Patents Assigned to Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
  • Patent number: 9926923
    Abstract: A film is sandwiched between a first plate and a second plate. Outer convex parts formed on the second plate are formed so that their protrusion height dimension is larger than that of an inner convex part. Each outer convex part is formed so that its width dimension is smaller than the inner convex part. When the first plate and second plate are face-joined together, the film is sandwiched between outer concave parts and the outer convex parts, after which the film is sandwiched between an inner concave part and an inner convex part and a tension is applied to a diaphragm part stretched in concave flow paths.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2018
    Assignee: Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Junko Ito, Yasushi Watanabe
  • Patent number: 9930778
    Abstract: Through positioning between a first mark portion of a first substrate body and a second mark portion of a second substrate body, a first connection terminal portion and a second connection terminal portion are superimposed on each other simultaneously with the superimposition of the second substrate body on the first substrate body. In addition, a first substrate cut-off portion and a second substrate cut-off portion are also superimposed on each other. The first connection terminal portion of a first row and the second connection terminal portion of the first row are electrically bonded to each other by thermo-compression bonding or the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2018
    Assignee: Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takayuki Ito, Masashi Tabata, Yu Watanabe
  • Patent number: 9919680
    Abstract: A vehicle-mounted device includes a control unit that generates a request signal, a transmission unit that sequentially transmits a request signal generated by the control unit from a plurality of respective transmission antennas, a reception unit that receives a response signal to the request signal, and a storage unit that stores a history of information included in a response signal received by the reception unit, and, in a case where the response signal is newly received by the reception unit, the control unit determines whether or not a vehicle is caused to perform a predetermined operation on the basis of the information included in the response signal and the history of the information included in the response signal stored in the storage unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2018
    Assignee: Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Akira Miyazawa
  • Patent number: 9915710
    Abstract: A magnetic sensor is provided in which in a case where magnetization amounts of the first ferromagnetic layer and the second ferromagnetic layer in the first magnetic sensor element are respectively set to be Mst11 and Mst12 and magnetization amounts of the first ferromagnetic layer and the second ferromagnetic layer in the second magnetic sensor element are respectively set to be Mst21 and Mst22, in a case of Mst11>Mst12, a relationship of Mst21>Mst22 is satisfied, and in a case of Mst11<Mst12, a relationship of Mst21<Mst22 is satisfied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2018
    Assignee: ALPS ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Fumihito Koike, Hirofumi Okumura, Eiji Shinohara, Kazuhiro Shigeta, Taku Saito
  • Patent number: 9915684
    Abstract: A sensor detects the rotation of a component (object) of a vehicle in a non-contact manner, and generates a differential signal according to the rotation. Two comparators have different hysteresis characteristics. At both edges of one signal that is an output of one of the comparators, if a signal of the other comparator is not at the same level, it is determined that a distance (gap) between an object and the sensor is within a predetermined range in which the differential signal is effective.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2018
    Assignee: Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihisa Iikura, Tomoyuki Sawataishi
  • Patent number: 9912090
    Abstract: A pressure contact type connector includes: an upper flat plate portion; a lower flat plate portion which is disposed below the upper flat plate portion; a first spring portion which connects the upper and lower flat plate portions; and a second spring portion which extends upward from the lower flat plate portion and applies a resilient force to the upper flat plate portion, in which the first and second spring portions are wound about the upper flat plate portion when viewed from above in a plan view, and extend so that the spring portions do not interfere with each other when being compressed and extended in the vertical direction, the first spring portion is formed to be bent so that a width dimension is larger than a thickness dimension, and the second spring portion is formed to be bent so that a width dimension is larger than a thickness dimension.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2018
    Assignee: ALPS ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Junichiro Yokota, Takashi Kawahata, Rikiya Suzuki, Seiichiro Sato, Shuji Omura
  • Patent number: 9873609
    Abstract: A polymer actuator element includes an electrolyte layer and electrode layers, in which the electrode layer includes an activated carbon nanofiber and a carbon nanohorn.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2018
    Assignee: Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tomomasa Takatsuka, Isao Takahashi, Teppei Sugawara, Kenichi Mitsumori, Kinji Asaka, Takushi Sugino
  • Patent number: 9871185
    Abstract: A drive device includes a driven body provided on an opening of a case, and a polymer actuator which is bent and deformed in a height direction and movably supports the driven body in the height direction. A first conductive portion is provided on the case side, a second conductive portion is provided on the driven body side, and the first conductive portion and the second conductive portion configure a plurality of contact portions. When the driven body is raised by the polymer actuator, the first conductive portion and the second conductive portion come into contact with each other by the plurality of contact portions, and thus, the raised state of the driven body is detected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2018
    Assignee: ALPS ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Isao Takahashi
  • Patent number: 9849860
    Abstract: A vehicle-side device includes a vehicle-side control unit that controls transmission of a request signal and performs predetermined control when authentication is successful on the basis of an answer signal, a portable device includes a portable-device control unit that detects reception intensity information of the request signal transmitted from the vehicle-side device and transmits an answer signal based on the reception intensity, the vehicle-side control unit controls a vehicle-side transmission unit so that the vehicle-side transmission unit transmits the request signal including the determination signal having an intensity level different for each section, and the vehicle-side control unit or the portable-device control unit determines whether or not the request signal is a true signal on the basis of a fluctuation in the reception intensity in each section of the determination signal received by the portable device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2017
    Assignee: Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Akira Miyazawa
  • Patent number: 9851846
    Abstract: An input device includes a measurement unit configured to measure a physical quantity according to an operation including at least one of touch of an operating object and proximity of the operating object, a determination unit configured to determine an operation state including an operation existence state and an operation nonexistence state, on the basis of at least a base value and the physical quantity, and a base value updating unit configured to update the base value using the physical quantity when a magnitude of a change in the physical quantity per predetermined time falls within a predetermined range, during an operation existence period in which the operation state is the operation existence state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2017
    Assignee: Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Satoshi Nakajima, Satoshi Hayasaka
  • Patent number: 9846511
    Abstract: An input device includes a position detection sensor capable of detecting an input operation position of an operation body on an operation surface, a load detection sensor capable of detecting a load in the input operation position, and a control unit capable of executing offset calibration to correct an offset of an output of the load detection sensor based on input operation information resulting from an output of the position detection sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2017
    Assignee: Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masafumi Kaneko, Masahiko Ishizone, Takashi Sato, Eiji Umetsu
  • Patent number: 9846519
    Abstract: Threshold values smaller than degrees of proximity of an object indicated by detection data at peak positions are set based on detection data of the peak positions at which a degree of proximity of the object is higher than that of surrounding detection positions. An evaluation value according to an area of a region on a detection surface occupied by a group of detection positions, including the peak positions, in which degrees of proximity of the object indicated by detection data are higher than the threshold values, is calculated, and it is determined whether the object in proximity to the peak position is a finger or a palm based on the evaluation value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2017
    Assignee: Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Satoshi Nakajima, Satoshi Hayasaka, Shinichi Sagawai
  • Patent number: 9836175
    Abstract: A series of degree-of-approach data of the same object generated over a plurality of cycles of a detection operation is averaged in filter processing of the filter processing unit, and accordingly, the degree-of-approach data after averaging is acquired. Therefore, even in a case in which the degree-of-approach data is temporarily greatly changed due to an influence of noise, such a temporary change in the degree-of-approach data after averaging is suppressed. Further, response characteristics of a filter in the filter processing of the filter unit are changed according to a noise level which is detected by a noise detection unit. Accordingly, since appropriate filter processing according to the noise level is performed on the degree-of-approach data, the degree-of-approach data in which the influence of noise is effectively reduced is obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2017
    Assignee: Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Satoshi Nakajima, Satoshi Hayasaka, Hayato Miyagawa, Kohei Kitagawa
  • Patent number: 9835692
    Abstract: A magnetic field component in a Z direction is guided by a magnetic field guide layer and applied to a magnetic sensor in an X direction that is the same as a sensitivity axis direction thereof, and a detection output is obtained. A bridge circuit is formed with a plurality of magnetic sensors and configured such that an output is not provided for a magnetic field component in the X direction. However, when an external magnetic field in the X direction is drawn to the magnetic field guide layer, variation of sensitivity for the X direction may occur. Thus, soft magnetic characteristics of a first portion of the magnetic field guide layer are deteriorated to decrease the magnetic permeability of the first portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2017
    Assignee: ALPS ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masayuki Obana, Hideto Ando, Tsutomu Takeya, Kazuaki Kaneko
  • Patent number: 9836902
    Abstract: If a portable device receives a request signal from a control device that requires a response from the portable device, a first response signal is transmitted from the portable device during a common period defined in all portable devices. Thus, in a case where there is no portable device which enables wireless communication with the control device, a value of received signal strength indication of a wireless signal which is received from the portable device by the control device is very small and becomes smaller than the threshold value during a period in the common period. In this case, the control device suspends reception processing of causing a signal to be transmitted from the plurality of portable devices subsequently to the first response signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2017
    Assignee: Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Yoshio Sampei
  • Patent number: 9829985
    Abstract: An input device includes an input unit on which an operator performs a predetermined operation to perform input, a storage unit that stores a reference range set on a virtual coordinate, a control unit that identifies the operation of the operator based on a trajectory of the operation performed on the input unit by the operator and the reference range, a determination unit that determines whether the trajectory of the operation of the operator exceeds the reference range, and a range setting unit that updates the reference range based on a determination result of the determination unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: ALPS ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Akihiro Takahashi, Ikuyasu Miyako
  • Patent number: 9831790
    Abstract: A DC-to-DC converter includes a voltage converter having: a capacitance; at least one inductor configured to store energy and exchange stored energy with the capacitance; and a switching element configured to switch on and off a current flowing through the inductor and change direction of the current at each switching. The inductor includes a variable inductor whose inductance decreases with increase in the current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: ALPS ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takao Mizushima, Masahiro Iizuka, Yutaka Naito, Kinshiro Takadate, Kazuki Iwaya, Eiichi Takahashi
  • Patent number: 9809197
    Abstract: A moving device receives a 100% duty measurement signal transmitted from an in-vehicle device. The receive strength of the received measurement signal is divided into unit time, and the average value of the receive strength for each unit time is determined The maximum value and the minimum value of the average value are determined, and the ratio between the maximum value and the minimum value is transmitted to the in-vehicle device as signal strength fluctuation information. The in-vehicle device determines that a communication state is abnormal if it is determined that the fluctuation ratio exceeds a predetermined threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akira Miyazawa, Katsuhiro Seino
  • Patent number: D803918
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: ALPS ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Kameda, Kunihito Tateishi
  • Patent number: D804557
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2017
    Assignee: ALPS ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Kameda, Kunihito Tateishi, Tsuyoshi Matsumoto