Patents by Inventor Nobuo Shibuya

Nobuo Shibuya has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10038335
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, a power supply system includes a power storage unit, a changeover unit, and a control unit. The power storage unit is configured to store electric power generated by a power generation unit. The changeover unit is configured to make a changeover between a first state in which a load is connected to the power generation unit and a second state in which the load is connected to the power storage unit but not the power generation unit. The control unit is configured to perform control to make the changeover to the first state when a value obtained by subtracting a first value from a value of the electric power fed from the power generation unit is not less than a value of the electric power fed to the load. Otherwise, the control unit is configured to perform control to make the changeover to the second state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2018
    Assignee: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Akihiro Shibata, Tatsunori Kanai, Koichi Fujisaki, Nobuo Shibuya
  • Publication number: 20140077604
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, a power supply system includes a power storage unit, a changeover unit, and a control unit. The power storage unit is configured to store electric power generated by a power generation unit. The changeover unit is configured to make a changeover between a first state in which a load is connected to the power generation unit and a second state in which the load is connected to the power storage unit but not the power generation unit. The control unit is configured to perform control to make the changeover to the first state when a value obtained by subtracting a first value from a value of the electric power fed from the power generation unit is not less than a value of the electric power fed to the load. Otherwise, the control unit is configured to perform control to make the changeover to the second state.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2013
    Publication date: March 20, 2014
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Akihiro Shibata, Tatsunori Kanai, Koichi Fujisaki, Nobuo Shibuya
  • Patent number: 8643328
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a device includes a power management module to which a power is supplied from an external power source, a power source supply circuit to which a power is supplied from the power management module via a first input terminal, a latch circuit configured to be operated by a power supplied from the power supply circuit or a power supplied via a second input terminal, a circuit configured to output a logic signal that sets a shutdown signal output from the latch circuit to a third input terminal, and a logic communication circuit to which a logic signal is supplied via the third input terminal and which supplies the logic signal to a forth terminal of the larch circuit. The shutdown signal output from the latch circuit is set to an predetermined level when the logic signal is set to a second level from a first level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2014
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Miyamoto, Shinichiro Kosugi, Yuki Kuwano, Nobuo Shibuya, Kazuto Kuroda
  • Patent number: 8593111
    Abstract: In an assembled battery system, parallel battery blocks are connected in series. Each of the battery blocks includes battery unit modules connected in parallel, and each of the modules includes a battery unit and a fuse connected in series. The battery block is provided with a common connection line connected to a fuse monitoring module, and MOS-FETs each having a gate, source and drain, wherein the fuse is connected between the gate and source, and the drain is connected to the connection line. The FET is turned on and a voltage is applied to the connection line through the FET from the battery unit, when the fuse is blown out. Thus, the fuse monitoring module can detects the blowout of the fuse, and a control module can turn off a control switch to stop charging/discharging of the assembled battery in accordance with the control signal from the fuse monitoring module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2013
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Yoshinao Tatebayashi, Tetsuro Itakura, Nobuo Shibuya, Norio Takami
  • Patent number: 8570695
    Abstract: Provided is a battery system capable of preventing the voltage that is applied to the voltage detection circuit from exceeding the withstand voltage of the voltage detection circuit when the connection between the cells in the battery module is disconnected, and preventing an overcurrent from flowing in the cell voltage detection circuit and the module. The modules are internally provided with a battery voltage measurement circuit 2 for measuring the voltage of each cell. A reverse voltage protective diode 3 is disposed in the power supply route of the battery voltage measurement circuit 2, and adapted such that the anode thereof is connected to the negative electrode of a drive power source of the voltage measurement circuit and the cathode thereof is connected to the positive electrode of the drive power source of the voltage measurement circuit. A fuse 4 as an overcurrent protective element is provided to the power supply route of the battery voltage measurement circuit 2.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2013
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Nobuo Shibuya, Kazuhide Ashida, Ryuichi Morikawa, Shinichiro Kosugi
  • Patent number: 8462005
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a communication circuit includes a direct-current converter circuit configured to generate a second power supply potential different from a second reference potential by a predetermined potential, from a first power supply potential, a first receiving circuit configured to receive a binary communication signal, whose one level is at a first reference potential, through a first signal input terminal, by a differential transmission method, a first level shift circuit configured to convert the communication signal received by the first receiving circuit into a binary communication signal, whose one level is at the second reference potential, and the other level is at the second power supply potential, and a first transmission circuit configured to output the binary communication signal converted by the first level shift circuit, through a first signal output terminal, by a differential transmission method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2013
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Kazuto Kuroda, Shinichiro Kosugi, Nobuo Shibuya, Yasuhiro Miyamoto
  • Patent number: 8404393
    Abstract: A liquid fuel cell unit which outputs a first voltage, a boosting circuit which boosts the first voltage output from the liquid fuel cell unit, and outputs a boosted second voltage to an electronic apparatus, and a first control circuit are included. The first control circuit compares the first voltage output from the liquid fuel cell unit with a preset first threshold voltage, and controls the boosting circuit in accordance with the comparison result such that the first voltage does not fall below the first threshold voltage, or the first voltage holds the first threshold voltage or more.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2013
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Hirotaka Sakai, Nobuo Shibuya, Hiroyuki Hasebe
  • Patent number: 8368353
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, the power supply management portion includes a timer configured to output an ON signal every time set by the control circuit, an OR circuit configured to receive supply of an output signal from the timer, an external signal supplied from outside, and a switch control signal output from the control circuit, and a switch circuit configured to switch output of the power source voltage from an external power source according to an output signal from the OR circuit, and the control circuit turns on a switch control signal after confirming which of the output signal from the timer or the external signal has turned on the switch circuit and turns off the switch control signal when both of the output signal from the timer and the signal supplied from outside are turned off.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Takashi Akiba, Mami Mizutani, Fumiyuki Yamane, Yuki Kuwano, Ryuichi Morikawa, Shuji Ono, Nobuo Shibuya, Kazuto Kuroda, Shinichiro Kosugi, Yasuhiro Miyamoto
  • Publication number: 20120299482
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, there is provided a light emitting device including an organic electroluminescent device that includes a first electrode, a light emitting layer arranged above the first electrode, and a second electrode arranged above the light emitting layer, a drive circuit that supplies a drive current between the first electrode and the second electrode to drive the organic electroluminescent device, and a drive stop circuit that stops the driving of the organic electroluminescent device when a value of the drive current falls below a predetermined value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 25, 2012
    Publication date: November 29, 2012
    Applicants: Toshiba Lighting & Techonology Corporation, Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Keiji SUGI, Tomoaki Sawabe, Toshiya Yonehara, Tomio Ono, Shintaro Enomoto, Tomoko Sugizaki, Daimotsu Kato, Akio Amano, Nobuo Shibuya, Hirokazu Otake, Keitaro Takasaka
  • Publication number: 20120221266
    Abstract: A test system to test a battery pack includes a power supply, a high-frequency-voltage application unit, a splitter, a first coupling capacitor, a second coupling capacitor, a ground, and a data logger. The power supply supplies power to a battery management unit of the battery pack. The splitter includes an input terminal, and first and second output terminals. The high-frequency-voltage application unit outputs a high-frequency voltage to the input terminal of the splitter. The first coupling capacitor is provided between the first output terminal and a positive-electrode terminal of the battery pack. The second coupling capacitor is provided between the second output terminal and a negative-electrode terminal of the battery pack. An earth terminal of the high-frequency-voltage application unit and one of power-supply input terminal of the battery pack are connected to the ground. The data logger records data outputted from a data-output terminal of the battery management unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2012
    Publication date: August 30, 2012
    Inventors: Kazuto Kuroda, Shinichiro Kosugi, Nobuo Shibuya
  • Patent number: 8212523
    Abstract: A protection device for an assembled cell including battery modules connected in series includes protection units each of which is configured to operate using a corresponding battery module as a power supply and a management unit connected to the protection units in common, the protection unit includes a measuring unit configured to measure its own consumption current to obtain measurement data, a communication unit which transmits the measurement data to a management unit and receives setting data from the management unit, a discharging unit which discharges the corresponding battery module, and a control unit configured to control the discharging unit based on the measurement data and the setting data so that a total of the consumption current and a discharging current by the discharging unit is of a constant value among the protection units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2012
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Yoshinao Tatebayashi, Yasuhiro Harada, Norio Takami, Nobuo Shibuya
  • Patent number: 8207703
    Abstract: A protection device for an assembled battery includes a sampling capacitor, first switches and second switches to sample the voltages of the battery cells and hold the voltages in the capacitor, a detection unit which detects the voltages of the battery cells based on the voltage sampled by any one of the first switches and the second switches and held on the capacitor and output the detected value, a computing unit which computes an average value of the detected values, a comparator which compares the detected value with the average value so as to obtain a result of comparison indicating a relation in size between the both, and a controller which controls the first switches and the second switches, for the second switches to sample if the detected value obtained by sampling by the first switches is higher than the average value according to the comparison result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2012
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Daisuke Kurose, Tetsuro Itakura, Yoshinao Tatebayashi, Nobuo Shibuya
  • Patent number: 8174237
    Abstract: In a battery system, battery modules (3a, 3b) connected to each other in series respectively include: one or more single cells (3a1 to 3an, 3b1 to 3b-n) connected to one another in any one of series, parallel, and series-parallel; cell voltage switches (7a, 7b) for detecting voltages respectively of the one or more single cells; module monitoring control units (9a, 9b) each for monitoring the detected voltages respectively of the one or more signal cells; and communications level converter circuits (14a, 14b). The battery system includes a master unit (8a) for receiving information on the voltages respectively of the one or more single cells from the module monitoring control units via the communications level converter circuits. One of the communications level converter circuits includes a switch element (Q32) for transmitting a signal of a low-potential battery module to a high-potential battery module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Shinichiro Kosugi, Nobuo Shibuya
  • Patent number: 8058878
    Abstract: There is an apparatus includes a voltage acquiring unit which acquires an inter-terminal voltage of the battery cell; a battery information acquiring circuit which acquires battery information of the battery cell with the acquired voltage being supplied as a power supply voltage and; a transformer configured to have a primary winding and a secondary winding, the primary winding being connected to a common wire; a communication circuit which transmits a signal of the battery information to a management unit, supplied with the acquired voltage as a power supply voltage; a rectification circuit which rectifies a signal of a predetermined frequency from the management unit to generate a DC voltage; and a control circuit which controls the supply of the power supply voltages to the battery information acquiring circuit and the communication circuit, the control circuit being supplied with the DC voltage as a power supply voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2011
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Daisuke Kurose, Hiroki Sakurai, Tetsuro Itakura, Yoshinao Tatebayashi, Nobuo Shibuya, Toshiyuki Umeda
  • Patent number: 8049509
    Abstract: A battery information acquiring apparatus includes a voltage acquiring unit which acquires an inter-terminal voltage of the battery cell; a battery information acquiring circuit which acquires battery information of the battery cell with the acquired voltage being supplied as a first power supply voltage and; a radio circuit which transmits a signal of the battery information to the management unit via the antenna with the acquired voltage being supplied as a second power supply voltage and; a rectification circuit which receives a radio signal from the management unit via the antenna, rectify the received radio signal and generate a DC voltage; and a control circuit which controls supply of the first and second power supply voltages to the battery information acquiring circuit and the radio circuit wherein the control circuit operates with the generated DC voltage being supplied as a third power supply voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2011
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Hiroki Sakurai, Tetsuro Itakura, Toshiyuki Umeda, Akiko Yamada, Nobuo Shibuya, Yoshinao Tatebayashi, Daisuke Kurose
  • Patent number: 7973534
    Abstract: A protection device for an assembled battery includes a sampling unit which individually samples voltages of batteries of the assembled battery to generate sampled voltages, a holding unit which holds the sampled voltages to generate a plurality of holding voltages, a multiplexer which sequentially reads the holding voltages and outputs each voltage to a common output node, a measuring unit configured to measure the individual voltages and the state of charges of the batteries based on a voltage of the node in a measuring period within a constant measuring cycle, and a control unit configured to turn on/off the sample switches at the same time within the measuring period and repeatedly turn on/off at least one sample switch selected from the plurality of sample switches in accordance with the state of charge in a term other than the measuring period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2011
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Tohshiba
    Inventors: Yoshinao Tatebayashi, Yasuhiro Harada, Norio Takami, Nobuo Shibuya
  • Publication number: 20110149454
    Abstract: Provided is a battery system capable of preventing the voltage that is applied to the voltage detection circuit from exceeding the withstand voltage of the voltage detection circuit when the connection between the cells in the battery module is disconnected, and preventing an overcurrent from flowing in the cell voltage detection circuit and the module. The modules are internally provided with a battery voltage measurement circuit 2 for measuring the voltage of each cell. A reverse voltage protective diode 3 is disposed in the power supply route of the battery voltage measurement circuit 2, and adapted such that the anode thereof is connected to the negative electrode of a drive power source of the voltage measurement circuit and the cathode thereof is connected to the positive electrode of the drive power source of the voltage measurement circuit. A fuse 4 as an overcurrent protective element is provided to the power supply route of the battery voltage measurement circuit 2.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 5, 2009
    Publication date: June 23, 2011
    Applicant: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Nobuo Shibuya, Kazuhide Ashida, Ryuichi Morikawa, Shinichiro Kosugi
  • Publication number: 20110075712
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a communication circuit includes a direct-current converter circuit configured to generate a second power supply potential different from a second reference potential by a predetermined potential, from a first power supply potential, a first receiving circuit configured to receive a binary communication signal, whose one level is at a first reference potential, through a first signal input terminal, by a differential transmission method, a first level shift circuit configured to convert the communication signal received by the first receiving circuit into a binary communication signal, whose one level is at the second reference potential, and the other level is at the second power supply potential, and a first transmission circuit configured to output the binary communication signal converted by the first level shift circuit, through a first signal output terminal, by a differential transmission method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 24, 2010
    Publication date: March 31, 2011
    Inventors: Kazuto KURODA, Shinichiro Kosugi, Nobuo Shibuya, Yasuhiro Miyamoto
  • Publication number: 20110076530
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a device includes a power management module to which a power is supplied from an external power source, a power source supply circuit to which a power is supplied from the power management module via a first input terminal, a latch circuit configured to be operated by a power supplied from the power supply circuit or a power supplied via a second input terminal, a circuit configured to output a logic signal that sets a shutdown signal output from the latch circuit to a third input terminal, and a logic communication circuit to which a logic signal is supplied via the third input terminal and which supplies the logic signal to a forth terminal of the larch circuit. The shutdown signal output from the latch circuit is set to an predetermined level when the logic signal is set to a second level from a first level.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2010
    Publication date: March 31, 2011
    Inventors: Yasuhiro MIYAMOTO, Shinichiro Kosugi, Yuki Kuwano, Nobuo Shibuya, Kazuto Kuroda
  • Patent number: 7914922
    Abstract: A battery pack of a battery includes a plurality of laminated cells that are hermetically sealed by a laminated film, a case for storing the plurality of the laminated cells, a positive electrode terminal and a negative electrode terminal of a battery for connecting the cells in parallel or series for connection to the outside of the case, a lid member for pressing the cells from the uppermost surface of the laminate of the cells stored in the case toward the inner side of the case in the direction opposite to the laminating direction of the cells, and a fixing member for fixing the lid member to the case at a position where a predetermined pressing force is applied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2011
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Yasushi Sanada, Yoshinao Tatebayashi, Nobuo Shibuya, Shinichiro Kosugi