Patents Represented by Attorney Patterson & Sheridan
  • Patent number: 8320099
    Abstract: The present invention includes methods and apparatus for repairing an electrical connection between bipolar electrodes contained within an electrostatic chuck and a conductive mask disposed atop the electrostatic chuck, known as a balancing circuit. Embodiments of the invention are particularly useful after removal of an electrostatic chuck for refurbishment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert T. Hirahara, Vijay D. Parkhe
  • Patent number: 8316925
    Abstract: A heat exchanger arrangement comprising a charge cooler and a housing. The charge cooler comprises a charge cooler core, a header plate, a coolant entry duct and a coolant exit duct. Specifically, the charge cooler core comprises hallow heat-transfer elements through which a coolant can flow. The housing is in the form of a chamber with a single aperture for receiving the cooler core and comprises an air entry duct, an air exit duct and a flange. The cooler core is fixed inside the housing by fixing the header plate of the charge cooler to the flange of the housing. Additionally, the header plate of the charge cooler closes the single aperture for receiving the cooler core.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Joāo de Deus & Filhos, S.A.
    Inventors: Eduardo Alberto Nunes Mendes Pimentel, Helder José Trindade Cavaca
  • Patent number: 8319801
    Abstract: Systems, methods and articles of manufacture are disclosed for magnifying content on a graphical display. A user may specify a selection area of the graphical display to be magnified. The user may also specify a display area of the graphical display within which to output a magnified copy of the selection area. Further, the user may anchor a selection area or a display area to an application window or to content in the application window. For instance, an anchored display area may move with an application window. The user may also specify a text size for the display area. The display area may magnify text from the selection area to the specified text size. A magnification area may also display metadata from an application window or from content in the application window. A composite view may combine multiple magnification areas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Brian J. Cragun, Michael J. Fork
  • Patent number: 8321441
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for temporarily disabling conditions in abstract queries. In one embodiment, a query interface is configured to present an abstract query, and to allow a user to select conditions of the abstract query to be temporarily disabled. By executing an abstract query having disabled conditions, the user may be able to determine the effect of individual changes to the abstract query without having to re-compose the abstract query after each change. The conditions to be disabled may be selected individually, by field, or by value. Each disabled element may be displayed with a visual indicator communicating that it is disabled. The user may then select specific disabled conditions to be re-enabled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack
  • Patent number: 8319236
    Abstract: A metallization on a semiconductor substrate is disclosed in the form of a laminate comprising a plurality of layers of a “conducting” metallization for providing electrical conductivity, interspersed with a plurality of layers of another metallization. By providing many layers the thickness of each individual layer can be reduced. Reduction in thickness of each layer leads to a reduction in grain size and a consequent reduction in creep over the lifetime of a device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Oclaro Technology Limited
    Inventors: Richard Beanland, Stephen Jones, Ian Juland
  • Patent number: 8316376
    Abstract: Optimizing workflow execution by the intelligent dispatching of workflow tasks against a grid computing system or infrastructure. For some embodiments, a grid task dispatcher may be configured to dispatch tasks in a manner that takes into account information about an entire workflow, rather than just an individual task. Utilizing information about the tasks (task metadata), such a workflow-scoped task dispatcher may more optimally assign work to compute resources available on the grid, leading to a decrease in workflow execution time and more efficient use of grid computing resources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. S. Dettinger, Cale T. Rath, Richard J. Stevens, Shannon E. Wenzel
  • Patent number: 8313664
    Abstract: In a plasma reactor having an electrostatic chuck, wafer voltage may be determined from RF measurements at the bias input using previously determined constants based upon transmission line properties of the bias input, and this wafer voltage may be used to accurately control the DC wafer clamping voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Zhigang Chen, Shahid Rauf, Walter R. Merry, Leonid Dorf, Kartik Ramaswamy, Kenneth S. Collins
  • Patent number: 8314369
    Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for treating a substrate. The substrate is positioned on a support in a thermal treatment chamber. Electromagnetic radiation is directed toward the substrate to anneal a portion of the substrate. Other electromagnetic radiation is directed toward the substrate to preheat a portion of the substrate. The preheating reduces thermal stresses at the boundary between the preheat region and the anneal region. Any number of anneal and preheat regions are contemplated, with varying shapes and temperature profiles, as needed for specific embodiments. Any convenient source of electromagnetic radiation may be used, such as lasers, heat lamps, white light lamps, or flash lamps.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen Moffatt, Abhilash J. Mayur, Sundar Ramamurthy, Joseph Ranish, Aaron Hunter
  • Patent number: 8313965
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for forming a crystalline semiconductor layer on a substrate are provided. A semiconductor layer is formed by vapor deposition. A pulsed laser melt/recrystallization process is performed to convert the semiconductor layer to a crystalline layer. Laser, or other electromagnetic radiation, pulses are formed into a pulse train and uniformly distributed over a treatment zone, and successive neighboring treatment zones are exposed to the pulse train to progressively convert the deposited material to crystalline material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventor: Stephen Moffatt
  • Patent number: 8316256
    Abstract: The present invention sets forth a method and a system for powering a graphics processing unit (GPU) with a power supply subsystem. In one embodiment, the method includes generating an offset in response to an operating voltage need of the GPU; and applying the offset to information associated with a first operating voltage of the GPU; wherein the offset causes the first operating voltage to change to a second operating voltage of the GPU.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Yu-Li (David) Ho, Li-Ling Chou, Yu-Kuo Chiang, Shany-I Chan, Pei-Hua Su, Li-Kai Cheng
  • Patent number: 8313578
    Abstract: A plasma processing chamber having a lowered flow equalizer and a lower chamber liner. In an etching process, the processing gases may be unevenly drawn from the processing chamber which may cause an uneven etching of the substrate. By equalizing the flow of the processing gases evacuated from the chamber, a more uniform etching may occur. By electrically coupling the flow equalizer to the chamber liners, the RF return path from the flow equalizer may run along the chamber liners and hence, reduce the amount of plasma drawn below the substrate during processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: James D. Carducci, Kin Pong Lo, Kallol Bera, Michael C. Kutney, Matthew L. Miller
  • Patent number: 8315977
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and articles for simultaneously maintaining copies of data in a data center and a cloud computing environment providing network based services. Synchronizing applications monitor modifications to data records made in the data center and the cloud computing environment. The synchronizing applications are also configured to convert modified records from the data center into a format compatible with databases in the cloud computing environment prior to updating the databases in the cloud computing environment, and vice versa.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: Netflix, Inc.
    Inventors: Siddharth Anand, Naresh Gopalani, Greg Kim, Neil Hunt, Santosh R. Rau
  • Patent number: 8316013
    Abstract: A method, system and article of manufacture for processing a database query result that includes multiple data elements in a single result field. One embodiment provides a method of processing a query result. The method includes receiving a query result that includes at least one result field having multiple data elements that are in a many-to-one relationship with a second result field. The received query result is parsed to identify the multiple data elements from the first result field. Then, a result set is generated on the basis of the identified multiple data elements. The generated result set only includes one-to-one relationships between different result fields. Advantageously, the generated result set is suitable for programmatic access in order to allow an automated processing of the generated result set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel Paul Kolz, Shannon Everett Wenzel
  • Patent number: 8312839
    Abstract: Embodiments disclosed herein generally relate to obtaining a substantially uniform plasma distribution within a large area processing chamber. For large area processing chambers that utilize RF voltages, standing waves can lead to deposition and/or etching non-uniformities. By applying RF voltage in at least two separate locations at two separate, but close frequencies with or without phase modulation, the wave interference pattern moves across the electrode. By moving the standing wave across the electrode, the plasma generated in the chamber can, over time, be substantially uniform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventor: Jonghoon Baek
  • Patent number: 8314646
    Abstract: The purpose is to detect minute electrical signals embedded in noise with a simple device configuration and easily reduce the area of the device by utilizing a semiconductor device in particular. This signal reproducing device (1) includes: N FETs (61 to 6N) each receiving a common input signal (VIN) at a gate terminal and having a bias voltage (VDD) applied to a drain terminal; and an adder circuit (4) connected to source terminals of the FETs (61 to 6N), for combining currents between the drain terminals and the source terminals of the FETs (61 to 6N) and outputting the resulting current, wherein the FETs (61 to 6N) and the bias voltage (VDD) are set so that a voltage at the gate terminal having the common input signal (VIN) applied thereto falls within a subthreshold region of voltages less than a threshold voltage of the FETs (61 to 6N).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: Japan Science and Technology Agency
    Inventor: Seiya Kasai
  • Patent number: 8315008
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a magnetic disk device includes a magnetic disk, a magnetic head, a position error signal output module, a vibration pattern detector, an adder, and a head positioning controller. The magnetic head moves over the magnetic disk. The position error signal output module outputs a position error signal based on a difference between a head position of the magnetic head over the magnetic disk and a target position on the magnetic disk. The vibration pattern detector detects a vibration pattern of the magnetic head caused by vibration. The adder adds the position error signal to an offset signal indicating amplitude of the vibration pattern. The head positioning controller moves the head position to the target position based on a result of addition by the adder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Atsushi Suzuki, Masafumi Iwashiro, Masahide Yatsu
  • Patent number: 8309421
    Abstract: The present invention generally relates to methods of controlling UV lamp output to increase irradiance uniformity. The methods generally include determining a baseline irradiance within a chamber, determining the relative irradiance on a substrate corresponding to a first lamp and a second lamp, and determining correction or compensation factors based on the relative irradiances and the baseline irradiance. The lamps are then adjusted via closed loop control using the correction or compensation factors to individually adjust the lamps to the desired output. The lamps may optionally be adjusted to equal irradiances prior to adjusting the lamps to the desired output. The closed loop control ensures process uniformity from substrate to substrate. The irradiance measurement and the correction or compensation factors allow for adjustment of lamp set points due to chamber component degradation, chamber component replacement, or chamber cleaning.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2012
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Yao-Hung Yang, Abhijit Kangude, Sanjeev Baluja, Michael Martinelli, Liliya Krivulina, Thomas Nowak, Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez, Scott Hendrickson
  • Patent number: D671190
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Inventor: Richard Sheridan
  • Patent number: D671260
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Inventors: Leo Clifford Pires, Roger Hwang, Iti Seth
  • Patent number: D671505
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Gainsborough Hardware Industries Limited
    Inventors: Stuart Clark, Harris Lambrou, Troy Nyssen, Lisa Edlund-Tjernberg, Fred Blochlinger