US09941943B1
A system includes an integrated circuit configured to communicating data in a channel. A channel matrix for the channel including a plurality of columns is received. A preprocessing step is performed, using a preprocessing unit, to compute a plurality of preprocessed column values corresponding to respective columns. An update step is performed, using an update unit, to update an estimation vector using a plurality of outer-loop iterations of an outer loop. Each outer-loop iteration updates the estimation vector using the plurality of preprocessed column values. An access link process is performed using the estimation vector.
US09941941B2
The present disclosure relates to a radio receiver, a radio transmitter, and methods for evaluating multiple-input multiple-output, MIMO, antenna deployment. The method for evaluating MIMO, antenna deployment comprises the steps of receiving a first composite signal via a first receive antenna. The first composite signal comprises a first tone transmitted from a first transmit antenna at a first variable frequency and a second tone transmitted from a second transmit antenna at a second variable frequency different from the first variable frequency, and also receiving a second composite signal via a second receive antenna. The second composite signal comprising the first tone transmitted from the first transmit antenna and the second tone transmitted from the second transmit antenna. The method also comprises determining a first power signal from the first composite signal, and determining a second power signal from the second composite signal, as well as determining a phase difference between the phase of the first power signal and the phase of the second power signal, and evaluating MIMO antenna deployment based on the determined phase difference.
US09941940B2
A communication method for a wireless network is disclosed. The wireless network comprises a plurality of wireless devices. The method comprises transmitting one or multiple packets with an omni-beam by a first wireless device to a second wireless device in a packet exchange during an omni-beam duration to indicate a sectorized-beam duration, receiving the packet(s) by a third wireless device, transmitting/receiving data by the first wireless device using a sectorized beam in a packet exchange with the second wireless device during the sectorized beam duration, and detecting by the third wireless device the sectorized beam packet(s) from the first wireless device and packet(s) from the second wireless device, if no sectorized beam packet(s) from the first wireless device and packet(s) from the second wireless device is detected, the third wireless device starting to communicating with a fourth wireless device.
US09941918B2
A bendable user terminal device provided with a flexible display controls the flexible display to display information on a first area while the user terminal device is maintained in a bent state based on a detected bending state of the user terminal device, and, in response to the user terminal device changing from the bent state to an unbent state, controls the flexible display not to display the information on the first area.
US09941916B2
A programmable multi-band receiver includes a signal coupler, programmable signal scaler including a fixed capacitance part including a series set of switchable capacitor arrays positioned before Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protecting circuitry coupled to a variable capacitance part after the ESD protecting circuitry, reconfigurable mixer array, then a baseband polyphase filter. The variable capacitance part includes a parallel set of paths each including a capacitor and at least one switch for setting a center frequency for band selection. The reconfigurable mixer array is coupled to receive phase signals from a local oscillator (LO) circuit and includes a plurality of mixer switch elements for providing image rejection. The received signal strength is adjusted by the programmable signal scaler so that the electrostatic discharge circuit (ESD) can operate without the need of a negative supply voltage.
US09941914B2
A receiving device of an embodiment has a receiver, a demultiplexer, and an interference detector. The receiver receives a multiplexed signal. The demultiplexer demultiplexes the multiplexed signal into a plurality of signals. The interference detector, with referring to bit transitions of the plurality of signals in a predetermined time period, detects interference in the multiplexed signal.
US09941912B2
A mobile station includes: a physical channel segmentation unit to receive radio signals including multiple orthogonal signals which are orthogonal to each other, and multiple non-orthogonal signals which are not orthogonal to each other; and data demodulating/decoding units to extract the non-orthogonal signal addressed to the mobile station from the multiple non-orthogonal signals by demodulating and cancelling the radio signal addressed to another mobile station by use of the orthogonal signals included in the radio signals received by the physical channel segmentation unit, and demodulate the signal included in the orthogonal signals and addressed to the mobile station, and the extracted non-orthogonal signal addressed to the mobile station.
US09941909B2
According to an embodiment, a circuit package includes a programmable switch component having a plurality of input terminals arranged on the programmable switch component, a plurality of output terminals arranged on the programmable switch component and configured to be coupled to a plurality of amplifiers, and a plurality of switches. Each switch of the plurality of switches is coupled between an input terminal of the plurality of input terminals and an output terminal of the plurality of output terminals. Each switch of the plurality of switches includes a radio frequency (RF) switch and is configured to pass an RF signal when closed. Each input terminal of the plurality of input terminals is coupled to two switches of the plurality of switches.
US09941902B2
A low density parity check (LDPC) encoder, an LDPC decoder, and an LDPC encoding method are disclosed. The LDPC encoder includes first memory, second memory, and a processor. The first memory stores an LDPC codeword having a length of 64800 and a code rate of 5/15. The second memory is initialized to 0. The processor generates the LDPC codeword corresponding to information bits by performing accumulation with respect to the second memory using a sequence corresponding to a parity check matrix (PCM).
US09941901B2
Systems and method relating generally to solid state memory, and more particularly to systems and methods for generated data from a solid state memory. A data processing system includes a solid state memory device, a soft data generation circuit operable to receive multiple instances of an element of a read data set accessed from the solid state memory device, and access a scramble compensating extended look up table using the multiple instances of the element to receive corresponding soft data, and a data decoder circuit operable to yield a decoded output from the soft data.
US09941899B1
This disclosure relates to compressing and/or decompressing a group of similar data units, such as a table or queue of data units processed by a networking device or other computing apparatus. Each data unit in the group may only have values for fields in a master set. The described systems are particularly suited for hardware-level processing of groups of sparsely-populated data units, in which a large number of the data units have values for only a small number of the fields. In an embodiment, non-value carrying fields in a data unit are compressed based on a compression profile selected for the data unit. The compression profile indicates, for each master field, whether the compressed data unit includes a value for that field. Non-value carrying fields are omitted from the compressed data unit. The compression profile also permits compression of value-carrying fields using variable-width field lengths specified in the profile.
US09941898B1
Some embodiments include apparatus and methods using a first digital-to-time converter (DTC) circuit to receive an input clock signal and generate a first clock signal based on the input clock signal, a second DTC circuit to receive the input clock signal and generate a second clock signal based on the input clock signal, and an output circuit to receive the first and second clock signals to generate an output clock signal based on the first and second clock signals.
US09941895B2
Systems and methods are described to time delay a signal output from an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The ADC includes a digital sensor responsive to an analog field quantity. The digital sensor is configured to output an oversampled digital output signal at a sampling clock frequency. A time delay element is configured to receive as an input, the oversampled digital output signal and to output a time delayed oversampled digital output signal. A filter is configured to receive as an input the delayed oversampled digital output signal. The filter low pass filters and decimates to a lower sample rate the delayed oversampled digital output signal. An output includes a low pass filtered decimated delayed digital output signal, where the lower sample rate is less than the sampling clock frequency.
US09941892B2
The present disclosure discloses a multi-standard performance reconfigurable I/Q orthogonal carrier generator. The generator may implement a continuously covered I/Q carrier output of 0.1-5 GHz and continuously covered differential signal outputs of 5-10 GHz and 1.5-3 GHz by means of reasonable frequency assignment; also, carrier signals under various frequencies with different loop bandwidths, different phase noises, different power consumption levels and different locking times can be generated by configuring a programmable charge pump (102), a loop filter (103) parameter, a multi-path voltage-controlled oscillator (104) and a first multiplexer (105) corresponding thereto, a five-stage-division-by-two frequency division link (109) and a corresponding second multiplexer (110) and third multiplexer (112), so as to implement generation of a multi-standard performance reconfigurable I/Q orthogonal carrier.
US09941890B2
An integrated circuit with a phase-locked loop (PLL) is provided. The PLL may include a phase frequency detector, a charge pump, a source follower circuit, a variable oscillator, a frequency divider, and a control block. The phase frequency detector may be configured to align or lock a feedback clock signal to a reference clock signal. The control block includes clock loss detection circuits that are used to determine whether the reference clock signal or the feedback clock signal has stopped toggling. In response to detecting a clock loss event for either the reference or the feedback clock signal, the control block may disable the phase frequency detector to place the charge pump in a tristate mode and may apply a predetermined bias voltage to the source follower circuit to help minimize electrical overstress.
US09941884B2
A level shifting circuit can be used to adjust the level of the input signal to a desired output level while maintaining the duty cycle of the input signal. The level shifting circuit can include a capacitor to AC couple the input signal to an inverter that is self-biased at the threshold voltage for the inverter. The AC coupling of the input signal permits the input signal to “ride on” the threshold voltage and transition the inverter between states depending on the value of the input signal. The inverter can be biased at the threshold voltage by connecting the output of the inverter in feedback with the input of the inverter using one or more resistors.
US09941877B2
Provided is an electrode pattern of a touch panel, including: a plurality of conductive pattern cells which are formed to be spaced apart from each other on a substrate; and an insulating layer which is formed on the conductive pattern cells; and a plurality of metal bridge line electrodes which are formed on the insulating layer so that the conductive pattern cells are connected to each other.
US09941874B2
A switching unit of an embodiment includes a first switching element of normally-on type, a second switching element of normally-off type having a non-reference potential side conductive terminal connected to a reference potential side conductive terminal of the first switching element, a resistive element having one end connected to a conduction control terminal of the first switching element; a series capacitor connected between the other end of the resistive element and a conduction control terminal of the second switching element; and a diode having an anode connected to the other end of the resistive element and a cathode connected to a common junction of the first switching element and the second switching element.
US09941873B2
A method and apparatus are provided for balancing currents of two or more parallel-connected power semiconductor switches during an on-state of the switches. A control terminal of each switch is driven by a driver unit. The method includes determining ratios between the currents through the switches. For each switch, the method includes controlling the voltage at the control terminal on the basis of the ratios by controlling a level of a supply voltage of the driver unit of the switch, and after a turn-on commutation transient, modulating the output of the driver unit. The duty cycle of the modulation is controlled to minimize the time required for the transition of the voltage at the control terminal from the one voltage level to another.
US09941870B2
The present invention relates to timing margin adjustment circuits using adjustable delay circuits. An example adjustable delay circuit may include a signal line, an output circuit, and a plurality of delay circuits. Each of the plurality of delay circuits may be configured to provide respective delay amounts that are different from each other, and where a first one of the plurality of delay circuits, which may be arranged most adjacently to the output circuit, being smaller in delay amount than other ones of the plurality of delay circuits. Each of the plurality of delay circuits may include an input node and an output node, and a selected one of the plurality of delay circuits connected at its input node to the signal line and at its output node to the output circuit, the rest of the plurality of delay circuits being disconnected from the signal line and the output circuit.
US09941863B2
Provided is a power gating control circuit for stably controlling data restoring. The power gating control circuit includes a retention circuit and a non-retention circuit. The retention circuit includes a first flip-flop, which stores or restores data of the first flip-flop in a power gating mode. The non-retention circuit includes a second flip-flop and a third flip-flop. The power gating control circuit performs initialization of data of the second flip-flop and the third flip-flop in the power gating mode, and an initialization operation of the non-retention circuit is controlled to be performed before data of the retention circuit is restored.
US09941861B2
[Object] To propose a wireless communication apparatus capable of realizing separation of transmission signals and reception signals with a low power consumption and a small size.[Solution] Provided is a wireless communication apparatus including: a gyrator that includes at least four terminals; a single-phase differential converter that mutually converts single-phase signals and differential signals; a low-noise differential amplifier that amplifies reception signals that the gyrator outputs; and a differential power amplifier that amplifies transmission signals to be output to the gyrator. The gyrator transmits signals from a first terminal and a second terminal in the direction of a third terminal and a fourth terminal. Any of the single-phase differential converter, the low-noise amplifier, and the power amplifier are connected to the first terminal and second terminal, the third terminal and fourth terminal, the first terminal and third terminal, and the second terminal and fourth terminal of the gyrator.
US09941834B2
A power conversion apparatus, including: an MLC circuit configured to boost an input voltage from a three-phase rectifier; a smoothing capacitor configured to smooth an output of the MLC circuit; an inverter control unit configured to generate a PWM signal; an inverter circuit configured to convert a DC voltage of the smoothing capacitor into an AC voltage based on an input of the PWM signal and to supply the AC voltage to a motor; a boost mode switching unit having at least three boost modes in which a boost level of the input voltage is selected and configured to switch among the at least three boost modes depending on an operation status of the motor determined for the purpose of controlling a refrigeration cycle; and an MLC control unit configured to control the MLC circuit based on the switching by the boost mode switching unit.
US09941832B2
A semiconductor device includes an H-Bridge driver. The H-Bridge driver includes a first island on which a first power transistor and a second power transistor are mounted; a second island on which a third power transistor and a fourth power transistor are mounted; a third island on which a control circuit and a protection power transistor are mounted, the control circuit being configured to control the first, second, third and fourth power transistors, wherein the third island is allocated between the first island and the second island.
US09941831B1
A control system for a switched reluctance (SR) motor includes a Direct Current (DC) power source, and an inverter. The control system includes a user interface configured to enable an operator to specify a desired torque output. The control system further includes a controller which converts a DC current from the Alternating Current (AC) supplied to the SR motor by the inverter. The controller estimates an actual power output generated by the SR motor based on a DC voltage supplied by the DC power source to the inverter, and the converted DC current. The controller estimates an actual torque output based on the actual power output and a rotational speed of the SR motor. The controller compares the actual torque output and a desired torque output to calculate a torque error. The controller adjusts a torque output limit and the rotational speed of the SR motor.
US09941825B2
A chiller system includes a compressor configured to circulate a refrigerant between an evaporator and a condenser in a closed refrigerant loop and a synchronous motor configured to drive the compressor. The motor includes a stator winding and a rotor. The chiller system includes a controller configured to estimate a flux linkage of the rotor and generate a control signal for the motor based on the estimated flux linkage. Estimating the flux linkage includes applying a voltage of the stator winding to a transfer function having an error correction variable, using a first value of the error correction variable in the transfer function to obtain convergence of the flux linkage over an initial motor starting interval, and using a second value of the error correction variable after the initial motor starting interval to reduce an error in estimating the flux linkage.
US09941821B2
A piezoelectric transducer for energy-harvesting systems includes a substrate, a piezoelectric cantilever element, a first magnetic element, and a second magnetic element, mobile with respect to the first magnetic element. The first magnetic element is coupled to the piezoelectric cantilever element. The first magnetic element and the second magnetic element are set in such a way that, in response to relative movements between the first magnetic element and the second magnetic element through an interval of relative positions, the first magnetic element and the second magnetic element approach one another without coming into direct contact, and the interaction between the first magnetic element and the second magnetic element determines application of a force pulse on the piezoelectric cantilever element.
US09941819B2
A piezoelectric motor includes a rotating body, a piezoelectric actuator including a protruding section having contact with the rotating body, and adapted to rotate the rotating body due to a motion of the protruding section when driving a piezoelectric element, and a drive circuit adapted to drive the piezoelectric element, and the drive circuit includes a drive signal generation section adapted to output a drive signal with a predetermined frequency, and an LC filter adapted to block a frequency higher than the predetermined frequency, and applies the drive signal to the piezoelectric element via the LC filter.
US09941812B2
A power conversion apparatus can receive an alternating current (AC) signal at an input and provide in dependence thereon a low voltage direct current (DC) signal from an output stage. The apparatus comprises a main path comprising a capacitor in series with the input. The apparatus comprises a first path to carry current carried by the main path in at least one of a positive going part and a negative going part of the AC signal and a second path to carry current carried by the main path in a positive going part and a negative going part of the AC signal. The apparatus further comprises switches operative to determine when one of the first and second paths carries current. The output stage receives current flowing in the first path and at least one of the switches operates based on a control signal derived from the DC signal.
US09941811B2
A load control device for controlling power delivered from an AC power source to an electrical load includes a thyristor, a first current path for conducting current through a gate terminal of the thyristor, and a control circuit for controlling the first current path to conduct a pulse of current through the gate terminal to render the thyristor conductive at a firing time during a present half cycle. The first current path is able to conduct at least one other pulse of current through the gate terminal between the firing time, and a second time that occurs before an end of the present half-cycle, but is prevented from conducting pulses of current between the second time and the end of the present half-cycle. The load control device includes a second current path for conducting current through the electrical load if the thyristor becomes and remains non-conductive during the present half-cycle.
US09941807B2
A power conversion apparatus includes a rectifier to rectify a voltage of an input alternating current (AC) power source and a voltage drop device to output a dropped voltage using the voltage from the rectifier, and the voltage drop device includes a transformer and a communication voltage output device provided at a secondary side of the transformer to output a first direct current (DC) voltage for operation of a communication device. The communication voltage output device includes a first resistor provided at the secondary side of the transformer to reduce an output change rate of the first DC voltage and first and second zener diodes connected between the first resistor and ground to limit an upper limit of the first DC voltage. Accordingly, it is possible to stably supply a voltage to a communication unit while reducing standby power.
US09941806B2
The invention relates to a method for modulating the boost converter operating mode of a push-pull converter having a low-voltage-side circuit, having a first low-voltage-side switching device and a second low-voltage-side switching device; having a transformer having a high-voltage-side winding; and having a high-voltage-side circuit, which is configured as a full-bridge rectifier, having a first and a second rectification element which form a first half-bridge and a third and a fourth rectification element which form a second half-bridge; wherein the method comprises the steps of closing the first low-voltage-side switching device while simultaneously short-circuiting the high-voltage-side winding via the first or the fourth rectification element during a first time segment; opening the rectification element used for short-circuiting the high-voltage-side winding during a second time segment; opening the first low-voltage-side switching device and closing the second low-voltage-side switching device while simultaneously short-circuiting the high-voltage-side winding via the third or the fourth rectification element in the second half-bridge during a third time segment; and opening the rectification element used for short-circuiting the high-voltage-side winding during a fourth time segment.
US09941803B1
Embodiments of a controller integrated circuit (IC) device for a switched mode power converter and a method of operating a controller IC device of a switched mode power converter are described. In one embodiment, a controller IC device for a switched mode power converter an input/output unit connected to an input/output node of the controller IC device and a controller unit. The input/output unit is configured to receive an input current from the input/output node and output an output voltage through the input/output node in response to an input voltage received at the input/output unit. The controller unit is configured to control voltage regulation of the switched mode power converter in response to the input current received from the input/output unit and generate the input voltage for the input/output unit. Other embodiments are also described.
US09941802B2
A primary-side controller comprises a feedback (FB) terminal coupled to a light-receiving element of a photocoupler so as to receive a feedback signal from the photocoupler, and a current detection (CS) terminal that receives a current detection signal that corresponds to a voltage drop across a sense resistor RS. The primary-side controller includes a current mode modulator that generates a control pulse based on the voltage at the FB terminal and the voltage at the CS terminal. The primary-side controller is configured to be switchable between a normal mode and a burst mode. When the electrical state of the DC/DC converter satisfies a predetermined condition, a burst mode adjustment circuit inhibits transition to the burst mode, or otherwise forces transition from the burst mode to the normal mode.
US09941801B2
A class of switching power supplies that use a resonant isolation stage (typically LLC) fed directly or via a diode bridge from the line. Extension of the range of available gain values over frequency without material loss of efficiency is facilitated by usage of additional resonant elements. This capability allows the devices to provide narrow-range inputs to secondary-processing circuits, with the ability to achieve power factor correction if required. The conversion architecture is also compatible with optimal usage of energy storage elements suitable for use with switching power supplies.
US09941800B2
The disclosed embodiments provide a system that operates switched-mode power supplies, such as flyback converters. The power supplies may comprise isolated or non-isolated power converters. During operation, the system senses an on-time of a primary switch in the power converter. Upon detecting that the on-time does not exceed an on-time threshold within a first pre-specified period that spans one or more switching cycles, the system extends the on-time during a subsequent switching cycle to at least meet the on-time threshold. The system may then measure the voltage on one or more reference windings of the power converter during the on-time of the subsequent switching cycle, wherein the reference winding may comprise, e.g., an auxiliary winding of the primary winding of the power converter or a secondary winding of the power converter (e.g., in the case of isolated power converters utilizing a transformer).
US09941782B2
A switched-mode power supply system and method for converting an input voltage into an output voltage, including at least one switching stage controlled by a pulse-width modulation circuit in a clocked manner, and a control circuit that influences a pulse-width modulation circuit to vary the level of the output voltage, characterized by the provision of a current limiting circuit which, after a threshold voltage has been exceeded, limits the power supply output current first to an elevated maximum current for a first period of time, and thereafter to a regular maximum current. The control circuit is such that the first period of time for which the output current is limited to the elevated maximum current is dependent on the level of the output current.
US09941781B2
A multi-rail switching converter providing a plurality of output voltages has a master switching circuit, a plurality of slave switching circuits and a control circuit. The control circuit has an interleaving control circuit, the interleaving control circuit judges a phase zone of a corresponding slave switching circuit based on a switching control signal of the master switching circuit and a set signal of the corresponding slave switching circuit, and adjusts a turn-ON moment of the corresponding slave switching circuit based on the phase zone of the corresponding slave switching circuit.
US09941779B2
We claim a hammer driven actuator that uses the fast-motion, low-force characteristics of an electro-magnetic or similar prime mover to develop kinetic energy that can be transformed via a friction interface to produce a higher-force, lower-speed linear or rotary actuator by using a hammering process to produce a series of individual steps. Such a system can be implemented using a voice-coil, electro-mechanical solenoid or similar prime mover. Where a typical actuator provides limited range of motion or low force, the range of motion of a linear or rotary impact driven motor can be configured to provide large displacements which are not limited by the characteristic dimensions of the prime mover.
US09941778B2
The periodic magnetic field generator includes a flat-shaped first yoke, and a plurality of main permanent magnets, an auxiliary permanent magnet, and a side permanent magnet on the first yoke. The plurality of main permanent magnets are magnetized in a first direction of generating magnetic fields, the direction being perpendicular to the first yoke, and disposed such that orientations of the magnetization become opposite alternately in the first direction. The auxiliary permanent magnet is magnetized in a second direction perpendicular to side faces of the plurality of main permanent magnets, and placed between the side faces of the main permanent magnets. The side permanent magnet is magnetized in a third direction perpendicular to the first direction, and disposed so as to cover end faces of the main permanent magnets and the auxiliary permanent magnet, the end faces being perpendicular to the side faces of the main permanent magnets.
US09941772B2
The present invention provides a marine propulsion system that is suitable for any civilian and military marine vessels and which offers operational flexibility. The marine propulsion system includes a pair of ac busbars, each in parallel connection with a power converter. The respective power converters each connected in parallel to a propulsion motor.
US09941770B2
An electrical submersible pump assembly has a motor that drives the pump. The motor has a stator having a bore, a shaft extending through the stator, and rotor sections mounted to the shaft, each of the rotor sections having first and second end rings. A non rotating bearing body has a periphery retained in non rotating engagement with the bore of the stator. The bearing body has a first end axially spaced from the first end ring, defining a first gap, and a second end axially spaced from the second rotor ring, defining a second gap. A first thrust washer is located in the first gap. Each thrust washer has a metal or carbide thrust surface for contact with the bearing body and an elastomeric thrust surface for contact with one of the end rings.
US09941767B2
To provide a compact linear actuator having small back drive force. The linear actuator includes: a hollow rotor that has a magnet fixed to a part of the outer peripheral surface thereof and having an open end and a closed end; a main body that has a hollow structure having an open end and a closed end and rotatably accommodates the rotor in the hollow structure, and is fixed with a stator winding facing the magnet; a linear motion converting section that is arranged in the hollow section of the rotor and is linearly moved in the axial direction by the rotation of the rotor; a linear motion rod that has one end fixed to the linear motion converting section, and the other end extended from the open end of the main body, and has, on the outer periphery thereof, a slide section made to slide in the axial direction with respect to a linear motion seal of the opening of the main body; and a resolver that is configured by a rotator fixed at the radial outer side of the outer peripheral surface of the rotor and on the open end side of the closed end section of the rotor, and a stator fixed to the main body at a part of the angular range on the radial outer side of the rotator, the linear actuator being configured such that the rotor is supported by the main body at the open side and the closed end of the magnet and the stator winding so as to be rotatable about the axis of the rotor, and such that the whole of the hollow rotor is accommodated in the sealed space.
US09941766B2
A power connector for an electric motor is disclosed. The power connector includes a flange, a conductor rod, and an insulation sleeve. The conductor rod includes a first portion extending in a first direction from the flange and a second portion extending from the flange in a second direction, opposite the first direction. The second portion includes a lead wire connection end distal to the flange. The insulation sleeve covers the second portion from the flange to the lead wire connection end. The insulation sleeve includes a sleeve outer surface, and a sealing rib extending outward from the sleeve outer surface.
US09941764B2
The invention concerns an electric machine with a stator and a rotor, comprising a plate stack with a plurality of superposed plates with windings which can be energized. Disposed at at least one end of the plate stack is an insulating plate. Furthermore, insulating strips are provided on the plate stack, between adjacent windings, which are supported on radially protruding shoulders on the insulating plate.
US09941761B2
A blower motor is provided for use in a machine. The motor includes a stator and a rotor rotatable about an axis. The stator includes a generally toroidal core, a first-main winding, and an auxiliary winding that is electrically out of phase with the first-main winding. The first-main winding and the auxiliary winding are both full pitch windings.
US09941759B2
A unit winding formed by bundling conductor strands in a first slot first sectional region from one end in a stator axial direction toward the other end is turned back so that positions of the insulating conductor strands are inverted in the axial direction. The unit winding is disposed into a second slot third sectional region from the other end in the axial direction toward the one side, and turned back so that the positions of the strands are inverted in a circumferential direction. Then, the turned back unit winding is disposed into the first slot second sectional region from the one end in the axial direction toward the other side, and turned back so that positions of the strands are inverted in the axial direction. The unit winding is disposed in the second slot fourth sectional region from the other end in the axial direction toward the one end.
US09941757B2
In one possible embodiment, a magnet array for a motor is provided which has an array of permanent magnets being arranged such that flux from the permanent magnets reinforce on one side of the array and substantially cancel on an opposite side of the array, the array further includes flux concentrators located at poles on the reinforcing side of the array.
US09941753B2
A power transmission apparatus oscillates alternating current power at a first frequency (f1) which is lower than a resonant frequency (fr) of the second resonator and at a second frequency (f2) which is higher than the resonant frequency (fr). The power transmission apparatus measures an inductance value Lin (f1) and an inductance value Lin (f2). The inductance value Lin (f1) is measured when the oscillation circuit oscillates alternating current power at the first frequency (f1), and the inductance value Lin (f2) is measured when the oscillation circuit oscillates alternating current power at the second frequency (f2). The power transmission apparatus calculates a coupling coefficient k by using an expression represented by k2=1−Lin(f2)/Lin(f1), to detect relative position of the second resonator to the first resonator on the basis of the coupling coefficient k.
US09941750B2
The present invention relates to improvement of usability in the case of detecting a second power receiving apparatus during transmission of power to a first power receiving apparatus.A power transmitting apparatus includes a power transmitting unit that transmits power to a plurality of power receiving apparatuses by radio, and a switching unit that controls, in a case where power is being transmitted to a first power receiving apparatus by the power transmitting unit, a power transmission mode for transmitting power to the first power receiving apparatus, and a detection mode for detecting a second power receiving apparatus that is different from the first power receiving apparatus. The resolution for detecting the second power receiving apparatus in the detection mode is higher than the resolution for detecting the second power receiving apparatus in the power transmission mode.
US09941737B2
A system for providing power over Ethernet emergency lighting is disclosed. The system includes a rechargeable battery pack that is charged without interfering with data signals present on a power over Ethernet link that provides normal lighting. The system includes a power loss monitor for monitoring the presence of normal lighting power present on a power over Ethernet link without interference.
US09941734B2
A solar power generation system includes a storage battery, a solar power generation device that is provided on the side of the storage battery and outputs solar generated power, and a power control device. The power control device includes a variation component extraction unit that extracts a shade variation component from a generated power signal measured by the solar power generation device, a smoothing unit that smoothens the shade variation component obtained by the variation component extraction unit, a system output correction unit that obtains a system output power target value which is a combined output between a discharge output of the storage battery and the solar generated power on the basis of an output signal from the smoothing unit, and a charge/discharge output correction unit that corrects a charge/discharge target value which is a difference between the system output power target value and the generated power signal on the basis of a current time and a state of charge of the storage battery.
US09941729B2
Various embodiments of a single structure multiple mode antenna are described. The antenna is preferably constructed of a single layer having a first inductor coil that is electrically connected in series with a second inductor coil. The antenna is constructed having a plurality of electrical connections positioned along the first and second inductor coils. A plurality of terminals facilitates connection of the electrical connections thereby providing numerous electrical connection configurations and enables the antenna to be selectively tuned to various frequencies and frequency bands.
US09941723B2
Some embodiments relate to a power management system. The power management system includes a generator that provides a voltage output to a bus. The bus is adapted to be connected to a load. The power management system further includes a battery charger that is adapted to charge a battery. A generator controller operates the generator and also adjusts operating conditions of the battery charger. In some embodiments, the generator includes an internal combustion engine that drives an alternator. Embodiments are contemplated where the battery charger is adapted to receive power from a primary power source. As an example, the primary power source may be utility power or some other form of generator power.
US09941717B2
Provided is a battery device having high overcurrent detection current accuracy that suppresses increases in a resistance value of a charge/discharge path and in a manufacturing cost. A first charge/discharge control device is configured to monitor a charge/discharge current with a voltage generated across both ends of a charge/discharge control switch, and a second charge/discharge control device is configured to monitor the charge/discharge current with a voltage generated across both ends of a current sensing resistor. A field effect transistor forming the charge/discharge control switch is selected based on a desired ON resistance value. The charge/discharge control switch of the first charge/discharge control device includes a field effect transistor having the desired ON resistance value, and a charge/discharge control switch of the second charge/discharge control device includes a field effect transistor having an ON resistance value other than the desired ON resistance value.
US09941714B2
A battery system is described, comprising a battery management unit, a battery cell monitoring unit, at least one battery cell and a safety electronics system for the battery cell. The safety electronics system has a first comparator and an alarm signal output for an alarm signal. The first comparator compares a battery cell voltage of the battery cell to a predetermined threshold voltage value and generates the alarm signal on the basis of the comparison. The battery threshold voltage is lower than the battery cell voltage in normal operation and higher than a critical voltage value. In addition, a motor vehicle with the battery system is described, the battery system being connected to a drive system of the motor vehicle.
US09941710B2
A power supply charging system having first and second alternating power cells, a motor driven generator adapted to operably switch between providing power between the first and second alternating power cells, a third power cell which supplies power to the motor driven generator, and a control system having a power cell managing module and a charge control module. The power cell module is adapted to alternate the motor driven generator to operably switch between providing power to the first and second alternating power cells. The charge control module is adapted to detect the occurrence of a pre-determined power supply condition to activate the motor driven generator to provide power to the first or second alternating power cells. The power supply charging system may find particular use in generating a direct current, converting the direct current to an alternating current, and providing a continuous alternating current to a facility or equipment.
US09941705B2
The present invention provides various electric receiver arrangements included in clothing pieces that require electric current to perform tasks, such as warming, cooling and displaying. Suitable wireless sound power transmission techniques like pocket forming are used to provide the clothing pieces with wireless power. In some embodiments, receivers may include at least one sensor connected to at least one rectifier and one power converter. In other embodiments, receivers including a plurality of sensors, a plurality of rectifiers or a plurality of power converters may be provided, In addition, receivers may include communications components which may allow for communication to various electronic equipment including transmitters for controlling the temperature circuits.
US09941704B2
A number of load units are connected to receive power from a number of power supply units. A potential load bus is connected to have a voltage level representative of both a total potential power requirement of the number of load units and a total potential power supply capability of the number of power supply units. A first control circuit enables operation of the number of load units when the voltage level on the potential load bus indicates that a sufficient supply of power is available. An actual load bus is connected to have a voltage level representative of both an actual total power consumption of the number of load units and an actual total power supply available from of the number of power supply units. A second control circuit signals an impending loss of sufficient power supply based on the monitored voltage level on the actual load bus.
US09941700B2
An energy system includes renewable energy sources each including an inverter. The renewable source inverters are coupled to a distribution line in a manner wherein power combines additively. The system also includes an energy storage source including an energy storage inverter coupled to the distribution line between the point of interconnection and the renewable source inverters. Finally, a control system is structured to: (i) control a voltage at the point of interconnection by controlling a renewable source reactive power output by the renewable source inverters and an energy storage reactive power output by the energy storage inverter, and (ii) provide power ramp rate control for the renewable energy system by controlling at least one of a renewable source real power output by each of the renewable source inverters and a first energy storage real power output by the energy storage inverter.
US09941697B1
Systems and devices that provide a shared detuning, damping, or filtering element to one or more capacitors. A number of circuit branches are coupled in parallel to each other between a first coupling point and a second coupling point. A subcircuit is coupled between the second coupling point and a third coupling point. Each branch includes at least one capacitor that provides reactive power to power systems while the subcircuit is configured to provide detuning, damping, or filtering to the multiple branches.
US09941689B2
A switching mode power supply (SMPS) including a surge protection unit that is connected to a protection pin of a pulse width modulation (PWM) controller to cut off a power supply of the SMPS when a voltage that is applied to the protection pin exceeds a predetermined threshold voltage, where the surge protection unit blocks an external surge voltage lower than a surge protection capacity of the surge protection unit for blocking a surge voltage input from outside thereof, and, when the output voltage of the SMPS is not within the predetermined range, the surge protection unit applies a voltage obtained by subtracting the surge protection capacity of the surge protection unit from a predetermined feedback voltage output from a feedback unit to the protection pin, and where the surge protection capacity is set higher than the predetermined threshold voltage of the protection pin.
US09941685B2
A leakage protection method and device with live/neutral wire identification that identify live wire and neutral wire of a power supply by means of a live/neutral wire identification device, and correct live/neutral wire connections, so that a surface leakage signal pickup device is always connected to the neutral wire and to surface of the electric device, and electric potential of the surface is always monitored over the neutral wire. When the Surface leaks electricity, the leakage signal pickup device immediately drives an electromagnetic tripping device to break a main circuit switch, thereby breaking the connection between the electric device and the power source. The method and device work effectively even when the electric device is not grounded.
US09941684B2
A quadrilateral distance module may be used to detect faults in an electrical power system. A resistive coverage of the quadrilateral distance module may be defined by an adaptive resistance blinder. Tilt of the adaptive reactance element and resistance blinders may be limited. When an angle between the sequence-component based, current polarizing quantity and the element loop current does not exceed a predetermined angle threshold, the sequence-component based polarizing quantity may be used. Otherwise, the element loop current may be used to limit the tilt. Fault detection may comprise comparing both the adaptive resistance blinders for forward and reverse load flow conditions to power system stimulus and detecting a fault when the stimulus satisfy either blinder.
US09941682B2
A terminal-equipped wire is provided with an insulated wire including a core and an insulation coating covering the periphery of the core, a terminal including a wire connecting portion connected to the insulated wire, a heat shrinkable tube configured to cover the periphery of the wire connecting portion while being shrunk by receiving heat, and a sheet-like intervening member provided between the heat shrinkable tube and the terminal.
US09941681B2
A cable guiding-protecting chain comprises a plurality of chain members and at least a header. The chain members have a front end and a rear end that are pivotally connected to each other to form a chain. The header is pivotally to the chain member at a distal end of the chain and the header includes a base and a cover. The base has a body with a hole formed therein and a first fastening unit is provided in the hole. The cover has two side walls spaced apart from each other, a top wall connecting the two side walls and a second fastening unit provided to the two side walls, the second fastening unit of the cover is engaged with the first fastening unit of the base in the header so as to allow the two side walls, the top wall and the base to cooperate to define a receiving space through which a cable passes.
US09941677B2
An electrical wire guide including a plurality of link members that are lined up along one direction, and are coupled together so as to be rotatable relative to each other. The link members are respectively provided with: through holes that extend in an intersection direction intersecting a direction in which the link members are lined up; and lock protrusions that are each provided with a claw that is locked to a peripheral portion around the corresponding through hole and protrudes in the intersection direction. The lock protrusions of the plurality of link members protrude in the same direction. The link members are coupled together by the lock protrusions being locked to the through holes.
US09941670B2
A discharge device includes a power supply device supplying AC power for generating a discharge in a clearance to a discharge load having a high-voltage electrode and a grounding electrode arranged to face the high-voltage electrode with the clearance and connected to a ground GND and having a connection state detector detecting a connection state of an output path of AC power, and a controller controlling the power supply device by determining the existence of an abnormality in the connection state and deciding whether AC power can be supplied or not. In the case where a disconnection or a connection failure occurs in the output path of AC power to be supplied from the discharge device to the discharge load, apparatuses included in the discharge device are protected from damage as well as occurrence of a secondary disaster can be prevented and suppressed.
US09941667B2
A three-color light source 1 is a three-color light source that combines red, green, and blue laser light so as to output light. The three-color light source 1 includes a red LD 11, a green LD 12, a blue LD 13, a first collimator lens 61, a second collimator lens 62, a third collimator lens 63, a first wavelength filter 81, a second wavelength filter 82, a carrier 30 that is equipped with the LDs 11 to 13, the collimator lenses 61 to 63, and the wavelength filters 81 and 82, and a TEC 40 that is equipped with the carrier 30. The red LD 11 is formed of a GaAs-based material, and the green LD 12 and the blue LD 13 are formed of GaN-based materials.
US09941666B2
A method for producing a quantum cascade laser includes the steps of forming a laser structure including a mesa structure and a buried region embedding the mesa structure; forming a mask on the laser structure, the mask including a first pattern that defines a λ/4 period distribution Bragg reflector structure and a second pattern that defines a 3λ/4 period distribution Bragg reflector structure; and forming a first distribution Bragg reflector structure, a second distribution Bragg reflector structure, and a semiconductor waveguide structure by dry-etching the laser structure through the mask, the semiconductor waveguide structure including the mesa structure that has first and second end facets. The first distribution Bragg reflector structure is optically coupled to the first end facet. The second distribution Bragg reflector structure is optically coupled to the second end facet. Here, λ denotes a value of an oscillation wavelength of the quantum cascade laser in vacuum.
US09941656B2
A double-clad (DC) polarization-maintaining (PM) optical fiber comprises a core, an inner cladding, an outer cladding, and stress rods. The core has a core refractive index (ncore). The inner cladding is located radially exterior to the core and has an inner cladding refractive index (n1), which is less than ncore. The stress rods are located in the inner cladding, and each stress rod has a stress rod refractive index (n2), which is substantially matched to n1. The outer cladding is located radially exterior to the inner cladding. The outer cladding has an outer cladding refractive index (nout), which is less than n1.
US09941650B2
A plug includes a housing, a rotating mechanism, and a pair of pins. The rotating mechanism has a holding member, and a rotating member. The holding member is secured in the housing, and has an elastic arcuate portion having a plurality of recesses. The rotating member is rotatable relative to the holding member, and has a projection mating with each of the recesses of the arcuate portion of the holding member. The pair of pins are secured to the rotating member. The projection of the rotating member is movable along the arcuate portion of the holding member and presses the arcuate portion such that the arcuate portion is elastically deformed until the projection engages one of the recesses of the arcuate portion. When the projection engages one of the recesses, the rotating member and the pair of pins are held in a specific orientation.
US09941649B2
A connector includes a plurality of contacts each including first and second contact pieces provided with first and second contact portions at distal end sides, respectively, that come into contact with conductor portions of two insertable/removable connection objects when the connection objects are inserted, and a connection portion to be connected and secured to a board. The connector further includes a housing that holds the contacts in an array and includes an insertion opening of a shape that allows insertion of the connection objects and a battery from a same direction, and a terminal is arranged in the housing and spaced apart from the contacts in a width direction of the housing, the terminal including third and fourth contact pieces provided with third and fourth contact portions on distal end sides, respectively, configured to come into contact with the conductor portion of one of the connection objects and the battery.
US09941641B1
A new connector with effective shielding function. The new connector includes conductive shielding, a connector body and a set of terminals. The connector body is provided with a cavity within which the set of terminals can be accommodated and is made from plastic cement; the set of terminals are located within the cavity of the connector body. The conductive shielding can be inserted between the connector body and the set of terminals, and specifically includes several shielding bars and conductive areas; the shielding bars are made from metal, and the conductive areas, which are embedded in the shielding bars and connected with the ends of the set of terminals, are made from conductive plastic cement.
US09941640B2
A connector is provided and includes a housing with an electronic module receiving passageway positioned therein. The housing includes a first housing and a second housing. The first housing includes a pair of first sidewalls positioned opposite from each other and a pair of partitions forming a slot extending along each of the pair of first sidewalls. The second housing includes a pair of second sidewalls positioned opposite one another, an extension disposed on each the pair of second sidewalls and corresponding with the slot, and a plurality of ribs extending outward from the extension and corresponding with inner surface of the pair of partitions.
US09941639B2
A shielding system for high-current applications, having a connecting cable that has an insulated conductor (22) and a cable shielding surrounding the insulated conductor, as well as a shielding housing having a feed-through. In addition, the shielding system has a hollow cylindrical and electrically conductive shielding sleeve. The insulated conductor is fed through the shielding sleeve. The shielding sleeve is situated in the area of the feed-through of the shielding housing, so that the shielding housing abuts a jacket surface of the shielding sleeve. The cable shielding lies against a jacket surface of the shielding sleeve. The cable shielding is electrically connected to the shielding housing via the shielding sleeve.
US09941635B2
A connector housing includes a housing body and a fitting operation lever that has a swinging portion attached to the housing body rotatably. A part of the rib protruding toward the swinging portion narrows an interval between a curved portion of the housing body and the swinging portion to a predetermined value or below. A part of the rib protruding toward a direction separating from a lower surface of the housing body has a flat face. A distance between the rotary axis of the swinging portion and the flat face is larger than a distance between the rotary axis and a part of an outer circumferential edge of the swinging portion.
US09941634B1
Some embodiments of the present disclosure include a safety hook attachment for preventing the premature disconnect of a device from a cord. The safety hook attachment may include a fastening body configured to attach to the cord; a tail extending from the fastening body; and a connector attached to an end of the tail distal from the fastening body, wherein the connector may be configured to attach to the device to be connected to the cord.
US09941620B2
A housing for an electrical connector is disclosed. The housing has a base member and at least one wall element produced from a more wear-resistant material than the base member and including a positive-locking element. The wall element is connected to the base member.
US09941618B2
Having an advantage in user convenience, an electrical connector for connecting with an electrical cable under a do-it-yourself scenario is provided, where the cable has a knot at a cable end. The connector comprises a connector body and a cover. The connector body has an internal space for housing the knot, an opening for allowing the cable end to access the internal space, and an outlet for allowing the cable to run from the internal space to outside the connector body. The cover has a top plate for covering the opening. In particular, the cover includes two wings protruded from the top plate collectively for claiming the knot to secure the knot inside the internal space. A separation of the two wings is advantageously selected to be 2 times to 3 times of a cross-sectional width of the outlet for producing a clamping effect on the knot.
US09941617B2
A damping element for a plug-in connector is described, the plug-in connector comprising a socket and a connector pin pluggable into the socket. The damping element is configured to be disposed inside of the socket and comprises a first bearing face adapted for lying flat against the bottom of the socket and a second bearing face adapted for lying flat against the front face of the connector pin. Either a first shaft is attached at or integrally molded with the first bearing face or a second shaft is attached at or integrally molded with the second bearing face. The damping element is adapted for providing a damping effective in the axial direction between the connector pin and the socket.
US09941610B1
A distribution block element having dual-level opposed input and output couplings and integral mechanical connectors to additional adjacent distribution block elements, allowing expansion by addition of distribution block elements. First levels of the couplings are spaced apart for a fuse of a first size and the second, lower levels of the couplings are spaced apart for a fuse of a second size, and for direct flat plate conductors. When two elements are connected adjacently, the spacing between the second level of adjacent couplings is the same as the spacing between the second level of opposed couplings in each element. Thus, the flat plate conductors can be used both for electrically connecting opposed input and output couplings and for electrically connecting input couplings of adjacent elements. Notches in the flat plate connectors receive fasteners and two flat plate connectors can be juxtaposed to receive the same fastener without stacking.
US09941609B2
A coaxial cable-connector assembly comprising: (a) a coaxial cable; (b) a coaxial connector; (c) a rear body; and (d) a coupling nut. The coaxial cable comprises: an inner conductor; a dielectric layer circumferentially surrounding the inner conductor; an outer conductor circumferentially surrounding the dielectric layer; and a jacket circumferentially surrounding the outer conductor. The coaxial connector comprises: an inner contact electrically connected with the inner conductor; an outer body spaced apart from and circumferentially surrounding the inner contact; and a dielectric spacer interposed between the inner contact and the outer body. The rear body has a main section, a rear collet extending rearwardly from the main section, and a front engagement structure that coordinates with the outer body to engage the outer conductor. The nut has a threaded section and a tapered inner surface. Engagement of the nut with a threaded section on one of the rear body and the outer body advances the nut forwardly so that the tapered inner surface of the nut deflects the rear collet to engage the cable jacket.
US09941601B2
A transition portion (4) has a surface (14) that is formed extending upward. The surface (14) is a surface formed extending upward so as to face a bottom portion (6a). Specifically, the transition portion (4) has a cross-sectional shape in which upper edge portions of side portions (8a) are bent inward. As the surface (14) approaches a main terminal body (3) from a sealing portion (22), the surface (14) gradually separates away from the bottom portion (6a) and the edge portions of the surface (14) gradually open outward and connect to side portions (8b) of the main terminal body (3). The surface (14) is formed so as to be curved upward, in a cross-section, from the end portion of the sealing portion (22).
US09941600B2
A low profile conformal high gain multi-beam aircraft antenna includes antenna elements supported by a ground plane to create the low profile conformal high gain multi-beam aircraft antenna. Some of the antenna elements include a feeding waveguide flared in at least one of an h-plane and a v-plane. The antenna elements cooperate to create a gain pattern near a plane of the antenna.
US09941599B2
A three band whip antenna has a base where the whip antenna along its whole length or part of its length, has a lowest frequency band antenna element and an intermediate frequency band antenna element, wherein a highest frequency band antenna is included in the whip antenna at a position closer to base than the intermediate frequency band antenna element.
US09941596B2
A dual-polarized filtering antenna comprising a driven patch, a parasitic stacked patch and a feeding network is disclosed. Two orthogonal H-shaped feeding lines are coupled to the driven patch for realizing dual polarization. The H-shaped feeding line provides a sharp roll-off rate at the lower band-edge, whereas the stacked patch offers a radiation null at the upper stopband. As a result, a quasi-elliptic bandpass response can be achieved for both polarizations.
US09941595B2
A patch antenna with wider bandwidth, better axial ratio over the angle and controlled radiation patterns is provided. A central fixed patch antenna is surrounded with reactively or resistively loaded peripheral monopoles as surface-wave excited parasitic radiators. The surrounding monopoles may be printed on the same substrate as the patch, and may take a spiral (pin-wheel) shape.
US09941591B2
An antenna arrangement comprises a casing comprising a flange and a collar extending upwards from the flange. A magnetic loop antenna coil covers an outer surface of at least one of the flange and the collar at least partly. A magnetic material layer is arranged between the magnetic loop antenna coil and the outer surface of the flange and the collar to guide the magnetic flux generated by the magnetic loop antenna coil, the magnetic material layer covering both the flange and the collar at least partly.
US09941580B2
An antenna for receiving and transmitting radio signals, including a reflective unit, comprising a central reflective element; and a plurality of peripheral reflective elements, enclosing the central reflective element to form a frustum structure; and at least one radiation unit, disposed above the central reflective element; where the reflective unit is electrically isolated from the at least one radiation unit.
US09941575B2
In a general aspect, a mobile communications apparatus can include a housing and inductive coupling communication circuitry configured to communicate in peer-to-peer mode with a like apparatus. The inductive coupling communication circuitry can include a communication controller and an inductive antenna. The inductive antenna can have at least one loop arranged in series between a first connection point and a second connection point and be proximate to a back wall of the housing. The inductive antenna can be, when the mobile communications apparatus is placed back-to-back in longitudinal and latitudinal alignment with a like mobile communications device, asymmetric with a like inductive antenna of the like mobile communications device, where a ratio of a sum of respective surface areas of mutually opposite surfaces of loops of a same rank of the inductive antenna divided by a sum of respective surface areas of the like inductive antenna is 0.8 or less.
US09941571B2
Aspects of the present disclosure are directed a single clamp for securing one or more radiating elements to a reflector or similar component.
US09941569B2
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an antenna for a radio frequency (RFID) tag. A web of material is provided to at least one cutting station in which a first pattern is generated in the web of material. A further cutting may occur to create additional modifications in order to provide a microchip attachment location and to selectively tune an antenna for a particular end use application. The cutting may be performed by a laser, die cutting, stamping or combinations thereof.
US09941567B2
An electronic assembly and device are provided. The electronic assembly includes a first circuit board, with PCB pads located adjacent to an edge of the circuit board, and a corresponding plurality of contacts, each contact soldered to one of the PCB pads. Each contact has a first portion, soldered to the PCB pad, and a second portion that extends past the edge of the circuit board and forms a leaf spring. The leaf spring compresses when placed in contact with a PCB pad of a second circuit board, where the PCB pad is substantially coplanar with a surface of the second circuit board. A restoring force of the second portion maintains contact between the second portion and the PCB pad of the second circuit board. The contact forms an electrical connection between the PCB pad of the first circuit board and the PCB pad of the second circuit board.
US09941555B2
A perforation tool for a battery enclosure system of a vehicle battery pack, comprising: an engaging tip configured to mechanically breach a thermal-control-agent-retaining enclosure of a traction battery pack including a plurality of interconnected batteries with the enclosure reinforced for mechanical protection of the batteries when installed in an electric vehicle; a port for receiving a thermal-control agent having a pressure in a range of about 5-100 psi; and a housing, coupled to the tip and to the port, wherein the tip includes an aperture and wherein the housing includes a channel communicating the port to the aperture wherein the pressurized thermal-control agent is produced at the tip at about the pressure.
US09941554B2
A battery module includes a plurality of electrochemical cells and a structure including an upper portion configured to support a bottom portion of each of the plurality of electrochemical cells and a lower portion coupled to the upper portion. The lower portion includes a thermal management feature having at least one passage provided therein. The passage is configured for a thermal management fluid to pass therethrough to provide thermal management to the electrochemical cells of the battery module.
US09941544B2
A nonaqueous electrolytic solution that can provide a high energy density nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery having a high capacity, excellent storage characteristics, and excellent cycle characteristics and suppressing the decomposition of an electrolytic solution and the deterioration thereof when used in a high-temperature environment includes an electrolyte, a nonaqueous solvent, and a compound represented by general formula (1): wherein R1, R2, and R3 each independently represent a hydrogen atom, a cyano group, or an optionally halogen atom-substituted hydrogen group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, with the proviso that R1 and R2 do not simultaneously represent hydrogen atoms.
US09941543B2
A non-aqueous liquid electrolyte for a secondary battery, containing: a compound represented by formula (I); an electrolyte; and an organic solvent, in which the non-aqueous liquid electrolyte has a viscosity of 20 mPa·s at 25° C. or less, wherein Ra, Re and Rf each represent an organic group, and Re and Rf may be bonded with each other to form a ring; Xa represents a substituent represented by formula (a) or (b); Rb and Rc each represent a hydrogen atom or a substituent; and Rd represents a hydrogen atom or an organic group.
US09941540B2
This relates to a sinterable composite electrolyte compound, a sintered composite electrolyte, a method for manufacturing a sintered composite electrolyte and the use of the sintered composite electrolyte in a fuel cell, preferably a solid oxide fuel cell, an exhaust gas probe or a high-temperature gas sensor, and a fuel cell, preferably a solid oxide fuel cell, exhaust gas probe or high-temperature gas sensor containing the sintered composite electrolyte.
US09941536B2
A fuel cell module is made up of a fuel cell stack and fuel cell peripheral equipment. The fuel cell module includes a first area where an exhaust gas combustor and a start-up combustor are provided, an annular second area around the first area and where a reformer and an evaporator are provided, and an annular third area around the second area and where a heat exchanger is provided.
US09941535B2
A fuel cell module includes a first area where an exhaust gas combustor and a start-up combustor are provided, an annular second area around the first area where a heat exchanger is provided, an annular third area around the second area where a reformer is provided, an annular fourth area around the third area where an evaporator is provided. A plurality of heat exchange pipes are provided in the heat exchanger around a first partition plate. At least one of the heat exchange pipes has at least one constricted portion.
US09941533B2
An apparatus for generating injection current for a fuel cell stack includes a first converter configured to convert direct current of a voltage corresponding to a battery for a vehicle, into direct current of a predetermined voltage; a second converter configured to convert the converted direct current into alternating current; a filter configured to filter a signal of a predetermined frequency band from the converted alternating current; and a control unit configured to perform a feedback control to allow the filtered alternating current to be injected without being distorted when injecting the filtered alternating current into the fuel cell stack.
US09941529B2
An activation apparatus of a fuel cell stack is provided. The activation apparatus of a fuel cell stack which is provided to perform activation and evaluate performance of the fuel cell stack while the fuel cell stack enters a frame. The apparatus includes an output cable connecting unit that is movably installed back and forth along a side direction of the fuel cell stack in a motor operated manner, and is configured to connect an output cable with the fuel cell stack.
US09941522B2
A supercapacitor to be submerged in a medium containing a biological material and an oxidant, wherein the anode comprises a first enzyme that can catalyse the oxidation of the biological material and the cathode comprises a second enzyme that can catalyse the reduction of the oxidant, and wherein each of the anode and cathode electrodes consists of a solid agglomerate of a conductive material mixed with the first or the second enzyme, said agglomerate having a specific surface that is larger than or equal to 20 m2/g and an average pore size varying between 0.7 nm and 10 pm.
US09941518B2
Cathode binder composition having excellent binding properties and oxidation resistance. Also, cathode slurry, cathode, and lithium ion secondary battery produced using the cathode binder composition. The cathode binder composition contains a graft copolymer in which a monomer containing acrylonitrile as the main component is grafted onto polyvinyl alcohol having an average degree of polymerization of 300 to 3000 and a degree of saponification of 70 to 100% by mol. The cathode slurry contains the cathode binder composition, a cathode active material, and a conductive auxiliary. The cathode is produced using the cathode slurry. The lithium ion secondary battery contains a cathode prepared in this manner.
US09941515B2
Achieved is a nickel-cobalt-manganese composite hydroxide which is excellent in reactivity with a lithium compound, and excellent thermal stability and battery characteristics. The nickel-cobalt-manganese composite hydroxide is represented by a general formula: Ni1-x-y-zCoxMnyMz (OH)2 (0
US09941513B2
In a method of manufacturing a lithium ion secondary battery, first, lithium nickel manganese oxide which is a positive electrode active material is exposed to fluorine-based gas to form a coating film containing amorphous lithium fluoride on a surface of the positive electrode active material. Next, a phosphate compound is added to the positive electrode active material on which the coating film containing the lithium fluoride is formed. After a lithium ion secondary battery which includes a positive electrode including the positive electrode active material is formed, the lithium ion secondary battery is charged to form a coating film containing amorphous lithium phosphate on the surface of the positive electrode active material.
US09941507B2
A method for production of a thin-film battery includes providing a mount structure, applying of a first unmasked flow of a first electrode material to the mount structure in order to form a first electrode layer, applying a second unmasked flow of a battery material in order to form a battery layer, and applying a third unmasked flow of a second electrode material in order to form a second electrode layer. The applying steps are repeated in order to produce a thin-film battery which consists of a plurality of first electrode layers, a plurality of battery layers, and a plurality of second electrode layers.
US09941496B2
An on-board power source device comprises power storage modules. In the power storage modules, a plurality of power storage elements are arranged. The power storage module is stacked one upon another. An outlet of a discharge path is provided for discharging gas generated in the respective power storage elements. A frame member extends along the end portion of the power storage modules for fixing the respective upper and lower power storage modules. A bracket locates at the end portion of the power storage modules so as to cover the outlets, for fixing the upper power storage modules to the frame member. The frame member has a discharge space for discharging the gas to the outside of the vehicle. The bracket is provide with a passage part for communicating the outlet of the upper power storage module with the discharge space of the frame member.
US09941488B2
An organic light emitting display panel includes a base substrate, a pixel defining layer disposed on the base substrate, a light emitting structure disposed in an opening of the pixel defining layer, and a mirror pattern disposed on an upper surface of the pixel defining layer. The pixel defining layer defines the opening and includes the upper surface that is in parallel with a surface of the base substrate and a side surface that is connected to the upper surface. The mirror pattern makes contact with the pixel defining layer, and entirely covers the upper surface of the pixel defining layer.
US09941485B2
A display apparatus including a substrate; a display unit disposed on the substrate; a sealing layer disposed on the display unit; a touch screen layer disposed on the sealing layer; and a buffer layer disposed between the sealing layer and the touch screen layer. The sealing layer includes n sealing units each including an organic layer and an inorganic layer, in which n is an integer of 1 or greater. The organic layer and the inorganic layer are sequentially stacked on the display unit. The organic layer includes a cured product for forming an organic layer including a first photocurable monomer. The buffer layer includes a cured product for forming a buffer layer including a second and third photocurable monomer. The first and second photocurable monomers include a photocurable functional group. The third photocurable monomer is represented by Formulae 1A to 1C.
US09941481B2
A light-emitting element containing a fluorescent material and having high emission efficiency is provided. The light-emitting element contains the fluorescent material and a host material. The host material contains a first organic compound and a second organic compound. The first organic compound and the second organic compound can form an exciplex. The minimum value of a distance between centroids of the fluorescent material and at least one of the first organic compound and the second organic compound is 0.7 nm or more and 5 nm or less.
US09941478B2
An organic compound is represented by Chemical Formula 1, and an organic thin film, an organic thin film transistor, and an electronic device include the organic compound.
US09941467B1
A magnetic junction and method for providing the magnetic junction are described. The magnetic junction resides on a substrate and is usable in a magnetic device. The magnetic junction includes free and pinned layers separated by a nonmagnetic spacer layer. The free layer is switchable between stable magnetic states when a write current is passed through the magnetic junction. The free layer has a free layer perpendicular magnetic anisotropy energy greater than a free layer out-of-plane demagnetization energy. The free layer includes a [CoxFeyBz]uMot layer, where u+t=1, x+y+z=1 and u, t, x, y and z are each nonzero. The [CoxFeyBz]uMot layer has a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy energy greater than its out-of-plane demagnetization energy.
US09941465B2
A device includes a seed layer, a magnetic track layer disposed on the seed layer, an alloy layer disposed on the magnetic track layer, a tunnel barrier layer disposed on the alloy layer, a pinning layer disposed on the tunnel barrier layer, a synthetic antiferromagnetic layer spacer disposed on the pinning layer, a pinned layer disposed on the synthetic antiferromagnetic spacer layer and an antiferromagnetic layer disposed on the pinned layer, and another device includes a seed layer, an antiferromagnetic layer disposed on the seed layer, a pinned layer disposed on the antiferromagnetic layer, a synthetic antiferromagnetic layer spacer disposed on the pinned layer, a pinning layer disposed on the synthetic antiferromagnetic layer spacer, a tunnel barrier layer disposed on the pinning layer, an alloy layer disposed on the tunnel barrier layer and a magnetic track layer disposed on alloy layer.
US09941457B2
An exemplary thermoelectric generator unit according to the present disclosure includes a plurality of tubular thermoelectric generators. Each generator generates electromotive force in an axial direction based on a difference in temperature between its inner and outer peripheral surfaces. The unit further includes a container housing the generators inside and a plurality of electrically conductive members providing electrical interconnection among the generators. The container has fluid inlet and outlet ports through which a fluid flows inside the container, and a plurality of openings into which the respective generators are inserted. In one implementation, the unit includes a baffle, which is provided between the fluid inlet port and the generators and changes the flow direction of the fluid that has flowed into the container through the fluid inlet port.
US09941444B2
Embodiments of the invention include a semiconductor light emitting device. The device includes a substrate having a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface. The device further includes a semiconductor structure disposed on the first surface of the substrate. A cavity is disposed within the substrate. The cavity extends from the second surface of the substrate. The cavity has a sloped side wall.
US09941437B2
A solar cell has a condenser lens and a solar cell element, the solar cell element including an n-type InGaAs layer, an n-type GaAs layer, an n-type InGaP layer, the first InGaAs peripheral part having a thickness (d2), and a width (w2), the second InGaAs peripheral part having a thickness (d3), and a width (w3), the first GaAs peripheral part having a thickness (d5), and a width (w4), the second GaAs peripheral part a thickness (d6), and a width (w5), the first InGaP peripheral part having a thickness (d8), and a width (w6), the second InGaP peripheral part having a thickness (d9), and a width (w7), the following inequation set being satisfied: 1 nm≤(d2, d3, d5, and d6)≤4 nm, 1 nm≤(d8 and d9)≤5 nm, 100 nm≤(w2, w3, w4, w5, w6, and w7), the InGaAs center part having a thickness (w1), a window layer has a range S irradiated by sunlight having a width (w8); w8≤w1.
US09941434B2
A photoelectric conversion device of an embodiment has a substrate, a bottom electrode comprising an electrode layer on the substrate and an intermediate interface layer, a light absorbing layer on the intermediate interface layer. The electrode layer comprises Mo or W. The intermediate interface layer is a compound thin film of a compound comprising Mo or W and at least one element X selected from the group consisting of S, Se, and Te. The intermediate interface layer has a crystal phase and an amorphous phase with which the crystal phase is covered.
US09941421B2
A photovoltaic (PV) module safety shutdown system includes a module-on switch coupled with a PV module coupled with an alternating current (AC) mains panel through an inverter. A system monitor couples with the module-on switch and with the AC mains panel and generates a system-on signal. A module discharge switch couples with an inherent capacitance of the inverter and with the system monitor. The module discharge switch discharges the inherent capacitance, by coupling the inherent capacitance with a discharge element, in response to the system monitor not generating the system-on signal. In implementations a module short switch shorts the PV module in response to a passage of a predetermined amount of time after the module discharge switch is switched on. The module-on switch, module discharge switch, and module short switch may be included in a junction box of the PV module and coupled with the system monitor through multiple opto-isolators.
US09941414B2
In a transistor including an oxide semiconductor film, a metal oxide film which has a function of preventing electrification and covers a source electrode and a drain electrode is formed in contact with the oxide semiconductor film, and then, heat treatment is performed. Through the heat treatment, impurities such as hydrogen, moisture, a hydroxyl group, or hydride are intentionally removed from the oxide semiconductor film, whereby the oxide semiconductor film is highly purified. By providing the metal oxide film, generation of a parasitic channel on the back channel side of the oxide semiconductor film in the transistor is prevented.
US09941411B2
A method of fabricating a vertical field effect transistor including forming a first recess in a substrate; epitaxially growing a first drain from the first bottom surface of the first recess; epitaxially growing a second drain from the second bottom surface of a second recess formed in the substrate; growing a channel material epitaxially on the first drain and the second drain; forming troughs in the channel material to form one or more fin channels on the first drain and one or more fin channels on the second drain, wherein the troughs over the first drain extend to the surface of the first drain, and the troughs over the second drain extend to the surface of the second drain; forming a gate structure on each of the one or more fin channels; and growing sources on each of the fin channels associated with the first and second drains.
US09941398B2
A semiconductor structure comprises a semiconductive substrate comprising a top surface, a III-V compound layer over the semiconductive substrate, and a first passivation layer over the III-V compound layer. The semiconductor structure also includes an etch stop layer over the first passivation layer. The semiconductor structure further includes a gate stack over the first passivation layer and surrounded by the etch stop layer.
US09941394B2
The tunnel field-effect transistor includes a drain layer, a source layer, a channel layer, a metal gate layer, and a high-k dielectric layer. The drain and source layers are of opposite conductive types. The channel layer is disposed between the drain layer and the source layer. At least one of the drain layer, the channel layer, and the source layer has a substantially constant doping concentration. The metal gate layer is disposed around the channel layer. The high-k dielectric layer is disposed between the metal gate layer and the channel layer.
US09941389B2
Methods for fabricating and replicating self-aligned multi-tier nanoscale structures for a variety of cross-sectional geometries. These methods can utilize a single lithography step whereby the need for alignment and overlay in the process is completely eliminated thereby enabling near-zero overlay error. Furthermore, techniques are developed to use these methods to fabricate self-aligned nanoscale multi-level/multi-height patterns with various shapes for master templates, replica templates and nanoimprint based pattern replication. Furthermore, the templates can be used to pattern multiple levels in a sacrificial polymer resist and achieve pattern transfer of the levels into a variety of substrates to form completed large area nanoelectronic and nanophotonic devices using only one patterning step.
US09941387B2
A semiconductor device may include the following elements: a fin member including a first doped portion, a second doped portion, and a semiconductor portion positioned between the first doped portion and the second doped portion; a composite structure including a conductor and an insulator positioned between the conductor and the semiconductor portion in a first direction; a first spacer having a first dielectric constant and positioned close to the second doped portion; a second spacer having a second dielectric constant and positioned close to the first doped portion; and a third spacer having a third dielectric constant. The second spacer is positioned between the third spacer and the fin member in the first direction. The composite structure is positioned between the first spacer and the second spacer. The first dielectric constant is less than at least one of the second dielectric constant and the third dielectric constant.
US09941385B2
A structure including a gate electrode above and perpendicular to a plurality of semiconductor fins, a pair of spacers disposed on opposing sides of the gate electrode, and a gap fill material above a semiconductor substrate, directly below the gate electrode, and between the plurality of fins, the gate electrode separates the gap fill material from each of the plurality of fins.
US09941377B2
Semiconductor devices with wider field gates for reduced gate resistance are disclosed. In one aspect, a semiconductor device is provided that employs a gate. The gate is a conductive line disposed above the semiconductor device to form transistors corresponding to active semiconductor regions. Each active semiconductor region has a corresponding channel region. Portions of the gate disposed over each channel region are active gates, and portions not disposed over the channel region, but that are disposed over field oxide regions, are field gates. A voltage differential between each active gate and a source of each corresponding transistor causes current flow in a channel region when the voltage differential exceeds a threshold voltage. The width of each field gate is a larger width than each active gate. The larger width of the field gates results in reduced gate resistance compared to devices with narrower field gates.
US09941374B2
A semiconductor device and methods of forming the same are disclosed. The semiconductor device includes a substrate, first and second source/drain (S/D) regions, a channel between the first and second S/D regions, a gate engaging the channel, and a contact feature connecting to the first S/D region. The contact feature includes first and second contact layers. The first contact layer has a conformal cross-sectional profile and is in contact with the first S/D region on at least two sides thereof. In embodiments, the first contact layer is in direct contact with three or four sides of the first S/D region so as to increase the contact area. The first contact layer includes one of a semiconductor-metal alloy, an III-V semiconductor, and germanium.
US09941373B2
A device comprises a metal gate structure over a substrate, wherein the metal gate structure comprises a first metal sidewall, a metal bottom layer, a first corner portion between the first metal sidewall and the metal bottom layer, wherein the first corner portion comprises a first step and a first ramp, a second metal sidewall and a second corner portion between the second metal sidewall and the metal bottom layer, wherein the second corner portion comprises a second step and a second ramp.
US09941371B2
A complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) device and a method of fabricating a CMOS device are described. The method includes forming an interfacial layer in a trench on a substrate in both a p-channel field effect transistor (pFET) area of the CMOS device and an n-channel FET (nFET) area of the CMOS device, depositing a high-k dielectric on the interfacial layer in both the pFET area and the nFET area, selectively forming a first metal layer on the high-k dielectric in only the pFET area, and depositing a second metal layer on the first metal layer in the pFET area and on the high-k dielectric in the nFET area. The method also includes performing an anneal that increases a thickness of the interfacial layer in only the pFET area.
US09941369B2
The present disclosure relates to a memory cell comprising a vertical selection gate extending in a trench made in a substrate, a floating gate extending above the substrate, and a horizontal control gate extending above the floating gate, wherein the floating gate also extends above a portion of the vertical selection gate over a non-zero overlap distance. Application mainly to the production of a split gate memory cell programmable by hot-electron injection.
US09941366B2
Described herein is a semiconductor device comprising: a semiconductor substrate; a trench provided at a surface of the semiconductor substrate; a first insulating layer covering an inner surface of the trench; and a second insulating layer located at a surface of the first insulating layer in the trench. A refraction index of the first insulating layer is larger than a refraction index of the second insulating layer.
US09941362B2
A method of manufacturing a silicon carbide semiconductor device. The method includes providing an n-type semiconductor substrate having first and second principal surfaces, introducing an impurity from a first principal surface of the semiconductor substrate at a first position, activating the impurity to form a diffusion layer in the semiconductor substrate at a second position, implanting protons at a third position that is deeper from the first principal surface than the first position, the protons generating crystal defects in a region through which the protons pass, converting by thermal treating the protons into hydrogen induced donors to form an n-type field stop layer at a fourth position deeper from the first principal surface than the second position, reducing by the thermal treating the generated crystal defects to form an n-type crystal defect reduction region, and forming an electrode on the second principal surface after implanting the protons.
US09941360B2
A field effect transistor and a semiconductor device including the same are provided. The semiconductor device may include a channel layer, which is provided on a substrate and includes a two-dimensional atomic layer made of a first material, and a source/drain layer, which is provided on the substrate and includes a second material. The first material may be one of phosphorus allotropes, the second material may be one of carbon allotropes, and the channel layer and the source/drain layer may be connected to each other by covalent bonds between the first and second materials.
US09941350B1
A device includes a semiconductor substrate, a doped isolation barrier disposed in the semiconductor substrate and having a first conductivity type, a body region disposed in the semiconductor substrate within the doped isolation barrier, having the first conductivity type, and in which a channel is formed during operation, and a plurality of reduced surface field (RESURF) layers disposed in the semiconductor substrate. The plurality of RESURF layers are arranged in a stack between the body region and the doped isolation barrier. The plurality of RESURF layers include an upper layer having a second conductivity type, a lower layer having the second conductivity type, and an isolation coupling layer disposed between the upper and lower layers, in contact with the doped isolation barrier, and having the first conductivity type.
US09941348B2
The present disclosure provides a method of forming a capacitor structure and a capacitor structure. A semiconductor-on-insulator substrate is provided comprising a semiconductor layer, a buried insulating material layer and a semiconductor substrate material. A shallow trench isolation structure defining a first active region on the SOI substrate is formed, the first active region having a plurality of trenches formed therein. Within each trench, the semiconductor substrate material is exposed on inner sidewalls and a bottom face. A layer of insulating material covering the exposed semiconductor substrate material is formed, and an electrode material is deposited on the layer of insulating material in the first active region.
US09941342B2
An organic light emitting diode display includes: a substrate; a substrate insulating layer on the substrate; a capacitor on the substrate insulating layer; a driving thin film transistor including a driving gate electrode connected to the capacitor; and an organic light emitting element connected to the driving thin film transistor, where the capacitor includes: a first capacitor electrode on the substrate insulating layer; a second capacitor electrode on the first capacitor electrode; a capacitor insulating layer between the first capacitor electrode and the second capacitor electrode and contacting the first capacitor electrode and the second capacitor electrode, the capacitor insulating layer having a higher dielectric constant than the substrate insulating layer; and an auxiliary electrode contacting at least one of the first capacitor electrode or the second capacitor electrode.
US09941340B2
An organic light-emitting diode display is disclosed. The display includes a scan line formed over a substrate and configured to carry a scan signal. First and second data lines are adjacent to each other and crossing the scan line. The first and second data lines are configured carry a data voltage. A driving voltage line crossing the scan line is configured to carry a driving voltage, and a switching transistor is electrically connected to the scan line and the data line and includes a switching drain electrode configured to output the data voltage. A driving transistor includes a driving gate electrode and a driving source electrode electrically connected to the switching drain electrode. An OLED is electrically connected to the driving drain electrode of the driving transistor, and a connector is connected to the driving gate electrode of the driving transistor and interposed between the first and second data lines.
US09941331B1
A method is provided that includes forming a first level above a substrate, forming a second level above the first level, and forming a third level above the second level. The first level includes a plurality of first elements having a first minimum pitch, the second level includes a plurality of second elements having a second minimum pitch greater than the first minimum pitch, and the third level includes a plurality of third elements having a third minimum pitch greater than the first minimum pitch. The second elements are disposed above and aligned with a first plurality of the first elements, and the third elements are disposed above and aligned with a second plurality of the first elements.
US09941324B2
A semiconductor device includes: a thin film transistor including an oxide semiconductor layer that is formed in an island shape and contains at least one or more elements among indium, gallium, zinc, and tin and oxygen, a source and a drain that are connected to the oxide semiconductor layer; a protective film of at least one or more layers that is formed in an upper layer of the oxide semiconductor layer, and an opening portion that is disposed in the protective film and has a position and a size for including a channel region or a back channel region of the oxide semiconductor layer; and a photodiode that is disposed in an upper layer upper than the oxide semiconductor layer of the thin film transistor and includes a hydrogenated amorphous silicon layer.
US09941321B2
A semiconductor device includes a first semiconductor substrate, a second semiconductor substrate, a first main surface side of the first semiconductor substrate and a first main surface side of the second semiconductor substrate being bonded to each other; and a warpage correction layer which is formed on at least one or more selected from the first main surface side of the first semiconductor substrate, the first main surface side of the second semiconductor substrate, a second main surface side of the first semiconductor substrate, and a second main surface side of the second semiconductor substrate.
US09941318B2
Provided is a semiconductor device including: a multilayer substrate including an optical element; a light-transmitting plate provided on the substrate to cover the optical element; and a lens of an inorganic material provided between the substrate and the light-transmitting plate. A structure having a same strength as a strength per unit area of the lens is provided at a portion outside an effective photosensitive region where the optical element is formed, when the substrate is viewed in plan.
US09941317B2
A solid-state image sensor includes a plurality of first pixels and a plurality of second pixels. Each of the plurality of first pixels includes a first filter having a visible light transmittance higher than an infrared light transmittance, and a first photoelectric converter configured to receive visible light transmitted through the first filter, and each of the plurality of second pixels includes a second filter having an infrared light transmittance higher than a visible light transmittance, and a second photoelectric converter configured to receive infrared light transmitted through the second filter. The plurality of second pixels are divided into a plurality of groups each includes at least two second pixels. The solid-state image sensor includes a synthesizer configured to synthesize a signal from signals of the at least two second pixels included in each group.
US09941314B2
The present technology relates to a solid-state imaging device and a driving method thereof, and an electronic apparatus that make it possible to improve the precision of phase difference detection while suppressing deterioration of resolution in a solid-state imaging device having a global shutter function and a phase difference AF function. Provided is a solid-state imaging device including: a pixel array unit including, as pixels including an on-chip lens, a photoelectric conversion unit, and a charge accumulation unit, imaging pixels for generating a captured image and phase difference detection pixels for performing phase difference detection arrayed therein; and a driving control unit configured to control driving of the pixels. The imaging pixel is formed with the charge accumulation unit shielded from light. The phase difference detection pixel is formed in a manner that at least part of at least one of the photoelectric conversion unit and the charge accumulation unit refrains from being shielded from light. The present technology can be applied to, for example, a CMOS image sensor.
US09941313B2
A method of manufacturing a thin film transistor substrate includes forming a semiconductor pattern on a substrate, wherein the semiconductor pattern includes a first area, a second area, and a third area, wherein the second area and the third area are located on each side of the first area; forming an insulating layer on the substrate to cover the semiconductor pattern; forming a metal pattern layer on the insulating layer using a first photosensitive pattern; doping the semiconductor pattern with first impurities using the first photosensitive pattern; forming a gate electrode by patterning the metal pattern layer using a second photosensitive pattern; and doping the semiconductor pattern with second impurities having a lower concentration than the first impurities.
US09941309B2
To provide a semiconductor device including a capacitor whose charge capacity is increased without reducing the aperture ratio. The semiconductor device includes a transistor including a light-transmitting semiconductor film, a capacitor where a dielectric film is provided between a pair of electrodes, an insulating film provided over the light-transmitting semiconductor film, and a light-transmitting conductive film provided over the insulating film. In the capacitor, a metal oxide film containing at least indium (In) or zinc (Zn) and formed on the same surface as the light-transmitting semiconductor film in the transistor serves as one electrode, the light-transmitting conductive film serves as the other electrode, and the insulating film provided over the light-transmitting semiconductor film serves as the dielectric film.
US09941308B2
It is an object to decrease the number of transistors connected to a capacitor. In a structure, a capacitor and one transistor are included, one electrode of the capacitor is connected to a wiring, and the other electrode of the capacitor is connected to a gate of the transistor. Since a clock signal is input to the wiring, the clock signal is input to the gate of the transistor through the capacitor. Then, on/off of the transistor is controlled by a signal which synchronizes with the clock signal, so that a period when the transistor is on and a period when the transistor is off are repeated. In this manner, deterioration of the transistor can be suppressed.
US09941302B2
A semiconductor structure is provided that includes a plurality of high mobility semiconductor material (i.e., silicon germanium alloy of III-V compound semiconductors) fins located above and spaced apart from a bulk semiconductor substrate portion, wherein each of the high mobility semiconductor material fins has a lower faceted surface that is confined within a dielectric isolation structure.
US09941299B1
A three-dimensional memory device includes an alternating stack of word lines and insulating layers, vertical semiconductor channels vertically extending through the alternating stack, and a ferroelectric memory material located between each vertical semiconductor channel and the word lines.
US09941277B2
A semiconductor device can include a plurality of active patterns protruding from a substrate and spaced apart on the substrate by first and second distances. A plurality of selective epitaxial growth portions can be each grown on an upper surface of a respective one of the plurality of active patterns. A source/drain contact can be extending across the plurality of selective epitaxial growth portions to remain above top surfaces of first ones of plurality of active patterns that are spaced apart by the first distance between the first ones of plurality of active patterns and can include an extension that extends toward the substrate to below top surfaces of two of the plurality of active patterns that are spaced apart by the second distance between the two of the plurality of active patterns.
US09941273B2
A semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor substrate including a trench provided in a surface of the semiconductor substrate; a trench electrode provided in the trench; an interlayer insulating film covering a surface of the trench electrode and protruding from the surface of the semiconductor substrate; a Schottky electrode provided on the surface of the semiconductor substrate, provided in a position separated from the interlayer insulating film, and being in Schottky contact with the semiconductor substrate; an embedded electrode provided in a concave portion between the interlayer insulating film and the Schottky electrode and made of a metal different from a metal of the Schottky electrode; and a surface electrode covering the interlayer insulating film, the embedded electrode, and the Schottky electrode.
US09941272B2
A semiconductor body has a drift region layer, a body region layer adjoining the drift region layer, and a source region layer adjoining the body region layer and forming a first surface of the semiconductor body. At least two diode regions extend from the first surface through the source and body region layers into the drift region layer. Each diode region and the drift region layer form one pn-junction. At least two trenches have first and second opposing sidewalls and a bottom such that each trench adjoins the body region layer on one sidewall, one diode region on the second sidewall and one pn-junction on the bottom. In each trench, a gate dielectric dielectrically insulates a gate electrode from the semiconductor body. Sections of the source and body region layers remaining after forming the diode regions form source regions and body regions, respectively.
US09941263B2
Disclosed herein is a semiconductor integrated circuit device which includes a standard cell with a plurality of fins extending in a first direction and arranged in a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction. An active fin of the fins forms part of an active transistor. A dummy fin of the fins is disposed between the active fin and an end of the standard cell.
US09941261B2
A display device is disclosed, which comprises: a first substrate; a second substrate disposed adjacent to the first substrate and partially covering the first substrate, wherein the second substrate comprises a second arc edge and a second side, and the second arc edge connects to the second side; a driving unit disposed on a part of the first substrate uncovered with the second substrate; and a compensation panel disposed on the driving unit and comprising a third arc edge and a third side, wherein the third arc edge connects to the third side, wherein the third side corresponds to the second side, and the third arc edge corresponds to the second arc edge.
US09941258B2
An LED lead frame assembly includes a circuit strip assembly, a plastic dam member overmolded onto the circuit strip assembly and a LED chip assembly disposed in a pocket of the plastic dam member. The LED chip assembly is electrically coupled to the circuit strip assembly to power the LED chip assembly.
US09941256B1
A packaged inverse diode device exhibits superior commutation robustness. The device includes a stack of inverse diodes disposed within a housing. Each adjacent pair of inverse diodes is bonded together by an intervening DMB (Direct Metal Bonded) substrate structure. At one end of the stack of diode dice and DMB substrate structures is attached a first metal terminal. A second metal terminal is attached to the other end of the stack. The two terminals serve as package terminals of the overall device. In a novel method, the device undergoes severe commutation. A large forward current is made to flow through the diode stack, followed by a rapid reversal of the voltage across the stack to a large reverse polarity voltage. Despite a substantial rate of change of the commutation current at the onset of the reverse voltage condition, the inverse diode device is not damaged.
US09941250B2
A package structure to implement two-phase cooling includes a chip stack disposed on a substrate, and a package lid that encloses the chip stack. The chip stack includes a plurality of conjoined chips, a central inlet manifold formed through a central region of the chip stack, and a peripheral outlet manifold. The central input manifold includes inlet nozzles to feed liquid coolant into flow cavities formed between adjacent conjoined chips. The peripheral outlet manifold outputs heated liquid and vapor from the flow cavities. The package lid includes a central coolant supply inlet aligned to the central inlet manifold, and a peripheral liquid-vapor outlet to output heated liquid and vapor that exits from the peripheral outlet manifold. Guiding walls may be included in the flow cavities to guide a flow of liquid and vapor, and the guiding walls can be arranged to form radial flow channels that are feed by different inlet nozzles of the central inlet manifold.
US09941237B2
A semiconductor device includes: a substrate including a base member having a main surface and a back surface facing opposite in a thickness direction; a semiconductor element mounted on the main surface of the substrate and having at least one element pad; a wire having a bonding portion bonded to the element pad; and a sealing resin formed on the main surface of the substrate for covering the wire and at least a portion of the semiconductor element. The semiconductor element has an element exposed side surface that faces in a direction crossing the thickness direction of the substrate and is exposed from the sealing resin.
US09941219B2
Embodiments include semiconductor device packages and methods of forming such packages. In an embodiment, the package may include a die-side reinforcement layer with a cavity formed through the die-side reinforcement layer. A die having a first side and an opposite second side comprising a device side may be positioned in the cavity with the first side of the die being substantially coplanar with a first side of the die-side reinforcement layer. In an embodiment, a build-up structure may be coupled to a second side of the die. Embodiments include a build-up structure that includes a plurality of alternating layers of patterned conductive material and insulating material.
US09941217B2
A mark forming method includes: forming recessed portion on a mark formation area of a substrate; coating the recessed portion with a polymer layer containing a block copolymer; allowing the polymer layer in the recessed portion to form a self-assembled area; selectively removing a portion of the self-assembled area; and forming a positioning mark by using the self-assembled area from which the portion thereof has been removed.
US09941216B2
A conductive pattern including a teardrop shaped portion, a routing line, and a connection portion is provided. The routing line links to the teardrop shaped portion through the connection portion, and a width of the connection portion decreases along an extending direction from the teardrop shaped portion to the routing line. Furthermore, an integrated fan-out package including the above-mentioned conductive pattern is also provided.
US09941210B1
An embodiment of a semiconductor die includes a base semiconductor substrate and an electrically conductive through substrate via (TSV) extending between the surfaces of the base semiconductor substrate. The bottom surface of the base semiconductor substrate includes a recessed region proximate to the TSV so that an end of the TSV protrudes from the bottom surface, and so that the TSV sidewall has an exposed portion at the protruding end of the TSV. Back metal, consisting of one or more metallic layers, is deposited on the bottom surface of the base semiconductor substrate and in contact with the TSV. The back metal can include a gold layer, a sintered metallic layer, and/or a plurality of other conductive layers. The die may be attached to a substrate using solder, another sintered metallic layer, or other materials.
US09941207B2
A method of making a semiconductor device comprising the steps of providing a first manufacturing line, providing a second manufacturing line, and forming a first redistribution interconnect structure using the first manufacturing line while forming a second redistribution interconnect structure using the second manufacturing line. The method further includes the steps of testing a first unit of the first redistribution interconnect structure to determine a first known good unit (KGU), disposing a known good semiconductor die (KGD) over the first KGU of the first redistribution interconnect structure, and dicing the first KGU and KGD from the first redistribution interconnect structure. The method further includes the steps of testing a unit of the second redistribution interconnect structure to determine a second KGU of the second redistribution interconnect structure and disposing first KGU of the first redistribution interconnect structure and the KGD over the second KGU of the second redistribution interconnect structure.
US09941203B2
An antifuse structure including a first electrode that is present in at a base of the opening in the dielectric material. The antifuse structure further includes an antifuse material layer comprising a phase change material alloy of tantalum and nitrogen. A first surface of the antifuse material layer is present in direct contact with the first electrode. A second electrode is present in direct contact with a second surface of the antifuse material layer that is opposite the first surface of the antifuse material layer.
US09941188B2
An assembly includes an integrated circuit chip and a plate with at least one heat removal channel arranged between the chip and the plate. Metal sidewalls are formed to extend from one surface of the chip to an opposite surface of the plate. The assembly is encapsulated in a body that includes an opening extending to reach the channel. The plate may be one of an interposer, an integrated circuit chip, a support of surface-mount type, or a metal plate.
US09941184B2
A packaged assembly is disclosed, including thermal interface material dispensed on an organic package and methods of manufacturing. The method includes dispensing a thermal interface material (TIM) on an electronic assembly. The method further includes removing volatile species of the TIM, prior to lid placement on the electronic assembly. The method further includes placing the lid on the TIM, over the electronic assembly. The method further includes pressing the lid onto the electronic assembly.
US09941181B2
In various embodiments, a chip package is provided. The chip package may include a chip including a chip metal surface, a metal contact structure electrically contacting the chip metal surface, and packaging material including a contact layer being in physical contact with the chip metal surface and/or with the metal contact structure; wherein at least in the contact layer of the packaging material, a summed concentration of chemically reactive sulfur, chemically reactive selenium and chemically reactive tellurium is less than 10 atomic parts per million.
US09941176B2
A method for selective bump formation on a wafer includes performing a wafer test on the wafer. Known good dies (KGDs) on the wafer are identified based on the wafer test performed. Solder bumps are formed on the KGDs.
US09941169B2
An organic light emitting diode display device comprises a driving thin film transistor including a first semiconductor layer, a gate insulating layer formed on the first semiconductor layer. The device further includes a storage capacitor including a first capacitor electrode electrically coupled to a drain electrode of the driving thin film transistor, a buffer layer formed on the first capacitor electrode, a second semiconductor layer formed on the buffer layer, and a second capacitor electrode formed on the second semiconductor layer and electrically coupled to a gate electrode of the driving thin film transistor. The device also includes an organic light emitting diode connected to the drain electrode of the driving transistor. The gate insulating layer has at least one hole in a region where the gate insulating layer overlaps the second semiconductor layer, thereby exposing the second semiconductor layer to the second capacitor electrode.
US09941160B2
Integrated circuits and methods for fabricating integrated circuits are provided. In one example, a method for fabricating an integrated circuit includes forming a conductive plug that at least partially fills a contact seam void. The contact seam void is formed in a contact that extends through an ILD layer of dielectric material overlying a device region. A metallization layer is deposited overlying the contact.
US09941156B2
Devices and methods to reduce parasitic capacitance are disclosed. A device may include a dielectric layer. The device may include first and second conductive structures and an etch stop layer proximate to the dielectric layer. The etch stop layer may define first and second openings proximate to a region of the dielectric layer between the first and second conductive structures. The device may include first and second airgaps within the region. The device may include a layer of material proximate to (e.g., on, above, or over) the etch stop layer. The layer of material proximate to the etch stop layer may cover the first and second airgaps.
US09941155B2
Different portions of a continuous loop of semiconductor material are electrically isolated from one another. In some embodiments, the end of the loop is electrically isolated from mid-portions of the loop. In some embodiments, loops of semiconductor material, having two legs connected together at their ends, are formed by a pitch multiplication process in which loops of spacers are formed on sidewalls of mandrels. The mandrels are removed and a block of masking material is overlaid on at least one end of the spacer loops. In some embodiments, the blocks of masking material overlay each end of the spacer loops. The pattern defined by the spacers and the blocks are transferred to a layer of semiconductor material. The blocks electrically connect together all the loops. A select gate is formed along each leg of the loops. The blocks serve as sources/drains. The select gates are biased in the off state to prevent current flow from the mid-portion of the loop's legs to the blocks, thereby electrically isolating the mid-portions from the ends of the loops and also electrically isolating different legs of a loop from each other.
US09941154B2
In a particular embodiment, a method includes forming a second hardmask layer adjacent to a first sidewall structure and adjacent to a mandrel of a semiconductor device. A top portion of the mandrel is exposed prior to formation of the second hardmask layer. The method further includes removing the first sidewall structure to expose a first portion of a first hardmask layer. The method also includes etching the first portion of the first hardmask layer to expose a second portion of a dielectric material. The method also includes etching the second portion of the dielectric material to form a first trench. The method also includes forming a first metal structure within the first trench.
US09941153B1
A pad structure including a plurality of material pairs and a plurality of pads is provided. The material pairs are stacked on a substrate to form a stair step structure. A stair step of the stair step structure includes one of material pairs. Each of the material pairs includes a conductive layer and a dielectric layer on the conductive layer. Each of the pads is embedded in one stair step of the stair step structure and exposed by the dielectric layer corresponding to the one stair step and another stair step above the one stair step. A thickness of one of the pads is greater than a thickness of one of the conductive layers.
US09941152B2
Embodiments of mechanisms for forming a semiconductor device are provided. The semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate and a metal gate stack formed over the semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor device also includes an insulating layer formed over the semiconductor substrate and surrounding the metal gate stack, wherein the metal gate stack includes a metal gate electrode. The semiconductor device further includes a metal oxide structure formed over the insulating layer and in direct contact with the insulating layer. The metal oxide structure includes an oxidized material of the metal gate electrode.
US09941151B2
A method of forming a metallization layer of an IC having a lower via level and an upper trench level is disclosed. In one aspect, the method includes applying a dual damascene process to a stack of two layers. The bottom layer includes a porous low-k dielectric in which the pores have been filled by a template material. The top layer is a template layer. This stack is obtained by depositing a template layer on top of a porous low-k dielectric and annealing in order to let the template material diffuse into the pores of the low-k layer. At the end of the anneal process, a stack of a pore-filled layer and a template layer is obtained. Vias are etched in the low-k layer and trenches are etched in the template layer. The template pore-filling protects the low-k dielectric during plasma etching, metal barrier deposition and metal deposition.
US09941145B2
A temporary bonding arrangement for wafer processing is provided comprising a first temporary bond layer (A) of thermoplastic resin, a second temporary bond layer (B) of thermosetting siloxane polymer, and a third temporary bond layer (C) of thermosetting polymer. Layer (B) is cured with a curing catalyst contained in layer (A) which is laid contiguous to layer (B). An adhesive layer of uniform thickness is formed without insufficient step coverage and other failures.
US09941144B2
Apparatus, systems, and processes for substrate breakage detection in a thermal processing system are provided. In one example implementation, a process can include: accessing data indicative of a plurality of temperature measurements for a substrate, the plurality of measurements obtained during a cool down period of a thermal process; estimating one or more metrics associated with a cooling model based at least in part on the data indicative of the plurality of temperature measurements; and determining a breakage detection signal based at least in part on the one or more metrics associated with the cooling model. The breakage detection signal is indicative of whether the substrate has broken during thermal processing.
US09941142B1
Lithographic multilayer structures are disclosed that generally include an organic planarizing layer and a tunable titanium oxynitride layer on the organic planarizing layer, wherein the titanium oxynitride includes TiOxNy, and wherein x is from 2.5 to 3.5 and y is from 0.75 to 1.25. The lithographic multilayer structure further includes a photosensitive resist layer on the titanium oxynitride layer. The tunable titanium oxynitride is configured to function as a hard mask and as an antireflective coating. Also disclosed are methods for patterning the lithographic multilayer structures.
US09941136B1
A method is provided for creating a chamber on a semiconductor substrate, utilizing wet etching or dry etching, back-filling the chamber with a polymeric compound, and sealing the chamber.
US09941135B2
A method of forming a hard mask layer on a substrate includes forming an amorphous carbon layer using nitrous oxide (N2O). A source of carbon and the nitrous oxide (N2O) are introduced to the substrate under a plasma ambient of an inert gas. The amorphous carbon layer has a nitrogen content ranging from about 0.05 at % to about 30 at % and an oxygen content ranging from about 0.05 at % to about 10 at %. In forming a semiconductor device, the hard mask layer is patterned, and a target layer beneath the hard mask layer is etched using the patterned hard mask layer as an etch mask.
US09941126B2
A processing system is disclosed, having a power transmission element with an interior cavity that propagates electromagnetic energy proximate to a continuous slit in the interior cavity. The continuous slit forms an opening between the interior cavity and a substrate processing chamber. The electromagnetic energy may generate an alternating charge in the continuous slit that enables the generation of an electric field that may propagate into the processing chamber. The electromagnetic energy may be conditioned prior to entering the interior cavity to improve uniformity or stability of the electric field. The conditioning may include, but is not limited to, phase angle, field angle, and number of feeds into the interior cavity.
US09941125B2
A method of patterning a substrate includes forming a hard mask layer over the substrate; forming a first material layer over the hard mask layer; and forming a trench in the first material layer. The method further includes treating the hard mask layer with an ion beam through the trench. An etching rate of a treated portion of the hard mask layer reduces with respect to an etching process while an etching rate of untreated portions of the hard mask layer remains substantially unchanged with respect to the etching process. After the treating of the hard mask layer, the method further includes removing the first material layer and removing the untreated portions of the hard mask layer with the etching process, thereby forming a hard mask over the substrate. The method further includes etching the substrate with the hard mask as an etch mask.
US09941122B2
Methods of forming staircase-shaped connection structures of three-dimensional semiconductor devices
Provided is a staircase-shaped connection structure of a three-dimensional semiconductor device. The device includes an electrode structure on a substrate, the electrode structure including an upper staircase region, a lower staircase region, and a buffer region therebetween. The electrode structure includes horizontal electrodes sequentially stacked on the substrate, the horizontal electrodes include a plurality of pad regions constituting a staircase structure of each of the upper and lower staircase regions, and the buffer region has a width that is larger than that of each of the pad regions.
US09941121B1
Methods for preparing a patterned directed self-assembly layer generally include providing a substrate having a block copolymer layer including a first phase-separated polymer defining a first pattern in the block copolymer layer and a second phase-separated polymer defining a second pattern in the block copolymer layer. The block polymer layer is exposed to a gas pulsing carbon monoxide polymer. The gas pulsing is configured to provide multiple cycles of an etching plasma and a deposition plasma to selectively remove the second pattern of the second phase-separated polymer while leaving behind the first pattern of the first phase-separated polymer on the substrate.
US09941117B2
A p-channel tunneling field effect transistor (TFET) is selected from a group consisting of (i) a multi-layer structure of group IV layers and (ii) a multi-layer structure of group III-V layers. The p-channel TFET includes a channel region comprising one of a silicon-germanium alloy with non-zero germanium content and a ternary III-V alloy. An n-channel TFET is selected from a group consisting of (i) a multi-layer structure of group IV layers and (ii) a multi-layer structure of group III-V layers. The n-channel TFET includes an n-type region, a p-type region with a p-type delta doping, and a channel region disposed between and spacing apart the n-type region and the p-type region. The p-channel TFET and the n-channel TFET may be electrically connected to define a complementary field-effect transistor element. TFETs may be fabricated from a silicon-germanium TFET layer structure grown by low temperature molecular beam epitaxy at a growth temperature at or below 500° C.
US09941095B2
An object of the invention is to provide a charged particle beam apparatus which can perform optimized adjustment of a focusing condition of a charged particle beam focused on a sample and optimized adjustment of an orbit of a charged particle emitted from the sample. In order to achieve the above-described object, there is provided a charged particle beam apparatus including a passage restriction member that partially restricts passage of a charged particle emitted from a sample, a first lens that is arranged between the passage restriction member and the sample, and that controls an orbit of the charged particle emitted from the sample, and a second lens that is arranged between the passage restriction member and the charged particle source, and that changes a focusing condition of the charged particle beam in accordance with a control condition of the first lens.
US09941088B2
A field emission transistor includes a gate, a fold over emitter, and fold over collector. The emitter and the collector are separated from the gate by a void and are separated from a gate contact by gate contact dielectric. The void may be a vacuum, ambient air, or a gas. Respective ends of the emitter and the collector are separated by a gap. Electrons are drawn across gap from the emitter to the collector by an electrostatic field created when a voltage is applied to the gate. The emitter and collector include a first conductive portion substantially parallel with gate and a second conductive portion substantially perpendicular with gate. The second conductive portion may be formed by bending a segment of the first conductive portion. The second conductive portion is folded inward from the first conductive portion towards the gate. Respective second conductive portions are generally aligned.
US09941085B2
A movable arm is for a movable arm assembly of an electrical switching apparatus. The movable arm assembly includes a first separable contact. The electrical switching apparatus has a housing, an operating handle coupled to the housing, and a second separable contact located internal the housing and being structured to engage the first separable contact. The movable arm includes a first arm member structured to be coupled to the first separable contact; and a second arm member coupled to the first arm member, the second arm member being structured to be coupled to the operating handle. The first arm member is made from a first copper material and the second arm member is made from a second, different copper material.
US09941082B2
A float switch assembly for detecting fluid levels in a reservoir such as in a Christmas tree stand. When the fluid level drops below a predetermined point, the float switch activates an external circuit which provides a visual and/or audible signal. After the fluid level in the reservoir has been restored to the full position, the switch deactivates the external circuit and the visual and/or audible signal turns off. Also disclosed is a Christmas tree stand in combination with the float switch assembly.
US09941080B2
The invention relates to a conductor (2) for electrical equipment, the conductor comprising at least one hollow section member (2) of electrically conductive material that is elongate along a longitudinal axis (Y), the conductor having an outside surface in which at least a portion forms corrugations (23, 24) in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis. The conductor may advantageously form a movable contact (blade) (2) of a high voltage disconnector.
US09941071B1
A key structure includes a circuit board, a housing, a first metallic element, a second metallic element, a keycap and a conductive strip. The conductive strip is disposed within the housing. The first metallic element and the second metallic element are electrically connected with the circuit board. The housing is disposed on the circuit board. The keycap is fixed on the housing. While the keycap is depressed, a first end of the conductive strip is pressed by the triggering part and the conductive strip is swung relative to the housing. Moreover, a second end of the conductive strip collides with the second metallic element. Consequently, the key structure is triggered. When the second end of the conductive strip collides with the second metallic element, a click sound is generated.
US09941066B2
An operating device includes a first light source that emits light; a second light source that emits light; a light transmission member that includes a light transmission portion through which the light emitted from the first light source and the light emitted from the second light source are transmitted; and an accepting unit which has a substantially quadrilateral shape, which has four corners, which is disposed between the first light source and the second light source, which is provided such that an extension line of a diagonal that connects two of the four corners to each other passes through the first light source and the second light source, and which accepts an operation to be performed on an image forming apparatus that forms an image on a recording medium.
US09941063B2
A limit switch having a housing having a box, an attachment hold made in a side surface of the box, having a cylindrical bearing section, a rotating shaft rotatably inserted through the cylindrical bearing section, a cam unit provided in a leading end portion of the rotating shaft, and an operation lever provided in the other end portion of the rotating shaft. Rotational action of the operation lever is converted into vertical action by the cam unit in the box. A contact of a switch main body accommodated in and fixed to the housing is opened and closed. An outer diameter of the cam unit is smaller than an inner diameter of the attachment hole.
US09941060B2
Disclosed is a microswitch that allows the setting of the microswitch to be detected. The microswitch includes a conducting element movable along a surface that includes at least one conducting track that is contacted by the movable conducting element. Actuating the microswitch moves the movable conducting element along the surface resulting in electrically connecting or disconnecting two electrical tracks and causing electrical switching. In addition, the contact surfaces electrically connected by the conducting element may have different electrically conductive regions such that moving the connected surfaces changes the electrical resistances. Different switch positions can be determined by measuring resistance.
US09941056B2
An improved capacitor is provided with at least one anode having a dielectric on the anode and an anode lead extending from the anode. A conductive cathode layer is on the dielectric. An anode leadframe is electrically connected to the anode and a cathode leadframe is electrically connected to the cathode. An encapsulant encases the anode, a portion of the anode leadframe and a portion of the cathode leadframe such that the anode leadframe extends from the encapsulant to form an external anode leadframe and the cathode leadframe extends from the encapsulant to form an external cathode leadframe. At least one secondary electrical connection is provided wherein the secondary electrical connection is in electrical contact with the cathode and extends through the encapsulant to the external cathode leadframe or the secondary electrical contact is in electrical contact with the anode and extends through the encapsulant to the external anode leadframe.
US09941053B2
Capacitors, apparatus including a capacitor, and methods for forming a capacitor are provided. One such capacitor may include a first conductor a second conductor above the first conductor, and a dielectric between the first conductor and the second conductor. The dielectric does not cover a portion of the first conductor; and the second conductor does not cover the portion of the first conductor not covered by the dielectric.
US09941052B2
A multilayer ceramic capacitor includes a body and at least two outer electrodes. The body includes first and second main surfaces, an inner layer portion and first and second outer layer portions. In the inner layer portion, dielectric layers and conductive layers are alternately stacked on each other. The second outer layer portion includes an outer portion and an inner portion. A boundary region adjacent to the inner portion in the outer portion inclines toward the first main surface.
US09941050B2
A multilayer ceramic capacitor has a capacitor body of laminate structure and a pair of external electrodes, and shaped roughly as a rectangular solid defined by length L, width W, and height H. This multilayer ceramic capacitor is such that the width W and height H meet the condition of “1.10≤H/W≤1.70.”
US09941038B2
A steel slab having a chemical composition including C: not more than 0.005 mass %, Si: not more than 4 mass %, Mn: 0.03-2 mass %, P: not more than 0.2 mass %, S: not more than 0.004 mass %, Al: not more than 2 mass %, N: not more than 0.004 mass %, Se: not more than 0.0010 mass % and the balance being Fe and inevitable impurities is subjected to hot rolling, cold rolling and recrystallization annealing up to 740° C. at an average heating rate of not less than 100° C./s to produce a semi-processed non-oriented electrical steel sheet being high in the magnetic flux density and low in the iron loss after stress relief annealing.
US09941034B2
A direct write dispensing nozzle assembly and method of forming traces and twisted pairs via direct write dispensing. The method includes dispensing conductive material via an inner nozzle so as to form a conductive core. Non-conductive material may be dispensed via a peripheral nozzle surrounding the inner nozzle so as to form a non-conductive casing surrounding the conductive core. The first conductive core and the non-conductive casing may then be deposited on a substrate or other surface. The trace may be positioned on the substrate such that the non-conductive casing contacts a previously deposited trace. An additional conductive core may be dispensed within the non-conductive casing and the direct write dispensing nozzle assembly may be rotated so as to form a twisted pair.
US09941031B2
Provided is a method of manufacturing a downhole cable, the method including, forming a helical shape in an outer circumferential surface of a metal tube, the metal tube having a fiber element housed therein, and stranding a copper element in a helical space formed by the metallic tube. Also provided is a downhole cable including, a metallic tube having a helical space in an outer circumferential surface thereof, wherein the metallic tube has a fiber element housed therein, and a copper element, disposed in a helical space formed by the steel tube. Double-tube and multi-tube configurations of the downhole cable are also provided.
US09941025B2
A nuclear fuel includes a volume of a nuclear fuel material defined by a surface, the nuclear fuel material including a plurality of grains, some of the plurality of grains having a characteristic length along at least one dimension that is smaller than or equal to a selected distance, wherein the selected distance is suitable for maintaining adequate diffusion of a fission product from a grain interior to a grain boundary in some of the grains, the nuclear fuel material including a boundary network configured to transport the fission product from at least one grain boundary of some of the grains to the surface of the volume of the nuclear fuel material.
US09941020B2
A semiconductor device includes a plurality of first input pins; a parity check unit suitable for performing a parity check for command/address signals inputted to the plurality of first input pins, and determining the parity check result as a pass or fail; and one or more registers suitable for storing the inputted command/address signals when the parity check result is determined as the fail, wherein during a test operation, the number of signals having a first logic value among the command/address signals inputted to the plurality of first input pins does not correspond to the logic value of a parity bit.
US09941019B2
An embodiment of the disclosed technology provides a driving device for a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) and a method for manufacturing the same. The driving device comprises at least one first TFT and at least one second TFT formed a base substrate, wherein load of the first TFT is larger than load of the second TFT, the first TFT is of a top-gate configuration, and the second TFT is of a bottom-gate configuration.
US09941009B2
A memory device has a vertical structure in which a row decoder, a page buffer, and a peripheral circuit are disposed under a memory cell array. The row decoder and the page buffer may be asymmetrically disposed. The peripheral circuit is disposed in an area where the row decoder and the page buffer are not disposed. The row decoder and the page buffer may be symmetrically disposed with respect to an interface of planes. The peripheral circuit may be disposed in an area including a part of the interface of the planes.
US09940998B2
A memory device includes a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cells, a plurality of word lines connected to the plurality of memory cells, a plurality of bit lines connected to the plurality of memory cells, a plurality of complementary bit lines connected to the plurality of memory cells, a plurality of auxiliary bit lines, a plurality of auxiliary complementary bit lines, and a switch circuit. The switch circuit electrically connects the plurality of auxiliary bit lines to the plurality of bit lines during a write operation, electrically connects the plurality of auxiliary complementary bit lines to the plurality of complementary bit lines during the write operation, electrically disconnects the plurality of auxiliary bit lines from the plurality of bit lines during a read operation, and electrically disconnects the plurality of auxiliary complementary bit lines from the plurality of complementary bit lines during the read operation.
US09940988B2
A method of controlling a wordline by a driver decoder circuit includes generating a first control signal having a first logically high level and a first logically low level, and generating a second control signal having a second logically high level when the first control signal has the first logically high level and a second logically low level when the first control signal has the first logically low level. The first logically high level is different from the second logically high level, and the first logically low level is different from the second logically low level. The method includes coupling the wordline to a first node having a first voltage value in response to the first control signal having the first logically low level and decoupling the wordline from a second node having a second voltage value in response to the second control signal having the second logically low level.
US09940986B2
The present disclosure relates to semiconductor structures and, more particularly, to electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection structures for eFuses. The structure includes an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection structure operatively coupled to an eFuse, which is structured to prevent unintentional programming of the eFuse due to an ESD event originating at a source.
US09940983B2
A channel controlling device includes: a multiplexing circuit coupled to multiple channels for selecting a particular channel from the channels to output a channel data according to a selection signal, wherein the channels correspond to multiple predetermined digital numbers; a sorting circuit arranged to sort the predetermined digital numbers to form multiple sorted digital numbers according to a data output order of the channels; and an arbitration circuit, arranged to determine the selection signal according to the plurality of sorted digital numbers.
US09940979B2
A semiconductor device may include a first redistribution layer configured to allow for input and output of a first signal through the first redistribution layer. The semiconductor device may include a second redistribution layer configured to allow for input and output of a second signal through the second redistribution layer. The semiconductor device may include a first input/output (I/O) unit configured to input and output the first signal or the second signal through the first I/O unit. The semiconductor device may include a first selection unit configured to selectively couple a connection among the first redistribution layer, the second redistribution layer, and the first I/O unit in response to a logic level of a first selection signal. The semiconductor device may include a first selection signal generation unit configured to generate the first selection signal.
US09940964B2
An optical information recording/reproducing device which records an interference pattern between a reference beam and a signal beam as a hologram in an optical information storage medium or reproduces information from the optical information storage medium, the optical information recording/reproducing device includes a light source unit which emits a light beam, a signal-beam/reference-beam optical unit which generates the signal beam and the reference beam from the light beam and irradiates the optical information storage medium, a spatial light modulator which adds information to the generated signal beam, a photodetection unit which detects a reproduced beam from the optical information storage medium and acquires a reproduced image constituted by a plurality of pixels arrayed in a lattice shape, and a signal processing unit which performs equalization processing to a first pixel of the reproduced image to have a target characteristic.
US09940963B1
A method for manufacturing a magnetic media for magnetic data recording that improves smoothness for reduced magnetic spacing, and also improves mechanical integration to improve reliability and lifespan of the data recording system. A magnetic material such as a magnetic recording layer is deposited over underlying layers that include a substrate. A first etching is performed that employs a Xe plasma. A second etching is then performed that employs an Ar plasma. The two step etching process advantageously improves smoothness of the surface of the magnetic layer which allows for a thinner overcoat for reduced magnetic spacing. The two step etching process also results in less head disk crashes, resulting in improved reliability.
US09940961B2
A perpendicular magnetic recording medium includes a non-magnetic substrate; and a magnetic recording layer that includes magnetic crystal grains and a non-magnetic crystal grain boundary that surrounds the magnetic crystal grains, wherein the magnetic crystal grains contain an ordered alloy and the non-magnetic crystal grain boundary contains Ge oxides. The magnetic recording layer may have a granular structure. The magnetic crystal grains may be micronized to be sufficiently ordered and separated, and the perpendicular magnetic recording medium may have a high magnetic anisotropy constant Ku and high coercivity Hc.
US09940955B2
A read head is provided with a scissors sensor. The read head may include a bottom magnetic shield, and a first non-magnetic seed layer, a magnetic seed layer, a second non-magnetic seed layer, an antiferromagnetic layer, a coupling layer, a first free magnetic layer, a spacer layer, and a second free magnetic layer positioned above the bottom magnetic shield, in this order. A pair of magnetic side shield layers may be positioned on respective sides of the second free magnetic layer.
US09940954B2
A process according to one embodiment includes milling a media facing surface of a module having an array of sensors at a first angle, and milling the media facing surface of the magnetic head module at a second angle, not necessarily in that order. After the milling at the first and second angles, the media facing surface of the module is milled at a third angle between 55 degrees and 65 degrees from normal. An apparatus according to one embodiment includes a tape head module having an array of at least eight current perpendicular to plane sensors, wherein none of the sensors has a resistance more than about 10% away from the resistances of its nearest neighbors.
US09940950B2
Various embodiments described herein provide for substrate structures including uniform plating seed layers, and that provide favorable adhesion on dielectric substrate layers. According to some embodiments, a methods for forming a magnetic recording pole is provided comprising: forming an insulator layer; forming a trench in the insulator layer; forming an amorphous seed layer over the insulator layer; forming an adhesion layer over the amorphous seed layer, the adhesion layer comprising a physical vapor deposited (PVD) noble metal; forming a plating seed layer over the adhesion layer, the plating seed layer comprising chemical vapor deposited (CVD) Ru; and forming a magnetic material layer over the plating seed layer.
US09940939B2
The present disclosure provides methods, devices and computer program products for encoding and decoding of a vector of parameters in an audio coding system. The disclosure further relates to a method and apparatus for reconstructing an audio object in an audio decoding system. According to the disclosure, a modulo differential approach for coding and encoding a vector of a non-periodic quantity may improve the coding efficiency and provide encoders and decoders with less memory requirements. Moreover, an efficient method for encoding and decoding a sparse matrix is provided.
US09940932B2
This disclosure relates generally to speech recognition, and more particularly to system and method for speech-to-text conversion using audio as well as video input. In one embodiment, a method is provided for performing speech to text conversion. The method comprises receiving an audio data and a video data of a user while the user is speaking, generating a first raw text based on the audio data via one or more audio-to-text conversion algorithms, generating a second raw text based on the video data via one or more video-to-text conversion algorithms, determining one or more errors by comparing the first raw text and the second raw text, and correcting the one or more errors by applying one or more rules. The one or more rules employ at least one of a domain specific word database, a context of conversation, and a prior communication history.
US09940925B2
An apparatus comprises: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to: receive a spoken phrase associated with a printed phrase from a tamper-evident component of a product; obtain a notification associated with authentication of the product based on the spoken phrase; and provide the notification in a visual manner, in an audio manner, or a combined audio and visual manner. A method comprises: creating a tamper-evident component comprising an obscuring mechanism and a printed phrase, wherein the obscuring mechanism obscures the printed phrase from view; providing the tamper-evident component for integration into a product; receiving a spoken phrase from a first consumer; analyzing the spoken phrase; generating a notification associated with authentication of the product based on the analyzing; and transmitting the notification to the first consumer.
US09940922B1
Methods, systems, and computer readable media for utilizing ray-parameterized reverberation filters to facilitate interactive sound rendering are disclosed. According to one method, the method includes generating a sound propagation impulse response characterized by a plurality of predefined number of frequency bands and estimating a plurality of reverberation parameters for each of the predefined number of frequency bands of the impulse response. The method further includes utilizing the reverberation parameters to parameterize a plurality of reverberation filters in an artificial reverberator, rendering an audio output in a spherical harmonic (SH) domain that results from a mixing of a source audio and a reverberation signal that is produced from the artificial reverberator, and performing spatialization processing on the audio output.
US09940917B1
A noise generating clapper apparatus includes a main body sheet having a plurality of foldable flaps, the plurality of flaps having a front flap attached to a rear flap along a first fold line and a joint flap attached to the rear flap along a second fold line, and a clapper member pivotably mounted to the joint flap. The joint flap folds along the second fold line and the front flap folds along the first fold line to enclose the clapper member between the front and rear flaps in a secured position. The main body sheet is maneuvered in a shaking motion to permit the clapper member to pivot between the front and rear flaps, thereby enabling the clapper member to generate noise upon contact with the first fold line of the main body sheet.
US09940914B2
A controller of a score displaying apparatus operates in a view mode displaying a score on a screen of a user I/F 12, and a writing mode obtaining information indicating writing on the score via the user I/F 12. In response to one operation specifying one grand staff by a user in the view mode, the controller performs a process of enlarging an image of an image area to which the specified grand staff belongs and displaying the enlarged image on a foreground of a center of the screen, and performs a process of switching a control mode from the view mode to the writing mode.
US09940913B1
A single reed woodwind ligature system has an upper U-shaped structure for contacting the upper portion of a mouthpiece at one or more small areas of contact and for engaging a lower structure, preferably by threaded ends and nuts. A reed contactor plate contacts a reed at a portion of its bottom curved surface. At least one ball bearing sphere is located in aligned cavities of the lower structure and the reed contactor in a spaced-apart configuration and forms a pivot mechanism capable of roll, pitch and yaw rotations in three dimensions around the approximate center of the at least one sphere. Embodiments include multiple spheres and sphere-bearing pin contact combinations forming the three-dimensional adjustable pivot. A retainer holds the spherical pivot components together when the ligature system is not clamping the reed to the mouthpiece without hampering user adjustments in the three normal (roll, pitch and yaw) dimensional ranges.
US09940901B2
Systems and methods for performing optical image processing via a transparent display are disclosed. In one example approach, a method comprises determining a position of incident light on a see-through display device, determining a direction of the incident light relative to the see-through display device, and modulating, with the see-through display device, a transmission of the incident light through the see-through display device based on the determined position and determined direction of the incident light.
US09940900B2
A peripheral electronic device is described which is configured to communicate with a computing device comprising a display having a screen configured to display a virtual gaze cursor; wherein the peripheral electronic device comprises at least one user interface configured to trigger at least one operational command in response to interaction with a user, wherein the at least one operational command is associated with a current location of the virtual gaze cursor at the screen, and wherein a change at the current location of the virtual gaze cursor being displayed, is determined based on a shift of a user's gaze from a first location at said screen to a different location thereat, or based on a tilt of the user's head, or based on any combination thereof.
US09940889B2
A gate driving circuit including a plurality of stage circuits to output a plurality of gate signals, a N-th stage circuit of the plurality of stage circuits includes: an output pull-up part including a control electrode connected to a first node, the first node being configured to have a potential increase in response to a (N−1)-th control signal received from a previous stage circuit of the N-th stage circuit, the output pull-up part to receive a clock signal to output a gate signal of the N-th stage circuit; a control node pull-up part to control the potential of the first node by using the (N−1)-th control signal; and a control node pull-down part to discharge the first node to a second low voltage according to a (N+1)-th control signal, wherein the output pull-up part is to discharge the gate signal of the N-th stage circuit in a (N+2)-th stage circuit.
US09940886B2
A display device which prevents or minimizes the occurrence of flicker is provided. The display device includes a display panel having pixels, with data lines and gate lines that are respectively connected with the pixels. A display driving circuit is configured to vary a frame frequency of the display panel according to an operation mode, to select a gamma curve corresponding to the frame frequency. The selected gamma curve is one among gamma curves that are set so as to correspond to different frame frequencies. The display panel is driven based on the selected gamma curve.
US09940883B2
A vision inspection apparatus includes a tri-stimulus measuring part configured to measure gray tri-stimulus values of a sample grayscale and color tri-stimulus values of a full-grayscale, a color tri-stimulus generating part configured to generate color tri-stimulus values of the sample grayscale using the gray tri-stimulus values of the sample grayscale and the color tri-stimulus values of the full-grayscale, and a color correction value generating part configured to generate color grayscale correction value using the gray tri-stimulus values of the sample grayscale and the color tri-stimulus values of the sample grayscale.
US09940877B2
A gray-scale voltage generating circuit includes: a ladder resistor circuit including a plurality of resistors connected in series to one another, and configured to output a plurality of gray-scale voltages with different voltage values from ends of the respective resistors; and a constant current source configured to be connected in series to the ladder resistor circuit, in which the constant current source includes a current source transistor configured to be connected in series to the ladder resistor circuit, and a voltage setting section configured to select one voltage from the plurality of voltages and set the selected voltage as a voltage determining a current that is to flow through the current source transistor.
US09940871B2
In a method of sensing degradation of pixels in an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display device, the method includes: generating degradation sensing data for the pixels by sensing the degradation of the pixels; generating degradation estimation data for the pixels based on input image data for the pixels; setting a degradation baseline for each sensing channel based on the degradation estimation data; and determining degrees of degradation of the pixels based on a difference between the degradation sensing data and the degradation baseline.
US09940863B2
A display device according to example embodiments includes: a display panel including a plurality of pixels configured to display an image; a gamma voltage generator configured to generate a plurality of gamma sets respectively corresponding to a plurality of luminance ranges, and configured to compare a target luminance level with the luminance ranges to select a target gamma set among the gamma sets, and to generate a plurality of gamma voltages using the target gamma set, the target luminance level being a luminance level of the image; a first dimming controller configured to scale input image data based on the target luminance level; a second dimming controller configured to determine an off duty ratio of an emission signal based on the target luminance level; and a display panel driver configured to drive the display panel based on the input image data and the gamma voltages.
US09940859B2
A testing apparatus for testing a display apparatus includes a base substrate, a plurality of fixing tools on the base substrate to affix the display apparatus to the base substrate, the plurality of fixing tools being movable in a z-axis direction independently of each other, the z-axis direction extending along a normal direction to the base substrate, and a controller that controls the fixing tools to bend the display apparatus in two or more test patterns different from each other.
US09940858B2
A head-mounted display device including first and second display surfaces associated with first and second eyes of the user, a graphics processing unit, one or more hardware processors, and an adaptive rendering module. The adaptive rendering module is configured to identify a threshold frame time, the threshold frame time representing an upper threshold of time to render frame data by the GPU, receiving a first frame time associated with rendering a first frame to the first eye and second eye of the user, the first frame being rendered at a target resolution, determining that the first frame time exceeds the threshold frame time, and lowering the resolution below the target resolution for parts of a second frame associated with the first eye of the user while maintaining the resolution for parts of the second frame at the target resolution for images associated with the second eye of the user.
US09940857B2
A console assembly for an appliance has a light transmissive indicia assembly having at least one indicator and one operator control, a printed circuit assembly (PCA) mounted to the indicia assembly with touch circuit and light emitting diodes (LEDs) mounted to both sides of the PCA, and a light reflector disposed adjacent to the PCA and the LEDs.
US09940851B2
A system and device for controlling a display are disclosed. Data is examined, which correspond to an image to be shown with the display. Upon determining that said data comprise a critical item corresponding to an element of the image, the critical item is shown with an uncluttered view. Non-critical items corresponding to elements of the image are attempted to be shown as well, such that the critical item is not obscured and the image remains uncluttered.
US09940850B1
An interactive fire safety education kit includes a frame having a first section, a second section conjoined to the first section, and a third section conjoined to the second section. A first fire-simulating mechanism is rotatably coupled to the first section, a second fire-simulating mechanism adjustably coupled to the second section, and a third fire-simulating mechanism rotatably coupled to the third section. A flag and an associated mechanism are provided wherein the mechanism is capable of reciprocating the flag along a vertical path located adjacent to the third section as the third fire-simulating mechanism rotates in opposing rotational directions. A user interface is provided wherein the user interface is capable of generating an output that causes selective rotational displacement of the first fire-simulating mechanism, selective linear displacement of the second fire-simulating mechanism, and selective rotational displacement of the third fire-simulating mechanism, respectively.
US09940845B2
A healthcare education software, which is executed by an electronic healthcare education system, incorporates a medical content authoring software platform with a medical authoring interface, a medical training, simulation, and evaluation software platform with a virtual patient examination simulator and an interactive prediction table, and a computerized medical causal concept diagram construction and evaluation software platform with corresponding interfaces for training of medical students and other healthcare professionals. Preferably, the healthcare education software is connected to a robust medical information database that contains a wealth of physiological simulation animation files, evidence-based patient diagnostic information, and other pertinent medical information, which can be readily imported and utilized by a healthcare education content creator in creating and updating medical training contents via the medial authoring interface. The healthcare education software may be executed on a CPU and a memory unit of a computer system, a portable device, or another electronic device.
US09940844B2
The present disclosure relates to methods and tools for enhancing cognition and improving well being in an individual. The methods involve presenting to an individual a task to be performed, presenting to the individual an interference, and receiving inputs from the individual. Where the interference is a distraction, the individual is to ignore the interference. Where the interference is an interrupter, the individual is instructed to respond to the interrupter as a secondary task and is considered to be multi-tasking. Inputs are then also received from the individual pertaining to this secondary task. The methods encompass iterations of these presenting steps and receiving of the input, and generation of analysis and/or feedback to the individual. The analysis can include a comparison of the performances with or without each type of interference.
US09940843B2
Methods, systems, and devices for providing data from a server to a UAV, enabling the UAV to navigate with respect to areas of restricted air space (“restricted areas”). A server may receive from a UAV, a request for restricted area information based on a position of the UAV. The server may determine boundaries of a surrounding area containing the position of the UAV and a number of restricted areas. The server may transmit coordinate information to the UAV defining the restricted areas contained within the surrounding area.
US09940841B2
A navigation aid method to determine an improved trajectory between points of departure and arrival as a function of a trajectory cost, comprises: determining a grid of nodes, loading meteorological data at the nodes, determining for each node, an average instantaneous cost from a first instantaneous cost as a function of a ground speed taking into account meteorological data loaded at the node concerned, and from a second instantaneous cost as a function of a ground speed that does not take into account the loaded meteorological data, determining a length of a trajectory passing through the node and arriving at the point of arrival, determining a cost grid assigning, at each of the nodes of the grid, a local cost determined from the average instantaneous cost and the length, determining an improved trajectory from the cost grid, and graphically representing the improved trajectory and/or the cost grid to a crew.
US09940840B1
A computing system may obtain, for each vehicle of a plurality of vehicles located within a location area, navigation data that indicates a travel route for the vehicle. Based on the navigation data for the plurality of vehicles, the computing system determines a subset of the plurality of vehicles that are within a threshold distance of each other and have respective travel routes that at least partially overlap. The computing system selects, based on a set of selection parameters, two or more vehicles among the subset of vehicles to form a platoon of vehicles that travel in a coordinated arrangement in proximity to each other during at least a portion of the respective travel routes of the selected vehicles. The computing system can direct the selected vehicles to form the platoon of vehicles.
US09940822B2
There is provided a method of detection and monitoring of at least one position based activity by a subject, comprising: providing a wearable monitoring device including at least one position tag for tracking location of the subject in a space; collecting body movement and location data of the subject within the space based on the tracked location of the position tag; providing at least one activity sensor configured to sense at least one body movement of the subject within the space; collecting body movement data based on the activity sensor; correlating the body movement data with the location data; contextually analyzing the correlation to identify at least one abnormal event or at least one normal event based on subject body movement and location where the body movement is performed; and generating an alert indicative of the abnormal event or the normal event.
US09940818B2
The present invention relates to a method for controlling a mobile phone loss prevention function by means of Bluetooth earphones. The method includes: a link loss determination step (S10) of measuring a sensitivity of a signal transmitted/received between a mobile phone and the Bluetooth earphone and determining occurrence of a link loss; warning sound generation steps (S20, S40, and S60) of, when the link loss has occurred, generating a warning sound, which warns of loss of the mobile phone, through the Bluetooth earphone in such a manner as to amplify a volume of the warning sound from a low volume to a high volume for each step; and warning sound stop identification steps (S30, S50, and S70) of determining whether a warning sound stop button has been operated by a user who has recognized the warning sound and selecting whether the generation of the warning sound is to be stopped.
US09940813B2
A technique capable of immediately reporting to an operator an occurrence of abnormality in an electric tool is provided. A communication terminal 100 includes a communication-terminal-side control unit that determines whether abnormality has occurred in any of electric tools 10, 200, 300, and 400 based on information acquired from the electric tools 10, 200, 300, and 400 via wireless communication. When the communication-terminal-side control unit determines the occurrence of abnormality in any one of the electric tools 10, 200, 300, and 400, the occurrence of abnormality in the electric tool 10, 200, 300, or 400 is reported by at least one of a report unit included in the electric tools 10, 200, 300, and 400 other than the electric tool 10, 200, 300, or 400 in which the occurrence of abnormality is determined and a report unit included in the communication terminal 100.
US09940810B2
A person support apparatus, such as a bed, stretcher, cot, or the like, includes a fall detector. The fall detector is adapted to detect when a person associated with the person support apparatus has fallen and to issue a fall alarm. In some embodiments, the person support apparatus also includes an exit detection system that issues an exit alarm when the person exits from the person support apparatus. The fall alarm is given a higher priority than the exit alarm. The fall detector may include a camera, a thermal image sensor, a device worn by the person, or another sensor. The person support apparatus may also, or alternatively, include a timer for measuring how long an occupant remains out of the person support apparatus.
US09940807B1
A system for monitoring multiple patients within a facility comprises a plurality of monitoring apparatuses, a central communication hub, and a plurality of notification devices. The monitoring apparatuses generate data relating to the status of patients, and send the data to the communication hub. The data may include an alarm signal. In a variant, the monitoring apparatuses do not generate alarm signals. Rather the communication hub processes the data and generates alarms if needed. Alarms are sent by the communication hub to the notification devices to inform employees of the facility of the source of the alarm.
US09940802B2
A mounting assembly (10) for an electronic device (11) is disclosed. The mounting assembly (10) comprises an attachment part (12), a base (16), and an arm (14). The attachment part (12) is coupled to the arm (14) and the arm (14) is coupled to the base (16) such that the arm (14) is lockingly rotatable relative the base (16) about a rotational axis (18). The arm (14) comprises a housing and a locking member (20) being provided with a locking protrusion (30). The locking member (20) is coupled to the housing such that the locking protrusion (30) is radially displaceable in relation to the rotational axis (18). The base (16) is provided with a set of radially extending locking grooves (22). The locking protrusion (30) is received by one locking groove (22a) in response to a displacement of the locking member (20), whereby the arm (16) is rotationally locked.
US09940788B2
Disclosed is a method and system for preventing replay attacks for mobile promotions associated with promotion devices. Upon the occurrence of a promotion winning event such as a designated outcome of a game played on the promotion device the user, via a software application accessible to their mobile device, forwards images of the event to a server over a network. The server determines entitlement to the promotion and analyses data associated with the images and mobile device location and time to confirm that the event is new promotion winning event. Upon such confirmation an entitlement to the promotion is awarded to the user. The foregoing prevents unscrupulous users from logging multiple claims for the same promotion winning event.
US09940786B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for dynamically managing the distribution of prizes in a gaming system. In one aspect, a method includes initializing a digital interactive sweepstakes game, receiving player identification data, receiving player activity data, determining a player activity forecast based on the player activity data, updating a prizing algorithm based on the player activity forecast, applying the prizing algorithm to player activity data to identify a particular player, and distributing a prize to an account associated with the particular player.
US09940785B2
Various aspects are described herein for implementing in-game advertising, in-game product placement, and in-game promotion techniques in wager-based games conducted at an electronic gaming device of a casino gaming network. These techniques provide the ability for traditional video-type wager-based gaming machines (such as those deployed at casino gaming establishments) to be quickly and easily converted to wager-based games which support in-game advertising while still satisfying the strict regulatory compliance rules and regulations governing wager-based gaming.
US09940782B2
Examples disclosed herein relate to systems and methods, which may receive gaming data from one or more gaming tables. The systems and methods may obtain gaming data from one or more gaming tables via a network interface based on at least one of a searching structure and a search algorithm. The systems and methods may compare betting criterion to the gaming data. The systems and methods may initiate at least one of a wager based on a comparison of the betting criterion to the gaming data and a display of data related to a search result.
US09940781B2
Recording and reproduction of wagering game play step events occuring in multiple nested bonus games
A gaming system includes game-logic circuitry that primarily performs a casino wagering game. The casino wagering game includes gaming events (play steps) having outcomes that may trigger and perpetuate a multi-level bonus game. As the wagering game is performed, a game cycle data record is created containing game cycle data related to the outcome of the play steps. A predetermined number of the most recent game cycle data records are stored in non-volatile memory. Each game cycle data record includes a predetermined number of play step data records for the base-game, bonus-game-triggering, and bonus-game play steps, as performed in chronological order. When the predetermined number of play step data records is exceeded, the oldest non-triggering play step data record is removed from the game cycle data and accrued into summary data specific to a nested-depth of the play step for the game cycle.
US09940776B2
A bet sensor for sensing values of gaming tokens may include a bet placement surface configured and oriented to support a stack of gaming tokens thereon and an image sensor located and oriented to capture an image of a lateral side surface of at least one gaming token located on the bet placement surface. The image may depict the lateral side surface in a radial format. The bet sensor may include a processor in communication with the image sensor. The processor is configured to acquire image data from the image and analyze the image data to determine a wager value of the at least one gaming token. A gaming table may include such a bet sensor. The disclosure includes methods of operating such a gaming table.
US09940773B2
An automated vending system for retail locations can include: an exterior housing that houses a plurality of differently shaped items for purchase and return; a data processor that is disposed in the exterior housing and that is coupled to an external server having a database; a display device on a face of the exterior housing; a memory storing computer-executable instructions that cause the automated vending system to execute vending and returning of an item; a payment validation device that is configured to accept payment information; a storage area that holds a plurality of items; an item compartment that is disposed within the exterior housing and that is capable of opening to the user; an item dispenser that dispenses an item from the storage area to the item compartment; and a detector that is positioned to detect foreign activity within the item compartment.
US09940771B2
A method and associated security apparatus for providing security to an automatic teller machine (ATM) having a cash capture device in a presenter area of the ATM. The cash capture device is detected by a proximity detector in the security apparatus in the ATM. A detecting signal is generated by the proximity detector in response to the cash capture device being detected. The detecting signal is received by control circuitry in the security apparatus and in response, the control circuitry causes a dispensing shutter of the ATM to remain in an open position. Each proximity detector is electrically connected to the control circuitry. The dispensing shutter in the open position is configured, in an absence of the cash capture device in the ATM, to dispense paper currency processed and stored in the presenter area. Presenter belts in the presenter area transport the paper currency to a dispenser aperture.
US09940770B1
A coin acceptor includes main body having coin dispenser mounted therein, coin tubes mounted in the main body and disposed at the bottom side of the coin dispenser, and sensing device including multiple optical sensor modules respectively aimed at the coin tubes. The distance between each optical sensor module and the coins in the respective coin tube is calculated by: measuring the time taken for the reflected light to travel from the coins in the respective coin tube to the proximity sensor of the respective optical sensor module and then multiplying the time thus measured by the speed of light. The number of coins in each coin tube is calculated by: deducting the distance between the respective optical sensor module and the coins in the respective coin tube from the pre-measured depth of the empty coin tube, and then dividing the reminder thus obtained by the thickness of single coin.
US09940769B2
A wearable key fob is disclosed herein. The wearable key fob includes a wrist band including a slot and a key fob including a charging tab that fits into the slot of the wrist band; wherein the key fob is configured for vehicle operability and monitoring a user's health.
US09940767B2
A lock assembly for a closure comprises a housing, a handle and a latch plunger operably connected with the handle. A key lock has a locked and unlocked position. A lock cam is rotatably mounted in the housing and is operably connected with the key lock for rotation therewith. A link is operably connected with the crank arm and a deadbolt lock movably mounted in the housing for shifting between a locked position, wherein the closure is retained in the closed position, and an unlocked position, wherein the closure is free to be shifted between open and closed positions. The deadbolt lock is operably connected with the link to a motor. A computer input device mounted on the exterior portion of the housing is operatively connected with the motor, whereby entry of a preselected code actuates the motor and contemporaneously shifts the deadbolt lock between the locked and unlocked positions.
US09940760B2
A method for facilitating communication for diagnosis of automotive repair issues includes retrieving diagnostic data from a first processor in a first vehicle using a first diagnostic tool, and transmitting the diagnostic data to a server with a request for assistance from a first user who operates the first diagnostic tool. The server identifies a second user who has received diagnostic data from a second processor in a second vehicle with a second diagnostic tool that corresponds to the diagnostic data retrieved by the first processor in the first vehicle, and the server transmits a communication notification to an electronic communication device that is associated with the second user to establish a communication channel between the first user and second user regarding the vehicle issue.
US09940759B2
A drive data collection system includes an in-vehicle system and an information center. The in-vehicle system includes a data collector that repeatedly collects measurement values indicative of various indexes regarding a state of a subject vehicle, a model memory that memorizes model information regarding discretization rules that are shared by each of participating vehicles in the system, and a data discretizer that discretizes drive data, which includes time-series measurement values collected by the data collector, into multiple data parts according to the model information. The information center includes a data accumulator that accumulates the discretized drive data in a server. The in-vehicle system sends the discretized drive data to the information center through a communicator. Therefore, the drive data collection system efficiently collects the drive data in a versatilely-utilizable manner for the analysis of general driving practices/behaviors.
US09940757B2
A portion of a simulated element of a graphical simulation available for modification is identified in view of a cursor location associated with a user input device. The identified portion of the simulated element is selected for modification. The selected portion of the simulated element is then modified according to a direct manipulation of a display of the selected portion of the simulated element by a user using the user input device.
US09940755B2
Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for explorable augmented reality displays. An augmented reality service can receive a request for augmented reality display data. The request can be associated with a device. The augmented reality service can determine a location associated with the device and identify augmented reality data associated with the location. The augmented reality service can provide augmented reality display data to the device.
US09940750B2
Provided herein are methods and systems for role negotiation with multiple sources. A method for role negotiation can comprise rendering a common field of interest that reflects a presence of a plurality of elements, wherein at least one of the elements is a remote element located remotely from another of the elements. A plurality of role designations can be received, each role designation associated with one of a plurality of devices, wherein at least one of the plurality of devices is a remote device located remotely from another of the plurality of devices. The common field of interest can be updated based upon the plurality of role designations, wherein each of the plurality of role designations defines an interactive functionality associated with the respective device of the plurality of devices.
US09940748B2
A method or apparatus that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a method for adapting media content of a source device for a recipient device. Characteristics of a first environment of a source device and of a second environment of a recipient can be identified. At least one difference between the characteristics of the first environment of the source device and the characteristics of the second environment of the recipient device can be determined. A presentation of media content can be modified according to the at least one difference between the characteristics of the first environment of the source device and the characteristics of the second environment of the recipient device. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09940743B1
Systems and methods of identifying map tile nodes in a tree data structure are provided. Map tiles are generated, certain ones of which are identified as optimized based on sharing a predetermined attribute that could be redundant with that of other map tiles, eliminating the need to create selected subtrees descending from a parent node. A client device, detecting an error message indicating the absence of a tile in what would be the subtree, can request a parent node of the subtree. Also, a client device, prior to requesting a node below the default level, can consult a matrix that indicates whether the node exists and if not then select a parent node on the default level.
US09940733B2
Data destined for memory, i.e., data that was evicted at some level in the cache hierarchy is intercepted and subjected to compression before being sent to memory. Thereby, when the compression is successful, the memory bandwidth requirement is reduced, potentially resulting in higher performance and/or energy efficiency in some embodiments.
US09940728B2
System and techniques for computer vision assisted item search are described herein. A composite image, including visual data and depth data, may be obtained. The composite image may be filtered to isolate a clothing article represented in the composite image. A classifier may be applied to the depth data to produce a set of clothing attributes for the clothing article. The clothing attributes may then be provided to a remote device.
US09940725B2
A method for estimating the speed a first video camera when it captures a current image of a three-dimensional scene, the current image including pixels. The method includes storing a reference image corresponding to an image of the same scene captured by a second video camera in a different pose, the reference image including pixels. The method also includes storing the current image, containing for each pixel of the current image the measurement of a physical magnitude measured by that pixel, which is the same as the physical magnitude measured by the pixels of the reference image. The method further includes storing for each pixel of the reference image or of the current image the measurement of a depth that separates that pixel from the point of the scene photographed by that pixel, estimating the pose and speed of the first video camera.
US09940711B2
There is provided a computer-implemented method for detecting a fatty liver, comprising: receiving imaging data of a computed tomography (CT) scan performed using a single source CT Scanner with settings selected for imaging of non-fatty-liver pathology, segmenting a region of the liver by creating a binary image by applying binary segmentation to a sub-set of pixels of the imaging data according to a first set-of-rules, and mapping the region of liver of the binary image to the segmented region of the portion of the liver of the imaging data, calculating liver parameter(s) for the segmented region of the liver from Hounsfield unit (HU) value(s), and detecting the presence of a fatty liver by analyzing the calculated liver parameter(s) according to a second set-of-rules.
US09940709B2
An example method for diagnosing tumors in a subject by performing a quantitative analysis of a radiological image can include identifying a region of interest (ROI) in the radiological image, segmenting the ROI from the radiological image, identifying a tumor object in the segmented ROI and segmenting the tumor object from the segmented ROI. The method can also include extracting a plurality of quantitative features describing the segmented tumor object, and classifying the tumor object based on the extracted quantitative features. The quantitative features can include one or more texture-based features.
US09940708B2
One aspect of the present disclosure relates to a system that can perform double pulsed diffusional kurtosis imaging (DP-DKI). Image data can be received. The image data can be acquired using a double pulsed field gradient (d-PFG) diffusion sequence. A six dimensional (6D) diffusional kurtosis for the image data can be determined. A magnitude of the image data can be determined in terms of the 6D diffusional kurtosis. DP-DKI can isolate the contributions to the d-PFG diffusion sequence, which can represent leading diffusion effects, that cannot be seen from single pulsed field gradient (s-PFG) diffusion sequences.
US09940705B2
A fabricated device having consistent modulation between target and reference components is provided. The fabricated device includes a target component having a first modulation. The fabricated device further includes at least two reference components for the target component including a first reference component and a second reference component, where the first reference component and the second reference component each have the first modulation. Further, a system, method, and computer program product are provided for detecting defects in a fabricated target component using consistent modulation for the target and reference components.
US09940703B2
A property of a target structure is measured based on intensity of an image of the target. The method includes (a) obtaining an image of the target structure; (b) defining a plurality of candidate regions of interest, each candidate region of interest comprising a plurality of pixels in the image; (c) defining an optimization metric value for the candidate regions of interest based at least partly on signal values of pixels within the region of interest; (d) defining a target signal function which defines a contribution of each pixel in the image to a target signal value. The contribution of each pixel depends on (i) which candidate regions of interest contain that pixel and (ii) optimization metric values of those candidate regions of interest.
US09940700B2
An information processing apparatus for producing combined image data includes an image data acquiring unit that acquires two image data items a difference obtaining unit that obtains a difference in brightness between the data items a difference area identifying unit that identifies a difference area a surrounding brightness difference obtaining unit that obtains a difference between a brightness of the difference area and a brightness of an area located around the difference area a correction target area information producing unit that produces correction target area information which indicates a correction target area, in which one of the data items, having a greater difference obtained by the surrounding brightness difference obtaining unit, is used as the correction target area and a combined image data producing unit that produces the combined image data, based on the data items and the correction target area information.
US09940698B1
A method for processing an original image. The method includes: obtaining the original image of a writing board; identifying, within the original image, a first stroke by identifying a first plurality of pixels that exceed at least one intensity threshold; determining a geometric feature of the first stroke; selecting a region of the original image adjacent to the first stroke based on the geometric feature; determining an additional pixel in the region that corresponds to the first stroke; and adding the additional pixel to the first plurality of pixels. The first plurality of pixels correspond to the first stroke.
US09940695B2
Method for ensuring perfect stitching of a subject's images in a real-site image stitching operation
The present invention is to provide a method for ensuring perfect stitching of a subject's images in a real-site image stitching operation, which enables an electronic device to read two real-site images which are taken respectively of different parts of the same site and each of which has an overlap area of a common subject; to determine and choose an optimal stitching path bypassing the subject; to construct a mask diagram such that, within a difference diagram of the overlap areas, the farther a pixel on one side of the optimal stitching path is from the optimal stitching path, the greater the pixel's value, and the farther a pixel on the other side of the optimal stitching path is from the optimal stitching path, the smaller the pixel's value; and to stitch and fuse the overlap areas together through a fusion algorithm, with the mask diagram serving as a weight.
US09940686B2
Pixel values that were computed in a previous frame may be reused for the current frame, operating in a sort-middle architecture. A hash or some other compact representation of all the data used in a tile, including all triangles, uniforms, textures, shaders, etc. is computed and stored for each tile. When rendering the next frame, that compact representation is once again computed for each tile. In a sort-middle architecture, there is a natural break point just before rasterization. At this break point, the compact representation may be compared to the compact representation computed in the previous frame for the same tile. If those compact representations are the same, then there is no need to render anything for this tile. Instead, the contents of the color buffer or other buffers of the previous frame of the tile may be moved to the same buffer of the tile for the current frame.
US09940678B2
Automated systems and methods for implementing and managing the submission, quote, proposal and binding stages (i.e., placement process) for securing insurance coverage.
US09940674B2
A dynamic computer system assists users in selecting insurance coverage types and levels appropriate for their present financial circumstances. The computer system includes a graphical user interface (GUI) representative of a user's financial data and coverage recommendations. The system may further access third party data to validate and enrich coverage determinations.
US09940667B2
Systems and methods are provided for processing mass quote messages and generating market data. A mass quote message is received and individual orders are parsed and processed. Individual market data messages are stored in a market data message buffer. After all orders are processed, the contents of the market data message buffer is distributed as a single market data message.
US09940666B1
A system and method of conducting a computer-based, simultaneous, multiple round, descending clock auction for basic generation services (BGS) includes receiving bids by an application server host application for processing bids according to auction rules, for tranche units of BGS products, calculating next round prices, and sending round results to bidders, the subsequent round prices and a notice of the number of tranches bid during the previous round and/or the amount of excess supply offered. Subsequently, an electronic withdrawal request to remove tranches from a product and reduce a maximum number bids the bidder can make in future rounds, and/or bidder exit price, is received, but may be partially or fully refused. When the number of tranches bid are equal to or less than a certain threshold for each of the products, the auction may end and bidders are awarded an ending price for each of the products won.
US09940657B2
Disclosed are various embodiments for dynamically generating a network site for a topic. A set of search terms that are associated with one or more search engines are obtained. A respective set of items in an item catalog that are relevant for each of the search terms are identified. A respective network site is established for each of the search terms when the respective set of items includes at least a predefined number of items. The respective network site offers at least some of the respective items for sale.
US09940652B1
A novel and non-trivial system and method for restrictively exchanging and controlling vehicular data between communication devices of a private network is disclosed. A processor in communication with a plurality of user communication devices is used for controlling and restricting the exchange of vehicular data. In such network, the processor may establish a communication connection with an initiating communication device of an initiating user, receive initiating vehicular data from the initiating communication device and corresponding first users (e.g., defined trusted users) data, provide the initiating vehicular data to at least one available first user communication device, receive responding vehicular data responsive to the initiating vehicular data, and provide the responding vehicular data to the initiating communication device. Additionally, the processor may provide interested users who have not been defined as trusted users with the initiating product data and receive responding vehicular data from such interested users.
US09940635B1
Provided herein are systems, methods and computer readable media for managing a sales pipeline, and in some embodiments, calculating supply based on travel propensity. An example method comprises identifying a total demand for a promotion tuple at a geographic location, determining, using a processor, a promotion area for the promotion tuple, the promotion tuple comprising at least a category, price information and a geographic area, identifying one or more promotions offered by a promotion and marketing service that comprise at least the category and the price information of the promotion tuple, determining whether the total demand for the promotion tuple at the geographic location is satisfied, wherein the total demand is satisfied in an instance in which the geographic location is within the promotion area for the one or more promotions, and identifying a demand gap in an instance in which the total demand for the promotion tuple at the geographic location is not satisfied.
US09940625B2
Methods, devices and apparatuses pertaining to identifying the candidate road segments for autonomous operations are described. A method may involve obtaining data of a first plurality of road segments that are permitted for one or more autonomous operations. The method may further include generating a road segment template based on the data of the first plurality of road segments, and reconstructing a second plurality of road segments based on the road segment template to obtain a plurality of reconstructed road segments.
US09940624B2
A mobile payment device includes a contactless payment module, a processing module, and a display module. The contactless payment module is coupled to execute a credit payment transaction. The processing module is coupled to detect the executing of the credit payment transaction and retrieve credit image data based on the detecting. The display module is coupled to process the credit image data into a displayed credit image.
US09940622B2
A method and system for facilitating online payments are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a payment agreement is established at a payment service provider that defines terms of a payment relationship between a merchant and a user. The establishing of the payment agreement includes linking the payment agreement with a payment account of the merchant or user stored at the payment service provider. After establishing the payment agreement, a payment request associated with a transaction is received, whereby the payment request includes a unique identifier to identify the payment agreement stored at the payment service provider. Based on a verification that the payment request complies with terms of the payment agreement, the payment request is processed.
US09940604B2
A method and system for piece-picking or piece put-away within a logistics facility. The system includes a central server and at least one mobile manipulation robot. The central server is configured to communicate with the robots to send and receive piece-picking data which includes a unique identification for each piece to be picked, a location within the logistics facility of the pieces to be picked, and a route for the robot to take within the logistics facility. The robots can then autonomously navigate and position themselves within the logistics facility by recognition of landmarks by at least one of a plurality of sensors. The sensors also provide signals related to detection, identification, and location of a piece to be picked or put-away, and processors on the robots analyze the sensor information to generate movements of a unique articulated arm and end effector on the robot to pick or put-away the piece.
US09940600B2
A computer-implemented method is disclosed that includes capturing data about motion of a sports object caused by one or more athletes manipulating the sports object, transmitting the captured data out of the sports object wirelessly in real time while the one or more athletes are still manipulating the sports object, and presenting information that incorporates the captured data about motion of the sports objects with one or more wearable devices.
US09940590B2
The present disclosure relates to a system and method of generating a transaction count using filtering. Transaction data is collected for a set of transactions from an original data set. The collected transaction data is narrowed into a transaction data set by identifying a specific range of the data to be extracted. This transaction data set is filtered against one or more criteria. The transactions included in the transaction data set are then arranged into data packs in a format enabling efficient count generation. The count generation determines how many transactions meet the applied criteria. The data may then be efficiently stored in a database for later retrieval.
US09940589B2
Embodiments of the invention include a virtual reality system that includes an instrumented device used to present a virtual shopping environment to a simulation participant. The participant's interactions with the virtual shopping environment may be used to conduct market research into the consumer decision making process. The virtual shopping environment may include one or more smart objects configured to be responsive to participant interaction. The virtual shopping environment may recreate a real-world shopping environment.
US09940586B1
Systems and methods are provided for encoding two-qubit interactions. A quantum circuit comprises first and second logical qubits, each comprising a Bacon-Shor code block. A first edge of each logical qubit contains physical qubits each coupled to at least one neighboring physical qubit along the first edge along a first axis of the Bloch sphere and a second edge of each logical qubit contains physical qubits each coupled to at least one neighboring physical qubit along the second edge along a second axis of the Bloch sphere. A set of couplers couple the first and second logical qubits along the first axis of the Bloch sphere, with each of the set of couplers coupling a physical qubit along the second edge of the first logical qubit to a corresponding physical qubit along the second edge of the second logical qubit along the first axis of the Bloch sphere.
US09940576B1
In an approach to managing images and captions, one or more computer processors receive one or more captured images of including one or more subjects. The one or more computer processors identify the one or more subjects from the first image. The one or more computer processors identify the context of the first image of the one or more captured images containing the one or more subjects. The one or more computer processors analyze one or more social networking histories and relationships associated with the one or more subjects using recognition techniques. The one or more computer processors create one or more captions associated with the first image of the one or more captured images based on the social networking histories and relationships of the one or more subjects and the identified context of the first image of the one or more captured images containing the one or more subjects.
US09940575B2
As provided herein, a domain model, corresponding to a domain of an image, may be merged with a pre-trained fundamental model to generate a trained fundamental model. The trained fundamental model may comprise a feature description of the image converted into a binary code. Responsive to a user submitting a search query, a coarse image search may be performed, using a search query binary code derived from the search query, to identify a candidate group, comprising one or more images, having binary codes corresponding to the search query binary code. A fine image search may be performed on the candidate group utilizing a search query feature description derived from the search query. The fine image search may be used to rank images within the candidate group based upon a similarity between the search query feature description and feature descriptions of the one or more images within the candidate group.
US09940572B2
The present disclosure is generally directed to a method and computing device for determining whether a mark is genuine. According to various implementations, a computing device (or logic circuitry thereof) uses unintentionally-produced artifacts within a genuine mark to define an identifiable electronic signature, extracts certain attributes of the signature (such as deviation from the mean value for each band of the signature), and assigns numerical values to the extracted attributes in order to create a hash identifier that is significantly smaller than the electronic signature itself. The hash identifier is then used as an index for a database of electronic signatures (of genuine marks) to enhance the ease and speed with which numerous genuine signatures can be searched (e.g., in a database) and compared with signatures (of candidate marks.
US09940571B1
A transaction card for communicating data relating to a transaction may include a metal layer; a backing layer; and/or a radio frequency (RF) antenna layer positioned between the metal layer and the backing layer, where the RF antenna layer includes an RF antenna that may facilitate communicating the data relating to the transaction wirelessly via an RF signal, and the metal layer includes a plurality of holes to limit eddy currents in the metal layer to a threshold density, where the plurality of holes may extend from a top surface of the metal layer to a bottom surface of the metal layer, and the eddy currents may be caused by the RF signal.
US09940569B2
An RFID tag assembly (10) comprising: a passive mount-on-metal RFID tag (12) comprising an integrated circuit chip and an antenna provided on one side (14) of the RFID tag; a mounting base (16) made of an electrically conductive material; and a cover (18) made of a substantially RF transparent material and defining a recess (18a), wherein the RFID tag is mounted on the mounting base with said one side of the RFID tag coupled to a first side of the mounting base and wherein the cover is arranged over the RFID tag such that at least part of the RFID tag is located within the recess and the cover is fixed to the mounting base, such that the mounting base and the cover together encapsulate the RFID tag.
US09940561B2
Providing is a control method of the image forming apparatus that can prevent, when interrupting a printing process and resuming a printing process by supplying a print sheet or switching to other apparatus, not intending to mix the paper having quality of paper is different in the bundle of the printed documents in advance. It is the control method of the image forming apparatus that interrupts a printing process for a first image forming apparatus and resumes a printing process with the second image forming apparatus. The interruption step of recording interruption information including the specification information of the print sheet at the time of a printing process being interrupted for a first image forming apparatus. It has the resumption step of resuming the printing process in the second image forming apparatus based on interruption information including the specification information of the print sheet.
US09940557B2
A system prints a document by generating a device-dependent font that is appropriate for the document and the print device. The system does this by identifying a font for the document, identifying an affine transformation matrix for the font, using the device resolution and current page location of the print device to modify the affine transformation matrix to yield a current transformation matrix, adding a reverse of the current transformation matrix to the affine transformation matrix to yield a modified font matrix, and generate a print file using the modified font matrix. The print device then uses the print file print the document with a font corresponding to the modified font matrix.
US09940555B2
An RFID label processing system for processing base webs comprises a conveyor device configured to feed a base web along a predetermined conveyor path. The base web includes a sequence of processing segments, with each processing segment forming an RFID label. The processing system further comprises at least two processing modules which are arranged adjacent to the conveyor path, wherein the processing modules are spaced apart by a variable distance. At least one sensor module is configured to determine the position of the processing segments on the base web along the predetermined conveyor path and to output a segment position signal, so that a positioning module that is coupled to at least one of the processing modules and the sensor module may be configured to displace the at least one of the processing modules along the predetermined conveyor path depending on the value of the segment position signal.
US09940550B2
Techniques related to object detection using binary coded images are discussed. Such techniques may include performing object detection based on multiple spatial correlation mappings between a generated binary coded image and a binary coded image based object detection model and nesting look up tables such that binary coded representations are grouped and such groups are associated with confidence values for performing object detection.
US09940541B2
Various embodiments of the present invention relate generally to systems and processes for artificially rendering images using interpolation of tracked control points. According to particular embodiments, a set of control points is tracked between a first frame and a second frame, where the first frame includes a first image captured from a first location and the second frame includes a second image captured from a second location. An artificially rendered image corresponding to a third location is then generated by interpolating individual control points for the third location using the set of control points and interpolating pixel locations using the individual control points. The individual control points are used to transform image data.
US09940537B2
A medical image processing apparatus according to an embodiment includes setting circuitry, calculation circuitry, and recognition circuitry. The setting circuitry is configured to set a region of interest (ROI) of each of a plurality of sagittal plane images of medical images resulting from scanning an examinee. The calculation circuitry is configured to calculate an evaluation index based on a bipolarity feature of each block in the ROI related to change of pixel values and a similarity feature among the blocks. The recognition circuitry is configured to select the ROI according to the calculation result of the calculation circuitry and recognize a sagittal plane image in which the selected ROI is located as a target sagittal plane image of a median sagittal plane passing through a spine.
US09940536B2
According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a processor and a display controller. The processor inputs handwritten strokes. The display controller displays a first and second character in a font size, the first character corresponding to a first handwritten character detected from the strokes, the second character corresponding to a second handwritten character detected from the strokes, the font size determined based on a combination of an attribute of the first character and a size of at least one stroke of the first handwritten character or a combination of an attribute of the second character and a size of at least one stroke of the second handwritten character.
US09940532B2
A liveness detection apparatus and a liveness detection method are provided. The liveness detection apparatus may comprise: a specific exhibiting device, for exhibiting a specific identification content; an image acquiring device, for acquiring image data of a target object to be recognized during the exhibition of the identification content; a processor, for determining whether there is a reflective region corresponding to the identification content in the acquired image data, determining a regional feature of the reflective region when there is the reflective region, to obtain a determination result, and recognizing whether the target object is a living body based on the determination result.
US09940516B2
The present disclosure is directed towards a compact, mobile apparatus for iris image acquisition, adapted to address effects of ocular dominance in the subject and to guide positioning of the subject's iris for the image acquisition. The apparatus may include a sensor for acquiring an iris image from a subject. A compact mirror may be oriented relative to a dominant eye of the subject, and sized to present an image of a single iris to the subject when the apparatus is positioned at a suitable distance for image acquisition. The mirror may assist the subject in positioning the iris for iris image acquisition. The mirror may be positioned between the sensor and the iris during iris image acquisition, and transmit a portion of light reflected off the iris to the sensor.
US09940512B2
A head mounted display (HMD) can include a memory, a camera, an image sensor unit configured to sense hand-drawn information via the camera, a display unit configured to display the sensed hand-drawn information or at least one of complete information including the sensed hand-drawn information, the sensed hand-drawn information being partial information, a communication unit, and a controller configured to display the at least one of complete information including the sensed hand-drawn information by accessing the memory or a server.
US09940503B2
An authentication device may include a housing and a finger sensor carried by the housing and including first processing circuitry and a finger sensing area coupled thereto. The first processing circuitry may be configured to generate finger image data based upon a finger positioned adjacent the finger sensing area, and generate and store a first template based upon the finger image data. The authentication device may include second processing circuitry carried by the housing and configured to obtain the finger image data from the first processing circuitry. The second processing circuitry may be configured to generate a second template based upon the finger image data. The first processing circuitry may further be configured to obtain the second template from second processing circuitry, and validate the second template against the first template.
US09940496B2
Container for a foodstuff or beverage preparation machine are disclosed that contain beverage or foodstuff preparation material and include a code encoding preparation information. Beverage or foodstuff preparation machines and systems that can be utilized with the container are also disclosed. Methods of producing and using the containers, machines, and systems are also disclosed.
US09940494B2
An RFID reading apparatus (20) for shelf occupancy detection comprises an elongated antenna (18) with an outer conductor (26) and an inner conductor (28) arranged in the outer conductor (26), an RF transceiver (22) connected with the antenna (18), and a control and evaluation unit (24) configured to communicate with an RFID transponder (14) via the RF transceiver (22) and the antenna (18) by means of RFID signals. The outer conductor (26) comprises a plurality of slot structures (16) over its longitudinal extent each for transmitting and receiving RFID signals.
US09940493B2
Systems and methods of assigning an RFID chip and/or a participant number to an event participant who has preregistered for the event. The assignment of the RFID chip and/or participant number to the participant occurs in real-time while the event participant or a designated representative thereof is present at a designated pick-up location to pick up the RFID chip and/or participant number.
US09940487B2
A self-locking USB filter device is disclosed that comprises at least one permanently attachable self-locking USB plug having at least one locking tooth to permanently connect the permanently attachable self-locking USB plug to a USB jack of a protected computing apparatus. The self-locking USB filter protects the protected computing apparatus by blocking unauthorized data transfer and blocks all communication unless the authenticator is authenticated by software installed in the protected computing apparatus. A method of protecting USB jacks of a computing device is also disclosed.
US09940482B1
A method may include receiving content included in a social media post of a user; analyzing the content included in the social media post to determine a likelihood that the social media post contains security information associated with the user; transmitting an alert to a computing device of the user, based on the analyzing, that the content includes the security information associated with the user; and presenting an option to change the security information.
US09940477B2
A geolocation-based encryption method and system. The geolocation-based encryption method and system may comprise the steps of: providing an encryption application running on a first mobile computing device and a second mobile computing device; generating a key based, at least in part, of a geolocation data, a device identification data, and a unique file identifier associated with said digital content; selecting a target location on the first mobile computing device to create a GPS data, which may be a portion of the geolocation data; encrypting a digital content based on the key; establishing secure session(s) among the user, a recipient, and server(s); and transmitting the encrypted digital content to the server(s). The encrypted digital content may be transmitted from the server(s) to the second mobile computing device. The encryption application may decrypt the encrypted digital content based on the key.
US09940475B2
Corruption of program stacks is detected by using guard words placed in the program stacks. A called routine executing on a processor checks a guard word in a stack frame of a calling routine. The checking determines whether the guard word has an expected value. Based on determining the guard word has an unexpected value, an indication of corruption of the stack frame is provided. Some routines, however, may not support use of guard words. Thus, routines that are interlinked may have differing protection capabilities. In this situation, a determination may be made as to whether a caller routine supports guard word protection. Based on determining that the caller routine supports guard word protection, the called routine verifies the guard word.
US09940465B2
A hybrid string constructor includes a database configured to store a set of known concretizations. A processor is configured to compare the one or more string components to the set of known concretizations to determine string components from input string information that may be represented concretely, to abstract all string components that could not be represented concretely, and to create a hybrid string representation that includes at least one concrete string component and at least one abstracted string component. The set of known concretizations includes string configurations that cannot be interfered with by an attacker.
US09940462B2
Methods and apparatus for validating a system include reading protected record data for a section of the system from a secure storage element, and verifying integrity of the section of the system using the record data. The secure storage element independently verifies that all record data and data to be written to the system is valid.
US09940459B1
An apparatus includes a database configured to store a collection of files. The apparatus also includes a counter module configured to calculate a frequency of a data feature in the collection of files. The apparatus also includes a signature generation module operatively coupled to the counter module. The signature generation module is configured to generate a malware signature based on the frequency of the data feature in the collection of files. The malware signature includes an indication of one or more criterion for the data feature, and the malware signature is associated with a malware. The apparatus also includes a communication module configured to receive a target file, and a detection module operatively coupled to the communication module. The detection module is configured to classify the target file as the malware when the target file meets the one or more criterion of the malware signature.
US09940456B2
An embodiment includes a processor coupled to memory to perform operations comprising: creating a first trusted execution environment (TXE), in protected non-privileged user address space of the memory, which makes a first measurement for at least one of first data and first executable code and which encrypts the first measurement with a persistent first hardware based encryption key while the first measurement is within the first TXE; creating a second TXE, in the non-privileged user address space, which makes a second measurement for at least one of second data and second executable code; creating a third TXE in the non-privileged user address space; creating a first secure communication channel between the first and third TXEs and a second secure communication channel between the second and third TXEs; and communicating the first measurement between the first and third TXEs via the first secure communication channel. Other embodiments are described herein.
US09940450B2
The invention is a method and apparatus for managing the secure acquisition, storage and disclosure of confidential information, to facilitate identity rights management; and/or preemptively authorized data querying techniques to preserve the anonymity of disclosed personal data.
US09940425B2
A method and apparatus for camouflaging an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), wherein the ASIC comprises a plurality of interconnected functional logic is disclosed. The method adds functionally inert elements to the logical description or provides alternative definitions of standard logical cells to make it difficult for reverse engineering programs to be used to discover the circuit's function. Additionally, post processing may be performed on GDS layers to provide a realistic fill of the empty space so as to resemble structural elements found in a functional circuit.
US09940421B1
Simultaneous automatic placement and routing speeds up implementation an integrated circuit layout and improves the resulting layout such that the layout is more compact, has reduced parasitics, and has improved circuit performance characteristics (e.g., power, frequency, propagation delay, gain, and stability). A technique generates solutions based on a random normalized polish expression, and includes cost considerations based on routing of interconnect.
US09940419B1
Integrated circuit design layout files are partitioned into one or more design layout files containing data for Front-End-Of-Line sub-circuits and one or more design layout files containing data for Back-End-Of-Line sub-circuits. By sending each of the files to a separate foundry for manufacture, an intellectual property owner can ensure integrity of his property as no individual file alone contains sufficient information to deduce the overall function of the integrated circuit.
US09940415B2
A method and system for designing and implementing a finite impulse response (FIR) filter to create a plurality of output signals, each output signal having the same frequency but at a different phase shift from the other output(s), is described. Values are determined for the resistors, or other elements having impedance values, in a FIR filter having a plurality of outputs, such that each output has the same frequency response but a different phase than the other output(s). This is accomplished by the inclusion of a phase factor in the time domain calculation of the resistor values that does not change the response in the frequency domain. The phase shift is constant and independent of the frequency of the output signal.
US09940411B2
The technology disclosed describes systems and methods for implementing extensible browser executable components, such as popup controls for action, checkbox and radio button dropdown menus, modals, dialogs, date pickers and autocompletes. The disclosed technology systems and methods can also be used for rendering executable components for mobile application interfaces. The technology further discloses systems and methods for providing support for developers whose goal is to render specific implementations of browser executable components. The technology disclosed also describes systems and methods for bypassing suppression of DOM click event bubbling for a popup controls for action, checkbox and radio button dropdown menus, modals, dialogs, date pickers and autocompletes; and discloses systems and methods for implementing modal interaction between an iframe and a popup control.
US09940406B2
The present invention discloses a method and system for managing a database. According to embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a method for managing a database, each item of data in the database being associated with a timestamp and a data point, the timestamps being used as row keys for rows of a table in the database, the method comprising: obtaining a behavior characteristic of a user based on a previous data access to the database by the user; partitioning columns in the table into column families based on the obtained behavior characteristic and system configuration of the database; and causing data in the database to be stored in respective column families at least in part based on the associated data point. There is further disclosed a corresponding system.
US09940390B1
A technique is described herein for controlling equipment in a local environment. The technique can use a conversational interface component to receive messages from any user in a group of users. In a media-related context, a media BOT receives each message and determines whether it contains a command to play a particular media item. If so, the media BOT formulates the message as an input query and sends the input query to a search system, with instruction to perform a domain-specific search. The search system identifies a top-ranked media item based on the input query, selected from among a curated media-specific corpus. By virtue of the use of the scoped search system, the technique can successfully leverage preexisting linguistic processing mechanisms. The technique can also generate group profiles associated with users who interact with the conversational interface component, and then use the group profiles to automatically select media items.
US09940384B2
A mechanism is provided in a data processing system for statistical clustering inferred from natural language to drive relevant analysis. The mechanism receives a natural language text from a user and processes the natural language text to identify an entity of interest and a focus of statistical analysis. The mechanism performs a follow-up question and answer conversation with the user to receiving from the user one or more driving factor values for the one or more driving factors. The mechanism determines at least one cluster of entities matching the one or more driving factor values and generates at least one data visualization of the data in the corpus for the focus of statistical analysis having a scope that is narrowed based on the at least one cluster of entities matching the one or more driving factor values.
US09940379B2
A system for accelerating database transaction processing by controlling data replication is provided. The system includes a first control unit configured to manage a first storage device and at least one second control unit configured to manage a second storage device. The first control unit writes first data to the first storage device and sends the first data to the second control unit in response to receiving from a host a first write command including the first data. The first control unit writes second data to the first storage device without sending the second data to the second control unit in response to receiving from the host a second write command. The second control unit writes the first data to the second storage device in response to receiving the first data. The second control unit writes the second data to the second storage device in response to receiving from the host a third write command.
US09940373B2
Disclosed is a system, method, and computer program product for implementing a log analytics method and system that can configure, collect, and analyze log records in an efficient manner. An improved approach is provided for identifying log files that have undergone a change in status that would require retrieve of its log data, by including a module directly into the operating system that allows the log collection component to be reactively notified of any changes to pertinent log files.
US09940371B2
Content search involves receiving a user-formulated search query via a user device. The search query is submitted to two or more search domains. The search domains represent separate data repositories accessible via the user device. Results objects are received from the two or more search domains in response to the search query. The results objects arc ranked using different ranking criterion by the respective search domains from which the search results were received. A rank value for each of the results objects is determined based on a single ranking criterion. The results objects are ordered based at least in part on the rank values determined using the single ranking criterion and sent for display in a user interface of the user device.
US09940363B2
A user-interface system is provided for a patent management system having access to at least one patent matter database and at least one reference database. The user interface system comprises a first user interface element allowing selection of data stored in the at least one patent matter database, a second user interface element allowing selection of data stored in the at least one reference database, a third user interface element for linking at least one reference stored in the at least one reference database with at least one patent in the patent matter database, a fourth user interface element allowing the selection for storage of further references into the at least one reference database, and a fifth user interface element allowing analysis of at least one of the linked references.
US09940359B2
Provided are techniques for a Data-Partitioned Secondary Index (DPSI) partition level join. While using a Data-Partitioned Secondary Index (DPSI) to perform a join of an outer table and an inner table, a different task from multiple tasks is assigned to each partition of the inner table. With each task, a join is performed of the outer table and the assigned partition of the inner table using the DPSI to generate results. The results from each different task are merged.
US09940352B1
Systems and methods are disclosed to enable delivering a contextually relevant action for an underlying focal point of a communication (an “entity”) between users over computing devices. Delivery of a contextually relevant action entails identifying the entity and associated descriptors or amplifying words in the communication surrounding the entity, reviewing databases of actions taken with respect to the identified entity and associated descriptors, reviewing the functions and features of platforms and applications supported on users' computing devices, computing correlations between the actions taken and entity involved and computing devices' available functions and features, and selecting a contextually relevant action from the computed correlation. The selected contextually relevant action is displayed simply as an executable action for a user to take or as a description of the entity or as a series of possible executable actions to take.
US09940351B2
A method is provided to generate a correct XML (eXtensible Markup Language) representation of source data from a relational database without knowing the format of source data. A XML parsing function is used to create the final XML data if the source data contains entity references. Where the source data does not contain entity reference, a XML publishing function is called to generate the final correct XML data.
US09940350B2
A method for upgrading a database schema in real time, wherein the database schema is associated with a plurality of databases is provided. The method may include installing a first plugin on a database upgrade process associated with a database. The method may include installing a second plugin on each database instance within the plurality of databases. The method may include determining a delta associated with a final target version of the database schema. Additionally, the method may include outlining an existence of an incongruence, an existence of an override or an existence of a customization removal based on the determined delta. The method may include performing a peer-to-peer broadcasting analysis between each database. The method may include defining a migration strategy for each database instance within the plurality of databases based on the peer-to-peer broadcasting analysis. The method may further include creating a script for upgrading the database schema.
US09940348B2
Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for managing multiple locks for data set members in a data set index. The data set index has leaf nodes and internal nodes. In response to determining that a current lock is set at a locked node that prevents a grant to a requested lock, a determination is made as to whether there are different first and second descendant nodes from the locked node at a same level of the tree data structure linked to the requested data set member and the locked data set member, respectively. If so, the requested lock for the requested data set member is set at the first descendant node, the current lock is moved to the second descendant node for the locked data set member and the requested lock is granted.
US09940347B2
A system and method are described for change data capture wherein a source database is replicated to a remote database. In one embodiment, a data storage device contains source log blocks containing information regarding database transactions processed for a source database, wherein the data storage device and source database are located in a first location, and at least some of the source log blocks include a plurality of database transactions in the same order as processed in the source database. Messages containing source log blocks are sent from the first location to a second location geographically remote from the first location. One or more components at the second location receive source log blocks from the messages, extract the source transaction data from the source log blocks, and use the source transaction data to write database transaction information to a second database based on the extracted source transaction data.
US09940333B2
Various systems described herein facilitate storage of files in various formats. A client device can generate a request for a particular file or content. The client device can submit a request with various request parameters. A file service can identify an appropriate file in an appropriate format. The appropriate file in the appropriate format can be provided to the client device in response to the request.
US09940331B1
Improved techniques involve a storage processor proactively scavenging provisioned free blocks in snap container files and punching holes in the scavenged provisioned free blocks. For example, the storage processor may locate provisioned free blocks by accessing container file system metadata. The storage processor may then punch holes, i.e., release ownership of the snap container file on the identified provisioned free blocks. The storage processor may also delete or otherwise invalidate pointers to those blocks in the snap container file's inode.
US09940326B2
A method and system for speech to speech translation using a plurality of computational cores of a natural liquid architecture are provided. The method includes receiving an audio input to be translated into a target language; identifying, based on the received audio input, a cluster of signatures; identifying, based on the cluster of signatures, a first concept, wherein the first concept is common to all signatures within the signature cluster; and determining a match between the first concept and at least a second concept, wherein the second concept is associated with the target language.
US09940314B2
Systems and computer program product synchronize screenshots in documentation with product functionality. Documentation source relating to a product includes placeholders where screenshots of user interface views of the product are to be located. A placeholder includes a description or pointer to a description of how to generate the user interface view of the product associated with the screenshot. A new version of the documentation may be generated. The documentation source including placeholders is read. Placeholders in the documentation are used to generate a user interface view. The user interface view is captured as a screenshot. The screenshot is inserted in the new version of the documentation at the location of the placeholder used to generate the screenshot.
US09940310B1
A publisher can extend existing electronic publications (e.g., formatted in EPUB format) by adding additional data such as interactive content, supplementary learning resources, etc. The extended electronic publication can then be automatically imported to create an online course that corresponds to the electronic publication.
US09940308B2
To display a news feed in a social network environment, a social networking system generates news items regarding activities associated with a user of a social network environment. The social networking system may also attach an informational link associated with at least one of the activities to at least one of the news items, limit access to the news items to a predetermined set of viewers, and assign an order to the news items. The news items may be displayed in the assigned order to at least one viewing user of the predetermined set of viewers, and the number of news items displayed may be dynamically limited.
US09940304B2
Systems and methods for automatically providing third-party content for display in a mobile application based on an interaction with the mobile application are described. One or more processors identify a mobile application within which to insert content. The processors receive one or more actions performed on a mobile application executing on a computing device. The processors determine that the one or more actions performed on a mobile application correspond to a content insertion policy for inserting content to the mobile application. The processor then transmits, to the mobile application, content for display within the mobile application executing on the computing device responsive to determining that the one or more actions performed on the mobile application correspond to the content insertion policy.
US09940303B2
A pipelined decimation in frequency FFT butterfly method, and an apparatus to perform this method comprising: a data memory with at least one read port and one write port; an add/subtract unit receiving data from the memory; a multiply/accumulate unit receiving data from the add/subtract unit; a source of coefficients, from logic gates or a coefficient memory, to supply FFT twiddle factors to the multiply/accumulate unit; a shifter receiving data from at least one of the add/subtract unit and the multiply/accumulate unit, the shifter supplying data to the write port of the data memory; wherein the apparatus performs these calculations in four cycles of the add/subtract unit and in four cycles of the multiply/accumulate unit, using complex arithmetic.
US09940298B2
In a segmented data path, a source is able to “discover” whether any tunable repeater nodes are present. When one or more tunable repeaters are discovered, the source may adjust its link initialization sequence accordingly to train each “hop” individually and thereafter individually configure each intermediary repeater.
US09940296B2
A communications control system is disclosed that includes a serial communications interface and a parallel communications interface for coupling a plurality of in modules with a control module. The serial communications interface is configured for connecting the plurality of input/output modules to the control module in parallel to transmit information between the plurality of input/output modules and the control module, and the parallel communications interface is configured for separately connecting the plurality of input/output modules to the control module to transmit information between the plurality of input/output modules and the control module, and to transmit information between individual ones of the plurality of input/output modules. The serial communications interface may comprise a multidrop bus, and the parallel communications interface may comprise across switch.
US09940285B2
The present technology provides for an IO module system (e.g., an industrial control system) that can provide multiple-channel analog and digital interfaces to a number of sensor devices of different types, where each channel of the IO module is programmably configurable as a digital input, a digital output, an analog input, and an analog output. Each sensor interface is implemented on an individual channel basis using discrete components in communication with a microcontroller. The present technology enables the rapid implementation of an IO channel operable in a wide range of voltage and current modes needed for common sensor interfaces.
US09940283B2
The present subject matter discloses methods and systems of application sharing in multi-host computing system (100) running multiple operating systems. In one embodiment, the method for application sharing in a multi-host computing system (100) comprises receiving a request to launch an application in a first operating system of the multi-host computing system (100) from a second operating system of the multi-host computing system (100), generating an application launch request to launch the application and transmitting the application launch request to a widget daemon running on the first operating system using a PCIe to PCIe application redirection engine. The method further comprises initiating an application sharing session between the first operating system of the multi-host computing system (100) from the second operating system of the multi-host computing system (100).
US09940272B1
A circuit may receive an interrupt associated with a device. The interrupt may be sent by the device via an interrupt line associated with the device. The circuit may send the interrupt associated with the device. The interrupt may be sent via an interrupt line associated with the circuit. The circuit may start a missing interrupt timer, associated with the interrupt, based on sending the interrupt. The missing interrupt timer may be associated with a threshold amount of time by which the interrupt is to be serviced. The circuit may identify, based on the missing interrupt timer, the interrupt as a missing interrupt. The circuit may resend the missing interrupt via the interrupt line associated with the circuit. The missing interrupt may be resent to cause the missing interrupt to be serviced.
US09940268B2
A processing apparatus has a memory protection unit (MPU) 38 and an address translation unit (ATU) 120 which operate concurrently for memory access operations performed by processing circuitry 22. The MPU 38 stores access permission data for corresponding regions of an address space. The ATU 120 stores address translation entries for defining virtual-to-physical mappings for corresponding pages of the address space. In response to a memory access operation specifying a target address, one of the MPU 38 and the ATU 120 is selected to handle the memory access operation based on the target address. If the MPU 38 is selected then the target address is a physical address and the MPU 38 checks access permissions using a corresponding set of permission data. If the ATU 120 is selected then the target address is a virtual address and is translated into a physical address using a corresponding translation entry.
US09940266B2
A method and system for correlating genome data with EMR/PHR data is disclosed herein. The method includes identifying a plurality of sources of genome data. The method also includes generating an index file for each of the plurality of genome files. The method also includes transmitting each index file to a central depository. The method also includes identifying electronic medical record (EMR) and/or personal health record (PHR) data at each source of the plurality of sources of genome data. The method also includes correlating each genome file of the plurality of genome files with a corresponding EMR/PHR data.
US09940263B2
A method is described for enabling inter-process communication between a first application and a second application, the first application running within a first virtual machine (VM) in a host and the second application running within a second VM in the host, The method includes receiving a request to attach a shared region of memory to a memory allocation, identifying a list of one or more physical memory pages defining the shared region that corresponds to the handle, and mapping guest memory pages corresponding to the allocation to the physical memory pages. The request may be received by a framework from the second application and includes a handle that uniquely identifies the shared region of memory as well as an identification of at least one guest memory page corresponding to the memory allocation.
US09940260B1
A memory controller system optimally controls access to a memory device having a plurality of integrated circuit (IC) chips disposed in a non-uniform stack configuration within a three-dimensional stacked (3DS) structure. A memory profiling portion executes to determine the non-uniform stack configuration. A virtual rank mapping portion configured to assign virtual ranks to chip locations actually defined by the non-uniform stack configuration. An address conversion portion executes to convert an unoptimized address definable with reference to a uniform stack configuration to an optimized address defined with reference to the non-uniform stack configuration. The addressing overhead during monitoring of data access operations to the memory device is optimized.
US09940257B2
A method and controller for implementing storage adapter enhanced write cache management, and a design structure on which the subject controller circuit resides are provided. The controller includes a hardware write cache engine implementing hardware acceleration for storage write cache management. The hardware write cache engine manages cache line updates for purges from storage write cache with no firmware involvement for greatly enhancing performance.
US09940235B2
Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system and method for verifying and validating accurate memory module placement on a printed circuit board. In one embodiment, the printed circuit board is configured to include actuating elements that can be used to verify correct memory module location placement on the printed circuit board. In another embodiment, the actuating elements can be used to validate accurate memory module placement. The actuating elements can be in the form of buttons that may be depressed and configured to trigger light emitting diodes (LEDs) that correspond to the slots on the printed circuit board.
US09940233B2
According to one embodiment, a write instructing unit instructs a data access unit to write, in a storage area of a data storage unit indicated by a first physical address, write object data, instructs a management information access unit to update address conversion information, and instructs a first access unit to update the first physical address. A compaction unit extracts a physical address of compaction object data, instructs the data access unit to read the compaction object data stored in a storage area of the data storage unit indicated by the physical address, instructs the data access unit to write the compaction object data in a storage area of the data storage unit indicated by a second physical address, instructs the management information access unit to update the address conversion information, and instructs a second access unit to update the second physical address.
US09940227B2
The method includes identifying a test report log for a regression test. The method further includes identifying one or more errors in the identified test report log. The method further includes determining a severity category for the one or more identified errors in the identified test report log. The method further includes determining a severity category for the identified test report log based on the determined severity category for the one or more identified errors in the identified test report log.
US09940221B2
For generating an application program (15) from a plurality of application program modules (12), a computerized application platform (1) comprises an application configuration module (11) configured to receive from a user of a communication terminal instructions, for defining a selection of the application program modules (12), and to generate an application program (15) using the selected application program modules (12). The application platform (1) further comprises a plurality of device profiles (13) for different types of mobile communication devices. Each device profile (13) includes hardware characteristics of a different type of mobile communication device. Furthermore, a testing module (111) is configured to emulate the application program (15) for the different types of mobile communication devices using the device profiles (13) and to transmit to the user of the communication terminal test output data generated by emulating the application program (15) for at least one type of the mobile communication devices.
US09940218B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, computer program product, and system for debugging optimized code. The system includes a FAT binary, wherein the FAT binary comprises a non-optimized native code and an internal representation of a program's source code. An optimus program is configured to transform the internal representation of the program's source code into a fully optimized native code. The system also includes an enhanced loader, wherein the enhanced loader is configured to communicate with a debugger to determine a type of code to load.
US09940215B2
An automatic correlation accelerator tool may access at least a first recording and a second recording of a base script that defines operations executed in testing performance of a system. The tool may cause the system to execute the first recording of the base script and the second recording of the base script and store, in electronic storage, dynamic value data that describes dynamic values generated during execution of the first recording of the base script and during execution of the second recording of the base script. The tool automatically, without human intervention, analyzes the stored dynamic value data to identify candidates for correlation within the base script and generates a correlated script based on the identified candidates for correlation and the base script.
US09940212B2
Methods and apparatus for automatic qubit calibration. In one aspect, a method includes obtaining a plurality of qubit parameters and data describing dependencies of the plurality of qubit parameters on one or more other qubit parameters; identifying a qubit parameter; selecting a set of qubit parameters that includes the identified qubit parameter and one or more dependent qubit parameters; processing one or more parameters in the set of qubit parameters in sequence according to the data describing dependencies, comprising, for a parameter in the set of qubit parameters: performing a calibration test on the parameter; and performing a first calibration experiment or a diagnostic calibration algorithm on the parameter when the calibration test fails.
US09940209B2
An SVC cluster manages a plurality of storage devices and includes a plurality of SVCs interconnected via a network, each SVC acting as a separate node. A new configuration node is activated in response to configuration node failures. The new configuration node retrieves client subscription information about events occurring in storage devices managed by the SVC cluster from the storage devices. In response to events occurring in the storage device managed by the SVC cluster, the new configuration node obtains storage device event information from a storage device event monitoring unit. The new configuration node sends storage device events to clients who have subscribed to this information according to subscription information obtained. The storage device is not installed in the original configuration node.
US09940207B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure disclose a method, an apparatus and a computer program product for failing back block objects in batch by performing failback operations in batch to part of block objects of one or more of existing file systems; determining a delay time required for performing failback operations in a next batch based on the recorded number of block objects that have been failed back in last batches; and performing the failback operations in the next batch to remaining block objects after the delay time.
US09940206B2
Data integrity is maintained during failed communications between a member node of a primary cluster and a backup cluster by assigning an assisting member node to run an assisting process that transmits data entered into the member node to the backup cluster. In this way, a replicated database is maintained during a partial communication failure between the primary cluster and the backup cluster.
US09940203B1
A cloud gateway (GW) device receives a first request for incremental backup from a client device over a LAN, where the first request includes a first file representing a difference between the incremental backup in view of a prior backup. In response, the cloud GW identifies a first base backup previously backed up to a cloud storage server over a WAN. A second request is transmitted to the cloud storage server over the WAN to copy the first base backup into a second base backup. A third request is transmitted to the cloud storage server over the WAN to replace a second file within the second base backup. The third request includes a second backup ID, a descriptor describing the file to be replaced, and content of the file received from the client without modifying the first file.
US09940197B2
A dispersed storage system includes a plurality of storage units that each include a partial rebuild grid module. The partial rebuild grid module includes partial rebuilding functionality to reconstruct one of a plurality of encoded data slices wherein the plurality of encoded data slices are generated from a data segment based on an error encoding dispersal function. In the partial rebuilding process, a data slice is rebuilt by combining in any order slice partials generated from at least a threshold number T of the plurality of data slices.
US09940195B2
A method for use in a distributed storage network (DSN) including a plurality of distributed storage (DS) units includes receiving, at a DS unit, a rebuilding request indicating that the DS unit is to provide an encrypted partial slice to a requesting DS unit included in the DS network. Key pairing requirements associated with the rebuilding request are determined, and an even number of key pairing entities are selected based on the key pairing requirements. The even number of key pairing entities being fewer than a decode threshold number of key pairing entities. The DS unit generates shared secret keys corresponding to each of the even number of key pairing entities, uses those keys to generate an encrypted partial slice, and transmits the encrypted partial slice to the requesting DS unit in accordance with a rebuilding topology.
US09940192B2
According to one embodiment, a non-volatile semiconductor storage apparatus is configured to decide determination periods respectively corresponding to each of management blocks based on rewrite count information items and a temperature, and to perform a determination processing for each of management blocks for each determination period. The determination processing includes determining whether first data read from a block in the blocks is normal based on the number of errors that are occurred in the first data. The apparatus is configured to perform a rewrite processing of rewriting the first data to second data which is error-corrected when it is determined that the first data is not normal.
US09940185B2
Provided is an intelligent battery sensor for a vehicle which detects an overcurrent module generating an abnormal overcurrent within a vehicle. The intelligent battery sensor for a vehicle includes a data packetizing unit configured to extract internal data variables related to detection of an overcurrent module and packetize the extracted internal data variables, a volatile memory configured to temporarily store the packetized internal data variables, a fault and validity diagnosing unit configured to monitor the packetized internal data variables stored in the volatile memory and classify, when a diagnostic trouble code (DTC) related to the abnormal overcurrent is diagnosed, the packetized internal data variables with respect to a diagnosis time of the DTC, and a nonvolatile memory configured to store the classified internal data variables under the control of the fault and validity diagnosing unit.
US09940183B2
A read-only message is sent by a first participant of multiple participants of a two-phase distributed transaction. The read-only message is received by a processor executing a coordinator node. A one-phase distributed transaction is initiated for a second participant of the multiple participants that did not respond with a read-only message.
US09940179B1
Systems and methods for patching system calls issued on a device. System calls are patched by transforming system calls to provide additional functionality. The system calls can then be rerouted to the updated or custom functions.
US09940176B2
A dual-processor electronic device is provided. The dual-processor electronic device includes a first processor, a second processor and a dynamic random access memory. The first processor sends a wake-up command to the second processor to wake up the second processor after performing local initialization. The second processor wakes up, then performs local initialization, copies and decompresses the image file to the dynamic random access memory and sends a ready message to the first processor after the image file is decompressed. The first processor delays startup, and starts the startup process according to the decompressed image file when the ready message is received and the delay-start time is expired. The present disclosure also provides a method for booting up dual-processor electronic device quickly.
US09940175B2
Techniques for network state-aware and network scheduling policy-aware task scheduling are provided. In one aspect, a method for scheduling tasks in a distributed computing network includes the steps of: collecting a pool of candidate resources in the distributed computing network for performing a given one of the tasks; predicting a performance of each of the candidate resources in performing the given task based on both i) a state and ii) a scheduling policy of the distributed computing network; and selecting a best candidate resource for the given task based on the performance. A system for scheduling tasks in a distributed computing network is also provided which includes a task scheduler; and a network scheduler, wherein the task scheduler is configured to schedule the tasks in the distributed computing network based on both i) the state and ii) the scheduling policy of the distributed computing network.
US09940168B2
Methods and systems that reduce the number of instance of a shared resource needed for a processor to perform an operation and/or execute a process without impacting function are provided. a method of processing in a processor is provided. Aspects include determining that an operation to be performed by the processor will require the use of a shared resource. A command can be issued to cause a second operation to not use the shared resources N cycles later. The shared resource can then be used for a first aspect of the operation at cycle X and then used for a second aspect of the operation at cycle X+N. The second operation may be rescheduled according to embodiments.
US09940166B2
A system for allocating field-programmable gate array (FPGA) resources comprises a plurality of FPGAs operable to implement one or more pipeline circuits, the plurality of FPGAs comprising FPGAs of different processing capacities, and one or more processors operable to access a set of data comprising a plurality of work items to be processed according to a pipeline circuit associated with each of the plurality of work items, determine processing requirements for each of the plurality of work items based at least in part on the pipeline circuit associated with each of the plurality of work items, sort the plurality of work items according to the determined processing requirements, and allocate each of the plurality of work items to one of the plurality of FPGAs, such that no FPGA is allocated a work item with processing requirements that exceed the processing capacity of the FPGA.
US09940164B2
One or more processors determine that a user is attempting to execute an unscheduled computing task and estimate the time for execution. One or more processors determine that a computing task is scheduled to execute along with the unscheduled computing task. One or more processors warn the user that the computing task is scheduled to execute along with the unscheduled computing task. One or more processors estimate one or both of: a utilization of processing and a memory consumption for the computing tasks and determine whether a threshold will be exceeded. If the threshold will be exceeded, one or more processors warn the user.
US09940163B2
A queue of transactions is managed. A sort order for the queue of transaction is determined. A first batch of transactions is sorted according to the determined sort order and a further batch of transactions is also sorted according to the determined sort order. A notifying is performed that the first batch of transactions is ready for processing and that the further batch of transactions is ready for processing. The sorting and notifying for further batches of the transactions continues until all the transactions in the queue have been sorted and notified as ready for processing.
US09940162B2
A system and method is provided to dynamically optimize the topography of a compute cluster in real time based on the runtime configuration, specified as metadata, of jobs in a queuing or scheduling environment. The system provisions or terminates multiple types of virtualized resources based on the profile of all applications of the jobs in a current queue based on their aggregate runtime configuration specified as requirements and rank expressions within associated metadata. The system will continually request and terminate compute resources as jobs enter and exit the queue, keeping the cluster as minimal as possible while still being optimized to complete all jobs in the queue, optimized for cost, runtime or other metric. End users can specify the runtime requirements of jobs, thereby preventing the user from having to know about the physical profile of the compute cluster to specifically architect their jobs.
US09940160B1
A device may receive an indication to perform a reboot associated with a network service being provided using a first virtual machine (VM) running on the device. The device may launch, based on receiving the indication, a second VM on the device. The device may shut down, based on launching the second VM, the first VM. The device may configure the second VM for forwarding control plane traffic associated with the network service. The device may configure, based on configuring the second VM for forwarding the control plane traffic, the second VM for forwarding data plane traffic associated with the network service. The device may provide, based on configuring the second VM for forwarding the data plane traffic, the network service using the second VM.
US09940150B2
A computer-implemented method, carried out by one or more processors, for policy based virtual resource allocation. In an embodiment, the method includes identifying a number of host resources specified by host resource requirements for a first resource consumer. The method determines if the host resource requirements include a list of host resource pools for the first resource consumer. Responsive to determining that the host resource requirements include the list of host resource pools for the first resource consumer, a first set of eligible host resource pools is identified. An allocation policy may be identified, where the allocation policy includes one or more parameters for allocating host resources. Host resources from the first set of eligible host resource pools are allocated based on the allocation policy.
US09940144B2
State-specific mouse-over guidance can be provided to a user of a user interface such that a field in the user interface can include more than one mouse-over guidance content item, and a specific mouse-over guidance content item provided to the user is determined based on a current state of the field and at least one underlying factors identified as resulting in the current state.
US09940135B2
Execution of a set of instructions within a transaction is prevented. A processor identifies a first set of instructions in an instruction stream of a transaction. The first set of instructions incurs a first memory access that is not visible to the transaction and will cause the transaction to abort. The processor generates a second set of instructions that incurs a second memory access that is visible to the transaction. The second set of instructions is generated based on the first memory access and first set of instructions. The processor executes, within the transaction, the second set of instructions instead of the first set of instructions.
US09940122B2
A method of updating data may include receiving an update request from a computing device, the update request including a profile of a current set of data stored on the computing device; determining, based at least in part on the profile of the current set of data, an updated set of data is available; determining if a delta set of data has previously been generated to transform the current set of data to the updated set of data; and based on determining that the delta set of data has not been previously generated: generating the delta set of data; and transmitting an address, to the computing device, for obtaining the delta set of data by the computing device.
US09940119B2
Disclosed are various embodiments for providing limited versions of applications. A limited version of an application is automatically generated from a full version of the application. The limited version has a smaller data size than the full version. The limited version of the application is sent to the client computing device in response to a request for a trial of the application.
US09940112B2
A system, method, and computer program product provide computerized services to multiple enterprises. A developer creates each service according to a template, which includes both core functionality common to all services, and individualized functionality specific to the service. The developer either deactivates, or activates and configures, each function in the core based on a service level agreement with the particular enterprise for which the service was created. The template provides a wide variety of core functions, including dynamic data transformation, auditing, logging, exception handling, performance monitoring, service availability, reporting, security, and dynamic reconfiguring. After the service is deployed, it begins to report performance and usage data to a monitoring system. Based on these data, the system calculates an amount to charge the enterprise for use of the given service.
US09940107B2
A computer program product includes computer usable program code configured to present, on a display, a diagram. The presenting of the diagram includes presenting a first row that defines a location where objects of a first object type can be created, wherein a first ghosted object of a first object type is displayed in the first row. The first ghosted object represents a first creatable object of the first object type. The presenting of the diagram includes presenting a second row that defines a location where objects of a second object type can be created. The computer program product is configured to, responsive to a first input to create a first object of the first object type in the first row, creating the first object of the first object type.
US09940102B2
The disclosed herein related to a method for generating a partial stochastic rounding operation executed by a processor coupled to a memory. The method includes generating an intermediate result and causing a random number generator to generate a random number. The method also includes adding the random number to lower significant bits of the intermediate result to perturb any incrementing of most significant bits of the intermediate result to produce a resulting sum. The method also includes truncating the resulting sum into a final result. According to other embodiments, the above method can be implemented in a system or computer program product.
US09940095B2
An example playback device may store an active volume state variable in memory, where the active volume state variable corresponds to a current playback volume. The playback device may also store a volume limit state variable in memory, where the volume limit state variable corresponds to a playback volume limit of the playback device. The playback device may detect a command to begin playback of media from a given source and then select a startup playback volume to be one of the current playback volume and the playback volume limit based on the given source of the command to begin playback. The playback device may then play back media at the startup playback volume.
US09940080B2
An information apparatus to communicate with one or more communication counterparts includes a memory and circuitry. The memory is configured to store an elapsed time condition in association with identification information for each of the one or more communication counterparts. The circuitry is configured to measure an elapsed time from the last time when communication took place with the communication counterpart for each of the one or more communication counterparts. The circuitry is further configured to extract identification information for which the measured elapsed time satisfies the elapsed time condition stored in the memory. The circuitry is further configured to determine whether to restrict communications between the information apparatus and at least one of the communication counterparts corresponding to the extracted identification information.
US09940075B2
A print inspection apparatus according to the present invention obtains an object for variable printing which is stored in a storage and generates a combined image by combining the obtained object. If the combined image is normally generated, the combined image is set to both of a print image and a collation image. Whereas if the combined image is not normally generated, a different image is set to each of the print image and the collation image. The print inspection apparatus generates a print product by printing the set print image. Then, the print inspection apparatus inspects the print product by comparing image data generated by reading the print product with the set collation image.
US09940065B2
Various embodiments provide computer program products for migrating data. One embodiment comprises receiving, from a first processor, data that is unprotected comprising a data integrity field; utilizing, by a second processor, a peer-to-peer remote copy (PPRC) application to add protection to the data to generate protected data; and subsequent to adding the protection, modifying a value in the data integrity field such that the value is different than an industry standard default value for protected data subsequent to adding the protection.
US09940063B2
A memory system includes a memory device including a plurality of blocks each comprising first and second regions of pages; and a controller suitable for storing a plurality of data in the first region and hot/cold information respectively corresponding to the plurality of data in the second region.
US09940059B2
An information management system provides a data deduplication system that uses a primary table, a deduplication chunk table, and a chunk integrity table to ensure that a referenced deduplicated data block is only verified once during the data verification of a backup or other replication operation. The data deduplication system may reduce the computational and storage overhead associated with traditional data verification processes. The primary table, the deduplication chunk table, and the chunk integrity table, all of which are stored in a deduplication database, can also ensure synchronization between the deduplication database and secondary storage devices.
US09940058B2
The present invention provides a data storage device including a flash memory and a controller. The controller distributes TLC-data blocks of the flash memory into three regions, obtains three sub-prewrite data sectors according to a prewrite data sector and a logic address, determines a first TLC-data block according to the logic address, selects a new first TLC-data block with the lowest erase count from the first region when the first TLC-data block has valid data, selects two TLC-data blocks according to the new first TLC-data block, writes the three sub-prewrite data sectors into the new first TLC-data block and the two selected TLC-data blocks, and maps the first new TLC-data block and the two selected TLC-data blocks to the logic address.
US09940056B2
Some embodiments provide a method for configuring unit memories to implement first and second sets of entries, the second set of which references the first set. The method configures a first pool of memories to implement the first set. Each first-set entry is located at a particular location in at least one of the first-pool memories. The method configures a second pool of memories to implement the second set of entries. Each second-set entry includes (i) a first set of bits for indicating a memory page that corresponds to one or more first-pool memories, (ii) a second set of bits for specifying a location in each of the one or more memories from which to retrieve data for the referenced first-set entry, and (iii) a third set of bits for specifying a sub-location within the retrieved data. The number of bits in the third set of bits is fixed for the second-set entries while a number of sub-locations varies for different locations specified by the second set of bits of different second-set entries.
US09940055B2
The invention relates to an operator panel (1) having one or more applications (121, 122) for operating at least one production system (2). A configuration data memory (13) is set up to store configuration data that are provided for configuring the one or more applications (121, 122) of the operator panel (1). A synchronization module (14) is set up to access configuration data stored in the configuration data memory (13) and to synchronize these data via a communications interface (11) of the operator panel (1) with configuration data that are stored in a configuration data memory (13′, 13″) of a remotely disposed operator panel (1′, 1″). A configuration access module (15) is set up to receive from at least one application (121, 122) of the operator panel (1) a read request for stored configuration data, to access stored configuration data, and to read the stored configuration data corresponding to the read request and to deliver the read configuration data for configuring the at least one application (121, 122) to the at least one application (121, 122).
US09940054B1
Examples of techniques for pre-allocating save areas of memory of a computer processing system are disclosed. In one example implementation according to aspects of the present disclosure, a computer-implemented method may include initiating, by a host processing device, a control program. The method may further include, responsive to initiating the control program, pre-allocating, by the host processing device, a plurality of save areas for each of a plurality of processors, wherein the plurality of save areas are anchored in a fixed area of the memory for each of the plurality of processors.
US09940049B2
An information processing apparatus includes a setting storage unit configured to store a setting as to whether use of a data storage medium mounted to the information processing apparatus is permitted or prohibited, a control unit configured to control an access to the data storage medium based on the setting stored in the setting storage medium, an acceptance unit configured to accept an instruction for deleting data in the data storage medium, and a change unit configured to change, in response to the data in the data storage medium being deleted in accordance with the instruction accepted by the acceptance unit, the setting stored in the setting storage unit to indicate that the use of the data storage medium is prohibited.
US09940045B2
A data storage device includes a nonvolatile memory device including a memory block, to which a write operation is interrupted and not completed due to at least one time occurrence of sudden power-off (SPO) of the data storage device, wherein the memory block includes at least one first valid page group including one or more valid pages caused before the interruption and at least one invalid page group having one or more invalid pages caused by the interruption; and a controller suitable for writing at least one physical address-to-logical address (P2L) list for the first valid page group into the invalid page group after power-on of the data storage device following the SPO, and recovering an address mapping table for the memory block based on the P2L list after completion of the write operation to the memory block.
US09940042B2
Each of a plurality of storage systems in a distributed storage system is provided with: a strong-consistency-control processor which controls data synchronization that ensures consistency of duplicated data; a weak-consistency-control processor which controls data synchronization that does not necessarily ensure consistency of the duplicated data; an access-switching processor which determines a redundancy number corresponding to the number of storage systems having duplicated data stored thereon, selects in accordance with the characteristics of the duplicated data and the position of a terminal issuing the I/O request, storage systems of a number corresponding to the redundancy number, and selectively determines, as the control for the data synchronization, one from among the strong-consistency-control processor, the weak-consistency-control processor, and consistency control unnecessary; and an I/O processor which executes, on the basis of the determined control for the data synchronization, the I/O request for the duplicated data in the selected storage systems.
US09940041B2
A system, method, and computer program product for managing storage volumes in a point-in-time copy cascade. A processor swaps a host portion of a source volume with a host portion of a snapshot point-in-time copy volume. Responsive to an I/O request to overwrite a first data value in a grain of the source volume with a second data value, a processor writes the second data value in a corresponding grain of the snapshot point-in-time copy volume. Responsive to a corresponding grain of a clone point-in-time copy volume not comprising the first data value, a processor copies the first data value to the corresponding grain of the clone point-in-time copy volume.
US09940036B2
Techniques for controlling PCIe direct attached non-volatile memory storage system are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method including monitoring a temperature of a memory attached via the PCIe interface, determining whether an operation implemented on the attached memory has caused the temperature of the memory to exceed a preset threshold, and controlling an I/O rate of the attached memory based on the determination such that the I/O rate is greater than zero.
US09940034B2
A mechanism is provided in a non-volatile memory controller for reducing read access latency by straddling pages across non-volatile memory channels. Responsive to a request to write a logical page to a non-volatile memory array, the non-volatile memory controller determines whether the logical page fits into a current physical page. Responsive to determining the logical page does not fit into the current physical page, the non-volatile memory controller writes a first portion of the logical page to a first physical page in a first block and writes a second portion of the logical page to a second physical page in a second block. The first physical page and the second physical page are on different non-volatile memory channels.
US09940033B1
Described are techniques for controlling performance. A forecast error Et for time period “t” denoting a difference between a predicted performance value Ft of a metric for time period “t” and an actual performance value At of the metric for time period “t” is determined. A tracking signal Tt for time period “t” is determined in accordance with “N” forecast errors. It is determined, in accordance with the tracking signal Tt for time period “t”, whether to modify a current value for alpha denoting a weight used in calculating predicted performance values for the metric. If it is determined to modify the current value for alpha, the current value for alpha is set to a revised value in accordance with the tracking signal Tt for time period “t”. A predicted performance value Ft+1 of the metric for time period “t+1” is determined in accordance with the current value for alpha.
US09940022B1
The present disclosure includes apparatus, systems, computer readable storage media and techniques relating to virtualization of data storage space. In one aspect, a system includes: solid-state drive (SSD) devices, wherein each of the SSD devices includes contiguous portions; and a data storage controller configured to assign a priority value to each of available ones of the contiguous portions of the respective SSD devices, based on weighted criteria, and choose a subset of the available ones of the contiguous portions of the respective SSD devices, in accordance with the assigned priority values, to form a logical disk; wherein the logical disk includes at least one available portion from each of two or more of the SSD devices.
US09940020B2
A memory management method implemented by a requesting node includes sending first indication information used for indicating a length of memory required by the requesting node and receiving second indication information used for indicating first remote memory provided to the requesting node by a target contributing node in at least one contributing node that can provide remote memory. The method also includes determining, from available virtual addresses, a first virtual address corresponding to the first remote memory, and sending a first data read/write instruction for the first data when first data whose pointer is within a range of the first virtual address needs to be read/written, where the first data read/write instruction includes third indication information, and the third indication information is used for indicating storage space, for storing the first data, in the first remote memory.
US09940012B2
A display device for displaying an application in an execution area according to a user input is disclosed. The display device includes a user interface configured to receive a user input corresponding to a shape, a display, and a controller configured to determine an application corresponding to the shape and determine an execution area for the application on a screen of the display in response to the user interface receiving the user input, and control the display of the application in the execution area.
US09940010B2
The present disclosure discloses an information processing method which includes: detecting a first drag and touch operation performed by a first operation body for moving a first object displayed in a first position on the touch display unit; acquiring a first end position of the first drag and touch operation on the touch display unit, the first end position is a position where the first operation body loses contact with the touch display unit during the first drag and touch operation; and maintaining the first object to be in a selected state in the first end position for a preset duration, and displaying the first object in the first end position.
US09940009B2
[Object] To provide a technique for allowing a user to easily scroll content.[Solution] There is provided a display control device including a first acquiring unit configured to acquire orientation of a display unit detected by a first detecting unit, and a display control unit configured to display content at the display unit. The display control unit scrolls the content according to the orientation of the display unit.
US09939984B2
Generating a universal graphical desktop sharing protocol is disclosed. The universal graphical desktop sharing protocol is configured to communicate information (e.g., a sequence of one or more desktop sharing events) that has been translated from a first graphical desktop sharing protocol and is available to be translated into a final graphical desktop sharing protocol.
US09939983B2
Provided is a computer-implemented method for a playback of a hypervideo, the hypervideo including multiple video segments from a multiple videos linked together using links, the method being performed in connection with a computerized system incorporating a central processing unit, a display device and a memory, the computer-implemented method involving: generating a user interface portion on the display device for the playback of the hypervideo; and performing the playback of the hypervideo in the generated user interface portion by automatically following the plurality of links linking the plurality of video segments such that at least some of the plurality of video segments are played in a predetermined sequence; wherein the plurality of links are followed based on a playback plan. The playback plan may include at least one rule for following the multiple links linking the video segments during the playback of the hypervideo.
US09939972B2
Disclosed herein include an input device, processing system and methods for touch sensing. In one embodiment, an input device is provided that includes a plurality of sensing elements arranged in a sensor pattern and a plurality of conductive routing traces. Each conductive routing trace is conductively paired with a respective one of the plurality of sensing elements. The sensor routing traces are configured to reduce an RC load of the corresponding paired sensing elements compared to a base RC load of a plurality of base electrodes arranged in a base pattern that is identical to the sensor pattern. Each base sensor electrode is conductively paired with a base routing trace. The base sensor electrode and paired base routing trace have a size that is identical to a size of the paired sensing elements and conductive routing trace. The base routing trace terminates at the base sensor electrode to which the base routing trace is paired.
US09939968B2
A touch panel including a base portion having a thickness that varies according to applied pressure; a first conductive pattern unit disposed on a first surface of the base portion and including first conductive patterns; and a second conductive pattern unit disposed on a second surface of the base portion opposing the first conductive pattern and including second conductive patterns that overlap with the first conductive patterns. Each of the first conductive patterns includes regions overlapping with the second conductive patterns, and in one of the overlapping regions, an amount of overlapping area between the first conductive pattern and the second conductive pattern decreases the farther away radially the overlapping area is from a center point of the overlapping region.
US09939965B2
In one embodiment, a method includes detecting a touch of an object on a device. The method also includes predicting an area of the device that the detected touch will move to. The method further includes sending a first set of drive signals to one or more drive lines within the predicted area, the first set of drive signals each having a first number of pulses. The method further includes sending a second set of drive signals to one or more drive lines outside the predicted area, the second set of drive signals each having a second number of pulses. Furthermore, the first number of pulses is greater than the second number of pulses.
US09939963B2
A new form of 3-dimensional display is provided, employing ultrasonic emitters and receivers that share hardware. The illusion of user interface elements are simulated within an Actuation Area by overlapping ultrasound emitted from different emitters at areas coinciding with modeled elements' surfaces. In some embodiments, the period and phase of the ultrasonic waves are varied relative to one another to create a more compelling simulation of object surfaces. Resistance to movement and haptic feedback are also provided in some techniques, more accurately simulating the actuation of objects. In other embodiments, also applicable to touch screens, the ultrasound hardware provides such haptic feedback in addition to finger or stylus location when actuating a touch screen display. A new method for determining the location and direction of finger or stylus actuation pressure is also provided.
US09939959B2
A method for multi-touch integrity sensing for a multi-touch capacitive touch screen is disclosed. By determining the integrity of touches, a distinction is identified between wanted touches, such as via a finger or stylus, and unwanted touches such as via foreign matter, errors, and the like.
US09939957B2
A method for adaptively adjusting a touch control threshold of a touch panel is provided. The method includes: receiving a set of sample values from the touch panel; calculating a mean value and a standard deviation based on the set of sample values according to a determination result indicating that the set of sample values are not greater than the touch control threshold; and updating the touch control threshold according to the mean value and the standard deviation.
US09939955B2
A system may comprise a registration device configured to register patterns for users; a recording device configured to record a received pattern, as an electronic pattern, wherein the recording device recognizes the received pattern as one of the registered patterns; a receiving device configured to observe human movement patterns with a camera, transform the observed human movement patterns to an electronic signal, and receive the recognized registered pattern from the recording device by a first wireless transmission; a forwarding device configured to transmit the electronic signal, and the received recognized registered pattern to an alert service by a second wireless transmission; and an alert service, configured to receive the electronic signal and the received recognized registered pattern from the forwarding device and configured to transmit the electronic signal and the received recognized registered pattern to a second electronic device by a third wireless transmission.
US09939953B2
A display unit has a flexible display section, a detection section for detecting a deflection amount and a deflection direction of the display section, a determination section for determining a visible portion and a non-visible portion of the display section based on the deflection amount and the deflection direction, and a control section for controlling display contents of the display section. The control section either prevents an image display on the non-visible portion or displays one of a fixed image or a pre-set moving image on the non-visible portion. The display unit also includes a displacement sensor located in the same region as the display section.
US09939950B2
Operating touch screens by applying more than one voltage modes, including a first voltage mode corresponding to a display phase and a second voltage mode corresponding to a touch sensing phase, is provided. An integrated touch screen device can include a multi-mode power system that can select a first voltage mode corresponding a display phase and a second voltage mode corresponding to a touch sensing phase. Each of one or more voltages can be applied to the touch screen at the corresponding first voltage level during the updating of the image. A touch sensing system can sense touch during a touch sensing phase. Each of one or more voltages can be applied to the touch screen at the corresponding second voltage level during the sensing of touch.
US09939949B2
A touch panel, a touch device and a driving method thereof are disclosed. The touch panel includes first coils each formed by at least two electrically connected first electrodes, a first terminal of each first coil is electrically connected with one corresponding first signal line, a second terminal of the first coil is electrically connected with the common line, and when an electromagnetic touch is performed, the first coil is configured to receive an electromagnetic signal and generate an induced current, and when a capacitive touch is performed, the first coil functions as a capacitive touch driving electrode.
US09939945B2
Provided is an electronic device that can appropriately perform process in response to the position of a press (contact) by a user.The electronic device 1 includes a touch panel 10 configured to detect a contact, a controller 80 configured to obtain a position of the contact detected by the touch panel 10, and pressure detectors 20-1 to 20-8 configured to detect a pressure on the touch panel 10, in which a plurality of pressure detectors 20-1 to 20-8 are mounted on the touch panel 10, and the controller 80 chooses a pressure detector that detects a pressure on the touch panel 10 in response to the position of a contact obtained.
US09939926B2
A pointing device is disclosed. The pointing device includes an operation cap having an operation surface fitted into a stud. The stud is fixed to a keyboard plate with a screw from below together with a sensor plate. A waterproof material is provided between the stud and the keyboard plate. Multiple pressure sensors are arranged below the keyboard plate. The pressure sensors are applied with a predetermined pressure beforehand. When the operation surface is depressed, the stud and the sensor plate slide and move downward while being tilted to reduce the detection pressures of the pressure sensors. Since the pressure sensors exist below the keyboard plate, the operation cap can be downsized, and the pressure sensors can be protected from impact to the operation cap.
US09939922B2
Embodiments of the present invention discloses an input method of Chinese pinyin. The method comprises: obtaining an operation position and an operation duration of inputting a character through a character input platform; determining a combination of pinyin letters corresponding to the operation position according to mapping relationships between operation positions of the character input platform and character information; selecting a pinyin letter from the combination of pinyin letters corresponding to the operation position or selecting the combination of pinyin letters corresponding to the operation position as a character input through the character input platform according to mapping relationships between operation durations each corresponding to one of the operation positions of the character input platform and character information. The embodiments of the present invention further discloses a terminal.
US09939921B2
An input device includes a plurality of keys, where at least one key of the plurality of keys may include a first surface configured to contact a plurality of input objects, a sensing region of the first surface configured to sense the plurality of input objects, a capacitive sensor configured to determine positional information of the plurality of input objects on the first surface of the key, and a lighting element configured to provide visual feedback to a user interacting with the at least one key.
US09939920B2
Designs and techniques for keyset fingerprint sensors with backlight are described herein. In one or more implementations, a fingerprint sensor is integrated within a keyset of an input device. For instance, a key within an arrangement of keys is adapted to operate as a sensor key having an integrated fingerprint sensor. The sensor key is included within the arrangement of keys rather than being provided as a separate or external component. The sensor key includes a cover and a transmission layer covering the fingerprint sensor. A backlight integrated with the sensor key is arranged to supply light for the backlighting. The backlight is operable to selectively supply light at different times, in different colors, and/or in different sequences to illuminate a pattern on the cover and thereby provide indications indicative of sensing operations performed via the fingerprint sensor.
US09939918B2
An input device including a base, a plastic part provided on the base, and a touch sensor embedded in the plastic part. Embedding the touch sensor in the plastic part contributes to the reduction of the distance from an outer face of the base to the touch sensor, thereby improving the sensitivity of the touch sensor. Embedding the touch sensor in the plastic part also makes it possible to omit a step of fixing the touch sensor to the plastic part, thereby improving the yield rate of the input device.
US09939911B2
A remotely controlled object (e.g., an aircraft) or a wearable article (e.g., virtual or augmented reality glasses) using high optical contrast features and a photodetector that detects light produced, reflected or scattered by the features and outputs data indicative thereof. The remotely controlled object or wearable article uses one or more controllers to determine its position and/or orientation in the real three-dimensional environment based on data from the photodetector. Data from one or more auxiliary motion sensing devices, e.g., a relative motion sensor such as an inertial device or other auxiliary motion device relying on acoustics, optics or electromagnetic waves within or outside the visible spectrum, can be used to supplement the position and/or orientation data from the photodetector.
US09939910B2
Processing techniques and device configurations for performing and controlling output effects at a plurality of wearable devices are generally described herein. In an example, a processing technique may include receiving, at a computing device, an indication of a triggering gesture that occurs at a first wearable device, determining an output effect corresponding to the indication of the triggering gesture, and in response to determining the output effect, transmitting commands to computing devices that are respectively associated with a plurality of wearable devices, the commands causing the plurality of wearable devices to generate the output effect at the plurality of wearable devices. In further examples, output effects such as haptic feedback, light output, or sound output, may be performed by the plurality of wearable devices, associated computing devices, or other controllable equipment.
US09939908B2
A system and method uses multiple devices in concert as security for accessing an account. The system and method may use one or more security measures based on unique gestures, coordinated gestures between two devices, presence of multiple devices, sequence of actions, and other measures to prevent fraud. Additionally, these security measures may be rearranged or changed such that the devices may collaborate to provide access to multiple different accounts.
US09939902B2
An advanced haptic gamepad is provided. A controller having a plurality of surfaces, and a haptic output device located within its housing and coupled to an isolated deformable region disposed at one of the plurality of surfaces is provided. The isolated deformable region expands and contracts in response to the haptic output device. In addition, a controller having a plurality of isolated surface regions, and a plurality of haptic output devices located within its housing and coupled to respective isolated surface regions is provided. Each of the isolated surface regions is configured to provide localized haptic effects.
US09939896B2
Methods and systems for determining intent in voice and gesture interfaces are described. An example method includes determining that a gaze direction is in a direction of a gaze target, and determining whether a predetermined time period has elapsed while the gaze direction is in the direction of the gaze target. The method may also include providing an indication that the predetermined time period has elapsed when the predetermined time period has elapsed. According to the method, a voice or gesture command that is received after the predetermined time period has elapsed may be determined to be an input for a computing system. Additional example systems and methods are described herein.
US09939888B2
A system is described herein which receives internal-assessed (IA) movement information from a mobile device. The system also receives external-assessed (EA) movement information from at least one monitoring system which captures a scene containing the mobile device. The system then compares the IA movement information with the EA movement information with respect to each candidate object in the scene. If the IA movement information matches the EA movement information for a particular candidate object, the system concludes that the candidate object is associated with the mobile device. For example, the object may correspond to a hand that holds the mobile device. The system can use the correlation results produced in the above-indicated manner to perform various environment-specific actions.
US09939886B2
A data communication method enabling wireless sharing of files or data between electronic devices that can store information and/or generate information by means of touch surface (capacitive or multi-touch), display units (LCD, led, etc.), photo sensor and frame having negative electrical conductivity.
US09939884B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a processor having a plurality of cores and a control logic to control provision of a voltage/frequency to a first core of the plurality of cores independently of provision of a voltage/frequency to at least a second core of the plurality of cores. In some embodiments, the voltages may be provided from one or more internal voltage regulators of the processor. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09939883B2
One embodiment provides a method for reducing leakage current in device logic having an operational supply-voltage threshold, a nonzero data-retention supply-voltage threshold, and two or more on-die transistor switches to switchably connect a voltage source to the device logic. After the logic enters an idle period, one or more of the switches are opened to lower a supply voltage of the logic below the operational supply-voltage threshold but above the data-retention supply-voltage threshold. When the logic exits the idle period, one or more of the switches are closed to raise the supply voltage of the logic above the operational supply-voltage threshold.
US09939882B2
Techniques to control power and processing among a plurality of asymmetric processing elements are disclosed. In one embodiment, one or more asymmetric processing elements are power managed to migrate processes or threads among a plurality of processing elements according to the performance and power needs of the system.
US09939877B2
A method for controlling powering of a mobile platform 201 comprising a first Finite State Machine (FSM) 202 and a second FSM 203. The method comprises synchronizing the first FSM with the second FSM, wherein the first FSM is arranged on a first Integrated Circuit (IC) 207 comprised in the mobile platform and configured to control a first Power Management Unit (PMU) 205 arranged on the first IC, and wherein the second FSM is arranged on a second IC 208 comprised in the mobile platform and configured to control a second PMU 206 arranged on the second IC, whereby the first PMU and the second PMU are synchronized to operate simultaneously during rank-up and rank-down, thereby providing power control of the mobile platform.
US09939876B2
Operating system management of network interface devices is described. In one or more implementations, a determination is made by an operating system that network traffic associated with one or more applications of the computing device has completed. Responsive to the determination, a network interface device is caused to transition to a mode to reduce power consumption of the network interface device by the operating system.
US09939875B2
A power supply system for use with electronic gaming tables in a casino is disclosed. Each gaming table is associated with a unique iPDU and is viewed by one or more video cameras. When an electronic device in a table fails or is taken offline, regulatory personnel can review the video record that corresponds to the duration of the failure or offline status to determine whether the dealer or a bettor has caused the failure or offline status to come about.
US09939870B2
A method and apparatus reduce power consumption and mitigate declining battery life. In some embodiments, an initial full charge capacity, C(O), of a rechargeable battery is determined. A full charge capacity, C(t), of the rechargeable battery is determined at time t. An average power consumption profile is determined. A reduced power consumption is implemented based on the average power consumption profile and a factor C(t)/C(O). In other embodiments, functions that are not used in an average power consumption profile are deactivated. Other functions that occur in certain use cases of the average power consumption profile are activated and deactivated as needed.
US09939855B2
A method of manufacture of an enhanced capacity memory system includes: providing a dual in-line memory module carrier having a memory module and an integrated memory buffer coupled to the memory module; coupling a memory expansion board, having a supplementary memory module, to the dual in-line memory module carrier including attaching a bridge transposer; and providing a system interface connector coupled to the integrated memory buffer and the bridge transposer for controlling the memory module, the supplementary memory module, or a combination thereof.
US09939851B2
An electronic device and a hinge thereof are disclosed. The hinge includes a base, a first link, a second link, a third link and an elastic member. The first link is pivoted to the base and rotatable about a first axis. The first link includes a first groove. The second link is pivoted to the base and rotatable about a second axis. The third link includes a first end pivoted to the second link and a second end slidably joined to the first groove. The elastic member is disposed between the second link and the third link and propped against the second link and the third link.
US09939845B2
A method of manufacturing a display device includes providing a window including a printed area and a plurality of alignment key areas, patterning a printed layer on the printed area such that the plurality of alignment key areas is exposed and the printed layer covers the printed area, aligning a panel to the window by using the plurality of alignment key areas, and coupling the panel to the window.
US09939841B1
A method and circuit are provided to reduce the power consumption of high-speed clocks that are distributed across an integrated circuit (IC). Example implementations seek to reduce the amount of power dissipated in typical clock distribution networks by turning the combination of a multi-port electrical network and transmission line into a multi-resonant structure. In an implementation, the multi-port electrical network is coupled between first and second segments of the transmission line. The multi-port electrical network includes a series inductive reactance and a shunt inductive susceptance configured to produce first and second resonances that cooperate to create a bandpass response across clock distribution frequencies. This bandpass response is created by the multi-resonant structure, which is a combination of the transmission line and the multi-port electrical network. Various implementations are provided, including single-ended, differential, multi-section, multi-output, and point-to-multi-point implementations, each with an optional low-speed mode switch.
US09939835B2
A reference potential generation circuit is provided. The reference potential generation circuit includes first to third input terminals, first and second output terminals, a low-pass filter including first to third terminals, and a linear regulator including first to fourth terminals. In the reference potential generation circuit, the first terminal of the low-pass filter is electrically connected to the second input terminal. The second terminal of the low-pass filter is electrically connected to the first input terminal or the third input terminal. The third terminal of the low-pass filter is electrically connected to the first terminal of the linear regulator. The second terminal of the linear regulator is electrically connected to the first input terminal and the first output terminal. The third terminal of the linear regulator is electrically connected to the second output terminal. The fourth terminal of the linear regulator is electrically connected to the third input terminal.
US09939833B2
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to power management and the like, and more particularly, to an apparatus, a system, a method, and a computer-readable medium for providing power controlling functionality to generate configurable power signals and to deliver power during fault conditions. In at least some embodiments, a power control unit can generate power signals having configurable attributes as a function of a mode of operation, a fault type, and the like.
US09939831B2
Methods and systems for reducing the settling time of a voltage regulator are described. In some cases, the settling time of the voltage regulator may be reduced by detecting that the voltage regulator is transitioning from a standby mode to an active mode and drawing additional current from the output of the voltage regulator during a current boosting phase. The current boosting phase may correspond with a current boosting pulse that is initiated when an enable signal is received from a controller and then is ended when the output voltage of the voltage regulator is within a first voltage of the desired regulation voltage or has overshot the desired regulation voltage by a second voltage (e.g., has overshot the desired regulation voltage by 150 mV).
US09939830B1
Differing from conventional LDO voltage regulator being unable to work at a sleep mode for saving power dissipation, the present invention discloses a smart low dropout (LDO) voltage regulator capable of being switched to an operation mode or a sleep mode based on the controlling of an enablable signal. This smart LDO voltage regulator comprises an input voltage detecting unit, a switch controlling unit and a voltage regulating module. During the sleep mode of the smart LDO voltage regulator, the switch controlling unit generates a switch controlling signal to change a switch setting of a switch unit of the voltage regulating module, so as to facilitate the smart LDO voltage regulator produce an output voltage through a first voltage regulating unit or a second voltage regulating unit of the voltage regulating module, or directly output input voltage as the output voltage.
US09939828B2
A direct current (DC)-DC converting circuit includes a voltage converter generating a regulation current in response to a driving signal and generating an output voltage and an output current; an output voltage regulator regulating the output voltage and outputting a first control signal; a voltage limiter limiting a voltage value of the first control signal below a threshold value; a current sensor sensing an intensity of the regulation current and generating a second control signal having a voltage value corresponding to a value of the sensed intensity; and a driving signal generator generating the driving signal based on the first and second control signals, the first control signal having the voltage value below the threshold value.
US09939817B1
Systems, apparatus and methods implemented in algorithms, hardware, software, firmware, logic, or circuitry may be configured to process data and sensory input to determine whether an object external to an autonomous vehicle (e.g., another vehicle, a pedestrian, road debris, a bicyclist, etc.) may be a potential collision threat to the autonomous vehicle. The autonomous vehicle may be configured to implement interior active safety systems to protect passengers of the autonomous vehicle during a collision with an object or during evasive maneuvers by the autonomous vehicle, for example. The interior active safety systems may be configured to provide passengers with notice of an impending collision and/or emergency maneuvers by the vehicle by tensioning seat belts prior to executing an evasive maneuver and/or prior to a predicted point of collision.
US09939816B2
Moveable platform for taking inventory of objects comprising RFID tags in a storage space, wherein the platform comprises a navigation system, adapted to automatically navigate the platform, and a sensor system, adapted to identify objects to which RFID tags are attached in the storage space, wherein the sensor system comprises at least one antenna, wherein the sensor system is adapted to identify objects in the storage space while the platform moves through the storage space and wherein a control unit is provided that is adapted to control the navigation system in response to information obtained by the sensor system.
US09939812B2
An apparatus for controlling operation of an autonomously navigating utility vehicle equipped with a prime mover to travel about a working area delineated by a boundary line, there are provided with a map generating unit that that generates a working area map comprised of an array of a plurality of cells, a memory unit that counts and memorizes a number of times the vehicle passes over each of the cells based on the detected vehicle position; a target cell setting unit that selects one of the cells based on the memorized counted number and sets the selected one as a target cell; and a travel controlling unit that controls operation of the prime mover to make the vehicle travel about the working area until the vehicle has reached the boundary line, and make the vehicle turn toward the target cell and then travel straight forward when the vehicle has reached the boundary line.
US09939808B2
A method of process control for a batch process includes pre-measuring a monitor lot to obtain pre-metrology data regarding at least a first process parameter. There are no product units included with the monitor lot. The pre-metrology data is saved together with an identifier for the first monitor unit. A batch is staged for the batch process including at least a first product lot including a plurality of product units together with the first monitor unit. The batch is batch processed through the batch process. After the batch processing, the first monitor unit is measured to obtain post-metrology data for the first process parameter. At least one of the post-metrology data and a difference between the post-metrology data and pre-metrology data is saved to a data file with an identifier for the first product lot or the pre-metrology data and post-metrology data is directly written to the first product lot.
US09939801B2
A first speed and a second speed slower than the first speed are set as a contact speed when a work w and a detection jig t attached to a tool post are brought into contact with each other to detect a position or a posture of the work w, the work and the detection jig are brought into contact with each other at the first speed, the detection jig and the work contacting each other are separated from each other by a predetermined distance, the work and the detection jig which are separated from each other are brought into contact with each other at the same position at the second speed, and a correction value δ is obtained based on a tool post position or a spindle angle during the second contact.
US09939792B2
Methods and systems that facilitate efficient and effective adaptive execution mode selection are described. The adaptive execution mode selection is performed in part on-the-fly and changes to an execution mode (e.g., sequential, parallel, etc.) for a program task can be made. An intelligent adaptive selection can be made between a variety execution modes. The adaptive execution mode selection can also include selecting parameters associated with the execution modes. A controller receives historical information associated with execution mode selection, engages in training regarding execution mode selection, and adaptively selects an execution mode on-the-fly. The training can use an approach similar to an artificial neural network in which automated guided machine learning approach establishes correspondences between execution modes and task/input feature definitions based upon historical information. An adaptive selection is performed on-the-fly based on an initial trial run.
US09939787B2
A wearable electronic device and method of use are disclosed, including a main body, and at least one strap fixed to the main body. The strap includes a core member mounted with at least one electronic component, an electric connector disposed on the core member, and a band member enclosing at least one part of the core member disposed with the electric connector, wherein the at least one electronic component is electrically coupled to the main body through the electric connector.
US09939782B2
A hologram recording device includes a light outputting unit, which sequentially outputs laser beams having different wavelengths such that the laser beams are coaxial and includes an optical member and laser beam sources, and a recording unit, which sequentially irradiates the recording medium with the laser beams to record holograms in a multiwavelength superimposing manner. The optical member includes optical elements that reflect, in the optical direction, a laser beam incident thereon in a direction crossing the optical axis direction, and that allow a laser beam incident thereon in the optical axis direction to pass therethrough. The laser beam sources radiate laser beams to the optical member, and are arranged so that a laser beam emitted from a laser beam source among the laser beam sources that exposes a recording medium for a longer exposure period with the laser beam passes through a smaller number of optical elements.
US09939780B2
Various holographic films for recording multicolor volume holograms, especially full color volume reflection holograms, and to manufacturing techniques for such film, and to corresponding methods of recording multicolor and full-color volume, in particular volume reflection holograms. We describe a holographic film for recording a multicolor volume hologram, the film including: a carrier; a first photosensitive recording layer sensitive to one or both of red and green laser light; and a second photosensitive recording layer sensitive to blue laser light. Both the first and second photosensitive recording layers include silver halide and have a grain size of less than 30 nm, and at least one of the photosensitive recording layers has a thickness of greater than 3 μm and less than 5 μm.
US09939775B2
An image forming apparatus, including a photosensitive drum, a developer cartridge with a developer roller and a protrusion, a casing, a separator member to move the developer cartridge between a contact position and a separate position, and a first guide to guide the protrusion, is provided. The first guide confronts the protrusion along a direction orthogonal to an axial direction of the developer roller when the developer cartridge is in the contact position. The first guide includes a first guiding surface and a first inclined surface. The first guiding surface extends in parallel with a line connecting a center of a rotation axis of the developer roller with a center of a rotation axis of the photosensitive drum. The first inclined surface inclines with respect to the first guiding surface. The protrusion contacts the first inclined surface when the separator member moves the developer cartridge toward the separate position.
US09939774B2
A connection mechanism includes a connecting portion including a rotation arm rotatable around a rotation shaft, an urging unit configured to urge the rotation arm, and an engagement pin provided on the rotation arm; and a connected portion having an engagement groove formed in a tapered shape in an urging direction of the urging unit so as to allow entering of the engagement pin and holding of the engagement pin by the urging force of the urging unit.
US09939771B2
A recording material fold enhancing device includes a pressing unit that includes one or more recessed portions and one or more protrusions, and that presses a fold of a recording material; a supporting unit that includes one or more recessed portions and one or more protrusions, and that supports the fold of the recording material; and a driving unit that moves the pressing unit and the supporting unit along a direction in which the fold of the recording material is formed. A portion of the fold of the recording material is interposed between the one or more recessed portions of the pressing unit and the one or more protrusions of the supporting unit, and another portion of the fold of the recording material is interposed between the one or more protrusions of the pressing unit and the one or more recessed portions of the supporting unit.
US09939766B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image formation unit configured to form an image on a recording material, a conveyance unit configured to convey a recording material, an irradiation unit configured to emit light onto the recording material being conveyed by the conveyance unit, an image capturing unit configured to capture the light emitted by the irradiation unit and reflected from the recording material as a surface image of the recording material, and a control unit configured to control an image forming condition of the image formation unit based on the surface image of the recording material acquired by the image capturing unit, wherein the control unit controls the image forming condition based on a plurality of surface images of the recording material having different resolutions.
US09939760B2
An image forming apparatus includes a recording material feeding portion, an image forming portion, and a heating portion. An ultraviolet irradiating portion irradiates an image on a recording material with ultraviolet radiation, when the recording material is in an ultraviolet irradiation positon and is already heated by the heating portion, and a detecting portion detects a temperature of the recording material which has not yet been heated by the heating portion. In addition, a controller controls an output of the heating portion depending on the detected temperature so that the temperature of the recording material, when the recording material heated by the heating portion enters the ultraviolet irradiation position, is within a target temperature range that is set in advance.
US09939757B2
A plurality of development units includes at least a first development unit and a second development unit, and a plurality of photosensitive members includes at least a first photosensitive member corresponding to the first development unit and a second photosensitive member corresponding to the second development unit. After shifting the first development unit and the first photosensitive member into a contact state and shifting the second development state and the second photosensitive member into a contact state, a control unit controls a timing at which the first development unit develops an electrostatic latent image, based on a contact timing at which the second development unit and the second photosensitive member are shifted into a contact state.
US09939756B1
According to an embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes a housing, a developing roller, and a photosensitive drum. The developing roller includes an image area and a pair of non-image areas. The image area extends along an axial direction the developing roller. The non-image areas are provided on both sides in the axial direction with respect to the image area. The image forming apparatus further includes a regulating member. The regulating member covers a gap in positions which are aligned over the non-image area. The regulating member regulates air flow toward sides of the image area in the axial direction.
US09939748B2
An image forming apparatus transfers toner images of respective colors, formed on photosensitive drums, onto an intermediate transfer belt conveyed in a predetermined direction to thereby form a color toner image. A steering roller tilts the intermediate transfer belt in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction. A first sensor detects a position of a belt lateral end of the belt, and when controlling driving of the steering roller based on a detection result of the first sensor, a controller performs predetermined filtering on the detection result, to thereby control the driving of the steering roller according to the detection result subjected to the predetermined filtering.
US09939747B2
A method for producing a developing agent including preparing a dispersion liquid containing first fine particles containing a binder resin and second fine particles containing a color developable compound, a color coupler, and a color eraser, and aggregating the first and second fine particles in the dispersion liquid to form aggregated particles.
US09939745B2
A conductive support for an electrophotographic photoreceptor includes a metallic cylindrical member. The conductive support has a bare area exposed even after a photosensitive layer is disposed on the conductive support, and the outer circumferential surface of at least part of the bare area has a surface residual stress of about −10 MPa or less.
US09939732B2
A lithography system includes an optical source configured to emit a pulsed light beam; a lithography apparatus including an optical system, the optical system being positioned to receive the pulsed light beam from the optical source at a first side of the optical system and to emit the pulsed light beam at a second side of the optical system; and a control system coupled to the optical source and the optical lithography apparatus, the control system configured to: receive an indication of an amount of energy in the pulsed light beam at the second side of the optical system, determine an energy error, access an initial control sequence, the initial control sequence being associated with the optical source, determine a second control sequence based on the determined energy error and the initial control sequence, and apply the second control sequence to the optical source.
US09939730B2
An optical assembly, in particular for a lithography system for imaging lithographic micro- or nanostructures, includes at least two optical elements arranged successively in a beam path of the optical assembly, an acquisition device designed to acquire radiation signals from marking elements on or at the at least two optical elements, and a control device coupled to the acquisition device and which is designed to determine the plurality of properties of the optically active surface of the at least two optical elements as a function of the information contained in the radiation signals originating from the marking elements. The disclosure also relates to a method for operating the optical assembly.
US09939717B2
A projector which configured to project a horizontally long image and a vertically long image, includes a cooling unit configured to cool a discharge lamp according to an installation attitude of the projector, a detection unit configured to detect the installation attitude, and a controller configured to control a discharge lamp driving unit and the cooling unit, in which the installation attitude includes a first attitude for projecting the horizontally long image and a second attitude for projecting the vertically long image, and in which the controller is configured to put out the discharge lamp in a case where the installation attitude detected by the detection unit is a third attitude which is different from both of the first attitude and the second attitude.
US09939715B2
A projection device is disposable into a display platform of a display rack having a plurality of display platforms, for directly projecting an image frame onto a projection screen of the display platform. The image frame projected to the projection screen is not reflected by any reflective mirror arranged between the projection device and the projection screen. A length of the image frame in a first direction is equal to at least ten times a length of the image frame in a second direction. Since no reflective mirror is arranged between the projection device and the projection screen, the projection device is more easily applicable to display racks.
US09939711B1
A computing apparatus has a logic unit configured to perform an arithmetic operation by relating light beams, each having a respective light amplitude, to obtain a light-based result of the operation, and to evaluate the light-based result to output a corresponding numeric result. The logic unit uses variables values, each corresponding to a respective distinct light amplitude, the variable values thereby corresponding to a plurality of distinct light amplitudes.
US09939709B2
Disclosed herein is an optical waveguide element that includes a substrate and a waveguide layer formed on the substrate and comprising lithium niobate. The waveguide layer has a slab part having a predetermined thickness and a ridge part protruding from the slab part. The maximum thickness of the slab part is 0.05 times or more and less than 0.4 times a wavelength of a light propagating in the ridge part.
US09939707B2
Improvements and modifications are provided in the type of frustrated total internal reflection (TIR) systems described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,885,496; 6,891,658; 7,286,280; 7,760,417 and 8,040,591. The improvements and modifications include various methods to improve display operation of hemispherical beaded front plane TIR systems such as (a) inhibit or prevent the undesired non-uniform distribution and lateral migration of charged, electrophoretically mobile, TIR frustrating particles by encapsulating or tethering the particles to the beaded front plane surface; (b) inhibit or prevent the settling of the TIR frustrating particles such as modifying the viscosity of the low refractive index medium; and (c) inhibit or prevent the non-uniformity of the applied electric field during display operation such as using a conforming rear electrode.
US09939705B2
An electrochromic device is structured to selectively switch separate regions to separate transmission levels, based at least in part upon different respective sheet resistances of separate conductive layer regions. Sheet resistance of a conductive layer region can be associated with a transmission level to which a corresponding EC stack region can be switched, and a conductive layer with separate regions having separate sheet resistances causes corresponding EC stack regions to switch to different transmission levels. Sheet resistance in a conductive layer region can be adjusted via various processes, including introducing various chemical species into the conductive layer region to adjust a chemical species distribution in the region, where the chemical species distribution is associated with the sheet resistance of the region, heating conductive layer regions to induce oxidation of the region, adjusting the thickness of a conductive layer region, etc.
US09939703B1
Electrochromic devices having reduced switching times and their methods of manufacturing are presented. In one instance, the electrochromic device includes a transparent substrate having a surface. A first transparent conductive layer is disposed on a portion of the surface. The electrochromic device also includes an optically active layer disposed on the first transparent conductive layer. The optically active layer is configured to alter optical properties in response to an applied electric field. A second transparent conductive layer is disposed on the optically active layer. The electrochromic device additionally includes a patterned conductive layer disposed on the second transparent conductive layer and defining an array on the second transparent conductive layer. The array partitions the electrochromic device into a plurality of electrochromic cells. Other electrochromic devices and methods are presented.
US09939692B2
The following semiconductor device provides high reliability and a narrower frame width. The semiconductor device includes a driver circuit and a pixel portion. The driver circuit has a first transistor including a first gate and a second gate electrically connected to each other with a semiconductor film sandwiched therebetween, and a second transistor electrically connected to the first transistor. The pixel portion includes a third transistor, a liquid crystal element, and a capacitor. The liquid crystal element includes a first transparent conductive film electrically connected to the third transistor, a second conductive film, and a liquid crystal layer. The capacitor includes the first conductive film, a third transparent conductive film, and a nitride insulating film. The nitride insulating film is positioned between the first transparent conductive film and the third transparent conductive film, and positioned between the semiconductor film and the second gate of the first transistor.
US09939687B2
A liquid crystal cell and method for fabricating the same, a liquid crystal display panel, and a display device are disclosed. The liquid crystal cell comprises an active area and a dummy area, and comprises a first and second substrate which are arranged oppositely and separated by spacers, and liquid crystal arranged between the first and second substrate. The liquid crystal cell further comprises a volume variation compensating component which is arranged in the active area, and the volume variation compensating component comprises a material with a thermal expansion coefficient opposite to that of the liquid crystal, so as to compensate variation in the volume of liquid crystal when temperature varies. Not only defects of gravity mura at high temperature and bubbles at low temperature are eliminated to spread LC Margin, but also the scope of application environment for the liquid crystal display panel is expanded.
US09939675B2
A color filter substrate, a liquid crystal display panel, and a liquid crystal display are described. The color filter substrate has: a base substrate, a color resist layer disposed on a surface of the base substrate and having a plurality of colored-filter color resists each configured to filter a stray light and emit a light corresponding to a color; an upper polarizing sheet disposed on the other surface of the base substrate; and a ¼ wavelength plate covering on the upper polarizing sheet and having a plurality of areas which are respectively corresponding to the colored-filter color resists and face toward the colored-filter color resists, respectively. An in-plane retardation Re of the ¼ wavelength plate in each of the areas satisfies: Re=λ/4, wherein λ is a wavelength of the light corresponding to the color.
US09939665B2
A communication apparatus includes an optical fiber along which radiation can be transmitted; an optical fiber grating formed within the optical fiber, the optical fiber grating having a structure, and configured to reflect radiation at a particular wavelength; and an instrument coupled to the grating and configured to controllably modify the structure of the grating, thereby changing the wavelength at which the grating reflects radiation. A communication system including the communication apparatus is also described, along with a method of communicating a signal.
US09939657B2
The present invention describes single-piece or multi-piece Rigid Inserts that may be included in an Ophthalmic Lenses or may comprise the Ophthalmic Lens, wherein the Rigid Insert may be formed through the processing of thin sheet material by thermoforming. Single piece annular Rigid Inserts may perform the function of providing a template for printed patterns to be included in Ophthalmic Lenses. Single piece full Rigid Inserts may perform the function of polarizing light or filtering light based on the properties of materials used to form the insert. Multi-piece Rigid Inserts may include activation and energization elements. The present invention also includes methods and apparatus for forming the Rigid Inserts.
US09939656B1
Disclosed is a nose pad for comfortably supporting eyeglasses in multiple positions. The nose pad comprising a more rigid main portion, and a highly flexible and soft back end portion. The main portion connected to an eyeglass frame and positioned for contacting a user's nose upon wearing the eyeglasses in a normal wearing position. The back end portion connected to this main portion and generally positioned on a back edge of this main portion for contacting a user's forehead area upon wearing the eyeglasses in a tilted up position. The main portion, being more rigid, supports the eyeglasses properly on a user's nose. The soft and flexible back end portion provides a comfortable and non-slipping contact with a user's forehead area. The combination of this main portion with the soft back end portion provides a comfortable and non-slipping contact with a user's nose. The nose pad of the present invention is applicable to all types of eyeglasses.
US09939655B2
A six-piece optical lens for capturing image and a six-piece optical module for capturing image are provided. In order from an object side to an image side, the optical lens along the optical axis includes a first lens with refractive power, a second lens with refractive power, a third lens with refractive power, a fourth lens with refractive power, a fifth lens with refractive power and a sixth lens with refractive power. At least one of the image-side surface and object-side surface of each of the six lens elements is aspheric. The optical lens can increase aperture value and improve the imagining quality for use in compact cameras.
US09939651B1
An example beam splitting apparatus is assembled from multiple prisms that are assembled together along respective mating surfaces to form a single monolithic optical device. The beam splitting apparatus includes optical features, such as dichroic and reflective surfaces, that define optical paths for light that enters the beam splitting apparatus. The optical features allow photons in the light to be directed along different optical paths based on their wavelengths. The optical features in the beam splitting apparatus are provided by coatings, films, and/or surface treatments applied to any of the faces of the prisms. In particular, coatings, films, and/or surface treatments are applied to the mating surfaces of the prisms so that the optical features are internal to the assembled monolithic optical device. The beam splitting apparatus may be implemented in a communication terminal that exchanges data modulated light according to frequency-division duplex communications.
US09939640B2
A head-up display in a motor vehicle has an image combiner movable between an active position, in which it is situated in the field of view of a driver of the vehicle, and an inactive position, in which it is situated close to a surface of or within an instrument panel. The position of the image combiner is controlled depending on signals from vehicle devices that indicate a likelihood or probability of a fogging condition of the windshield. The fogging condition may be indicated by a driver actuation of a windshield defogging/heating system.
US09939638B2
A vehicle display device according to the present invention includes a projecting direction changing mechanism that can adjust a light projecting direction in which display light including a certain image is emitted and a display control unit that changes a correction pattern for correcting the shape of the image according to the projecting direction adjusted by the projecting direction changing mechanism and corrects the shape of the image based on the correction pattern. With the vehicle display device according to the present invention, the display light including the shape of the image corrected by the display control unit is emitted and guided to a windshield, so that the display light reflected on the surface of the windshield is visually recognized.
US09939633B2
The present invention provides a scanning system (100) comprising a first port for receiving or emitting a stationary beam (60) of electromagnetic radiation, a second port for emitting or receiving a scanning beam of electromagnetic radiation, the scanning beam scanning in a main scanning direction, a scanning element (61) for relaying the stationary beam (60) into the scanning beam or vice versa, an optical system between the scanning element (61) and the second port, wherein the optical system comprises at least a first mirror (63) and a second mirror (64) having a rotationally symmetric curved mirror surface around their optical axis, at least one of the first and the second curved mirror surface having an aspheric shape, and wherein the first and the second mirror (63, 64) have an off-axis decentered aperture and are offset in position in a direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction.
US09939628B2
An imaging system suitable to provide an image of a surface portion of an object is disclosed. The system includes a light source arranged to provide a light beam, at least a first optical waveguide having a first face and having a second face opposite to the first face, the first face having an incoupling surface. The optical waveguide includes an outcoupling surface, a first diffraction grating arranged on the optical waveguide, and an imaging subsystem arranged to the outcoupling surface. The first diffraction grating is arranged to outcouple at least a fraction of the light beam.
US09939596B2
An optical integrated circuit (IC) package includes an optical IC including an optical IC substrate, an optical IC including an optical IC substrate, an electrical integrated circuit device (EICD) on the optical IC substrate, at least one optical device spaced apart from the EICD on the optical IC substrate, an optical interface on a first side of the optical IC substrate, an electrical interface located on a second side of the optical IC substrate, and an encapsulation member configured to encapsulate the optical IC, the EICD, the at least one optical device, the optical interface, and the electrical interface.
US09939593B2
A photonic device comprising a base plate, a photonic laser coupled to the base plate, wherein the photonic laser is configured to generate a light, a lens coupled to the base plate, wherein the lens is configured to receive the light from the photonic laser, form a focused light, and pass the focused light to a reflector, and the reflector incorporated with the base plate such that the lens is positioned between the photonic laser and the reflector, wherein the reflector is configured to receive the focused light, and wherein the reflector is configured to steer a first portion of the focused light through the base plate using total internal reflection.
US09939592B2
A single-fiber bidirectional optical transceiver module of the same wavelength. A sub-wavelength grating and a Faraday rotator are used, and the same element is reused to implement a polarization multiplex/de-multiplex function, so as to implement transmission and receiving of an optical signal in a small space. The single-fiber bidirectional optical transceiver module has less optical elements, a compact structure, and low cost, meeting the needs on a miniaturized, integrated, and high speed optical transceiver module for a modern optical communication system.
US09939589B2
Optical fiber connectors configured to allow ease of change of the connector polarity by providing lockable outer housing. In an embodiment, an optical fiber connector comprises an inner housing, at least one key configured to move along the inner housing so as to change a polarity of said optical fiber connector, and an outer housing disposed around at least a portion of the inner housing and configured to slide in a longitudinal direction so as to expose at least a portion of said at least one key, wherein the outer housing includes a flexible portion configured to lock to the inner housing so as to retain the outer housing in a pulled back position relative to the inner housing.
US09939588B2
A cost efficient and pressure resistant system for interconnecting fiber optical cables in-situ at a hydrocarbon fluid production facility comprises:—a pressure resistant light transparent window (41);—a first lens system (48A-C), which is arranged at one side of the window and configured to convert a first light beam transmitted through a first fiber optical cable (46A-C) into a collimated light beam (51A-C) that is transmitted through the window; and—a second lens system (50A-C), which is arranged at an opposite side of the window and configured to receive and reconvert the collimated light beam into a second light beam that is transmitted into a second fiber optical cable (47A-C).
US09939582B2
A method for forming a non-linear thickness-profile in a first layer of a first material is disclosed. The method comprises forming an accelerator layer of a second material on the first layer and forming a mask layer disposed on the accelerator layer, wherein the mask layer enables the accelerator layer to expose the first layer to a first etchant in a first region, where the exposure time for each point along a first axis varies non-linearly as a function of distance from a first point on the first axis. Since the time for which the first layer is exposed to the first etch in the first region is non-linear, the thickness of the first layer in the first region changes non-linearly along the first axis.
