Patents Examined by Sun Lin
  • Patent number: 10284028
    Abstract: An approach module determines that a wireless power transfer (WPT) secondary pad on a vehicle approaching a WPT primary pad is within an approach distance threshold from the WPT primary pad. A pulse module generates an electrical alignment pulse in the WPT primary pad or WPT secondary pad in response to determining that the WPT secondary pad is within the approach distance. A measurement module determines an amount of magnetic coupling between the WPT primary pad and the WPT secondary pad, and a feedback module that provides an alignment signal to a driver of the vehicle. The alignment signal represents magnetic coupling. The pulse module continues to provide electrical alignment pulses, the measurement module continues to determine an amount of magnetic coupling in response to the electrical alignment pulses, and the feedback module continues to provide alignment signals indicative of an amount of magnetic coupling as the vehicle moves in relation to the WPT primary pad.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2019
    Assignee: Wireless Advanced Vehicle Electrification, Inc.
    Inventors: Patrice Lethellier, Steve Ball, Marcellus Harper, Michael Masquelier, Hunter Wu
  • Patent number: 10267861
    Abstract: An automatic estimation procedure for estimating a battery's state-of-charge includes predicting the state-of-charge using a state model that includes a state-transition matrix. An observation model then uses an observability matrix in connection with predicting a measured value of a parameter. State noise, the covariance of which is characterized by a state-noise covariance matrix contaminates this prediction. Similarly, measurement noise, the covariance of which is characterized by a measurement covariance matrix, contaminates this prediction. The values of these covariance matrices are then adjusted during the estimation procedure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2019
    Assignee: Renault S.A.S.
    Inventors: Vincent Heiries, Sylvain Leirens
  • Patent number: 10256443
    Abstract: Provided herein is a battery pack including a plurality of secondary batteries, a containing member, a protective member, and a wiring member. The plurality of secondary batteries include a plurality of terminals at each secondary battery. The containing member contains the plurality secondary batteries to expose the plurality of terminals. The protective member includes a plurality of openings, and the plurality of secondary batteries contained in the containing member are covered with the protective member to expose the plurality of terminals from the plurality of openings. The wiring member is coupled to the plurality of terminals exposed from the plurality of openings. One or both of the containing member and the protective member include one or both of a ceramic material and a polymer material having a heat resistance temperature of 300° C. or higher.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2019
    Assignee: Murata Manufactruing Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Fumihiko Suzuki
  • Patent number: 10250048
    Abstract: Embodiments of present invention provide a charging protection method, including: measuring a charging voltage, a charging current, and a temperature rise of a charging interface of a charged device; detecting whether the charging voltage falls beyond a preset voltage range, detecting whether the charging current is less than a preset current threshold, and detecting whether the temperature rise is greater than a preset temperature rise threshold; and if a detection result of any one or more of the three detecting items is yes, disconnecting a charging circuit of a charger. Correspondingly, the embodiments of the present invention further provide a charging protection apparatus, which can disconnect a charging circuit in a timely manner when a charging exception occurs, thereby avoiding damage to a charging interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Chong Wen
  • Patent number: 10248753
    Abstract: A method, system, and computer product for performing a coupled noise analysis in an integrated circuit (IC) design include copying one or more victim circuit sections of a victim circuit in the IC design, generating a blockage circuit section that represents a blockage aggressor circuit in the IC design, using the copied one or more victim circuit sections of the victim circuit, determining at least one subcircuit from the blockage circuit section, selecting, for a victim pin on the victim circuit, a power-driven virtual node on the at least one subcircuit, applying a power source to the power-driven virtual node on the at least one subcircuit, calculating a coupled noise at the victim pin contributed by the at least one subcircuit in response to the power source being applied, comparing the coupled noise to a threshold noise level, and altering the IC design when the coupled noise exceeds the threshold noise level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Tsz-mei Ko, Thomas G. Mitchell, Jason D. Morsey, Steven E. Washburn, Patrick M. Williams
  • Patent number: 10243542
    Abstract: Systems and methods manage power in an integrated circuit using power islands. The integrated circuit includes a plurality of power islands wherein a power consumption of each power island within the plurality of power islands is independently controlled within each of the power islands. A power manager determines a target power level for one power island of the plurality of power islands. The power manager then determines an action to change a consumption power level of the one power island of the plurality of power islands to the target power level. The power manager performs the action to change the consumption power level of the one power island of the plurality of power islands to the target power level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2019
    Assignee: Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc.
    Inventors: Barry Alan Hoberman, Daniel L. Hillman, Jon Shiell
  • Patent number: 10241959
    Abstract: The present invention teaches how to code a new or existing circuit of wave-pipelining with a buffering function in HDL (Hardware Description Language). The circuit comprises at least one critical path component (CPC) and a wave-pipelined component (WPC). A WPC comprises one Data_position_shifter per CPC, an Input_register_rotator if the circuit has multiple input registers, a Combinational_logic_rotator if the circuit has multiple pieces of combinational logic and a sole output register, a buffering controller and up to three FIFOs. All critical paths provide a first storage, FIFO_1 provides a second storage for output-ready data; FIFO_2 is to store indexes of output registers if the circuit has multiple output registers; FIFO_3 is to store assistant data. Each output register has an attached output register state machine which has three states: idle state, active state and buffered state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2019
    Inventor: Weng Tianxiang
  • Patent number: 10232729
    Abstract: A battery charging control apparatus of an electric vehicle includes an air conditioning control device that controls an operation of an air conditioning device, a control device that receives global positioning system (GPS) information of a user terminal, which approaches a vehicle, and to generate charging control information based on a distance that is determined based on the GPS information of the user terminal and location information of the vehicle, and a battery charging device that controls an amount of current to be supplied to a battery and the air conditioning control device, based on the charging control information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2019
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors Corporation
    Inventor: Young Tak Jeon
  • Patent number: 10216879
    Abstract: A method for establishing an aging model of a device is provided. The device is measured to obtain degradation information of the device under an operating condition, wherein the device is a physical device. The degradation information is partitioned into a permanent degradation portion and an impermanent degradation portion. The impermanent degradation portion is differentiated by time to obtain a differential value. The aging model is obtained according to the differential value. When the differential value is greater than zero, a degradation of the device increases over time, and when the differential value is less than zero, the degradation of the device decreases over time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2019
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yi-Shun Huang, Wai-Kit Lee, Ya-Chin Liang, Cheng Hsiao, Juan-Yi Chen, Li-Chung Hsu, Ting-Sheng Huang, Ke-Wei Su, Chung-Kai Lin, Min-Chie Jeng
  • Patent number: 10210303
    Abstract: Various implementations described herein are directed to an apparatus having a receiver module that receives a floorplan of an integrated circuit having power gates, an obstruction, and a control pin for providing a sleep signal. The apparatus can include an identifier module that identifies where the obstruction interrupts a sequence of the power gates, organizes the sequence of the power gates into a column, and divides the column into segments in which a first segment lies below the obstruction, a second segment lies above the obstruction, and a third segment is offset from the first segment and the second segment. The apparatus can include a stitcher module that performs a sleep signal stitching for the integrated circuit by distributing the sleep signal from the control pin to the power gates that include each power gate in each of the first segment, the second segment, and the third segment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: ARM Limited
    Inventors: Ravindra Narayana Rao, Marlin Wayne Frederick, Jr., Karen Lee Delk, Stefan Charles Creaser
  • Patent number: 10204204
    Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program products are provided for determining an entry finder from a plurality of merge points of a bounding box for an optimal performance of a differential group pattern match routing. One example method includes identifying each merge point candidate of a plurality of merge point candidates, performing a routability determination process, results of the routability determination process comprises a remaining subset of the plurality of merge point candidates, routing each remaining merge point from the remaining subset of the plurality of merge point candidates, calculating a routing cost for each remaining merge point from the remaining subset of the plurality of merge point candidates, and determining a merge point having a lowest calculated routing cost.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2019
    Assignee: Synopsys, Inc.
    Inventors: Jessica Lin, Ming-Jen Yang
  • Patent number: 10198551
    Abstract: Systems, methods, media, and other such embodiments described herein relate to trimming cell lists prior to generation of a routing tree for a circuit design. One embodiment involves accessing a cell library including cell data and a cell list for a plurality of cells. Specialized delay cells are removed from the cell list, and remaining cells are analyzed to identify a set of cell characteristics. Cells are then trimmed from the cell list based on comparisons between the cell characteristics of the remaining cells. If certain cells are sufficiently similar, secondary characteristics can be used to further trim the cell list. The trimmed cell list can then be used to generate a routing tree for the circuit design according to associated design criteria.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Amin Farshidi, Zhuo Li, Charles Jay Alpert, William Robert Reece
  • Patent number: 10195944
    Abstract: In a control apparatus mounted in a vehicle and configured to control a power supply system, a power generation controller is configured to operate an alternator such that a charge level of a second rechargeable battery becomes a target charge level. A target charge level setter is configured to variably set the target charge level of the second rechargeable battery based on changes in a state quantity correlated with at least one of a charge state and a discharge state of the second rechargeable battery. A limiter is configured to, if there is a change in the state quantity and if a prescribed permission condition is not met, limit an operation of the alternator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yoshinori Morita
  • Patent number: 10200015
    Abstract: Systems and methods manage power in an integrated circuit using power islands. The integrated circuit includes a plurality of power islands wherein a power consumption of each power island within the plurality of power islands is independently controlled within each of the power islands. A power manager determines a target power level for one power island of the plurality of power islands. The power manager then determines an action to change a consumption power level of the one power island of the plurality of power islands to the target power level. The power manager performs the action to change the consumption power level of the one power island of the plurality of power islands to the target power level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc.
    Inventors: Barry Alan Hoberman, Daniel L. Hillman, Jon Shiell
  • Patent number: 10189369
    Abstract: A method and a system for controlling motors is provided to have a vehicle travel smoothly in such a manner that, when a state of charge of a battery for supplying electric power stored to a plurality of motors included in the vehicle is low, a consumption of the battery is reduced by decreasing the electric power supplied to each motor of the plurality of motors. The method of controlling motors includes: determining a state of charge of a battery storing electric power supplied to each motor of a plurality of motors; calculating a present current consumption of each motor of the plurality of motors when the state of charge of the battery is equal to or less than a predetermined reference value; and resetting a power supply to each motor of the plurality of motors, based on the present current consumption of each motor of the plurality of motors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2019
    Assignees: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Mun Soon Kwon
  • Patent number: 10192016
    Abstract: Physical synthesis for a circuit design can include determining, using a processor, features relating to a signal path of the circuit design not meeting a timing requirement, processing the features through a first neural network model using the processor, wherein the first neural network model is trained to indicate an effectiveness of a first physical synthesis optimization, and selectively performing, using the processor, the first physical synthesis optimization for the signal path based upon a result from the first neural network model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2019
    Assignee: XILINX, INC.
    Inventors: Aaron Ng, Sabyasachi Das, Prabal Basu
  • Patent number: 10180670
    Abstract: To reliably detect a communication error status and to resolve the communication error status when reliably recovered from the error status. A count value is changed into one of up and down directions when a communication error is detected by a communication error determination unit, the count value is changed into the other direction of the up and down directions when communication being normal is detected by the communication error determination unit, a communication error status is output when the count value becomes a first threshold value, and the communication error status is resolved when the count value becomes a second threshold value different from the first threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2019
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naoyuki Sugeno, Kohki Watanabe, Shuichi Takizawa
  • Patent number: 10181002
    Abstract: Circuitry for an efficient configuration data management is presented. The circuitry includes an encoding circuit that compares configuration data of a circuit design with base configuration data of a base circuit design. The encoding circuit compresses a difference between the configuration data and the base configuration data to produce compressed configuration data. The compressed configuration data can be stored in a storage circuit. For a purpose of implementing the circuit design in an integrated circuit, a decoding circuit can retrieve the compressed configuration data from the storage circuit, decompress the compressed configuration data, and compare a result of the decompression operation with the base configuration data to restore the configuration data. The restored configuration data can serve to program configuration memory bits on the integrated circuit, thereby implementing the circuit design.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2019
    Assignee: Altera Corporation
    Inventors: Junaid Asim Khan, Scott James Brissenden
  • Patent number: 10181737
    Abstract: A supply-and-demand adjustment system, that utilizes characteristics of supply-and-demand adjustment apparatuses and precisely matches a total supply-and-demand adjustment amount with a required adjustment amount when performing a supply-and-demand adjustment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2019
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventors: Hisato Sakuma, Koji Kudo, Hitoshi Yano, Kazuhiko Aoki, Yoshiho Yanagita, Yuma Iwasaki, Ryo Hashimoto, Eisuke Saneyoshi, Takahiro Toizumi
  • Patent number: 10173548
    Abstract: A method of adjusting battery control software for a battery having a plurality of battery sections includes connecting the battery to a charging system and a discharging system. A charging operation or a discharging operation is then initiated while monitoring a voltage response of each battery segment during the charging operation or the discharging operation. The voltage response is then correlated to a calibration database for selecting a control algorithm for each battery segment from the calibration database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2019
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Patrick E. Frost, Rory B. Fraga, Alexander K. Suttman