Patents by Inventor Thomas Schrefl

Thomas Schrefl 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: 9520230
    Abstract: A rare earth magnet, which is represented by a neodymium magnet (Nd2Fe14B) and neodymium magnet films with applications in micro-systems. A method for producing a rare earth magnet, comprising: (a) quenching a molten metal having a rare earth magnet composition to form quenched flakes of nanocrystalline structure; sintering the quenched flakes; subjecting the sintered body obtained to an orientation treatment; and applying a heat treatment with pressurization at a temperature sufficiently high to enable diffusion or fluidization of a grain boundary phase and at the same time, low enough to prevent coarsening of the crystal grains, (b) thick films deposited on a substrate, applying an annealing to crystallize with pressurization at a temperature sufficiently high to enable diffusion or fluidization of a grain boundary phase and, at the same time, low enough to prevent coarsening of the crystal grains.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2016
    Assignees: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE, LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE FOR SOLID STATE AND MATERIALS RESEARCH DRESDEN, UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD
    Inventors: Noritsugu Sakuma, Hidefumi Kishimoto, Akira Kato, Tetsuya Shoji, Dominique Givord, Nora Dempsey, Thomas George Woodcock, Oliver Gutfleisch, Gino Hrkac, Thomas Schrefl
  • Publication number: 20130248754
    Abstract: The method of the present invention produces a rare earth magnet, which is represented by a neodymium magnet (Nd2Fe14B) and neodymium magnet films with applications in micro-systems, by using a heat treatment method capable of enhancing the magnetic characteristics, particularly the magnetic coercive force. A method for producing a rare earth magnet, comprising: (a) quenching a molten metal having a rare earth magnet composition to form quenched flakes of nanocrystalline structure; sintering the quenched flakes; subjecting the sintered body obtained to an orientation treatment; and applying a heat treatment with pressurization at a temperature sufficiently high to enable diffusion or fluidization of a grain boundary phase and at the same time, low enough to prevent coarsening of the crystal grains.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 13, 2011
    Publication date: September 26, 2013
    Applicants: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD, CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE
    Inventors: Noritsugu Sakuma, Hidefumi Kishimoto, Akira Kato, Tetsuya Shoji, Dominique Givord, Nora Dempsey, Thomas George Woodcock, Oliver Gutfleisch, Gino Hrkac, Thomas Schrefl
  • Patent number: 8085578
    Abstract: A method and a system for coding and reading out information in a microscopic cluster formed with coupled functional islands includes: generating the cluster by forming a regular microscopic pattern for locating the functional islands; making use of a physical or chemical property of each individual island and making use of the coupling between the functional islands; assigning different information to different energy levels of the cluster; effecting a change of the physical or chemical property of at least one functional island in order to change the energy level of the cluster to the energy level equivalent to the information content to be coded; and reading out the information. These measures allow forming a cluster having distinct energy levels, each being assigned to a distinct information content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2011
    Assignee: Paul Scherrer Institut
    Inventors: Laura J. Heyderman, Thomas Jung, Elena Mengotti, André Bisig, Arantxa Fraile Rodríguez, Frithjof Nolting, Hans-Benjamin Braun, Thomas Schrefl
  • Publication number: 20110019305
    Abstract: A magnetic storage device comprises a magnetic recording medium; a writing/reading element for storing information on the magnetic recording medium by generating a write field in order to switch regions within the magnetic recording medium in accordance with the information to be stored and reading stored information from the magnetic recording medium by sensing the switched regions within the recording medium and a layer-addressing means for addressing different layers of the magnetic recording medium by applying an oscillating magnetic layer address field in addition to the write field and by controlling the frequency of the oscillating magnetic field so that regions in different layers of the magnetic recording medium can be selectively switched and read.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 27, 2009
    Publication date: January 27, 2011
    Inventors: Dieter Süss, Thomas Schrefl, Muhammad Asif Bashir
  • Publication number: 20100232251
    Abstract: A method and a system for coding and reading out information in a microscopic cluster formed with coupled functional islands includes: generating the cluster by forming a regular microscopic pattern for locating the functional islands; making use of a physical or chemical property of each individual island and making use of the coupling between the functional islands; assigning different information to different energy levels of the cluster; effecting a change of the physical or chemical property of at least one functional island in order to change the energy level of the cluster to the energy level equivalent to the information content to be coded; and reading out the information. These measures allow forming a cluster having distinct energy levels, each being assigned to a distinct information content.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 18, 2009
    Publication date: September 16, 2010
    Applicant: PAUL SCHERRER INSTITUT
    Inventors: Laura J. Heyderman, Thomas Jung, Elena Mengotti, André Bisig, Arantxa Fraile Rodríguez, Frithjof Nolting, Hans-Benjamin Braun, Thomas Schrefl