Patents Represented by Attorney Kevin J. Fournier
  • Patent number: 5396090
    Abstract: A solid state imaging device capable of efficiently collecting incident light onto its photodetecting portions and a method for manufacturing the device are provided. A plurality of photodetecting portions and an electric charge transfer portion are formed on a surface of a semiconductor substrate, and a flattening layer which has a light transmitting property and serves to cover the plural number of photodetecting portions and the electric charge transfer portion are formed. A partition wall material layer for covering the flattening layer is formed, and a plurality of approximately rectangular regions of the partition wall material layer are removed to form a partition wall. Then, a thermosoftening resin layer which has a light transmitting property and serves to cover the flattening layer and the partition wall is formed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 1994
    Date of Patent: March 7, 1995
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Junichi Nakai
  • Patent number: 5396121
    Abstract: A method for driving a solid-state imaging device which includes the steps of (1) reading a signal from an i-th pixel in the pixel portion into a vertical charge transfer portion over k bit portions thereof starting from the i-th bit portion thereof; (2) transferring the read signal corresponding to k bits of the vertical charge transfer portion in the vertical direction during one horizontal blanking period; (3) reading a signal from an (i+1)-th pixel of the n pixels arranged in the pixel portion into the vertical charge transfer portion over k bit portions thereof starting from the (i+1)-th bit portion thereof after the completion of the transfer of signal portions corresponding to the (k-1) bits of the read signal corresponding to the k bits of the vertical charge transfer portion; (4) repeating the steps (1) through (3) for the pixels arranged in the pixel portion starting from the first pixel nearest to a horizontal charge transfer portion to a pixel farther therefrom; and (5) repeating the step (2) afte
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 1993
    Date of Patent: March 7, 1995
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takashi Watanabe
  • Patent number: 5392058
    Abstract: A multiplexer 13 selects the input terminal B side for a display period while it selects the input terminal A side for a coordinate detection period. A lower common drive circuit 2L, based on shift data transmitted from the multiplexer 13, operates in parallel with an upper common drive circuit 2U during the display period while it operates in series with the upper common drive circuit 2U during the coordinate detection period. An upper segment drive circuit 3U and a lower segment drive circuit 3L simultaneously operate to drive upper segment electrodes XU and lower segment electrodes XL simultaneously in the same direction. Thus, during the display period there is displayed an image simultaneously onto the upper half 1wU and the lower half 1wL of a display panel 1w, thereby improving the duty ratio of display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 1992
    Date of Patent: February 21, 1995
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takao Tagawa
  • Patent number: 5385638
    Abstract: A method of manufacturing a stamper includes the steps of coating a flat surface of a substrate with photosensitive material; directing light to a specified position on the photosensitive material to expose it; developing the photosensitive material to make a minute photoresist pattern; etching the substrate to a specified depth with a mask of the photoresist pattern; removing the photoresist as the mask to make a glass master; arbitrarily forming a first nickel layer on a surface of the glass master; forming an intermediate layer of a metal having a smaller linear expansion coefficient than nickel over the first nickel layer; forming a second nickel layer on the intermediate layer to form a conductive film having a two- or three-stratum structure; arbitrarily subjecting the whole substrate to a process to make nickel passive; forming an electroformed layer on the conductive film by an electroforming process; and separating the conductive film from the glass master.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 1993
    Date of Patent: January 31, 1995
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hitoshi Isono, Hirotoshi Takemori
  • Patent number: 5384623
    Abstract: The present invention provides a process control stabilizing system including a cleaning device for the corona wires which allows the process control to be carried out optimally based on exact information which is obtained by certain sensors while a discharge from the main charger unit is kept uniform. The system is constructed so that an electrode cleaner is activated before the detection of the surface potential and/or the detection of the optical density, and in addition, the cleaning operation will be operated until the detection result falls within a predetermined range. Alternatively, the system causes detection of the surface potential and/or detection of the optical both before and after a cleaning operation by the electrode cleaner. The cleaning operation will be repeated until the difference between the first and second detections falls within a predetermined range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 1993
    Date of Patent: January 24, 1995
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kunio Ohashi, Hiroshi Kinashi, Mitsuru Tokuyama
  • Patent number: 5377328
    Abstract: An interface system for transmitting a pulse waveform signal between a host computer and a plurality of peripheral units wherein such signal is transmitted on a dedicated bus, the peripheral units being connected to the bus in selected groups thereof. Each group has a buffer unit connected between the group of units and the host unit, the buffer unit including circuitry for providing signal transmission in only one direction, for controlling the final signal level of the signal, and for controlling the slope of the trailing edge of the signal so that signal degradation is minimized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 1991
    Date of Patent: December 27, 1994
    Assignee: Data General Corporation
    Inventor: John R. Benham
  • Patent number: 5377053
    Abstract: A magnetic reproduction apparatus which uses a magnetic recording medium on which frequency-modulated signals produced by frequency-modulating a carrier with video signals are recorded, and demodulates reproduced signals from the magnetic recording medium into the video signals. The apparatus includes a frequency convertor for causing the reproduced signals to shift to a higher frequency region and a pulse-count-type FM demodulator for demodulating the reproduced signals which have shifted to the higher frequency region into the video signals. This arrangement restrains the mixing of the reproduced signals in the video signals. Therefore the video signals are reproduced with lessened waveform distortion, achieving a high-quality image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 1992
    Date of Patent: December 27, 1994
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Soichi Iwamura, Junichi Aoki, Hiroaki Nogami
  • Patent number: 5367623
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus has a capability of opening two or more windows and processing an object such as text, graphics, and a picture on each page. This information processing unit includes a pasting unit for pasting a tag window at any location on each page, a registering unit for registering one or more objects in the tag window, and a linking unit for linking the page to the tag window or unlinking the tag window from the page.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 1991
    Date of Patent: November 22, 1994
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Iwai, Kunihiko Iizuka, Yumi Yamauchi, Atsushi Aoki, Noboru Kubo
  • Patent number: 5357129
    Abstract: There is provided a solid state imaging device having high-sensitivity, low-noise characteristics by reducing electrostatic capacity relating to interconnection. The solid state imaging device includes a photoelectric conversion section, a transfer section, a floating diffusion layer for receiving signal charges from the transfer section, and an output transistor having a gate electrode connected to the floating diffusion layer via an interconnection. A source and a drain of the output transistor are provided commonly within a flat p-type well of relatively thin concentration in which the photoelectric conversion section, the transfer section, and the floating diffusion layer are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 1993
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1994
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Shinya Kamimura
  • Patent number: 5355226
    Abstract: A magnetic recording-reproduction apparatus records and reproduces a wide-band video signal without a color burst signal. For this purpose, a two-step phase resetting operation is conducted on the FM carrier at the front porch and the horizontal sync pulse of the video signal so as to permit those phases to coincide with reference phases. A synchronizing panel clock generator generates the first reference signal with the first FM frequency corresponding to a peak level of the horizontal sync pulse and the second reference signal with the second FM frequency corresponding to a front porch level. In this case, the reference signals are phase-synchronous with each other at the leading edge of the horizontal sync pulse, and each of the FM frequencies is set to be an integer multiple of the horizontal scanning frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 1992
    Date of Patent: October 11, 1994
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroaki Nogami, Soichi Iwamura
  • Patent number: 5351353
    Abstract: A bridge or tunnel construction consisting of one or more arch units (10), each unit formed from a pair of reinforced concrete arch segments (11 and 12) interconnected to form the crown of the arch unit with the arch unit or units being overlaid with a compacted interacting soil layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 1992
    Date of Patent: October 4, 1994
    Assignee: CSR Humes Pty. Limited
    Inventor: Darryl F. Walters
  • Patent number: 5353221
    Abstract: A translation machine capable of translating a sentence in a source language with an ambiguous parallel disposition of words and/or phrases into an accurate sentence in a target language includes a unit (151) for looking-up dictionaries and for analyzing morphological of the sentence in the source language input to the translation machine so as to provide a part of speech of the analyzed morphological, a unit (152) connected to the dictionary look up and morphological analyzing unit (151) for analyzing a syntactic of the sentence based on the obtained parts of speech of the morphological by using grammatical rules stored in the dictionary look up and morphological analyzing unit (151), a unit (153) connected to the syntactic analyzing unit (152) for transforming the analyzed syntactic into a syntactic in a target language, and a unit (154) connected to the transforming unit (153) for generating a translated sentence in the target language in accordance with the transformed syntactic in the target language.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 1992
    Date of Patent: October 4, 1994
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takeshi Kutsumi, Yoji Fukumochi, Shuzo Kugimiya, Ichiko Sata, Tokuyuki Hirai
  • Patent number: 5347343
    Abstract: The object of the invention is to reduce the number of parts which are required for supporting a photosensitive drum in a photosensitive drum cartridge. Engaging bodies of supporting members are inserted through mounting holes of a cartridge main body. Supporting shafts are inserted into supporting shaft insertion holes formed on the sides of a photosensitive drum. When the supporting members are rotated, the side walls of the cartridge main body are fitted into gaps between flat plates and engaging pieces. The supporting members are positioned with respect to and fixed to the cartridge main body, whereby the photosensitive drum is supported in the cartridge main body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 1993
    Date of Patent: September 13, 1994
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yoshinori Ohtsuka, Hideki Umeda, Toyokazu Mori, Masaru Tsuji, Atsuyuki Katoh
  • Patent number: 5345548
    Abstract: A character display apparatus with an attribute management unit for storing an attribute of a used font, a raster image storage unit for storing a raster image of the used font, and an image position management unit for storing a storage position of each raster image in the raster image storage unit in correspondence with each attribute of the attribute management unit. The character display apparatus also includes a judgment unit for judging whether a raster image of a character to be displayed is stored in the raster image storage unit or not, by referring to the attribute management unit and the image position management unit. The character display apparatus is further provided with a display unit for displaying an image of the character by use of the raster image in the raster image storage unit, in case that the raster image is stored therein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 1991
    Date of Patent: September 6, 1994
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tatsuya Nomura, Yumi Yamauchi, Kenji Mameda, Shigeru Yoshida, Noboru Kubo
  • Patent number: 5344130
    Abstract: A transport path is branched into a main pass and a bypass. A deflector is provided at a branch point, for switching the path either to the bypass or to the main pass. Sheet detection switches are respectively provided along the bypass and the main pass, and also on a stapler plate, for controlling the rotation of a transfer roller. In this way, a first sheet being transported through the main pass and a second sheet being transported through the bypass can be discharged onto the stapler plate at the same time. As a result, the problem of the device being made larger or reducing the quality of the sheets can be prevented, and a faster process after copying can be achieved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 1992
    Date of Patent: September 6, 1994
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kaoru Suzuki, Tadahiro Ando, Hiroshi Naka, Mitsutoshi Sawada, Tomonori Ohata, Hiroshi Miura, Masayoshi Nakabayashi, Eiiti Ando
  • Patent number: 5341379
    Abstract: A system for detection of errors in received data can also provide for the correction of errors so detected. The system has a FSK decoder section (10), an error detection module (24) and an error correction module (12). The received data, RXSIGIN, is bandlimited by bandpass filters (14), with the resultant waveforms provided to the error detection module (24) on lines (29). The FSK decoder section (10) also decode the digital data RXDATA within RXSIGIN, and provides RXDATA to both the error correction detection module (24) on line (21) and the error correction module (12) on line (33). Error detection takes place on a bit-by-bit basis by comparison of the resultant waveforms being compared against an ideal representation thereof, a quality factor is ascribed to each bit on the basis of the comparison, and a determination of which bits are suspected to be in error is made by comparison of the quality factor against a threshold value (30).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 1992
    Date of Patent: August 23, 1994
    Assignee: Signalling Technology Pty Ltd.
    Inventor: George E. Crisp
  • Patent number: 5334993
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display device comprises a liquid crystal display panel, a light source for illuminating a back surface of the liquid crystal panel, a light guide for transmitting a light emitted by the light source to the back surface of the liquid crystal panel, a holding member for accommodating and fixing the light source at one end portion thereof and the light guide so that a surface of the light guide faces the back surface of the liquid crystal display panel, and a member for attaching the liquid crystal panel to the holding member so as not to disturb transmission of a heat emitting from the light source to the air through the holding member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 1992
    Date of Patent: August 2, 1994
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Okajima, Shinichi Uratani
  • Patent number: 5333037
    Abstract: An image-quality stabilizer for an electrophotographic apparatus forms a toner patch on a photoreceptor drum, detects the amount of toner attracted to the photoreceptor drum by an optical sensor, and controls each processing device so that the detected value is equal to a reference value which has been detected and stored when the number of image forming operations performed is low. After the control, the toner patch is transferred to a transfer sheet, and the amount of toner remaining on the photoreceptor drum is detected. The reference value is adjusted based on the detected value so as to compensate for a lowering of transfer efficiency. Or the lowering of transfer efficiency is compensated by controlling variables such as transfer output so that the detected value is equal to a reference residual value which has been detected and stored when the number of image forming operations performed is low. This arrangement restrains a lowering of image density due to a change in the transfer efficiency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 1993
    Date of Patent: July 26, 1994
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Katsushi Inoue, Jitsuo Masuda, Teruhiko Noguchi, Itaru Kawabata
  • Patent number: 5331612
    Abstract: A magneto-optical recording apparatus which records information through the processes of: first irradiating a light beam onto a magneto-optical recording medium having a recording film; and next applying an external magnetic field that is inverted in response to a recording signal onto the recording film while continuing the first process. In the above arrangement, the intensity of the light beam is dropped upon inversion of the external magnetic field so that information is not recorded. The intensity of the light beam is raised during non-inversion of the external magnetic field so that information is recorded. Further the magneto-optical recording apparatus is provided with a light intensity control device for varying the intensity of the light beam dependent of the lengths of recording bits so that the high-temperature area of the recording film is not widened.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 1992
    Date of Patent: July 19, 1994
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yoshiteru Murakami, Kenji Ohta, Akira Takahashi