Patents Represented by Attorney Rockey, Depke, Lyons & Kitzinger LLC
  • Patent number: 7235826
    Abstract: A solid-state image pickup device 1 according to the present invention includes a semiconductor substrate 2 on which a pixel 20 composed of a photodiode 3 and a transistor is formed. The transistor comprising the pixel 20 is formed on the surface of the semiconductor substrate, a pn junction portion formed between high concentration regions of the photodiode 3 is provided within the semiconductor substrate 2 and a part of the pn junction portion of the photodiode 3 is extended to a lower portion of the transistor formed on the surface of the semiconductor substrate 2. According to the present invention, there is provided a solid-state image pickup device in which a pixel size can be microminiaturized without lowering a saturated electric charge amount (Qs) and sensitivity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Takayuki Ezaki, Teruo Hirayama
  • Patent number: 7233541
    Abstract: The present invention is intended to significantly enhance processing efficiency. The card-type semiconductor storage device has a first data communication line group for connecting nonvolatile memories in a first port to a controller block and a second data communication line group for connecting nonvolatile memories in a second port to the controller block.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Yamamoto, Kenichi Satori
  • Patent number: 7233049
    Abstract: The prevent invention is to provide a solid-state imaging device having a electrode configuration applicable to a progressive scan, and able to reduce a obstruction of incident light at the periphery of a light receiving portion, a method of producing the same, a camera including the same. A first transfer electrode, a second transfer electrode, and a third transfer electrode which have a single layer transfer electrode configuration are repeatedly arranged in a vertical direction. The first transfer electrodes are connected in a horizontal direction by an inter-pixel interconnection formed in the same layer. Shunt interconnections are formed in the horizontal direction and in the vertical direction above the transfer layers. The shunt interconnection connected to the second transfer interconnection is formed on the inter-pixel interconnection. The shunt interconnection connected to the third transfer electrode is formed above the transfer electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Hideo Kanbe
  • Patent number: 7230962
    Abstract: An edge-emitting semiconductor laser includes a resonator structure having an active layer. A low reflection three-layer film is provided on in emitting edge face of the resonator structure and a high reflection multi-layer film is provided on a rear edge face of the resonator structure. The low reflection three-layer film is formed in an exemplary embodiment by sequentially stacking a first Al2O3 layer having a thickness of 10 nm, an Si3N4 film having a thickness of 190 nm, and a second Al2O3 layer having a thickness of 10 nm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Takahiro Arakida, Hisashi Kudo
  • Patent number: 7227770
    Abstract: A ferroelectric-type nonvolatile semiconductor memory comprising a plurality of bit lines and a plurality of memory cells, each memory cell comprising a first electrode, a ferroelectric layer formed at least on said first electrode and a second electrode formed on said ferroelectric layer, a plurality of the memory cells belonging to one of two or more thermal history groups having different thermal histories with regard to their production processes, data of 1 bit being to be stored in one of memory cells forming a pair, another data of 1 bit being to be stored in the other of said memory cells, a pair of said memory cells being connected to a pair of the bit lines, a pair of the bit lines being connected to a differential sense amplifier, wherein, when data stored in one of said memory cells forming a pair is read out, a reference potential is provided to the bit line connected to the other of said memory cells, when another data stored in the other of said memory cells is read out, a reference potential
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Toshiyuki Nishihara
  • Patent number: 7224200
    Abstract: In the structure in which an input signal IN and a reverse-phase signal XIN thereof are externally input, an external IC is required for generating the reverse-phase signal XIN, and the number of required input signal terminals is two. A level shift circuit formed on an insulating substrate, such as a glass substrate, using transistors with large characteristic variations, for example, TFTs with high thresholds Vth, includes a complementary generator unit (11) driven by a first power supply (VCC) having an amplitude voltage equal to the amplitude voltage of a signal externally input from the substrate to generate complementary signals from a single-phase input signal IN. The complementary signals generated by the complementary generator unit (11) are level-shifted by a level shift unit (14). Therefore, it is no longer necessary to externally input the reverse-phase signal XIN.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshitoshi Kida, Yoshiharu Nakajima, Hiroaki Ichikawa
  • Patent number: 7224544
    Abstract: After a DC erasing is performed in a direction by permanent magnets on a servo signal recording part, servo signals are recorded in the signal recording area of the servo signal recording part by a magnetic field in the direction opposite to that of the DC erasing. Thus, in a recording method for a magnetic recording medium having a data signal recording part and the servo signal recording part on a magnetic layer, accurate servo signals can be recorded and reproduced even on the medium having the magnetic layer of 0.13 ?m or smaller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Masanori Takano, Takashi Abe, Nobufumi Takasu, Yoshiyuki Watanabe, Kiyoyuki Miyata
  • Patent number: 7220645
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device. A plurality of device separation regions are formed in an SOI layer of an SOI substrate, a desired impurity is implanted into a body portion of an Si active layer region, and thereafter a gate electrode is formed with a gate insulation film therebetween. Thereafter, an impurity is implanted into the Si active layer region to form extension portions of source/drain portions, and then an impurity different in polarity from the impurity in the source/drain portions is halo-implanted to form a reverse-characteristic layer. In the halo implantation, the range of projection is set to reach the inside of a buried oxide film. With this configuration, in a fully depleted SOI-MOSFET or the like provided with a thin film SOI layer, it is made possible to simultaneously achieve an improvement of roll-off characteristic and a reduction in parasitic resistance and to secure a sufficient driving capability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Kazuhide Koyama
  • Patent number: 7217961
    Abstract: A solid-state image pickup device includes an element isolation insulating film electrically isolating pixels on the surface of a well region; a first isolation diffusion layer electrically isolating the pixels under the element isolation insulating film; and a second isolation diffusion layer electrically isolating the pixels under the first isolation diffusion layer, wherein a charge accumulation region is disposed in the well region surrounded by the first and second isolation diffusion layers, the inner peripheral part of the first isolation diffusion layer forms a projecting region, an impurity having a conductivity type of the first isolation diffusion layer and an impurity having a conductivity type of the charge accumulation region are mixed in the projecting region, and a part of the charge accumulation region between the charge accumulation region and the second isolation diffusion layer is abutted or close to the second isolation diffusion layer under the projecting region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Keiji Tatani, Hideshi Abe, Masanori Ohashi, Atsushi Masagaki, Atsuhiko Yamamoto, Masakazu Furukawa
  • Patent number: 7216950
    Abstract: A density-adjusting method of a liquid-discharging apparatus having a head including a plurality of juxtaposed liquid-discharging units having respective nozzles, forming dots by landing droplets discharged from the nozzles onto a droplet-landing object, and providing half tones by arranging a dot array is provided. A density-measuring pattern including all pixel trains lying in the main scanning direction with a constant density is formed, the density of the pattern is scanned so as to obtain density information and the relationship between the number and the density of droplets with respect to each pixel train. Upon receipt of a discharge command signal, based on the obtained data with respect to each pixel train, the density of the pixel train corresponding to the discharge command signal is adjusted by making the number of droplets to be actually discharged from the nozzles different from that of droplets discharged according to the discharge command signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Takeo Eguchi, Kazuyasu Takenaka, Takanori Takahashi, Ichiro Ujiie
  • Patent number: 7217468
    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: April 14, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yasumi Sato, Jota Ito
  • Patent number: 7218251
    Abstract: It is intended to remove a risk of illegal high quality restoration while enabling trial viewing of contents such as music, to make it possible to reproduce contents with high quality by acquiring a relatively small amount of data, and to make it possible to implement hardware at a lower cost. To generate trial listening data containing dummy data, a pseudo random number R is generated first. A remainder r of R divided by 128 is calculated. The remainder r is coded and incorporated into high sound quality restoration data. A bandwidth limitation region of trial listening data is replaced by dummy data starting from its rth bit. As a result, the head position of the dummy data in the trial listening data varies frame by frame, whereby the safety of the trial listening data can be increased.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Kyoya Tsutsui, Naoya Haneda, Kenzo Akagiri
  • Patent number: 7218309
    Abstract: A display apparatus employing a plural pixel simultaneous sampling method is disclosed wherein the parasitic capacitance of each wiring line is reduced to suppress a ghost. A sampling switch set includes switches which are connected to corresponding ones of signal lines and video lines. Upper and lower side horizontal drive circuits drive switches of the sampling switch set simultaneously to sample the video signals of systems to the corresponding signal lines, and perform sampling successively for each signal lines to write the video signals into pixels of the selected row. The video lines are divided into two groups of video lines disposed on the upper and lower sides. The upper side video lines are connected to corresponding even-numbered ones of the signal lines through the corresponding switches while the lower side video lines are connected to corresponding odd-numbered ones of the signal lines through the corresponding switches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Katsuhide Uchino, Junichi Yamashita
  • Patent number: 7218366
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display device, by which a reduction of costs of a color filter is realized and declining of the transmittance or reflectance due to an alignment error is suppressed, comprising a pair of substrates arranged facing to each other over a liquid crystal layer, wherein one substrate is formed pixels PXL arranged in matrix. Each pixel is formed a reflection portion for reflecting an outside light and a transmission portion for transmitting a light. The other substrate is formed a color filter colored to be different colors (red, green and blue) corresponding to respective pixels. One or more color adjusting windows CFW having a coloring concentration of zero or less than that of other portions are provided on reflection regions CFR superposing with reflection portions inside pixel regions corresponding to respective pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Shinji Nakamura, Masato Imai, Yoko Fukunaga, Akira Maehara
  • Patent number: 7216419
    Abstract: In a high-frequency coil device having small dispersion in coil inductance and suitable for use in GHz band and a method of manufacturing the high-frequency coil device, a spirally-shaped fine-pitch coil is embedded in the surface of a polyimide layer as a dielectric substrate so that the bottom surface and side surface of the coil is covered by the polyimide layer. The spirally-shaped coil has an Ni—Cu laminate structure in which an Ni plating layer and a Cu plating layer are laminated, and also the side surface thereof is made substantially vertical while the width thereof is uniform with high precision. The surface of the spirally-shaped coil, that is, the surface of the Ni plating layer serving as the upper layer is coated with an Au plating layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Hidetoshi Kusano
  • Patent number: 7214436
    Abstract: A magnetic recording medium of a metal thin-film type, which includes a magnetic layer and a carbon protective layer on a non-magnetic support member, and in which a non-magnetic metal thin-film is provided between the magnetic layer and the carbon protective layer, is provided. The magnetic recording medium thus produced can be run stably.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Ryoichi Hiratsuka, Tomoe Ozaki, Taketoshi Sato, Miho Abiko, Ichiro Kanagawa, Kasumi Suzuki
  • Patent number: 7213905
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting device and method control the flying characteristic of liquid while enabling stable ejection of the liquid, without shortening the life of bubble producing units (heating resistors). The liquid ejecting device has heads each including liquid ejecting portions arranged in parallel which each include a liquid cell, bisected heating resistors in the liquid cell which produce bubbles in liquid in the liquid cell in response to the supply of energy, and a nozzle for ejecting the liquid in the liquid cell by using the bubbles produced by the heating resistors. The heating resistors are supplied with energy, and a difference is set between a manner of supplying energy to one heating resistor and a manner of supplying energy to the other heating resistor. Based on the difference, a flying characteristic of the liquid ejected from the nozzle is controlled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Takeo Eguchi
  • Patent number: 7209104
    Abstract: A black-level reference-voltage generation circuit is disposed in a vicinity of an input-and-output pad section, and a power-supply line for the black-level reference-voltage generation circuit is connected to a power-supply line for a reference-voltage generation circuit for the other gradation levels at a position in a vicinity of the input-and-output pad section. With this, the resistance of the wiring resistor of the power-supply line of the black-level reference-voltage generation circuit is made as low as it can be ignored. As a result, a voltage drop caused by the wiring resistor of a black-level reference voltage is eliminated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshiharu Nakajima, Yoshitoshi Kida
  • Patent number: 7209171
    Abstract: Each unit pixel includes a photodiode, a reading selection transistor, a reading transistor, an amplifying transistor, a reset transistor, and a horizontal selection transistor, and thus a MOS image sensor of a dot-sequential reading 5-Tr type is formed. The reading selection transistor and the reading transistor are formed with a two-layer gate structure, and gate potential of the reading selection transistor and the reading transistor is set to a negative potential. Thereby, a lower layer of a gate region of the reading transistor and the reading selection transistor is controlled to a negative potential. Thus, depletion in the lower layer region is suppressed to reduce leakage current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Ryoji Suzuki, Takahisa Ueno, Keiji Mabuchi
  • Patent number: 7209132
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display device enabling a reduction in size and costs associated with the system as a whole, starting to display images without image distortion at power on time, and turning the screen off without image retention at power off time, a method of controlling the liquid crystal display device, and a mobile terminal incorporating the liquid crystal display device as a screen display. On a glass substrate (11) provided with a display unit (12), peripheral drive circuits such as an interface circuit (13), a timing generator (14), a reference voltage driver (15), a CS driver (18), a VCOM driver (19), and a voltage regulation circuit (20), together with a horizontal driver (16) and a vertical driver (17) are disposed. When a display reset control pulse PCI is supplied from an external source, a predetermined voltage is written into pixels while a CS voltage and a VCOM voltage adjusted to the same level as that of a pixel voltage are applied to a common-electrode-side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshitoshi Kida, Yoshiharu Nakajima, Toshikazu Maekawa