According to an embodiment, a semiconductor device includes a conductive substrate, a Schottky barrier diode, and a field-effect transistor. The Schottky barrier diode is mounted on the conductive substrate and includes an anode electrode and a cathode electrode. The anode electrode is electrically connected to the conductive substrate. The field-effect transistor is mounted on the conductive substrate and includes a source electrode, a drain electrode, and a gate electrode. The source electrode of the field-effect transistor is electrically connected to the cathode electrode of the Schottky barrier diode. The gate electrode of the field-effect transistor is electrically connected to the anode electrode of the Schottky barrier diode.
US09165914B2	Forming die backside coating structures with coreless packages Methods of forming a microelectronic packaging structure and associated structures formed thereby are described. Those methods may include attaching a patterned die backside film (DBF) on a backside of a die, wherein the patterned DBF comprises an opening surrounding at least one through silicon via (TSV) pad disposed on the backside of the die.
US09165909B2	Light source module A light source module including a substrate, a plurality of first light emitting diode (LED) chips, and at least one second LED chip is provided. The substrate has an upper surface. The plurality of first LED chips are disposed on the upper surface and electrically connected to the substrate. The second LED chip is disposed on the upper surface and electrically connected to the substrate. A first distance is between a top surface of each of the first LED chips away from the upper surface of the substrate and the upper surface, a second distance is between a top surface of the second LED chip away from the upper surface of the substrate and the upper surface, and the second distance is greater than each of the first distances.
US09165907B2	Method and a system for producing a semi-conductor module In a method for producing a semi-conductor module (10) comprising at least two semi-conductor chips (12, 14) and an interposer (20) which has electrically conductive structures (28) connecting the semi-conductor chips (12, 14) to one another, the interposer (20) is printed directly onto a first (12) of the semi-conductor chips. When the interposer (20) is printed on, the electrically conductive structures (28) are produced by means of electrically conductive ink (68). The second semi-conductor chip (14) is mounted on the interposer (20) such that the two semi-conductor chips (12, 14) are arranged one above the other and that the interposer (20) forms an intermediate layer between the two semi-conductor chips (12, 14).
US09165906B2	High performance package on package A microelectronic assembly can include a first package comprising a processor and a second package electrically connected to the first package. The second package can include two or more microelectronic elements each having memory storage array function and contacts at a respective element face, upper and lower opposite package faces, upper and lower terminals at the respective upper and lower package faces, and electrically conductive structure extending through the second package. At least portions of edges of respective microelectronic elements of the two or more microelectronic elements can be spaced apart from one another, so as to define a central region between the edges that does not overlie any of the element faces of the microelectronic elements of the second package. The electrically conductive structure can be aligned with the central region and can electrically connect the lower terminals with at least one of: the upper terminals or the contacts.
US09165894B2	Cascode cell having DC blocking capacitor A cascode gain stage apparatus includes an input transistor having an RF input node and a transistor output node, an output transistor having a transistor input node and an RF output node, and a DC blocking capacitor connected between the transistor input and transistor output nodes.
US09165887B2	Semiconductor device with discrete blocks A semiconductor device and a method of manufacture are provided. In particular, a semiconductor device using blocks, e.g., discrete connection blocks, having through vias and/or integrated passive devices formed therein are provided. Embodiments such as those disclosed herein may be utilized in PoP applications. In an embodiment, the semiconductor device includes a die and a connection block encased in a molding compound. Interconnection layers may be formed on surfaces of the die, the connection block and the molding compound. One or more dies and/or packages may be attached to the interconnection layers.
US09165886B2	Sensor packaging method and sensor packages A method (80) entails providing (82) a structure (117), providing (100) a controller element (102, 24), and bonding (116) the controller element to an outer surface (52, 64) of the structure. The structure includes a sensor wafer (92) and a cap wafer (94) Inner surfaces (34, 36) of the wafers (92, 94) are coupled together, with sensors (30) interposed between the wafers. One wafer (94, 92) includes a substrate portion (40, 76) with bond pads (42) formed on its inner surface (34, 36). The other wafer (94, 92) conceals the substrate portion (40, 76). After bonding, methodology (80) entails forming (120) conductive elements (60) on the element (102, 24), removing (126) material sections (96, 98, 107) from the wafers to expose the bond pads, forming (130) electrical interconnects (56), applying (134) packaging material (64), and singulating (138) to produce sensor packages (20, 70).
US09165883B2	Interconnection structure for an integrated circuit The disclosure relates to a method of fabricating an interconnection structure of an integrated circuit, comprising the steps of: forming a first conductive element within a first dielectric layer; depositing a first etch stop layer above the first conductive element and the first dielectric layer; forming an opening in the first etch stop layer above the first conductive element, to form a first connection area; depositing a second dielectric layer above the etch stop layer and above the first conductive element in the connection area; etching the second dielectric layer to form at least one hole which is at least partially aligned with the connection area; and filling the hole with a conductive material to form a second conductive element in electrical contact with the first conductive element.
US09165882B2	Power rail for preventing DC electromigration A method is disclosed that includes the operations outlined below. A first criteria is determined to be met when directions of a first current and a second current around a first end and a second end of a metal segment respectively are opposite, in which the metal segment is a part of a power rail in at least one design file of a semiconductor device and is enclosed by only two terminal via arrays. A second criteria is determined to be met when a length of the metal segment is not larger than a electromigration critical length. The metal segment is included in the semiconductor device with a first current density limit depending on the length of the metal segment when the first and the second criteria are met.
US09165876B2	Package-on-package structure and methods for forming the same A method includes coining solder balls of a bottom package, wherein top surfaces of the solder balls are flattened after the step of coining. The solder balls are molded in a molding material. The top surfaces of the solder balls are through trenches in the molding material.
US09165872B2	Chip scale diode package no containing outer lead pins and process for producing the same A novel chip scale diode package due to no containing outer lead pins is miniaturized like a chip scale appearance to promote dimensional accuracy so that the diode package is so suitably produced by automation equipment to get automated mass production; the produced diode package may contain one or more diode chips to increase versatile functions more useful in applications, such as produced as a SMT diode package or an array-type SMT diode, and the present diode package due to made of no lead-containing material conforms to requirements for environmental protection.
US09165864B2	Power overlay structure with leadframe connections A power overlay (POL) packaging structure that incorporates a leadframe connection is disclosed. The a POL structure includes a POL sub-module having a dielectric layer, at least one semiconductor device attached to the dielectric layer and that includes a substrate composed of a semiconductor material and a plurality of connection pads formed on the substrate, and a metal interconnect structure electrically coupled to the plurality of connection pads of the at least one semiconductor device, with the metal interconnect structure extending through vias formed through the dielectric layer so as to be connected to the plurality of connection pads. The POL structure also includes a leadframe electrically coupled to the POL sub-module, with the leadframe comprising leads configured to make an interconnection to an external circuit structure.
US09165852B2	Mounting structure for printed circuit board, and semiconductor device using such structure A mounting structure for a printed circuit board, includes a printed circuit board to which a heavy material is fixed; a fixing member fixed to the printed circuit board immediately below the heavy material; and a receiving member fixed to a main body. A bottom portion of the fixing member is disposed in the receiving member, and fixed to the receiving member by a resin adhesive.
US09165838B2	Methods of forming low resistance contacts Methods for forming electrical contacts are provided. First and second FETs are formed over a semiconductor substrate. Openings are etched in a dielectric layer formed over the substrate, where the openings extend to source and drain regions of the FETs. A hard mask is formed over the source and drain regions of FETs. A first portion of the hard mask is removed, where the first portion is formed over the source and drain regions of the first FET. First silicide layers are formed over the source and drain regions of the first FET. A second portion of the hard mask is removed, where the second portion is formed over the source and drain regions of the second FET. Second silicide layers are formed over the source and drain regions of the second FET. A metal layer is deposited within the openings to fill the openings.
US09165834B2	Integrated native device without a halo implanted channel region and method for its fabrication According to one embodiment, a semiconductor structure including an integrated native device without a halo implanted channel region comprises an arrangement of semiconductor devices formed over a common substrate, the arrangement includes native devices disposed substantially perpendicular to non-native devices, wherein each of the native and non-native devices includes a respective channel region. The arrangement is configured to prevent formation of halo implants in the native device channel regions during halo implantation of the non-native device channel regions. In one embodiment, the disclosed native devices comprise native transistors capable of avoiding threshold voltage roll-up for channel lengths less than approximately 0.5 um.
US09165830B1	Array substrate and method of fabricating the same, and liquid crystal display device An array substrate, a method of fabricating the same, and a liquid crystal display device are disclosed. The method comprises: sequentially forming a first transparent conductive material layer, an insulation material layer, a semiconductor material layer and a photoresist layer on a substrate base and forming patterns including a gate line, a gate, a gate insulation layer, a semiconductor layer and a first transparent electrode by patterning process; forming a passivation layer and forming a source via and a drain via connected to the semiconductor layer in the passivation layer; sequentially forming a second transparent conductive material layer and a source-drain metal layer and forming patterns including a source, a drain and a second transparent electrode by patterning process, the gate insulation layer is formed only on the gate and the gate line, the source and the drain include stacked second transparent conductive material layer and source-drain metal layer.
US09165824B2	Interconnects with fully clad lines A metallization layer including a fully clad interconnect and a method of forming a fully clad interconnect. An opening is formed in a dielectric layer, wherein the dielectric layer has a surface and the opening includes walls and a bottom. A diffusion barrier layer and an adhesion layer are deposited on the dielectric layer. An interconnect material is deposited on the dielectric layer and reflowed into the opening forming an interconnect. An adhesion capping layer and diffusion barrier capping layer are deposited over the interconnect. The interconnect is surrounded by the adhesion layer and the adhesion capping layer and the adhesion layer and the adhesion capping layer are surrounded by the diffusion barrier layer and the diffusion capping layer.
US09165820B2	Integrated circuit devices including interconnections insulated by air gaps and methods of fabricating the same Semiconductor devices and methods of fabricating the same are provided. The semiconductor device may include interconnections extending in a first direction on a substrate and spaced apart from each other in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, barrier dielectric patterns disposed on top surfaces of the interconnections, respectively, and an upper interlayer dielectric layer disposed on the interconnection. Respective air gaps are disposed between adjacent ones of the interconnections.
US09165816B2	Method for singulating a component composite assembly A method relates to separating a component composite into a plurality of component regions, wherein the component composite is provided having a semiconductor layer sequence comprising a region for generating or for receiving electromagnetic radiation. The component composite is mounted on a rigid subcarrier. The component composite is separated into the plurality of component regions, wherein one semiconductor body is produced from the semiconductor layer sequence for each component region. The component regions are removed from the subcarrier.
US09165815B2	Wafer processing sheet Provided is a sheet for processing a wafer. The sheet can exhibit excellent heat resistance and dimensional stability, prevent breakage of a wafer in response to residual stress due to excellent stress relaxation properties, inhibit damage to or dispersion of the wafer due to application of a non-uniform pressure, and also exhibit excellent cuttability. The sheet can effectively prevent a blocking phenomenon from occurring during wafer processing. For these reasons, the sheet can be useful for processing a wafer in various wafer preparation processes such as dicing, back-grinding and picking-up.
US09165814B2	Electrical connector, electrical connection system and lithographic apparatus An electrical connector comprises a high voltage pad and a high voltage plate. When connected to another electrical connector, the two plates, which are at the same voltage as the pads, form a region of high voltage in which the field is low. The pads are positioned in that region. An electrostatic clamp of an EUV lithographic apparatus may have such a pad and plate, for connecting to the electrical connector. By placing the interconnection in a low field region, triple points (points of contact between a conductor, a solid insulator and a gas) may be present in that region.
US09165810B2	Conveyance device and substrate processing system A conveyance device, which conveys wafers in a casing 30, includes a primary blowing fan 17 that generates airflow within the casing 30 in a first direction; a discharge opening 26 that is located at a downstream side of the airflow generated by the primary blowing fan 17, is interconnected with the interior of the casing 30, and discharges gases at the interior of the casing 30 outside of the casing 30; a base 18d that is supported by a gate-shaped conveyance arm 22 disposed within the casing 30 and moves within the casing 30 at the upstream side of the discharge opening 26 and at the downstream side of the primary blowing fan 17; an end effector 21 that is located at the base 18d and that carries wafers; and a blowing fan 19 that is located at the base and that generates airflow in the first direction.
US09165807B2	Substrate treating apparatus with vertical treatment arrangement including vertical blowout and exhaust units A substrate treating apparatus includes a treating block including a plurality of cells arranged one over another. Each cell has treating units for treating substrates and a single main transport mechanism for transporting the substrates to the treating units. Each cell also has a blowout unit for supplying a clean gas into a transporting space of the main transport mechanism and an exhaust unit for exhausting gas from the transporting space. The blowout unit and the exhaust unit are arranged one over the other in the transporting space to separate the transporting space of each cell from that of another cell.
US09165805B2	Tape-based epitaxial lift off apparatuses and methods An apparatus or method for forming a tape-based, epitaxial lift-off film. The epitaxial lift-off film can be for at least one of a solar device, a semiconductor device, and an electronic device. The apparatus can comprise: a tape supply section, the tape supply section providing an unloaded support tape; a lamination section for receiving the unloaded support tape and a plurality of substrates, each substrate containing an epitaxial film thereon, the lamination section adhering the substrates to the unloaded support tape to form a loaded support tape; and an ELO etch section comprising a pressure system for applying pressure on said loaded support tape such that pressure is applied progressively downward and progressively towards a center-line of said loaded support tape when passing through said ELO etch section, the ELO etch section removing the substrates from the loaded support tape, while leaving the epitaxial film on the loaded support tape.
US09165802B2	Methods for cleaving a bonded wafer structure Apparatus and methods for mechanically cleaving a bonded wafer structure are disclosed. The apparatus and methods involve clamps that grip the bonded wafer structure and are actuated to cause the bonded structure to cleave.
US09165800B2	Liquid processing method, liquid processing apparatus and storage medium Disclosed is a liquid processing method which includes holding the substrate by a holding part, rotating the substrate held by the holding part through a rotation driving part, and supplying a chemical liquid to a holding part-side surface of the substrate by a chemical liquid supply part. After the supply of the chemical liquid, rinsing liquid droplets are generated and supplied between the holding part and the substrate by supplying gas toward the holding part-side surface of the substrate from a gas supply part and, at the same time, supplying a rinsing liquid toward the holding part-side surface of the substrate from a rinsing liquid supply part. After the supply of the rinsing liquid droplets, the gas supply is halted and a rinsing liquid is additionally supplied to the holding part-side surface of the substrate from the rinsing liquid supply part.
US09165797B2	Liquid processing apparatus, liquid processing method, and storage medium A solvent such as PGMEA is coated on a wafer in advance to easily spread resist liquid onto the wafer on a spin chuck. Before coating, the solvent supplied from a solvent supply source is stored in a distill tank first, the solvent is heated by a heating unit to be evaporated, and the evaporated solvent is cooled by a cooler, thereby performing the purification of the solvent by distillation. Therefore, particles among the solvent are removed. The purified solvent is stored in a storage tank first, and then supplied to a solvent nozzle above the spin chuck from a solvent supplying line. And then, the solvent is coated on the wafer by ejecting the solvent from the solvent nozzle to the wafer. Further, the distill tank is cleaned periodically to suppress the increase of the concentration of the particles in the solvent.
US09165791B2	Wireless interconnects in an interposer Some implementations provide an interposer that includes a substrate, a first passive device in the substrate, and a second passive device. The first passive device includes a first set of through substrate vias (TSVs) in the substrate. The second passive device is configured to wirelessly couple to the first passive device. In some implementations, the second passive device includes a second set of through substrate vias (TSVs) in the substrate. In some implementations, the second passive device is configured to inductively couple to the first passive device. In some implementations, the first passive device is a first inductor and the second passive device is a second inductor. In some implementations, the interposer further includes a first set of interconnects coupled to the first set of TSVs, and a second set of interconnects coupled to the second set of TSVs.
US09165781B2	Composition for forming pattern reversal film and method for forming reversal pattern There is provided a silicon-containing composition for forming a pattern reversal film that can be reworked by an organic solvent that is normally used for the removal of resist patterns. A composition for forming a pattern reversal film, characterized by comprising: polysiloxane; an additive; and an organic solvent, wherein the polysiloxane has a structural unit of Formula (1) and a structural unit of Formula (2): (where R1 is a C1-8 alkyl group), and (where R2 is an acryloyloxy group or a methacryloyloxy group; and n is an integer of 2 to 4), and the additive is an organic acid having at least two of a carboxy group and/or a hydroxy group; and a pattern reversal film and a method for forming a reversal pattern by use of the composition.
US09165771B2	Pulsed gas plasma doping method and apparatus A method and apparatus for doping a surface of a substrate with a dopant, with the dopant being for example phosphine or arsine. The doping is performed with a plasma formed primarily of an inert gas such as helium or argon, with a low concentration of the dopant. To provide conformal doping, preferably to form a monolayer of the dopant, the gas flow introduction location is switched during the doping process, with the gas mixture primarily introduced through a center top port in the process chamber during a first period of time followed by introduction of the gas mixture primarily through peripheral or edge injection ports for a second period of time, with the switching continuing in an alternating fashion as the plasma process.
US09165766B2	Buffer layer structures suited for III-nitride devices with foreign substrates Embodiments of the present disclosure include a buffer structure suited for III-N device having a foreign substrate. The buffer structure can include a first buffer layer having a first aluminum composition and a second buffer layer formed on the first buffer layer, the second buffer layer having a second aluminum composition. The buffer structure further includes a third buffer layer formed on the second buffer layer at a second interface, the third buffer layer having a third aluminum composition. The first aluminum composition decreases in the first buffer layer towards the interface and the second aluminum composition throughout the second buffer layer is greater than the first aluminum composition at the interface.
US09165762B2	Method of depositing silicone dioxide films A method of forming silicon dioxide films using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) uses tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), oxygen or a source of oxygen, and hydrogen as precursors. The method can be carried out at low temperatures in a range of 125 to 175° C. which is useful for manufacturing wafers with through silicon vias.
US09165761B2	Method for manufacturing semiconductor device, method for processing substrate, substrate processing apparatus and recording medium There is provided a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, including forming a thin film containing a specific element and having a prescribed composition on a substrate by alternately performing the following steps prescribed number of times: forming a first layer containing the specific element, nitrogen, and carbon on the substrate by alternately performing prescribed number of times: supplying a first source gas containing the specific element and a halogen-group to the substrate, and supplying a second source gas containing the specific element and an amino-group to the substrate, and forming a second layer by modifying the first layer by supplying a reactive gas different from each of the source gases, to the substrate.
US09165753B2	Ionization with femtosecond lasers at elevated pressure The present disclosure generally provides ionization methods and devices for use in mass spectrometry. In some embodiments, the ionization methods and devices employ short laser pulses (e.g., pulses having pulsewidths in a range of about 2 fs to about 1 ps) at a high intensity (e.g., an intensity in a range of about 1 TW/cm2 to about 1000 TW/cm2) to ionize an analyte an ambient pressure greater than about 10−5 Torr (e.g., an ambient pressure in a range of about 1 atmosphere to about 100 atmospheres).
US09165752B2	Systems and methods for sample analysis The invention generally relates to systems and methods for sample analysis. In certain embodiments, the invention provides a system for analyzing a sample that includes a probe including a material connected to a high voltage source, a device for generating a heated gas, and a mass analyzer.
US09165737B2	High-brightness, long life thermionic cathode and methods of its fabrication An improved cathode comprises a cone-shaped emitter with a carbon-based coating applied to the emitter cone surface, in which there is a narrow annular gap between the emitter body and the carbon coating. The gap prevents direct contact between the carbon coating and the crystalline emitting material, thereby preventing damaging interactions and extending the useful lifetime of the cathode.
US09165733B2	Circuit breaker arrangement for medium voltage to high voltage applications Exemplary embodiments are directed to a circuit breaker arrangement for medium voltage to high voltage applications. The circuit breaker includes at least one pole part housing for accommodating a vacuum insert, within which a pair of corresponding electrical contacts is coaxially arranged. A fixed electrical contact is electrically connected to an upper terminal of the pole part housing and an axial movable electrical contact is electrically connected to a lower terminal of the pole part housing and is operated by an insulating pushrod. The insulating pushrod extends through a shielding plate arranged on a lower opening of the pole part housing. The shielding plate includes a rigid moulded plastic insulating material. At least one sealing ring has an elastic material moulded on the periphery of the shielding plate.
US09165730B2	Switching apparatus A switching apparatus for an electric switch, in particular an electric circuit breaker, including a switching head with a grip section, and a switching frame connected to the switching head. In an embodiment, a bearing end of at least one spring element is mounted on the switching frame on at least one bearing device. The switching head for the bearing end of at least one spring element includes at least one positioning depression on the side of the switching head opposite to the grip section, which is embodied for a lateral positioning of the bearing end.
US09165727B2	Power-down electrical locking protection device for underground explosion protection frequency converter A power-down electrical locking protection device for an underground explosion protection frequency converter comprises a reversing control part and a locking control part. The reversing control part comprises a reversing handle (1), a sector plate (2) of a reversing switch, and an isolated reversing switch (3). The locking control part comprises a locking button (4), a locking positioning plate (5), and an auxiliary control point (6). The reversing handle (1) is fixedly connected to the sector plate (2). The reversing handle (1) is connected to the isolated reversing switch (3). The locking button (4) is fixedly connected to the locking positioning plate (5). The locking button (4) is connected to the auxiliary control point (6). A positioning stud (7) is fixed outside a cupboard door (8). The locking button (4) is electrically connected to a PLC module and a power supply. The isolated reversing switch (3) is connected to a discharge resistor. The power-down electrical locking protection device for an underground explosion protection frequency converter has the following advantages: the discharge time does not need to be calculated manually and the usage is stable and safe.
US09165717B1	High-Surface Capacitor Electrode A high surface area valve-metal capacitor electrode is formed on a moving substrate in vacuum by a continuous multilayer vapor-phase deposition process under conditions of substrate temperature and speed that produce continuously growing, uninterrupted dendritic structures. The process is carried out in an atmosphere of inert gas, preferably including He or Ar, with or without an impurity gas such as oxygen. The substrate may be a valve-metal foil or wire, a metal screen, a polymer film, an organic or inorganic fiber, or a composite material. The direction of motion of the moving substrate may be reversed during the deposition process in order to increase the porosity of the dendrites. The electrode may be passivated using an oxygen-containing plasma before exposure to air. The process may also be carried out under conditions that produce boundary-layer turbulence in order to promote the continuously growth of uninterrupted dendritic structures.
US09165715B2	Multilayer ceramic capacitor with electrodes having lead-out parts and method of manufacturing the same There is provided a multilayer ceramic capacitor including: a ceramic body in which a plurality of dielectric layers are stacked; a plurality of first and second internal electrodes alternately formed on the plurality of dielectric layers and including first and second lead-out parts having an overlap area exposed to one surface of the ceramic body, respectively; first and second external electrodes formed on one surface of the ceramic body and electrically connected to the first and second lead-out parts, respectively; and a first insulating layer formed on one surface of the ceramic body to cover exposed portions of the first and second lead-out parts, wherein the first and second lead-out parts are formed to have concave-convex portions alternating with each other in the overlap area therebetween.
US09165704B2	Superconducting magnet apparatus with cryogen vessel In a superconducting magnet apparatus, at least one superconducting winding and an outer vacuum chamber are provided. A thermal radiation shield is located between the superconducting winding and the outer vacuum chamber. A cryogen vessel is positioned within the thermal radiation shield and within the outer vacuum chamber. The superconducting winding is positioned outside of the cryogen vessel. A refrigerator is operable to cool the cryogen vessel to a liquid cryogen temperature and to cool the at least one thermal radiation shield to an intermediate temperature between the liquid cryogen temperature and a temperature of the outer vacuum chamber. A substantial portion of an outer surface of the cryogen vessel has a thermal emissivity at the liquid cryogen temperature which is greater than an average surface emissivity of the superconducting winding by at least 0.1.
US09165698B2	Cable assembly and method of making a cable assembly A cable assembly having a first cable component with a length and at least a first conductive element extending in a lengthwise direction, and a second cable component with a length and at least a second conductive element extending in the lengthwise direction. The first and second cable components are separately pre-formed and thereafter releasably bonded together through a separately applied composition at discrete locations between the first and second cable components at spaced intervals along the lengths of the first and second cable components. The first and second cable components are capable of being drawn, one away from the other, to selectively break the bond between the first and second cable components at at least one of the discrete locations to thereby separate the first and second cable components.
US09165694B2	Nanowire apparatuses and methods Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to apparatuses and methods involving nanowires having junctions therebetween. As consistent with one or more embodiments, an apparatus includes first and second sets of nanowires, in which the second set overlaps the first set. The apparatus further includes a plurality of nanowire joining recrystallization junctions, each junction including material from a nanowire of the first set that is recrystallized into an overlapping nanowire of the second set.
US09165689B2	Plant operation method and plant operation system The present invention provides an operation method of a plant which has a low-pressure feed water heater, a deaerator and a high-pressure feed water heater sequentially arranged in a feed water pipe reaching a steam generator from a condenser, and leads high-temperature feed water to the steam generator, wherein an oxidant is injected onto a surface of a structural material from an oxidant injection line in order to form a film that suppresses an elution of an element constituting the structural material such as the feed water pipe, the low-pressure feed water heater, the deaerator and the high-pressure feed water heater, which come in contact with the high-temperature feed water, and a corrosion suppression substance is further introduced from a corrosion suppression substance introduction line in order to deposit the corrosion suppression substance on a surface of the structural material in which corrosion accelerated by a flow of the feed water occurs.
US09165687B2	Methods and apparatus for testing and repairing digital memory circuits An ActiveTest solution for memory is disclosed which can search for memory errors during the operation of a product containing digital memory. The ActiveTest system tests memory banks that are not being accessed by normal memory users in order to continually test the memory system in the background. When there is a conflict between the ActiveTest system and a memory user, the memory user is generally given priority.
US09165685B2	Semiconductor memory device According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes semiconductor memory chips in which data requested to be written. The data has one or more pieces of first data in a predetermined unit. The device includes a write controller that writes the first data and redundancy information calculated by using a predetermined number of pieces of the first data and used for correcting an error in the predetermined number of pieces of the first data into different semiconductor memory chips; and a storage unit that stores identification information and region specifying information so as to be associated with each other. The identification information associates the first data and the redundancy information, and the region specifying information specifies a plurality of storage regions in the semiconductor memory chips to which the pieces of the first data and the redundancy information associated with each other are written.
US09165683B2	Multi-word line erratic programming detection Techniques are presented to detect word line failures (such as word line to word line shorts, control gate to substrate shorts, broken word lines, and so on) in non-volatile memory arrays. A first simultaneous read of multiple word lines is performed, followed by a second simultaneous read of the same word lines, where the read conditions of the two reads are shifted by a margin. For example, one of the read could use a standard read voltage on the word lines, while the other read could shift these levels slightly higher. The results of the two reads can then be compared on a bit line by bit line basis, XOR-ing the results to determine is the set of word lines may include any defective members.
US09165669B2	Memory system and method of driving memory system using zone voltages A method is provided for driving a nonvolatile memory device, including multiple strings, where each string is formed by penetrating plate-shaped word lines stacked on a substrate. The method includes configuring the word lines of a string in multiple zones based on zone configuration information, and applying zone voltages to the zones, respectively. The zone configuration information is varied according to a mode of operation.
US09165667B2	Electronic device with solid state drive and associated control method An electronic device with a solid state drive and associated control method are provided. The electronic device includes: a host; a power supply component, for providing electric power to the host and the solid state drive; and the solid state drive including a control unit electrically connected to the host through a bus, a cache memory electrically connected to the control component, and a flash memory electrically connected to the control component. When a remaining power of the power supply component decreases to a threshold value, the host controls the solid state drive to enter a data secure mode and disables the cache memory; and when the remaining power of the power supply component is above the threshold value, the host controls the solid state drive to enter a high performance mode and enables the cache memory.
US09165662B2	Semiconductor memory device and programming method thereof A programming method of a semiconductor memory device includes, in an n-th program loop, applying a first program pulse to a first memory cell group, applying a second program pulse to a second memory cell group, and determining first fast cells and first slow cells in the first memory cell group, and in an n+1-th program loop, applying a third program pulse, which is increased by a step voltage from the first program pulse, to the first fast cells in the first memory cell group, and applying a fourth program pulse, which is increased by the step voltage from the second program pulse, to the first slow cells in the first memory cell group and the second memory cell group.
US09165658B2	Disturb verify for programming memory cells Apparatuses and methods for disturb verify for programming operations are described. Programming memory cells can include applying a number of programming pulses to a first memory cell, performing a disturb verify operation on a second memory cell adjacent to the first memory cell, and inhibiting the first memory cell from further programming in response to the second memory cell failing the disturb verify operation. Other apparatuses and methods are also disclosed.
US09165652B2	Split-gate memory cells having select-gate sidewall metal silicide regions and related manufacturing methods Split-gate non-volatile memory (NVM) cells having select-gate sidewall metal silicide regions are disclosed along with related manufacturing methods. Spacer etch processing steps are used to expose sidewall portions of select gates. Metal silicide regions are then formed within these sidewall portions of the select gates. Further, metal silicide regions can also be formed in top portions of the select gates. Further, the select gates can also be formed with one or more notches. By expanding the size of the metal silicide region to include the sidewall portion of the select gate, the select gate wordline (e.g., polysilicon) resistance is reduced for split-gate NVM arrays, the electrical contact to the select gate is improved, and performance of the select-gate NVN cell is improved.
US09165651B2	Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device and control method thereof A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array having first and second groups of memory strings, each memory string including first and second memory cells connected between select transistors. The nonvolatile semiconductor memory device further includes a first word line connected to the first memory cells of the memory strings, a second word line connected to the second memory cells of the memory strings, and a control unit configured to control application of control voltages to the select transistors and the word lines, such that a select line voltage is applied to the first word line and a non-select line voltage is applied to the second word line and not discharged while select transistors of the first group of memory strings are turned off and select transistors of the second group of memory strings are turned on.
US09165634B2	Semiconductor memory device and refresh control system A semiconductor memory device includes an address latch unit suitable for consecutively latching first refresh addresses, which correspond to successively-activated word lines, from consecutively received addresses for word lines to be activated in response to word line hit signals identifying the successively-activated word lines; an address comparison unit suitable for generating a comparison result signal by comparing the previously latched first address with the currently latched first address; a refresh control unit suitable for selecting a first refresh operation corresponding to the currently latched first address, and a second refresh operation corresponding to a second address in response to the comparison result signal, and a refresh command signal; and a refresh operation unit suitable for performing the first and second refresh operations on memory cells therein according to the selection of the refresh control unit.
US09165631B2	OTP scheme with multiple magnetic tunnel junction devices in a cell A one time programming (OTP) apparatus unit cell includes multiple magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) and a shared access transistor coupled between the multiple MTJs and a fixed potential. Each of the multiple MTJs in a unit cell can be coupled to separate programming circuitry and/or separate sense amplifier circuitry so that they can be individually programmed and/or individually sensed. A logical combination from the separate sense amplifiers can be generated as an output of the unit cell.
US09165630B2	Offset canceling dual stage sensing circuit An offset canceling dual stage sensing method includes sensing a data value of a resistive memory data cell using a first load PMOS gate voltage generated by a reference value of a resistive memory reference cell in a first stage operation. The method also includes sensing the reference value of the resistive memory reference cell using a second load PMOS gate voltage generated by the data value of the resistive memory data cell in a second stage operation of the resistive memory sensing circuit. By adjusting the operating point of the reference cell sensing, an offset canceling dual stage sensing circuit increases the sense margin significantly compared to that of a conventional sensing circuit.
US09165629B2	Method and apparatus for MRAM sense reference trimming A trimming process for setting a reference current used in operating an MRAM module comprising an operational MRAM cell coupled to a bit line, multiple reference MRAM cells coupled to a reference bit line, and a sense amplifier coupled to the bit line and the reference bit line is disclosed in some embodiments. The process includes applying a bit line reference voltage to the reference bit line to provide a reference cell current formed by a sum of respective currents through the plurality of reference MRAM cells. The reference cell current is detected. A determination is made as to whether the detected reference cell current differs from a target reference cell current. The bit line reference voltage is varied, or a sensing ratio of the sense amplifier is varied, if it is determined that the detected reference cell current differs from the target reference cell current.
US09165626B2	Self-reference magnetic random access memory (MRAM) cell comprising ferrimagnetic layers MRAM cell comprising a magnetic tunnel junction comprising a storage layer having a net storage magnetization being adjustable when the magnetic tunnel junction is at a high temperature threshold and being pinned at a low temperature threshold; a sense layer having a reversible sense magnetization; and a tunnel barrier layer between the sense and storage layers; at least one of the storage and sense layer comprising a ferrimagnetic 3d-4f amorphous alloy material comprising a sub-lattice of 3d transition metals atoms providing a first magnetization and a sub-lattice of 4f rare-earth atoms providing a second magnetization, such that at a compensation temperature of said at least one of the storage layer and the sense layer, the first magnetization and the second magnetization are substantially equal. The disclosed MRAM cell can be written and read using a small writing and reading field, respectively.
US09165613B2	Sample-and-hold current sense amplifier and related method A device includes an amplifier and a first switched current sampler. The first switched current sampler includes a first transistor, a first capacitor, and first, second, and third switches. The first capacitor has a first terminal electrically connected to a gate electrode of the first transistor, and a second terminal electrically connected to a source electrode of the first transistor. The first switch has a first terminal electrically connected to a first current source, and a second terminal electrically connected to the gate electrode of the first transistor. The second switch has a first terminal electrically connected to the first current source, and a second terminal electrically connected to a drain electrode of the first transistor. The third switch has a first terminal electrically connected to the drain electrode of the first transistor, and a second terminal electrically connected to a first input terminal of the amplifier.
US09165600B2	High density timing based servo format A product according to one embodiment includes a magnetic recording tape having opposite ends and at least one servo track, a longitudinal axis of the magnetic recording tape being defined between the ends. The at least one servo track has a plurality of first magnetic bars and a plurality of second magnetic bars. A width of each of the at least one servo track is defined in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the magnetic recording tape between sides of the servo track, the sides of each servo track extending along ends of the first magnetic bars. Lengths of the second magnetic bars between outermost ends thereof are less than the width of the associated servo track.
US09165598B2	Pre-compensated optical tape wobble patterns Amplitude or phase modulated un-compensated wobble patterns representing address patterns for track addresses of optical media are generated. A filter is applied to the un-compensated wobble patterns to pre-compensate the un-compensated wobble patterns. When an inverse of the filter is applied to a signal representing the pre-compensated wobble patterns in the presence of noise, the noise is suppressed and the un-compensated wobble patterns are substantially recovered.
US09165596B1	Magnetic recording disk drive with multiple preamplifiers and common transmission line with impedance compensation A disk drive has multiple preamplifiers (preamps) connected to the system-on-a-chip (SOC) by a common transmission line with resistors between the preamps and the SOC. Each preamp includes a read resistor at the output of each read amplifier, and a write resistor at the input of each write driver. The resistors may be programmable resistors located in the preamps. The read resistors are at the source of the signal to the transmission line and the write resistors are at the termination of the signal from the transmission line. The read and write resistors provide impendence matching with the transmission line and the SOC when one of the preamps is selected as active, which enables the SOC to operate seamlessly with a common transmission line connected to all preamps.
US09165595B2	Information recording device, information recording medium and information recording method User convenience of data whose duplication is restricted and data created by utilizing the data is improved. An information recording device (10) is capable of recoding information onto an RE layer (22) of an optical disk (1), and includes a recording and replay control section (54) for recording, onto the RE layer (32), duplication-restricted information utilization information (32) created by utilizing duplication-restricted information (31) whose duplication onto a different optical disk is restricted.
US09165588B2	Pattern formation method and magnetic recording medium manufacturing method According to one embodiment, a magnetic recording layer is coated with a fine particle coating solution containing fine particles coated with a protective layer containing a first additive including a straight-chain structure for increasing wettability to the magnetic recording layer, and a carboxy group or the like, and a second additive including a carboxy group or the like and a polymerizable functional group, each fine particle having, on at least a surface thereof, a material selected from Al, Si, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Y, Zr, Sn, Mo, Ta, W, and oxides thereof, thereby forming a fine particle monolayer, and heat or light energy is applied, thereby curing the protective layer and forming a periodic pattern.
US09165583B1	Data storage device adjusting seek profile based on seek length when ending track is near ramp A data storage device is disclosed comprising a head actuated over a disk comprising a plurality of tracks, and a load/unload ramp. When seeking the head a seek length from a starting track to an ending track, control circuit is configured to adjust a seek profile when the seek length is greater than a first threshold and the ending track is within a second threshold of the load/unload ramp.
US09165581B2	Thermally assisted magnetic recording head with main magnetic pole apart from near field light generator A thermally assisted magnetic recording head has a generator end surface facing an air bearing surface (ABS), and includes: a near-field light (NF light) generator that generates an NF light on the generator end surface and irradiates a magnetic recording medium with the NF light, and a main magnetic pole end surface positioned in the vicinity of the generator end surface; a main magnetic pole that emits a magnetic flux from the main magnetic pole end surface to the magnetic recording medium and a shield end surface positioned in the vicinity of the generator end surface; and a return shield that is magnetically linked to the main magnetic pole, and that absorbs the magnetic flux returning from the magnetic recording medium at the shield end surface. The main magnetic pole and the return shield are positioned to be on the same side with respect to the NF light generator in the down track direction, and the NF light generator does not overlap with the main magnetic pole either in the down track direction or in the cross track direction.
US09165579B1	Air bearing area configuration for reducing flying height hump across a stroke A disk drive is provided having a dynamic flying height or touch down power profile that is substantially flat across its stroke along the radius of a recording medium. At least two air-channeling elements are provided in a slider of the disk drive, that with the read/write head, flies above a surface of the recording medium. At an inner diameter and an outer diameter of the recording medium, the at least two air-channeling elements direct incoming air flow to an air bearing space defined by a bottom surface of the slider and the surface of the recording medium, increasing the flying height of the slider/read/write head at the inner diameter and outer diameter of the recording medium, thereby negating the effect of a middle diameter flying height hump of the recording medium.
US09165578B2	Swage mount for hard disk drives A swage mount is provided for attaching a head suspension assembly to a head actuator arm for a hard disk drive. The swage mount has a flange body with a thickness for providing clearance from the underlying disk. The swage mount may have a tip for in-plane movement. The tip may be ‘T’ shaped. The tip has a thickness that is greater than the thickness of the flange body for withstanding out-of-plane loads and for enhancing performance of the hard disk drive, for example, during reading/writing of data using the head. Mass properties of the swage mount, the twisting/bending yield load, modal frequency responses, and other performance metrics are analyzed to design the dimensions of the swage mount having favorable in-plane compliance and superior out-of-plane robustness.
US09165577B2	Spinstand with motor having fluid dynamic bearing Provided herein is an apparatus, including a spinstand configured to position a disk in a testing orientation and a motor coupled to the spinstand, configured to rotate the disk. The motor comprises a fluid dynamic bearing.
US09165571B2	Magnetic stack coupling buffer layer A data storage system may be configured at least with a seed lamination that is disposed between a magnetic stack and a magnetic shield. The seed lamination may be constructed and operated with a coupling buffer layer and a seed layer with the coupling buffer layer fabricated of an alloy of cobalt and a transition metal.
US09165569B1	Thermally-assisted magnetic recording head Thermally-assisted magnetic recording head, includes: a magnetic pole having an end exposed on an air-bearing surface; a waveguide; a plasmon generator having a first and second region, first region extending backward from the air-bearing surface to a first position, second region being coupled with the first region at the first position, extending backward from first position, and having a width in a track-width direction, and width in the track-width direction of second region being larger than a width in the track-width direction of first region; an adhesion layer having an end exposed on the air-bearing surface and a first adhesion region, the first adhesion region being in close contact with an end face in the track-width direction of first region; and a cladding layer located around plasmon generator and adhesion layer. Adhesion force between adhesion layer and plasmon generator is greater than adhesion force between cladding layer and plasmon generator.
US09165568B2	Hard disk drive and data refresh method According to one embodiment, a hard disk drive includes a detecting circuit configured to detect abnormality of a supply voltage. The hard disk drive also includes a refresh controller configured to, when the abnormality of the supply voltage is detected during a data refresh process in sector units to a magnetic disk, finish the data refresh process to a sector after writing of data to a data area is finished, the data area to which the writing is performed when the abnormality of the supply voltage is detected, without stepping over a servo area.
US09165564B2	Method and apparatus for frame-based buffer control in a communication system A digital audio broadcasting (DAB) communication system with a decoder buffer specified by a maximum number of encoded frames is disclosed. A predicted number of encoded frames, Fpred, in the decoder is sent to a receiver with audio data. If the decoder buffer level becomes too high, additional bits are allocated to each frame for each of N programs. If the decoder buffer level becomes too low, fewer bits are allocated to each frame for each of the N programs. Fpred can also be employed to (i) enable the decoder; and (ii) synchronize the transmitter and the receiver. The receiver fills the decoder buffer with Fpred frames before commencing decoding frames. The transmitter and receiver clocks may be synchronized with a feedback loop that compares the actual level of the decoder buffer to the predicted value, Fpred, received from the transmitter.
US09165563B2	Coding device, coding method, decoding device, decoding method, and storage medium For respective sampling data of waveform data of sounds to be coded, a prediction residual value is calculated as sampling residual data, and an effective bit length is calculated from this residual waveform data. Then, for the effective bit length data, a maximum effective bit length among processing targets is generated as common effective actual data, and coded data in which this common effective actual data and information indicating the common effective bit length are arranged in a predetermined configuration format are generated. The information included in the coded data is analyzed and each of the plurality of the common effective bit information is extracted. Then, waveform data of the sounds are decoded by performing inverse linear prediction processing from an analysis result on the residual waveform data decompressed by performing bit extension which adds a portion other than the common effective bit length.
US09165551B2	Sound reflector and electronic device with speaker, including sound reflector A reflector for use with an electronic device having a loudspeaker for enhancing the sound emitted from the loudspeaker, said reflector comprising components for attaching said reflector to an edge of the electronic device, at the location of the loudspeaker, a flat portion located to be adjacent a surface of the electronic device, and a concave portion adjacent to the flat portion and presenting a concave surface to the loudspeaker.
US09165547B2	Localization of a wireless user equipment (UE) device based on audio masking A scheme for localizing a wireless user equipment (UE) device's relative position with respect to a spatial configuration based on audio signatures received via a multi-channel audio system, e.g., an audio system of a vehicle or home entertainment system. The wireless UE device is configured to capture the audio signatures masked within a background audio signal received from a head unit. The wireless UE device includes a persistent memory module having program instructions for processing the background audio signal including the masked signatures, which may comprise either channel-specific pseudo-random noise (PN) sequences or single-frequency tones, in order to compute time delays or power levels associated with the speaker channels. A localization module is configured to estimate the wireless UE device's relative position based on the time delays or power levels.
US09165544B2	Electronic cymbal An electronic cymbal, comprising: an annular portion in an annular shape having predetermined rigidity; a central portion having predetermined rigidity, located on an inner circumferential side of the annular portion and configured separately from the annular portion; a sensor portion comprising a first sensor that detects displacement of the central portion; a support supporting the sensor portion while swingably maintaining the central portion; and an interposed member formed of a film, installed between a lower surface of the central portion and the sensor portion while elastically deformably supported by the support, wherein by displacing the central portion from a motionless state, the sensor portion is pressed by an outer circumferential part of the central portion via the interposed member.
US09165522B2	Method for pixel gradation extension, drive method and apparatus for charging time of pixel capacitance The present invention relates to a method of extending a pixel gray scale. The secondary gray scale levels with different charging times and the same gray scale voltage are formed by controlling a charging time of the gray scale voltage of every primary gray scale level and refining the level, wherein, the gray scale voltage of the every secondary gray scale level is the same as that of the corresponding primary gray scale level, and its charging time corresponds to the secondary gray scale level. The primary gray scale level of the display pixel of the liquid crystal panel is extended by using this method and the disadvantage of the imperfect display brought forward by the control method using frame rate in the prior art is overcome. The present invention further provides a drive method of controlling the pixel charging time and a drive apparatus thereof, which realizes the pixel gray scale extension by controlling the charging time of the pixel capacitance. It overcomes the disadvantage that a grid strip may be formed visually using the characteristic of the visual retention and the visual inertia of the human eyes while largely increasing the number of colors that can be displayed.
US09165521B2	Field sequential liquid crystal display device and driving method thereof To improve the image quality of a liquid crystal display device. In the liquid crystal display device, writing of an image signal and the turning on the backlights are not sequentially performed in the entire pixel portion but are sequentially performed per specific region of the pixel portion. Thus, it is possible to increase the frequency of input of an image signal to each pixel of the liquid crystal display device. Accordingly, deterioration of display such as color break generated in the liquid crystal display device can be suppressed, and the image quality can be improved.
US09165517B2	Methods for reducing ripples in data signal lines, display apparatus, liquid crystal display apparatus, and television receivers including the same In at least one embodiment a ripple, generated in an electric potential of data signal lines even in long-term reversal driving, is reduced and display quality is improved. In at least one example embodiment, the liquid crystal display apparatus of the present invention includes scanning signal lines and data signal lines, in which one scanning pulse is outputted to select one scanning signal line, each of the data signal lines receives data signals whose polarities are reversed per one vertical scanning period while in one horizontal scanning period, one of two data signal lines receives a data signal having a polarity and the other of the two data signal lines receives another data signal having another polarity, the two data signal lines being arranged adjacent to each other, scanning pulses are successively outputted in sets of two, and at a timing in which two scanning pulses fall, two scanning pulses rise.
US09165511B2	Backlight driving circuit, LCD device, and driving method The present disclosure provides a backlight driving circuit, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, and a driving method. The backlight driving circuit includes a monitoring device and a conversion device, the conversion device includes a microcontroller (MCU) and a switch module. A control end of the switch module is coupled to the monitoring device, and the monitoring device outputs a monitoring signal to turn on or turn off the switch module. An input end of a power source of the MCU is coupled to a power end of the backlight driving circuit through the switch module.
US09165509B2	Display module, display device comprising same, and electronic device A display module includes a plurality of source drivers; a plurality of memory sections respectively provided for the plurality of source drivers, each of the plurality of memory sections being for storage of at least data of a video signal to be displayed on that one of a plurality of divided regions for which that one of the plurality of source drivers is provided, for which the memory section is provided; and a timing controller serving as a sync controller configured to synchronize the plurality of source drivers to synchronously output video signals that the plurality of source drivers output based on data respectively supplied from the plurality of memory sections, so that the synchronized video signals are supplied to corresponding ones of the plurality of divided regions.
US09165501B2	Display apparatus, driving method for display apparatus and electronic apparatus Disclosed herein is a display apparatus, including: a pixel array section including a plurality of pixels, a writing transistor, a driving transistor, a first switching transistor, a holding capacitor, and a second switching transistor; a first scanning section configured to drive the writing transistor in a unit of a row of the pixels; a second scanning section configured to drive the switching transistors in synchronism with scanning by the first scanning section; and a third scanning section configured to control the second switching transistors to a non-conducting state within a period after the image signal is written by the writing transistor until the signal writing period of the same row of the pixels ends but to a conducting state within any other period.
US09165495B2	Crosstalk compensation method and display apparatus using the same The present disclosure provides a crosstalk compensation method and a display apparatus using the same. The method includes: configuring a compensation range with the compensation range set between the maximum gray level and the minimum gray level; establishing a look-up table to record compensation values for each gray level in the compensation range; determining whether the gray level of a first color sub-pixel on the display panel is set within the compensating range. When it is determined that the gray level of the first color sub-pixel is set within the compensation range selects a compensating value for configuring an initial gray level of an adjacent second color sub-pixel to a correction gray level. When it is determined that the gray level of the first color sub-pixel is set outside the compensation range, maintains the gray level of the second color sub-pixel at the initial gray level.
US09165490B2	3D/2D multi-primary color image device and method for controlling the same A 3D/2D multi-primary color image device is provided with an optical unit to direct a first image to a first group of viewers and a second image to a second group of viewers. Each color dot of the multi-primary color image device comprises at least two color sections controlled independently. A first group of viewers and a second group of viewers can view simultaneously and respectively a first image and a second image.
US09165485B2	Display apparatus A display apparatus includes a backlight part including a backlight unit and a panel part including a display panel. The panel part is operated in a first state in which the display panel is substantially aligned with the backlight part or in a second state in which the display panel is not substantially aligned with the backlight part. The display panel receives the light from the backlight unit in the first state and receives an external light in the second state.
US09165467B2	Defining a handoff zone for tracking a vehicle between cameras Defining a handoff zone for tracking a vehicle between cameras is disclosed. Initially, a first image stream is received from a first camera having a first field of view. A second image stream is also received from a second camera having a second field of view, where the second field of view is different from and at least partially overlapping with the first field of view. Next, an overlap area that defines the overlap between the first image stream and the second image stream is determined. A handoff zone within the overlap area is then determined, where tracking of the vehicle is passed from the first camera to the second camera after the vehicle enters the handoff zone. Finally, boundaries of the handoff zone are stored.
US09165465B2	System and method for providing traffic information A computer-implemented method for providing traffic information via a navigation module onboard a moving vehicle, comprising the steps of: obtaining geolocalization data of the vehicle; identifying the closest traffic light ahead the vehicle; retrieving, from a remote traffic light server, operational information on the identified closest traffic light; processing the operational information to determine an optimal speed at which the vehicle should move to arrive at the closest traffic light when it is at green phase; and outputting the optimal speed via a user interface of the navigation module.
US09165451B1	Alarm assembly An alarm assembly includes a receiver that is positionable in a vehicle. The receiver emits an audible alarm if the temperature inside the vehicle exceeds a predetermined level when the vehicle is occupied. A temperature sensor is operationally coupled to the receiver. The temperature sensor senses ambient temperature of the receiver's environment so the receiver emits the audible alarm. An occupant sensor is operationally coupled to the receiver. The occupant sensor is positionable beneath a child seat in a vehicle to communicate occupancy of the vehicle to the receiver. A bracelet is operationally coupled to the receiver. The bracelet may be worn by a child inside the vehicle so the bracelet communicates occupancy of the vehicle to the receiver. A collar is operationally coupled to the receiver. The collar may be worn by a pet inside the vehicle so the collar communicates occupancy of the vehicle to the receiver.
US09165446B2	Anti-theft security device and perimeter detection system A security tag in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes a housing, a membrane operable for attachment to merchandise, wherein the housing is connected the membrane, a monitoring device operable to monitor whether a party removes or attempts to remove the housing from the membrane and an alarm operable to emit a tamper signal when the monitoring device indicates that a party has removed or attempted to remove the housing from the membrane in an unauthorized condition. A security system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes a security tag operable for connection to merchandise to be secured, a monitoring device operable to monitor whether a party removes or attempts to remove the security tag from the merchandise and an alarm operable to emit a tamper alarm signal when the monitoring device indicates that a party has removed or attempted to remove the security tag from the merchandise in an unauthorized condition.
US09165442B2	Asset retention device for an asset retention system The present invention provides an asset retention device, including: a housing including a base portion and an end portion, wherein the base portion and the end portion each include electrical contacts; and an asset attachment structure securely coupled to the end portion and the associated electrical contacts of the housing, thereby completing an electrical circuit through the asset attachment structure and the housing; wherein, if the continuity of the asset attachment structure is broken, the electrical circuit through the asset attachment structure and the housing is broken. The base portion of the housing is configured to be selectively coupled to a main console, such that the electrical circuit is present through the asset attachment structure, the housing, the base portion of the housing, and the main console. The main console includes a controller/processor operable for detecting a break in the continuity of the asset attachment structure and the associated electrical circuit.
US09165440B1	Multi-sensory warning device A panel-mountable audible and visual warning device comprising a main housing and a cap thereon, the device configured to have the main housing fit into a hole in the face of a mounting panel and to have the front wall and side wall of the cap external to the panel when the device is operably mounted therein, with the cap containing a piezoelectric transducer and at least one LED as a modular subassembly which is attached to the main housing. The cap and transducer together define an audio-frequency resonant cavity, and the cap has the LED(s) mounted therein in a position in front of the panel face in use and behind and radially outward of the transducer so as to emit light directly forward past the transducer.
US09165439B2	Center device A center device communicates with a plurality of controller devices each having a light emitter, receives an instruction operation from a user of each device, and carries out a process based on the instruction operation, where light emission control is carried out such that each light emitter of the plurality of the controller devices emits light of a different color.
US09165428B2	Interactive financial transactions An interactive financial transactions systems and methods are disclosed for providing gaming activity using funds located at a financial institution. Prior to initiating gaming activity, the player indicates the amount of funds the player would like to wager in a session. The financial institution is contacted to block the player funds from being used for another purpose while the player is placing wagers on the interactive gaming system. As the player completes wagers, the results of wagering activities may be passed to the financial institution. When the player completes the gaming session, the financial institution is instructed to release the blocked funds. In one embodiment, the interactive gaming system contacts an intermediary business which performs the account blocking and financial transactions with the financial institution.
US09165426B2	System and method for attending a recorded event in a metaverse application A metaverse system and method for allowing a user to attend a recorded past event in a metaverse application. The metaverse system includes a client computer, a metaverse server, and a time travel engine. The client computer interfaces with the metaverse application. The metaverse server records an event environment of a past event in a metaverse application. The time travel engine serves, in response to a request from a user, a playback of the recorded event environment to the client computer to allow the user to attend and to observe the recorded event environment.
US09165425B2	Method and apparatus for configuring a computing environment A method that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include receiving, by a system comprising a processor, a request from a mobile communication device to configure a computing environment for executing a software application, identifying a deficiency in an availability of a resource of the computing environment responsive to receiving the request, adjusting an operation of the computing environment to change the availability of the resource responsive to identifying the resource deficiency, and providing an action of a plurality of associable actions to the computer environment for use in the software application, where the action replaces a received stimulation of a user input that is associated with the executing of the software application. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09165423B2	Integrating social networking and wagering systems A wagering game system and its operations are described herein. In embodiments, the operations can include connecting a social network account with a wagering game player account, wherein the wagering game player account is associated with a wagering game session, and wherein the social network account is associated with a social networking session via a venue for a social network. The operations can further include detecting a first event from a first of the social networking session and the wagering game session; and after detecting the first event, causing a second event to occur for a second of the social network session and the wagering game session.
US09165422B2	Controlling group wagering games A wagering game system and its operations are described herein. In embodiments, the operations can include detecting a user request to initiate a group wagering game from a host wagering game player account, via a local-area networking device at a non-casino geographic location and providing group wagering game content to the local-area networking device in response to the request. The operations can further include detecting wagering activity from members of a group at the geographic location, providing wagering game outcome information related to the wagering activity, and assigning a portion of the wagering activity to the host wagering game player account.
US09165415B2	Method and apparatus for access authentication using mobile terminal An access authentication method and apparatus in which access authentication is performed using positional data associated with access information data.
US09165412B2	Remotely located database for managing a vehicle fleet A method and system of managing a vehicle fleet is provided. The method includes providing an electronic device, a computing device, and a vehicle that is associated with the vehicle fleet. The electronic device is located within a proximate distance from the vehicle and the computing device is located remotely from the vehicle. The electronic device is associated with a driver identifier. The method includes sending a data signal from the electronic device to the computing device indicating the driver identifier. The method further includes matching the driver identifier with a specific driver profile that is saved on a database of the computing device. The specific driver profile includes information associating the vehicle with the driver identifier. The method includes sending information regarding the specific driver profile from the database to a vehicle control module, where the vehicle control module associated with the vehicle.
US09165411B2	Method and system for embedding mailer specified mailing instructions on a mail piece to automate mail processing Methods and systems that allow a sender of a mail piece to easily specify delivery instructions and/or services for a mail piece and that allows mail processing systems to identify and account for the specified delivery instructions and/or services without the need for any pre-sorting or input of information prior to processing the mail piece. The sender of a mail piece provides a marking on the mail piece representing instructions desired for delivering the mail piece. A mail processing system utilized to process the mail piece reads the marking provided on the mail piece, and based on the type/color of the marking, interprets the delivery instructions requested by the sender. The mail processing system processes the mail piece according to the instructions requested by the sender based on the marking provided on the mail piece by the sender.
US09165410B1	Building a three-dimensional composite scene The capture and alignment of multiple 3D scenes is disclosed. Three dimensional capture device data from different locations is received thereby allowing for different perspectives of 3D scenes. An algorithm uses the data to determine potential alignments between different 3D scenes via coordinate transformations. Potential alignments are evaluated for quality and subsequently aligned subject to the existence of sufficiently high relative or absolute quality. A global alignment of all or most of the input 3D scenes into a single coordinate frame may be achieved. The presentation of areas around a particular hole or holes takes place thereby allowing the user to capture the requisite 3D scene containing areas within the hole or holes as well as part of the surrounding area using, for example, the 3D capture device. The new 3D captured scene is aligned with existing 3D scenes and/or 3D composite scenes.
US09165403B2	Planetary scale object rendering A planetary scale object rendering system may provide a plurality of spherical mesh topologies of different levels of detail made up of abutting faces. Tessellation of the faces may be provided at continuous levels of detail. The geometry data at different locations and levels of detail in the mesh topology may be randomly accessible. The geometric data may be organized in quadtrees in some embodiments. A layered quadtree data structure may be formed from the bottom layer up with successively higher parent layers formed from the root nodes of previous child layers. The quadtree structure may be randomly accessed from the top down.
US09165402B2	3D modeling user interface method The 3D modeling user interface (UI) method provides a 2D scalable grid on a computer screen that allows a user to extrude a 3D shape therefrom. The 3D shape is then presented on the display screen, which also shows the grid that the shape was extruded from. In addition to 2D grids, the UI allows the user to define 2D concentric circular patterns on a surface of the 3D shape, from which the user can extrude a 3D projection of the concentric circular patterns. A previously defined grid can be extended or bent into an arcuate or curvy grid according to manipulations by the user. Moreover a grid can be folded back on itself by the user. Additionally the UI provides groups of user-defined wavy splines that can be extruded from a displayed surface.
US09165399B2	System, method, and computer program product for inputting modified coverage data into a pixel shader A system, method, and computer program product are provided for inputting modified coverage data into a pixel shader. In use, coverage data modified by a depth/stencil test is input into a pixel shader. Additionally, one or more actions are performed at the pixel shader, utilizing the modified coverage data.
US09165397B2	Texture blending between view-dependent texture and base texture in a geographic information system Systems and methods for rendering a view-dependent texture in conjunction with a three-dimensional model of a geographic area are provided. A view-dependent texture can be rendered in conjunction with at least portions of the three-dimensional model. A base texture can be rendered for portions of the three-dimensional model in the same field of view that are viewed from a slightly different perspective than a reference direction associated with the view-dependent texture. For instance, a stretching factor can be determined for each portion of the three-dimensional model based on the reference direction and a viewpoint direction associated with the portion of the three-dimensional model. A base texture, a view-dependent texture, or a blended texture can be selected for rendering at the portion of the three-dimensional model based on the stretching factor.
US09165396B2	Graphics processing unit with a texture return buffer and a texture queue A processor and a system are provided for performing texturing operations. The processor includes a texture return buffer having a plurality of slots for storing texture values and one or more texture units coupled to the texture return buffer. Each of the slots of the texture return buffer are addressable by a thread. Each texture unit is configured to allocate a slot of the texture return buffer when the texture unit generates a texture value.
US09165394B2	Method and system for supporting GPU audio output on graphics processing unit The present invention sets forth a method for supporting enhanced audio on a graphics processing unit (GPU) in a computing device having a graphics subsystem. In one embodiment, the method includes the steps of determining whether an option of a GPU audio output is enabled and the graphics subsystem and a first external output device is connected, and routing a first audio stream to the GPU of the graphics subsystem for processing when the option of the GPU audio output is enabled and the graphics subsystem and the first external output device is in connection and causing the processed first audio stream to be transferred along a first transmission path to the first external output device, or otherwise causing a second audio stream to be transferred along a second transmission path to a second external output device.
US09165392B2	Image generating device, image generating method, and non-transitory information storage medium Provided is an image generating device for generating an image of an object including a plurality of elements connected to one another. The image generating device includes: a calculating section for iteratively calculating a motion of each element of the plurality of elements based on a physical constraint condition of the each element with respect to another connected element; a parent-child information acquiring section for acquiring parent-child information corresponding to a connection between the each element and the another element based on information indicating an element having a predetermined relationship with another object; a correcting section for correcting a position of a child element with respect to a parent element based on the parent-child information and the motion of the each element; and an image generating section for generating information on the image of the object based on the corrected position of the each element.
US09165385B2	Imaging procedure planning A method includes generating with a processor (122) a three-dimensional subject specific model of structure of interest of a subject to be scanned based on a general three-dimensional model and pre-scan image data acquired by an imaging system (100) generating with the processor (122) an imaging plan for the subject based on the three-dimensional subject specific model.
US09165379B2	Method for encoding and decoding video, and apparatus using same The present invention combines an inter-prediction method using an AMVP mode and an inter-prediction method using a merge mode so as to use the same candidates. The method for decoding video data proposed by the present invention comprises receiving mode information on an inter-prediction method of a current block, determining, on the basis of the received mode information, whether the inter-prediction method to be applied to the current block is an AMVP mode or a merge mode, and selecting a candidate to derive motion information of the current block.
US09165373B2	Statistics of nearest neighbor fields In embodiments of statistics of nearest neighbor fields, matching patches of a nearest neighbor field can be determined at image grid locations of a first digital image and a second digital image. A motion field can then be determined based on motion data of the matching patches. Predominant motion components of the motion field can be determined based on statistics of the motion data to generate a final motion field. The predominant motion components correspond to a motion of objects as represented by a displacement between the first and second digital images. One of the predominant motion components can then be assigned to each of the matching patches to optimize the final motion field of the matching patches.
US09165368B2	Method and system to segment depth images and to detect shapes in three-dimensionally acquired data A method and system analyzes data acquired by image systems to more rapidly identify objects of interest in the data. In one embodiment, z-depth data are segmented such that neighboring image pixels having similar z-depths are given a common label. Blobs, or groups of pixels with a same label, may be defined to correspond to different objects. Blobs preferably are modeled as primitives to more rapidly identify objects in the acquired image. In some embodiments, a modified connected component analysis is carried out where image pixels are pre-grouped into regions of different depth values preferably using a depth value histogram. The histogram is divided into regions and image cluster centers are determined. A depth group value image containing blobs is obtained, with each pixel being assigned to one of the depth groups.
US09165367B2	Depth estimation system for two-dimensional images and method of operation thereof A method of operation of a depth estimation system includes: calculating focus measures for positions on a two-dimensional image; generating a depth map for the two-dimensional image based on fitting the focus measure through a Gaussian function; generating a three-dimensional image from the depth map and the two-dimensional image; and processing the three-dimensional image on a storage unit for displaying on a device.
US09165366B2	System and method for detecting and displaying airport approach lights A vehicle display system displays approach lights acquired by a vision system overlaid on, and aligned with, a stored synthetic approach light symbol. A stored approach light type that corresponds to the target runway may be verified to match the acquired approach lights. A synthetic approach light symbol that corresponds to the approach light type is chosen and aligned with the approach lights for display.
US09165365B2	Method and system for estimating attitude of camera In a method of estimating a camera attitude, based on the past-detected position of a marker and an appropriate camera attitude provided during current frame imaging, the position of the maker to the current frame is approximately predicted. Through extraction of points which are near the predicted marker position (marker neighboring points), a group of points are obtained. An attitude of the camera (rotation matrix and translation matrix) which optimizes an estimation function is obtained for re-estimating the camera attitude, where the estimation function needs, as its condition, a distance between the marker neighboring points included in the point groups and an estimation plane on which the marker is positioned. The point groups include many points extracted from the neighborhood of the marker, so that the preliminarily estimated approximate camera attitude can be corrected and estimated with higher accuracy even in an environment with occlusion.
US09165364B1	Automatic tracking image pickup system An automatic tracking image pickup system including: an image pickup apparatus picking up an image of an object; a driving unit changing an image pickup direction of the image pickup apparatus; a recognition unit recognizing a tracking object in a picked up image; and a controller controlling a speed of the driving unit based on a difference between a position of the tracking object in the image and a target position in the image in an initial mode until the tracking object reaches a predetermined position in the image after the recognition unit recognizes the tracking object for first time, and in a normal mode after the tracking object reaches the predetermined position with a gain for obtaining the speed of the driving unit based on the difference in the normal mode being larger than a gain used in the initial mode.
US09165349B2	Apparatus for generating diagnosis image, medical imaging system, and method for processing image An apparatus for generating a diagnosis image includes a local contrast characteristic calculator configured to calculate local contrast characteristics of radiation image data of a low-energy sub-band from radiation image data generated by radiation having at least two energy bands passing through a subject; a local contrast characteristic applier configured to apply the calculated local contrast characteristics to radiation image data of a full-energy band generated by the radiation having at least two energy bands passing through the subject; and a diagnosis image generator configured to generate a diagnosis image of the subject based on the radiation image data of the full-energy band to which the local contrast characteristics have been applied.
US09165346B2	Method and apparatus for reducing image noise Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and an apparatus for reducing image noise. The method includes decomposing an original image into a luminance channel image and at least one chrominance channel image, and calculating a weighted average value of each pixel of the luminance channel image and the chrominance channel image by using luminance information, to correct each pixel of the luminance channel image and the chrominance channel image. By virtue of the embodiments of the present invention, it is possible to effectively avoid color dispersion at edges of images, to achieve easy implementation, and to effect low cost.
US09165340B2	Image display system, image display method, image display program, and computer-readable recording medium storing said program The image display system includes a calculation unit, a specifying unit, a generation unit and a transmitting unit. Upon change of a zoom level of a current image not containing position information to a specified value on a user terminal, the calculation unit calculates a display range of an object represented by the current image after change in zoom level. The specifying unit refers to data of a different image of the object and specifies a part of the different image indicated by the display range calculated by the calculation unit. The different image has a different resolution from the current image. The generation unit generates a next image representing the part specified by the specifying unit using the data of the different image. The transmitting unit transmits the next image to the user terminal for switching from the current image to the next image.
US09165333B2	Systems and methods for supply chain event visualization According to some embodiments, an event query to an item supply chain event database is processed such that a trace extraction algorithm will be executed to determine extracted trace data. A plurality of location nodes may then be graphically represented on an interactive user display based on the extracted trace data. Similarly, a plurality of item flow edges connecting location nodes may be graphically represented on the interactive user display based on the extracted trace data. According to some embodiments, a selection from a user is received via the interactive user display, the selection being associated with at least some of the graphically represented information. Responsive to the received selection, the graphical representation may be adjusted in accordance with the extracted trace data.
US09165332B2	Application licensing using multiple forms of licensing A method, system, and computer-readable storage media for licensing an application using multiple forms of licensing are provided herein. The method includes providing a first form of a license to a first computing device via a licensing service and providing a second form of the license to a second computing device via the licensing service. The method also includes determining a first state of the first form of the license and a second state of the second form of the license, synchronizing the first state and the second state to form a combined license state, and adjusting conditions of the license based on the combined license state.
US09165329B2	Multi layer chat detection and classification Embodiments presented herein provide systems, methods and articles of manufacture for a computer-implemented method to monitor users interacting in an online multiuser environment. For each message sent by a user during a session, determining, via a first classifier, whether the message is either acceptable or unacceptable for the online multiuser environment. Upon satisfying a triggering condition for the session of the user, determining, via a second classifier, whether to escalate the session to a moderator for review.
US09165312B2	Mobile device advertising chains Mobile device advertising chains are described herein. Presenting a primary offer, comprising a first action, is caused on a mobile computing device. The first action is caused on the mobile computing device. An end of the first action is detected. Presenting a purchase offer, comprising a purchase action, is caused on the mobile computing device after the end of the first action. Data indicating that the purchase action was completed in connection with the mobile computing device based on the purchase offer is received. A sum of the value to confer in connection with the device for accepting both the primary offer and the purchase offer is determined. The sum of the values may be used in optimizing subsequent presentations of the primary offer to other mobile devices.
US09165304B2	Analyzing consumer behavior using electronically-captured consumer location data In embodiments, methods and systems for consumer behavior analysis using electronically-captured consumer location data may be provided. The location data may be gathered for one or more consumers. The gathered data may be analyzed to determine behavior patterns or other characteristics of the one or more consumers. Further, inferences or predictions about consumers may be derived based on the characteristics. The inferences and predictions may be the basis of consumer analytics supplied to a business or other entity.
US09165302B2	System and method for scaling up an image of an article displayed on a sales promotion web page Method and arrangement for scale-up of an image of an article displayed on a sales promotion web page is disclosed. The method includes displaying an image of an article on a sales promotion web page in a first scale. The method then includes, based on cursor-selection of the displayed image, enlarging the scale of the image to a second larger scale on the same web page.
US09165295B2	Automated card information exchange pursuant to a commercial transaction In general, embodiments of the present invention relate to a card and associated methods for automated information (static and dynamic) exchange pursuant to a commercial transaction. In a typical embodiment, the card (e.g., a credit card, a debit card and/or a smart card) comprises an energy component for providing power to the card and a back display (e.g., positioned on the back or magnetic strip side of the card) for displaying card information being used in the commercial transaction. Upon display, a terminal (e.g., a point of sale terminal) will scan/read the card information and generate a corresponding source validation code (SVC). An imager positioned on the back of the card will scan/read the SVC and card validation code (CVC) logic on the card will generate a CVC based on the SVC (e.g., based on a validation result of the SVC). A biometric reader positioned on a front side of the card will take a biometric reading from a user of the card and corresponding user validation code (UVC) logic will generate a UVC based on the biometric reading. The underlying commercial transaction can then be validated (e.g., by a server associated with the terminal or by validation logic on the card itself), a validation result can be displayed on a front display (e.g., positioned on the front side of the card).
US09165292B2	Systems and methods for a network-to-network interface A method and system for processing raw address data using a computer device coupled to a database are provided. The method includes receiving, at the network interface device, a first network message containing financial transaction data from a first one of a plurality of multiprotocol label switching networks, determining a destination of the financial transaction data from the network message, transmitting the financial transaction data to a second one of the plurality of multiprotocol label switching networks using a second network containing the financial transaction data, where at least one of the first one and the second one of the plurality of multiprotocol label switching networks is a satellite-based network.
US09165288B2	Inferring relationships based on geo-temporal data other than telecommunications An illustrative geo-temporal analysis system analyzes telecommunications-event records and other records associated with wireless terminals to infer a collaborative relationship between users who do not telecommunicate with each other, based on how precisely a first geo-temporal pattern matches a second geo-temporal pattern. When a collaborative relationship is inferred, the system transmits an indication thereof and a request for an estimated location of the respective wireless terminals.
US09165286B2	Electronic process-driven collaboration system A business process-driven collaboration system embeds collaboration resources and tools directly into existing business processes and applications. The system provides a service layer connected to an existing business process management (BPM) service to embed collaboration resources into the process, and in particular, into the user interface of the existing business applications. The system provides an interface layer providing rapid enhancement of the existing business applications.
US09165281B2	System and method for enabling electronic presentations A system and method is provided for enabling collaborative electronic presentations and annotation of graphic information. The method includes the operation of taking a snapshot of an active application. A snapshot can be initiated by a user accessible snapshot control. The snapshot of the active application can be transferred to the electronic whiteboard in response to activation of the snapshot control. A further operation is storing the snapshot in a whiteboard sheet of the electronic whiteboard. Each loaded snapshot may be stored in a separate whiteboard sheet in order to provide a plurality of whiteboard sheets. Another operation can be enabling graphical annotation of the plurality of whiteboard sheets in the whiteboard annotation area by the user.
US09165278B2	Inventory availability The present disclosure extends to maintaining an item inventory status at an inventory cache management system. The inventory cache may be refreshed regularly by a threshold-based triggering mechanism. In embodiments, as item inventory breaches certain thresholds, the inventory cache may be refreshed with increased frequency to mitigate overselling or underselling scenarios and reduce overall network traffic for items having relatively high inventory levels.
US09165276B2	Locating and organizing digital receipt data for use in in-store audits The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for auditing in-store sales transactions when a digital receipt is issued. A receipt application server formulates a digital receipt from digital receipt data received from a POS system. The digital receipt is sent from the receipt application server to an auditor mobile device at the location of the POS system. A human auditor can view the digital receipt during an in-store audit. In some embodiments, one or both of the receipt application server and the auditor mobile device reorder receipt entries so that items having specified characteristics are presented more prominently on a display. For example, receipt entries can be re-ordered such that higher profit margin items, bulkier items, or more likely to be stolen items are presented more prominently. As such, a human auditor is more likely to expressly audit these types of items.
US09165267B2	Scheduling and decision system The inventive subject matter herein is directed toward an improved scheduling and planning system in which a workflow scheduling system automatically detects a problematic workflow event. The system then selects a primary human contact and a secondary human contact from a hierarchical selection list and automatically attempts to notify the primary human contact by escalating through the primary human contact's contact methods. When the primary human contact fails to respond within a threshold of time, the system automatically attempts to notify the secondary human contact by escalating through the secondary human contact's contact methods.
US09165261B2	Apparatus and method for performing accounting in wireless communication system An apparatus and method for processing accounting in a wireless communication system are provided. The method includes creating an accounting data base (DB) for a mobile station (MS), determining whether a state transition of the MS occurs, if the state transition of the MS occurs, updating state information in the accounting DB, and transmitting the accounting information including the state information to an accounting server.
US09165260B1	Method and apparatus for using estimated travel time to schedule an event and event reminders A method, apparatus and computer program product for using estimated travel time to schedule an event and/or an event reminder is presented. At least one scheduled event participant is determined, as is a location of the at least one scheduled event participant. A travel time of at least one scheduled event participant to travel to the scheduled event is computed. An event is scheduled for the at least one scheduled event participant, the scheduled event taking into account the computed travel time of the at least one scheduled event participant.
US09165258B2	Generating training documents A method of generating training documents for training a classifying device comprises, with a processor, sampling from a distribution of words in a number of original documents, and creating a number of pseudo-documents from the distribution of words, the pseudo-documents comprising a similar distribution of words as the original documents. A device for classifying textual documents comprises a processor; and a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory comprising a sampling module to, when executed by the processor, determine the distribution of words in a number of original documents, a pseudo-document creation module to, when executed by the processor, create a number of pseudo-documents from the distribution of words, the pseudo-documents comprising a similar distribution of words as the original documents, and a training module to, when executed by the processor, train the device to classify textual documents based on the pseudo-documents.
US09165257B2	Typing assistance for editing Apparatus and methods are disclosed for providing feedback and guidance to touch screen device users to improve the text entry user experience and performance. According to one embodiment, a method comprises receiving a text entry, receiving input on a touch screen in the form of a first single touch input located over a word of previously entered text, and presenting the user with one or more suggestion candidates indicated possible replacement words related to the selected word. The user can then select one of the suggestion candidates using a second single touch input to replace the selected word with a word associated with the selected suggestion candidate.
US09165251B2	Construction of rules for use in a complex event processing system A method for specifying complex event processing (CEP) system rules. A rule construction interface is provided for constructing rules for a rule set of the complex event processing system, where the rules include definitions of one or more detected events and corresponding actions. In response to an identification of a new event or action during the rule construction process via the rule construction interface, a corresponding event or action logical construct is generated for representing the event or action in the complex event processing system. An intermediate logical construct is generated to provide a data connection for the event or action logical construct. The event or action logical construct is linked to a corresponding action or event logical construct via the intermediate logical construct so as to enable data flow between the objects.
US09165246B2	Neuristor-based reservoir computing devices A neuristor-based reservoir computing device includes support circuitry formed in a complimentary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) layer, input nodes connected to the support circuitry and output nodes connected to the support circuitry. Thin film neuristor nodes are disposed over the CMOS layer with a first portion of the neuristor nodes connected to the input nodes and a second portion of the neuristor nodes connected to the output nodes. Interconnections between the neuristor nodes form a reservoir accepting input signals from the input nodes and outputting signals on the output nodes. A method for forming a neuristor-based reservoir computing device is also provided.
US09165237B2	SIM card adapter A SIM card adapter assembly is to adapt a SIM card to a SIM slot. The adapter assembly includes a SIM card plastic support including a first portion of a predetermined thickness. The SIM card is removably attached and a second portion has an increased thickness wherein at least one adapter is removably attached.
US09165226B2	Image processing apparatus, method, and storage medium for executing image processing and performing decoration processing An image processing apparatus which decorates color data contained in color image data with different decoration patterns for respective colors of the color data to output the color data includes a determination unit which determines a combination of a color of color data having a highest number of pixels among colors of color data contained in the color image data and a decoration pattern having a lowest number of pixels among the decoration patterns and a monochrome decoration output unit which decorates color data contained in the color image data in accordance with a combination of a color and a decoration pattern corresponding to the color determined by the determination unit for monochrome decoration output of the color image data.
US09165217B2	Techniques for ground-level photo geolocation using digital elevation Techniques for generating cross-modality semantic classifiers and using those cross-modality semantic classifiers for ground level photo geo-location using digital elevation are provided. In one aspect, a method for generating cross-modality semantic classifiers is provided. The method includes the steps of: (a) using Geographic Information Service (GIS) data to label satellite images; (b) using the satellite images labeled with the GIS data as training data to generate semantic classifiers for a satellite modality; (c) using the GIS data to label Global Positioning System (GPS) tagged ground level photos; (d) using the GPS tagged ground level photos labeled with the GIS data as training data to generate semantic classifiers for a ground level photo modality, wherein the semantic classifiers for the satellite modality and the ground level photo modality are the cross-modality semantic classifiers.

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