Patents Represented by Attorney Adams & Wilks
  • Patent number: 7990020
    Abstract: The present invention provides an ultrasonic motor including a wire having a coiled stator at one end thereof, a vibration generating device disposed at another end of the wire, a moving member that is in contact with the stator, a guide member that guides the rotation of the moving member, and an elastic member that covers the periphery of the wire. Accordingly, the driving efficiency of the ultrasonic motor that has a simple structure and that can be easily downsized can be enhanced and the performance stability thereof can be realized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Akihiro Iino, Makoto Suzuki
  • Patent number: 7985032
    Abstract: A platen retaining structure has a head, a platen supporting the sheet material during a processing operation of the sheet material by the head, a first urging member urging the head against the platen, and a frame supporting the head and the platen and formed with a notch and a pawl. The notch has a retaining portion that retains a shaft portion and an opening portion opening to an exterior of the frame. The pawl regulates movement of the shaft portion from the retaining portion to the opening portion of the notch. A release arm engages with the shaft portion and is mounted to undergo movement with respect to the frame. A second urging member urges the release arm and moves the release arm along with movement of the head away from the platen against an urging force of the first urging member, and causes the platen to apply a pressing force in a direction in which the shaft portion of the platen escapes from the notch via the opening portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventor: Masanori Takahashi
  • Patent number: 7975955
    Abstract: A continuous sheet processing apparatus has a frame, a roll body accommodating portion disposed inside of the frame for accommodating a roll body formed of a wound continuous sheet, and a cover mounted for undergoing pivotal movement between open and closed positions relative to the frame so as to allow the insertion of the wound continuous sheet into the roll body accommodating portion in the open position of the cover. A processing portion has a processing head and a platen roller confronting the processing head. The processing head performs a processing operation with respect to the continuous sheet drawn out from the roll body accommodating portion in a state in which the cover is in the closed position. The platen roller transports the continuous sheet in a state in which the cover is in the closed position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2011
    Inventor: Kiyokazu Takeuchi
  • Patent number: 7976214
    Abstract: A portable watch has a watch case body having front and back sides. A time display portion is disposed at the front side of the case body for displaying time. The back side of the case body has a lid-receiving surface and a concavity that opens at the lid-receiving surface. A back lid is disposed on the lid-receiving surface to close the interior of the watch case body from the back side thereof, and the back lid has marking indicia and a projection that engages with the concavity in the back side of the watch case body to position the back lid in a predetermined position in which the marking indicia align with the 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock direction of the time display portion. A holding ring is threaded onto the watch case body with the back lid clamped therebetween to removably attach the back lid to the watch case body while maintaining the back lid in the predetermined position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Haruki Hiranuma, Kazutaka Imai
  • Patent number: 7977999
    Abstract: Provided is a temperature detection circuit capable of preventing malfunction, which may occur when power is turned on. A switch circuit for giving such a potential that a comparator detects a low temperature is provided at an output terminal of a temperature sensor circuit. A switch circuit for giving such a potential that the comparator detects a low temperature is provided at an output terminal of a reference voltage circuit. When the power is turned on, each of the switch circuits is set by a switch control circuit such that the comparator detects a low temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Atsushi Igarashi, Masakazu Sugiura
  • Patent number: 7976136
    Abstract: To prevent an adhesive from flowing into nozzles, there is provided a head chip includes: a plate having a plurality of grooves; a cover plate having an introduction aperture; a nozzle plate fixed to an end surface of the plate, and has nozzles formed at the same intervals; and escape holes formed between the nozzle plate and the plate, each have a contour which surrounds a periphery of each of the nozzles with the contour being spaced apart from a contour of each of the nozzles by at least a given distance, accumulate the adhesive remaining at a time of fixing the nozzle plate therein, and allow the nozzles and the grooves to communicate with each other. The nozzles and the escape holes are so arranged as to be displaced from adjacent nozzles and adjacent escape holes by a given distance in a vertical direction of the nozzle plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2011
    Assignee: SII Printek Inc.
    Inventor: Osamu Koseki
  • Patent number: 7973940
    Abstract: An optical object measurement apparatus includes a light source for generating a low-coherent light beam, which is swept via an array of pinholes on a Nipkow disk that rotates about an axis. A beam splitter splits the swept light beam into a probe light beam toward an object to be measured and a reference light beam toward a reference optical path. The probe light beam from the object and the reference light that has traveled along the reference optical path are combined in the beam splitter to produce interference light. A two-dimensional image-capturing device detects the interference light and produces a video signal to provide reflection intensity information of the interior of the object. This allows an interference optical system to be readily realized and tomographic images of an object to be observed at high levels of resolution and contrast.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2011
    Assignee: Kowa Company Ltd.
    Inventors: Koji Kobayashi, Naoki Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 7973280
    Abstract: An apparatus is provided that precisely conduct ion beam etching to a sample having the properties of which easily change by electron beam irradiation with no loss of ease of operation and throughput. An apparatus includes an ion beam lens barrel and an electron beam lens barrel, which can observe or measure the conditions of a sample with an electron beam in the process of etching with an ion beam, wherein first, an observation image is obtained that includes the entire process area formed by secondary signals generated by an electron beam, secondly, an irradiation permit area and an irradiation inhibit area are defined in the observation image, and thirdly, electron beam irradiation is restricted only to the irradiation permit area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2011
    Assignee: SII Nanotechnology Inc.
    Inventors: Haruo Takahashi, Yutaka Ikku, Yo Yamamoto, Kouji Iwasaki
  • Patent number: 7964457
    Abstract: Provided is a manufacturing method for a power management semiconductor device or an analog semiconductor device both including a CMOS. According to the method, a substance having high thermal conductivity is additionally provided above a semiconductor region constituting a low impurity concentration drain region so as to expand the drain region, which contributes to a promotion of thermal conductivity (or thermal emission) in the drain region during a surge input and leads to suppression of local temperature increase, to thereby prevent thermal destruction. Therefore, it is possible to manufacture a power management semiconductor device or an analog semiconductor device with the extended possibility of transistor design.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Naoto Saitoh, Yuichiro Kitajima
  • Patent number: 7966091
    Abstract: Thin-section slide samples are manufactured from respective embedding blocks containing a biological sample and held in an embedding cassette having imprinted thereon individual data. The embedding cassette is transported to a cutting position where an embedding block is cut into sheet-like thin sections, and the individual data is read out. Each of thin sections is flattened and transferred onto a substrate to form a thin-section slide sample. A memory part stores the individual data read out and a condition table into which is input manufacturing conditions for manufacturing the thin sections. Thereafter, it is evaluated whether or not each of the thin sections is prepared in accordance with the manufacturing conditions input into the condition table.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Koji Fujimoto, Tetsumasa Ito, Tatsuya Miyatani
  • Patent number: 7966630
    Abstract: There is provided a head gimbal mechanism 2 including a slider 10 placed between a recording medium D and a beam 11 and having a device generating near-field light, gimbal means 12 for fixing the slider to the tip of the beam 11 at a state that it can rotate about two axes which are parallel to the surface of the recording medium and are orthogonal to each other, and a flexible optical waveguide 13 composed of a basic waveguide section 21 placed along the beam and a bent waveguide section 21 that is bent in the Z-direction substantially orthogonal to the surface of the recording medium from the tip of the basic waveguide and connecting to the slider in non-contact with the beam and the gimbal means, the optical waveguide 13 guiding the luminous flux to the slider, wherein the basic waveguide section is placed at a state that at least a predetermined length on the bent waveguide section side relative to the beam is not fixed to the beam.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Masakazu Hirata, Manabu Oumi, Majung Park
  • Patent number: 7964469
    Abstract: In a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, a first oxide film is formed in a convex shape on a field insulating film, a polycrystalline silicon film is formed on the first oxide film, and impurities are introduced into the polycrystalline silicon film. The polycrystalline silicon film into which the impurity is introduced is patterned so that a portion above the convex-shaped first oxide film becomes a resistance region of the resistor. A second oxide film is then formed on the patterned polycrystalline silicon film followed by the formation of a third oxide film on the second oxide film. The third oxide film and parts of the second oxide film and the polycrystalline silicon film are then removed to form a planarized surface including surface portions of the second oxide film and the polycrystalline silicon film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventor: Yuichiro Kitajima
  • Patent number: 7963727
    Abstract: A retaining wall block has spaced-apart front and rear sections interconnected by two laterally spaced-apart side sections that jointly define a through-cavity that extends through the block from a top face thereof to a bottom face thereof. Two or more protuberances protrude outwardly from the top face of the front section frontwardly of the through-cavity. A groove extends laterally in the bottom face of the front section frontwardly of the through-cavity. The groove is located and dimensioned relative to the protuberances so that two blocks can be stacked one atop another in staggered relation with one or more protuberances of the lower block engaged with one but not both of a front wall and a rear wall of the groove of the upper block and the upper block setback with respect to the lower block.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2011
    Assignee: E. Dillon & Company
    Inventor: Billy J. Wauhop
  • Patent number: 7959247
    Abstract: An ink-jet printer has a print head that performs printing on a print medium transported in a print medium transport direction by scanning in a scanning direction intersecting the print medium transport direction. A platen supports the print medium while the print medium is transported along the print medium transport direction. The platen has heater blocks that become smaller in width in the scanning direction toward both ends of the platen. A measurement section measures a surface temperature of each of portions of the print medium supported by the platen. A calculation section calculates an output value of each of the heater blocks for making the surface temperature of each of the portions of the print medium uniform based on the surface temperature measured by the measurement section. A heater temperature control section controls an output of each of the heater blocks based on the output value calculated by the calculation section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko I Infotech Inc.
    Inventor: Kazuo Suzuki
  • Patent number: 7961271
    Abstract: To provide a flat lighting device used for a liquid crystal display device and the like that can be made thin and lightweight and produced at low cost, the lighting device of the present invention includes a plurality of surface light emitting plates which are two-dimensionally arranged. Each of the plurality of surface light emitting plates includes a light guide portion and a light source portion provided in an end portion of the light guide portion. The light guide portion and the light source portion are integrally provided. The light source portion of a surface light emitting plate two-dimensionally overlaps with the light guide portion of another surface light emitting plate adjacent thereto, so light having a uniform intensity can be emitted above the plurality of surface light emitting plates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Naohiro Tomita, Makoto Kurihara, Masashi Ono
  • Patent number: 7959575
    Abstract: A blood rheology measuring apparatus has a measuring portion for measuring a flow velocity of the blood flowing in a blood vessel of a person in a mode of a Doppler shift signal by transmitting and receiving a wave to and from a surface of the person's skin. An information processing portion calculates an intensity at each of frequency components of the Doppler shift signal, extracts a maximum frequency in a signal at an intensity level equal to or larger than a threshold in the histogram or a maximum frequency when an integrated value from a low frequency component reaches a predetermined rate of a total thereof in the histogram, and provides a temporal change waveform of the extracted frequency. The blood rheology is analyzed based on the maximum frequency in the frequency waveform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Muramatsu, Takahiko Nakamura, Minao Yamamoto, Masataka Shinogi
  • Patent number: 7961556
    Abstract: The present invention aims to provide a day display apparatus having less risk of occurrence of a day hopping even when an impact caused by a drop or the like is applied and a watch having the same.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Kei Hirano, Tamotsu Ono
  • Patent number: 7956588
    Abstract: A voltage regulator has an error amplifier circuit, and a phase compensation circuit having a capacitor connected in parallel to first and second series-connected resistors. A control transistor has its source-drain path connected between input and output terminals of the phase compensation circuit and its gate connected to a junction point between the first and second resistors. In a transient stage in which the output voltage of the error amplifier circuit changes, the resistance of the phase compensation circuit decreases thereby improving the transient response characteristics of the voltage regulator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventor: Takashi Imura
  • Patent number: 7956880
    Abstract: A heating resistor element component has supporting substrate with a concave portion formed in a surface of the supporting substrate. A glass substrate is disposed on the surface of the supporting substrate. At least a region of the glass substrate opposite to the concave portion of the support substrate has a heterogeneous phase structure with physical properties different from those of the material of the glass substrate such that an overall mechanical strength of the glass substrate is increased. The heterogeneous phase structure is formed by laser processing using a phemtosecond laser having a power intensity of 1×106 W to 1×108 W. Heating resistors are arranged at intervals on the glass substrate and have heating portions disposed opposite to the concave portion of the supporting substrate. A common wire is connected to one end of each of the heating resistors. Individual wires are each connected to another end of each of the heating resistors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Noriyoshi Shoji, Norimitsu Sanbongi, Yoshinori Sato, Toshimitsu Morooka, Keitaro Koroishi
  • Patent number: D641971
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2011
    Assignee: Pentel Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Tomoaki Shibata