Patents Examined by Suresh Memula
  • Patent number: 11318853
    Abstract: The invention relates to an arrangement for connecting a charging plug to a charging interface of a vehicle, with a moving apparatus with a plurality of controllable movement axes; a tool which can be positioned by means of the moving apparatus relative to the vehicle and is configured to hold the charging plug, the tool having a centering device for centering the charging plug within the tool and a controllable tool movement axis for moving the charging plug independently of the movement axes of the moving apparatus; wherein the tool with the charging plug centered therein can be positioned in a predetermined relative position with regard to the charging interface by means of the moving apparatus and the charging plug can subsequently be connected with the charging interface by using the tool movement axis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2022
    Assignees: VOLKSWAGEN AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT, KUKA DEUTSCHLAND GMBH
    Inventors: Daniel Schütz, Norbert Settele
  • Patent number: 11318854
    Abstract: A protective device for an electrical charging cable for connecting two mechanisms in a charging process. The protective device has a supporting frame and a jacket, which are designed to enclose a cavity extending in a longitudinal direction. Through the cavity a charging cable can be guided, and the supporting frame and the jacket are deformable in the longitudinal direction. A length of the protective device is to be modified and a length of the charging cable to be guided through the cavity is to be adapted between the two mechanisms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2022
    Assignee: AUDI AG
    Inventor: Sebastian Vahle
  • Patent number: 11305664
    Abstract: A ground contact unit for a vehicle battery charging system comprises a base body, at least one potential layer, a plurality of contact areas, a plurality of switching units and a plurality of switching lines by means of which the switching units can be actuated, wherein a plurality of switching units are provided on each of the switching lines. The switching lines are subdivided into at least two groups, and each of the switching units is provided on at least two switching lines from at least two different groups, so that the switching state of the switching unit depends on the signal state on its associated switching lines. Each switching unit is coupled to at least one contact area such that the switching unit can electrically connect and interrupt the corresponding at least one contact area to the at least one potential layer assigned to the contact area. A method of switching a contact area is also shown.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: Easelink GmbH
    Inventors: Guenther Jernej, Manuel Leibetseder
  • Patent number: 11294289
    Abstract: A method for selecting an optimal set of locations for a measurement or feature on a substrate, the method includes: defining a first candidate solution of locations, defining a second candidate solution with locations based on modification of a coordinate in a solution domain of the first candidate solution, and selecting the first and/or second candidate solution as the optimal solution according to a constraint associated with the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Assignee: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Pierluigi Frisco, Svetla Petrova Matova, Jochem Sebastiaan Wildenberg
  • Patent number: 11292359
    Abstract: A vehicle-mountable control device configured to control a vehicle including a charging port for DC power and an auxiliary device includes a determination unit and an information obtainment unit. The information obtainment unit is configured to obtain prescribed facility information about a power feeding facility. The determination unit is configured to permit an auxiliary device driving mode when it is determined that the power feeding facility corresponds to the auxiliary device driving mode based on the facility information, and not permit the auxiliary device driving mode when it is determined that the power feeding facility does not correspond to the auxiliary device driving mode based on the facility information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Shinji Ichikawa
  • Patent number: 11285835
    Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for charging a depleted battery within a first hybrid vehicle when connected to a second hybrid vehicle using a junction box. The system may include a wire harness having high voltage interlock connectors (HVIL) and high voltage (HV) connectors that connected to both the first vehicle and second vehicle. The system may also include one or more controllers that engage the charged battery to start a first engine within the first vehicle or, alternatively, a second engine within the second vehicle. After the first engine or second engine is started, the charged battery will be disconnected and the depleted battery may be connected using a set of HV contactors. The first engine or the second engine may then be operated to charge the depleted battery. Charging may stop when the depleted battery is charged within a specified SoC range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2022
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Xuemei Sun, John Paul Gibeau, William David Treharne
  • Patent number: 11279254
    Abstract: When a prescribed operation is performed during execution of AC charging, an ECU of a vehicle performs a charging stop process. The ECU determines whether or not a resume condition is satisfied during the charging stop process. When the resume condition is satisfied and when a charging connector is connected to an inlet, the ECU brings a locking device to a locked state and resumes the AC charging. When the resume condition is not satisfied or when the charging connector is not connected to the inlet, the ECU does not resume the AC charging.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Toru Ando, Koichi Kojima, Takashi Yamana, Takahiko Mase
  • Patent number: 11279246
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a charging gun conduit structure, including a main post erected on the ground, a first conduit rotatably attached to a top portion of the main post, an L-shaped second conduit with one end rotatably attached to an end of the first conduit and the other end extended toward the ground, a third conduit with one end attached to the second conduit through an extendable corrugated pipe, a fourth conduit with one end rotatably attached to the other end of the third conduit, a charging gun with one end connected to the other end of the fourth conduit through an elastic connection unit allowing a bending within a predetermined range at an arbitrary direction, and a plurality of charging cables with one or more signal lines disposed to be unconstrained inside the first through fourth conduits to allow easy rotation and extension of the conduit structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: JOONG ANG CONTROL CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Hyeon Kyun Shin
  • Patent number: 11279249
    Abstract: A method and a circuit arrangement for unlocking a charging plug in an emergency designed for a charging station for charging an electric energy storage of an electric vehicle, having a locking mechanism activated by an electric-motor drive unit. An emergency unlocking controller is a self-sufficient functional block in conjunction with a step-up converter for supplying the electric-motor drive unit with power, the input voltage of the step-up converter stepped up to the nominal voltage of the electric motor. A microcontroller controls and monitors the electric-motor drive unit and the step-up converter and for communicating with a superordinate locking controller generally disposed in the charging station. The step-up converter allows nearly the entire electric energy stored in the storage capacitor connected upstream of the step-up converter to be supplied to the electric-motor drive unit, whereby the motor can be operated at its required nominal voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: BENDER GMBH & CO. KG
    Inventors: Lars Morich, Steffen Freitag, Leonie Schleiter
  • Patent number: 11279244
    Abstract: A galvanically connected AC charger is provided having a monitoring and diagnostic system for the AC charging of an electric, fuel cell or hybrid vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: AUDI AG
    Inventors: Maximilian Schiedermeier, Tobias Graßl
  • Patent number: 11267357
    Abstract: A charging system includes: a plurality of charging devices, each including a device main body having one or more charging cables connected to the main body, the charging cables being equipped with respective charging plugs; and one or more arm mechanisms each being configured to grasp any one of the charging plugs of the charging devices and automatically insert and remove the grasped charging plug to and from a charging port of a vehicle located in a charging space. Further, a number of arm mechanisms is smaller than a number of charging cables.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Masaaki Sato, Satoshi Kondo
  • Patent number: 11267354
    Abstract: A power supply with an inner housing including a first plate and a second plate arranged spaced apart from each other. The inner housing further includes a channel comprising at least one channel side wall encompassing a channel passage extends in a longitudinal direction between a first plate opening arranged at the first plate and a second plate opening arranged at the second plate. At least one electronic component of the power supply is thermally coupled to the channel side wall.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: DESIGNWERK TECHNOLOGIES GMBH
    Inventors: Frank Loacker, Vivien Dettwiler
  • Patent number: 11270052
    Abstract: A method includes: receiving a library associated with a cell; determining a plurality of candidate hold times for the cell; acquiring a plurality of candidate setup times corresponding to the plurality of candidate hold times, wherein a data delay associated with each of the candidate setup time fulfills a data delay constraint for the cell; adding the plurality of candidate setup times to the plurality of candidate hold times, respectively, to obtain a plurality of candidate time windows; and selecting a target time window having a minimal time span among the candidate time windows. At least one of the receiving, determining, acquiring, adding and selecting steps is conducted by at least one processor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY LTD.
    Inventors: Chia Hao Tu, Hsueh-Chih Chou, Sang Hoo Dhong, Jerry Chang Jui Kao, Chi-Lin Liu, Cheng-Chung Lin, Shang-Chih Hsieh
  • Patent number: 11260764
    Abstract: The invention relates to a plug device for a battery having a battery housing, in particular of an electrically driven vehicle, with a main connection body with at least two plug contours formed thereon which are each provided to receive a plug counter-contour of a plug element, with a number of power rails that are received into the main connection body and that each have at least two connection contacts, of which one connection contact is provided for the electrical connection within the housing to a battery connection and the other connection contact is seated in one of the plug contours for plug contacting on the outside of the housing with the assigned plug element, and with a sealing element for sealing the main connection body on the battery housing in a liquid- and gas-tight manner. Furthermore, the invention relates to a battery with such a plug device as well as a vehicle with such a battery.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2022
    Assignee: VOLKSWAGEN AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventor: Mahmut Manavbasi
  • Patent number: 11260767
    Abstract: A cable retrieving system is disclosed for a charging station adapted for recharging an electric vehicle, the charging station comprising an electric cable and a plug for enabling an electrical connection with the electric vehicle, the system comprising a mechanical wire having a first end secured to the electric cable and a second end; an enclosure comprising an opening suitable for the mechanical wire and a pulling mechanism located in the enclosure, the pulling mechanism comprising a weight member located in the enclosure and mounted on a portion of the mechanical wire to thereby create a pulling force on the mechanical wire to thereby pull the electric cable towards the charging station.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2022
    Assignee: ADDENERGIE TECHNOLOGIES INC.
    Inventor: Daniel Mailloux
  • Patent number: 11251707
    Abstract: One or more embodiments are directed to a multiport power delivery architecture that reduces the cost and maximize the power utilization. According to some aspects, embodiments solve problems associated with charging a battery with multiple adapter. Some embodiments enable supplying system load and charging a battery from two or more adapters simultaneously through a single sensing resistor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: Renesas Electronics America Inc.
    Inventors: Yen-Mo Chen, Sungkeun Lim
  • Patent number: 11251633
    Abstract: Charging connector and charging apparatus are provided. The charging connector includes a partition plate including at least one charging interface provided on each side surface of two opposite side surfaces of the partition plate. The at least one charging interface is electrically coupled to a charging interface of a battery to charge the battery. Two lateral plates are respectively pivotally connected to the two opposite side surfaces of the partition plate and respectively rotatable with respect to the partition plate. Outer edges of the two lateral plates, which are away from a pivot joint portion, are configured to move away from or close to the partition plate to expose or cover the two opposite side surfaces of the partition plate to enable the charging connector to be in an open state or a folded state correspondingly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: SZ DJI TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Wei Wang, Jiangang Feng
  • Patent number: 11240942
    Abstract: In accordance with some embodiments of the present invention, an ion cooling engine (ICE) controlled by a transmitting or receiving device cools a transmit or receive coil and possibly other parts of a wireless power transmitter or receiver system. In some embodiments, the ICE includes a low-voltage circuit controlled by the transmitting device and coupled to a high voltage circuit that generates the airflow. Other features are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2022
    Assignee: Integrated Device Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholaus Wayne Smith, Tao Qi, Amit D. Bavisi, Changjae Kim
  • Patent number: 11238189
    Abstract: A defect prediction method for a device manufacturing process involving processing a pattern onto a substrate, the method comprising: identifying a processing window limiting pattern (PWLP) from the pattern; determining a processing parameter under which the PWLP is processed; and determining or predicting, using the processing parameter, existence, probability of existence, a characteristic, or a combination thereof, of a defect produced from the PWLP with the device manufacturing process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2022
    Assignee: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Stefan Hunsche, Venugopal Vellanki
  • Patent number: 11235681
    Abstract: A non-transitory machine readable medium having machine executable instructions can include a charge control application. The charge control application can determine, in response to detecting that an electric vehicle (EV) is electrically coupled to a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) interface, a degradation threshold state of charge (SoC) for a battery of the EV. The charge control application can also command the V2G interface to discharge the battery of the EV to a lower threshold SoC that is below the degradation threshold SoC. The charge control application can further command the V2G interface to charge the battery of the EV to an upper threshold SoC that is above the degradation threshold SoC at a return threshold time, wherein the return threshold time is a calculated amount of time prior to an expected return time of an operator of the EV.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2022
    Assignee: INVENTUS HOLDINGS, LLC
    Inventors: Rachana Vidhi, Daniel M Brake, Prasanna Shrivastava, Christopher S. Collins