Patents Represented by Attorney Rockey, Depke, Lyons & Kitzinger LLC
  • Patent number: 7312825
    Abstract: A solid state image pickup device being provided with a photoelectric converter portion being composed of a plurality of pixels disposed in a row, a charge transfer portion for transferring the charges generated in the photoelectric converter portion, and a charge/voltage converter portion for converting the charges transferred by the charge transfer portion into voltages, comprising; a timing pulse generator portion for generating at least more than one pulse signal from among the followings: a first pulse signal for driving the charge transfer portion, a second pulse signal for reading out the charges generated in the photoelectric converter portion, a third pulse signal for sweeping out the charges generated in the photoelectric converter portion and a fourth pulse signal for discharging the charges transferred to the charge/voltage converter portion, and a switch circuit for switching over at least one pulse signal out of the abovementioned pulse signals to a predetermined fixed potential or a floating le
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshinori Kuno, Masahide Hirama, Toshimitsu Nagae
  • Patent number: 7288724
    Abstract: A method of manufacturing a multilayer wiring substrate, which can preserve the dimensional stability of a conductor pattern at a fine pitch, solve the restriction on a process from the viewpoint of material selection, and further reduce a manufacturing cost, and a multilayer wiring substrate. A second wiring substrate formed on a supporting sheet made of metal and an adhesive layer are partially stacked on a predetermined region of a first wiring substrate by using the supporting sheet. After the lamination of the second wiring substrate, the supporting sheet is finally etched and removed. The second wiling substrate is stacked only on the portion required to be multilayered on the first wiring substrate to thereby reduce the amount of the construction material of the second wiring substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroshi Asami, Hidetoshi Kusano, Yuji Nishitani, Ken Orui
  • Patent number: 7264980
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method of mounting a light emitting element, in which a light emission point can be positioned at high accuracy with respect to the mounting member. A semiconductor laser element is placed on a matching stage. Next, a position and an azimuth of a laser stripe of the semiconductor laser element is observed, and linear displacement in X and Y directions of the semiconductor laser element from a reference line and a reference point on the matching stage, and angular displacement in an azimuth (?) within an X-Y plane are measured. In accordance with a measured result, a control signal is sent to a driving mechanism of the feeding collet to drive the feeding collet, and the position of the semiconductor laser element is adjusted on the matching stage. After the adjustment, the semiconductor laser element is fed to and placed on a mounting surface of a heat sink H.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Masafumi Ozawa, Hiroshi Yoshida, Takashi Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 7259398
    Abstract: A semiconductor light emitting apparatus is proposed, which has thyristor without increasing number of constituent semiconductor layers, with large degree of freedom of selection of ON voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Yoshifumi Yabuki
  • Patent number: 7256831
    Abstract: Systems and methods allow driving a solid-state image pickup apparatus at high-speed operation by reducing a number of different samples in the horizontal and vertical directions. In an exemplary embodiment, three or more odd-numbered pixels are incorporated into a single block and signal charges from same color outputs are added within transfer registers such that an average center of the pixels coincides with a pixel at a center of the block. Three transfer electrodes are preferably provided for a column of a vertical transfer register in a part of the vertical transfer register on a side of the horizontal transfer register. The three transfer electrodes may be formed from one layer of three different gate electrode layers. The vertical registers may be arranged in a three column cycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Tetsuya Iizuka
  • Patent number: 7250941
    Abstract: A timing generating circuit with low power consumption and a small layout area, a display apparatus including the timing generating circuit as one peripheral driving circuit, and a portable terminal including the display apparatus as a display output section are provided. In the timing generating circuit, which is formed on an insulating substrate and generates output pulses SRFF1out to SRFFnout having different frequencies based on a master clock MCK, a clock generating circuit (11) generates an operating clock having a lower frequency than the master clock MCK frequency. Then, a counter section (12) operates based on this operating clock and successively outputs shifted pulses S/R1out to S/Rmount from shift registers (121-1) to (121-m). An output pulse generating section (13) generates output pulses SF1out to SFnout based on combinations of the shifted pulses S/R1out to S/Rmount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshitoshi Kida, Yoshiharu Nakajima, Toshikazu Maekawa
  • Patent number: 7250774
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a fingerprints detection apparatus by a capacitance detection method. The fingerprints detection apparatus of the present invention includes a sensor portion in which an insulating protection film is formed so as to cover detection electrodes arranged like an array, and the detection electrodes and the wiring beneath the detection electrodes are formed of a refractory metal or a compound of the refractory metal. This structure heightens the Vickers hardness of the detection electrodes and the wiring. This makes it possible to provide a highly reliable fingerprints detection apparatus in which a tolerance to cracks of the insulating protection film in the sensor portion is improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Shuichi Oka
  • Patent number: 7251074
    Abstract: A projection screen and method of manufacturing provides clear images regardless of the brightness of the environment within which the projection screen is used. The projection screen includes an optical thin film comprised of a multilayer dielectric having alternating high reflectance layers for light in a particular wavelength and high transmittance for visible light except in particular wavelength ranges. The thickness of each of the dielectric multilayer is determined so that the optical thin film forms a band-pass filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Kazuhito Shimoda, Toshitaka Kawashima
  • Patent number: 7248289
    Abstract: A plurality of flicker detection frames are formed by dividing an image into a plurality of frames. A flicker detection circuit performs detection of luminance data for each of the flicker detection frames. The differences between the luminance data of the preceding frame and the current frame, and between the luminance data of the current frame and the following frame with respect to each of the flicker detection frames are taken, a flicker component is extracted, and the flicker frequency is calculated, by a flicker frequency determination program in a microcomputer. Then, the space between the flicker detection frames in which a crest or trough of the extracted flicker component appears is measured, and the results are converted into the flicker frequency. The frame rate of the image pickup signals is controlled so as not to be synchronized with the flicker frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Katsumi Katoh, Eiji Machishima, Toshiaki Kodake
  • Patent number: 7245194
    Abstract: One pair of resonant electrodes is formed in a loop shape or a spiral shape in a substrate stacking direction symmetrically to each other. This allows a longitudinal space in substrate to be reduced. A first capacitor having an electrode connected to the grounding conductor layer, an electrode connected to an open-end side of the resonant electrode, and a dielectric layer is provided. A second capacitor having an electrode connected to the grounding conductor layer, an electrode connected to an open-end side of the resonant electrode, and a dielectric layer is also provided. This results in having a desired characteristic even if a length of the resonant electrode is short.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Akira Muto
  • Patent number: 7241518
    Abstract: It is a magnetic recording medium for which favorable values for all of reproduced output, noise level and error rate can be obtained, and which is also superior in terms of storage stability. A magnetic recording medium (10), which has a configuration in which a magnetic layer (3) comprised of a maghemite thin film containing cobalt is formed on a tape-shaped substrate (1) comprised of aromatic polyimide, and in which the substrate (1) is 3 to 10 ?m in thickness, and 5 to 30 nm in its ten-point average roughness (SRz) of the surface on which the magnetic layer (3) is formed, and the magnetic layer (3) is 10 to 50 nm in thickness, 0.1 to 3.0 nm in center plane average thickness (SRa), and 2,000 to 4,000 Oe (158,000 to 316,000 A/m) in in-plane coercivity, is made.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Satoshi Sato
  • Patent number: 7243280
    Abstract: In a semiconductor circuit apparatus and its test method according to embodiments of the present invention, the clock enable control circuit can generate in a test mode an enable clock signal by using the substitute enable signal instead of the enable signal output from the enable signal generation combinational circuit and supplies it to the enable input terminal of the sequential circuit. Accordingly, with the simple structure in which the substitute enable signal is used, a proper enable clock signal can be generated and a scan test can be performed by reliably setting the sequential circuit to the enable state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Ryoji Koganei
  • Patent number: 7241471
    Abstract: A method of fabricating a low-noise, high-output and large-capacity magnetic recording medium compatible with the AIT3 format in which a metal magnetic film is formed by the vacuum evaporation process under supply of oxygen is disclosed. In the vacuum evaporation process, the running speed of a non-magnetic support is controlled within a range from 150 to 200 m/min, and on thus continuously fast-running, non-magnetic support, a Co magnetic thin film is formed under supply of oxygen so as to achieve a coercive force Hc of the Co magnetic thin film of 100 to 115 kA/m, and a squareness ratio of 0.79 or larger.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yasumi Sato, Jota Ito
  • Patent number: 7238076
    Abstract: In an assembling method of a light emitting device having a light emitting element for emitting light and a package for sealing in at least the light emitting element, the package is sealed in an ozone atmosphere and the light having a wavelength is irradiated into the sealed package. Activated ozone produced in the package collides with an Si organic compound and the Si organic compound is decomposed and becomes a stable substance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroshi Yoshida, Tadashi Taniguchi
  • Patent number: 7238931
    Abstract: The present invention provides a displacement detection apparatus uses short scales and can provide a long measurable range comparable to a single long scale with a short bed length.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Nobuo Nabeshima, Kayoko Taniguchi, Eiko Kanbara
  • Patent number: 7239851
    Abstract: The present invention provides a high frequency module having a base substrate unit (2) which has its uppermost layer planarized to form a buildup-forming surface (16), a high frequency circuit unit (3) having multiple wiring layers which are formed on the base substrate unit (2), each of which layers has a wiring pattern and film elements formed on a dielectric insulating layer thereof, whose uppermost wiring layer (17) has plural lands (22) and ground patterns (20) formed thereon together with the wiring pattern and inductor elements (19), and a semiconductor chip (4) mounted on the wiring layer (17) of the high frequency circuit unit (3). Transmission lines (24) to connect the inductor elements (19) and lands (22) which are formed on the wiring layer (17) are directed within hollowed pattern regions (20c) formed at the ground pattern (20) to constitute coplanar type transmission lines.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Takahiko Kosemura, Akihiko Okubora
  • Patent number: 7235981
    Abstract: An impedance conversion circuit including: a first voltage-to-current converter and a second voltage-to-current converter supplied with differential input signal voltages; an inverting amplifier; and a third voltage-to-current converter for feedback; wherein a first resistance and a second resistance are connected in series with each other between an input terminal and an output terminal of the inverting amplifier, an output terminal of the first voltage-to-current converter is connected to the input terminal of the inverting amplifier, an output terminal of the second voltage-to-current converter is connected to a connection node of the first resistance and the second resistance, the output terminal of the inverting amplifier is connected to an input terminal of the third voltage-to-current converter, an output terminal of the third voltage-to-current converter is connected to an input terminal of the first voltage-to-current converter, and an impedance is connected between the connection node and a ground.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Atsushi Hirabayashi, Kenji Komori
  • Patent number: 7235835
    Abstract: The present invention proposes a semiconductor device, its manufacturing method and to an electronic apparatus thereof equipped with the semiconductor device where it becomes possible to make a CMOS type solid-state imaging device, an imager area formed with a MOS transistor of an LDD structure without having a metal silicide layer of a refractory metal, an area of DRAM cells and the like into a single semiconductor chip. According to the present invention, a semiconductor device is constituted such that an insulating film having a plurality of layers is used, sidewalls at the gate electrodes are formed by etching back the insulating film of the plurality of layers or a single layer film in the region where metal silicide layers are formed and in the region where the metal silicide layers are not formed, sidewalls composed of an upper layer insulating film is formed on a lower layer insulating film whose surface is coated or the insulating film of the plurality of layers remain unchanged.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Nagano, Yasushi Morita
  • Patent number: 7235853
    Abstract: A fingerprint detection device has a fingerprint sensor chip and a diamond-like carbon (DLC) film covering the outermost surface of the sensor chip. The DLC film provides sufficient strength and enhanced electrostatic discharge withstand voltage to the fingerprint sensor chip. Thus, the DLC film protects the fingerprint sensor chip without any conventional protective cover. The DLC film is less scratchable and less stainable. Since the fingerprint detection device has no protective cover, the device can be provided in a thin and compact form. In addition, the device has high reliability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Seiichi Miyai, Shuichi Oka
  • Patent number: 7235477
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to a multi-layer interconnection circuit module in which plural unit wiring layers are interlayer-connected to each other through a large number of via holes so that they are laminated and formed, wherein respective unit wiring layers (8) to (12) are adapted so that photo-lithographic processing is implemented to a first insulating layer (22) formed by photosensitive insulating resin material to form via hole grooves (25), and photo-lithographic processing is implemented to a second insulating layer (23) formed by photosensitive insulating resin material on the first insulating layer (22) to form wiring grooves (27).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Tsuyoshi Ogawa