Patents Represented by Attorney Whitham, Curtis, Christofferson & Cook P.C.
  • Patent number: 7804281
    Abstract: Common mode (CM) noise is substantially canceled in a switching power supply circuit such as a boost converter by providing a split inductor and analyzing the switching power supply circuit as a bridge circuit formed of the switch, portions of the split inductor and parasitic capacitances of respective portions of the power supply circuit. The bridge can then be balanced by addition of capacitance in parallel with the parasitic capacitance of a respective portion of the power supply circuit or dividing the split inductor such that a ratio of inductances of respective portions of the split inductor approximates a ratio of parasitic capacitances of the respective power supply circuit portions which may be measured or otherwise empirically determined. CM noise reduction of up to 40 db can be achieved without symmetric circuit design, addition of circuit elements or complex filtering having added cost, space requirements and power losses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2010
    Assignee: Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc.
    Inventors: Shuo Wang, Fred Lee, Pengju Kong
  • Patent number: 7801228
    Abstract: An OFDM receiver having an analog multiplier based I-Q channelizing filter, samples and holds consecutive analog I-Q samples of an I-Q baseband, the I-Q basebands having OFDM sub-channels. A lattice of analog I-Q multipliers and analog I-Q summers concurrently receives the held analog I-Q samples, performs analog I-Q multiplications and analog I-Q additions to concurrently generate a plurality of analog I-Q output signals, representing an N-point discrete Fourier transform of the held analog samples, the I-Q signals having relative phase and magnitude representing bits in the OFDM sub-channels. The phase and magnitude may represent QPSK. Optionally, a phase shift decoder receives the analog transform I-Q output signals and generates a corresponding binary bit data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2010
    Assignee: Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Lehne, Sanjay Raman
  • Patent number: 7794727
    Abstract: A chimeric polyvalent recombinant protein for use as a vaccine and diagnostic for Lyme disease is provided. The chimeric protein comprises epitopes of the loop 5 region and/or the alpha helix 5 region of outer surface protein C (OspC) types. The OspC types may be associated with mammalian Borrelia infections.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2010
    Assignee: Virginia Commonwealth University
    Inventors: Richard Thomas Marconi, Christopher Earnhart
  • Patent number: 7793735
    Abstract: A combination of a liquid fire extinguishing composition including potassium salts or aluminum salts of an organic acid, resulting in a viscous liquid, is finely divided by a nozzle into droplets which may be applied to a fire or fuel therefor or form a cloud of droplets which settle onto such fire and/or fuel which is particularly effective for fighting fires where fuel is at least initially contained such as oil and grease fires in cooling utensils being heated on stoves. Propellant is contained and not entrained in the dispensed fire fighting composition to avoid at least spreading of the fuel beyond the containment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2010
    Inventor: W. Michael Hagar
  • Patent number: 7793604
    Abstract: High performance of a sailboard is achieved over a wider range of wind and water conditions by providing a hull having two or more planing surfaces which may differ in shape and/or aspect ratio. Drag due to suction at steps between planing surfaces is reduced by venting to the air. Cusp shaping of the respective planing surfaces can reduce and stabilize the angle of attack at the displacement/planing transition without causing fore-and-aft pitching effects known as porpoising. By confining water under the planing surfaces to reduce lateral outflow thereof through increased downward curvature of the bottom of the board, winglets, asymmetrical fins, fences and the like, the effective width and aspect ratio of the wetted area may be altered beyond that of the actual geometry of the planing surfaces to further increase lift and reduce drag while providing additional sources of lift at displacement, transitional and planing speeds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2002
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2010
    Inventor: John H. Keller
  • Patent number: 7790314
    Abstract: A membrane electrode assembly for a fuel cell is described. The materials for the membrane electrode assembly are formed from sulfonated polymers. A polymer dispersion ink containing the sulfonated polymer and a mixture of solvents is used to form the electrodes on the exchange membrane. The dispersion ink allows for the electrodes to be formed directly on the exchange membrane without significantly dissolving the exchange membrane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2010
    Assignee: Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc.
    Inventors: James E. McGrath, Michael Hickner
  • Patent number: 7791430
    Abstract: A low pass filter having a coaxial structure of an inner conductor, an outer conductor and a metal powder composite interposed between the inner and outer conductor. Embodiments include a 50? characteristic impedance. The metal powder can be bronze, copper or other metals, mixed in an epoxy carrier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: George Andrew Keefe, Roger Hilsen Koch, Frank P. Milliken, Jr., James R. Rozen
  • Patent number: 7792296
    Abstract: A high level of security for access to recorded information is provided by a method which includes provisioning of a trusted/protected communication linkage such as a tamper-resistant or tamper evident enclosure, a physical close coupling between information source and encryption processor and/or obfuscated code or end-to-end network encryption and encryption, possibly symmetrical, of the information to be recorded by a preferably random session key or segment key. The session key or segment key may then be encrypted, preferably asymmetrically, by a secure key which may be shared or access thereto shared in accordance with any desired security policy. Use of a public key or public key/private key infrastructure also provides for authentication of the recorded information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Charles H. Bennett
  • Patent number: 7791321
    Abstract: In a multi-phase power converter, efficiency is increased and ripple reduced while maintaining transient response and dynamic performance improved by electrically coupling secondary windings of transformers or provided for inductors of respective phases such that current to a load is induced in each phase by current in another phase. Magnetic coupling can also be provided between phases using a multi-aperture core of a configuration which minimizes primary winding length and copper losses. Efficiency at light load is enhanced by controlling current in the series connection of secondary windings in either binary or analog fashion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2010
    Assignee: Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc.
    Inventors: Ming Xu, Fred C. Lee, Yucheng Ying
  • Patent number: 7788668
    Abstract: Priority inheritance is implemented across a distributed system, preferably by use of a mutual exclusion object, referred to as a pseudo-mutex, which provides operations for communicating priority of a task which is held to a different connected processor or node of a network and generating a dummy local command of priority at least equal to that of the held task at the remote processor or node in collaboration with a real-time operating system and middleware. The remote real time operating system then carries out priority inheritance in the normal manner to raise the priority of a blocked task, thus reversing any preemption of that task at the remote processor or node. The increase in priority avoids preemption of lower priority processes and thus increases the execution speed of the executing thread to release the existing lock at an earlier time; allowing a lock to be obtained by the higher priority thread.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2010
    Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation
    Inventor: Thomas N. Barker
  • Patent number: 7776565
    Abstract: Methods for manipulating carbohydrate processing pathways in cells of interest are provided. Methods are directed at manipulating multiple pathways involved with the sialylation reaction by using recombinant DNA technology and substrate feeding approaches to enable the production of sialylated glycoproteins in cells of interest. These carbohydrate engineering efforts encompass the implementation of new carbohydrate bioassays, the examination of a selection of insect cell lines and the use of bioinformatics to identify gene sequences for critical processing enzymes. The compositions comprise cells of interest producing sialylated glycoproteins. The methods and compositions are useful for heterologous expression of glycoproteins.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2010
    Assignees: The John Hopkins University, Human Genome Sciences, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael J. Betenbaugh, Shawn Lawrence, Yuan C. Lee, Timothy A. Coleman
  • Patent number: 7767503
    Abstract: Channel depth in a field effect transistor is limited by an intra-layer structure including a discontinuous film or layer formed within a layer or substrate of semiconductor material. Channel depth can thus be controlled much in the manner of SOI or UT-SOI technology but with less expensive substrates and greater flexibility of channel depth control while avoiding floating body effects characteristic of SOI technology. The profile or cross-sectional shape of the discontinuous film may be controlled to an ogee or staircase shape to improve short channel effects and reduce source/drain and extension resistance without increase of capacitance. Materials for the discontinuous film may also be chosen to impose stress on the transistor channel from within the substrate or layer and provide increased levels of such stress to increase carrier mobility. Carrier mobility may be increased in combination with other meritorious effects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Huilong Zhu, Philip J. Oldiges, Bruce B. Doris, Xinlin Wang, Oleg Gluschenkov, Huajie Chen, Ying Zhang
  • Patent number: 7765258
    Abstract: During a presentation conducted between a presentation computer and a user/participant computer, synchronization of displayed pages on the presentation computer and a user/participant computer is achieved consistent with allowing the user/participant to browse the presentation pages by storing a page identifier responsive to each page change at the presentation computer and, at each such page change, sending a “go to [page number]” command to the user/participant computer to display the current page, after which browsing may be resumed, if desired. Automatic selection between available communication links including links provided through telephone handsets or other telephone infrastructure including wireless links and wireless integration with presentation and/or user/participant computers for communicating the “go to [page number]” command is also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Edward E. Kelley, Tijs I. Wilbrink
  • Patent number: 7764601
    Abstract: A layer 2 switch switching circuit has two layer 2 switches of a redundant configuration and a plurality of cards for sending IP packets to each other through either one of the two layer 2 switches. Each of the two layer 2 switches has a state signal delivery unit for delivering a state signal representing whether the layer 2 switch is in an active state or a standby state. Each of the cards has a card controller for monitoring states of the two layer 2 switches based on state signals sent respectively from the two layer 2 switches, and switching between the two layer 2 switches as a destination of IP packets based on the monitored states.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2010
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Masao Murai
  • Patent number: 7765301
    Abstract: A benefit task system implements a policy for allocating resources to yield some benefit. The method implemented may be applied to a variety of problems, and the benefit may be either tangible (e.g., profit) or intangible (e.g., customer satisfaction). In one example, the method is applied to server allocation in a Web site server “farm” given full information regarding future loads to maximize profits for the Web hosting service provider. In another example, the method is applied to the allocation of telephone help in a way to improve customer satisfaction. In yet another example, the method is applied to distributed computing problem where the resources to be allocated are general purpose computers connected in a network and used to solve computationally intensive problems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Tracy J. Kimbrel, Robert Krauthgamer, Maria Minkoff, Baruch M. Schieber, Maxim I. Sviridenko, Jayram S. Thathachar
  • Patent number: 7757163
    Abstract: An unknown annotator and its annotation type system are compared against a reference annotation type system. The comparison is done by providing a plurality of documents, and annotating each document using the reference set of document annotators, producing instances of reference annotation types, to generate a pre-annotated reference document set, and using the subject annotator and its subject annotation type system to generate a pre-annotated evaluation document set. Documents in the pre-annotated evaluation document set are compared to documents in the pre-annotated reference document set, and matches in location, within the compared documents, of instances of the subject annotation types and the reference annotation types are identified. Based on the matching data, reference document annotation types are selected that sufficiently correlate with the subject annotation type system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Yurdaer N. Doganata, Youssef Drissi, David A. Ferrucci, Tong-Haing Fin, Genady Grabarnik, Lev Kozakov
  • Patent number: 7756815
    Abstract: A semantic publish/subscribe system enables semantic event routing and allows publishers (resp. subscribers) to use self-defined event schemas to publish (resp. subscribe) events. The constraints on value-based publish/subscribe systems that publishers and subscribers must share the same event schemas are removed. With ontology support, the system conducts event correlation based on their semantics using relational operators. Event sources are searched for subscriptions and selected events are automatically correlated according to subscriptions. The system enables efficient semantic event routing by rewriting the subscription SQL statement, wherein no redundant events are generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Hui Lei, Liangzhao Zeng
  • Patent number: 7753786
    Abstract: To reduce the number of parts in assembly of a trigger button in a controller for games, reduce the material cost, and heighten assembly efficiency. In a controller for games in which trigger buttons are partially protruded outward from opening portions formed in a case, and the trigger buttons are energized by springs and provided slidably by guide of trigger guides, left and right fitting grooves extending up and down are provided on left and right sides of back end surfaces of the trigger guides; ribs for holding the lower end portions of the trigger guides are provided for the case; left and right standing portions are provided on the outsides of the ribs thereby to hold the lower ends of the trigger guides by the ribs; and the left and right standing portions are fitted into the left and right fitting grooves thereby to hold the trigger guides.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2010
    Assignee: Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Ishimaru, Tetsuya Kifune
  • Patent number: 7755926
    Abstract: A design structure for a three-dimensional memory circuit provides reduction in memory cell instability due to half-select operation by reduction of the number of memory cells sharing a sense amplifier and, potentially, avoidance of half-select operation by placing some or all peripheral circuits including local evaluation circuits functioning as a type of sense amplifier on an additional chips or chips overlying the memory array. Freedom of placement of such peripheral circuits is provided with minimal increase in connection length since word line decoders may be placed is general registration with any location along the word lines while local evaluation circuits and/or sense amplifiers can be placed at any location generally in registration with the bit line(s) to which they correspond.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Yue Tan, Huilong Zhu
  • Patent number: 7750410
    Abstract: In producing complementary sets of metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) field effect transistors, including nFET and pFET), carrier mobility is enhanced or otherwise regulated through the reacting the material of the gate electrode with a metal to produce a stressed alloy (preferably CoSi2, NiSi, or PdSi) within a transistor gate. In the case of both the nFET and pFET, the inherent stress of the respective alloy results in an opposite stress on the channel of respective transistor. By maintaining opposite stresses in the nFET and pFET alloys or silicides, both types of transistors on a single chip or substrate can achieve an enhanced carrier mobility, thereby improving the performance of CMOS devices and integrated circuits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Michael P. Belyansky, Dureseti Chidambarrao, Omer H. Dokumaci, Bruce B. Doris, Oleg Gluschenkov