Patents Assigned to SMK Corporation
  • Patent number: 8371869
    Abstract: A minute connector with a first connecting member and a second connecting member. The first connecting member has a first conductive portion disposed at each of the bottom surface of a plurality of recessing portions set at an insulative first substrate connected to first ends, and first contacts made of first carbon nanotube bundles protruding from the surface of a first substrate at second ends. The second connecting member has second contacts made of second carbon nanotube bundles connected to second conductive portions disposed at each of the bottom surface of recessing portions set at an insulative second substrate corresponding to each of the first contacts at first ends. Each of the first carbon nanotubes contacts between the second carbon nanotubes with each other in an overlapping manner at the state that the first contacts are contacted with each of the corresponding second contacts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2013
    Assignee: SMK Corporation
    Inventor: Masayoshi Shigihara
  • Publication number: 20120251800
    Abstract: A touch panel glass substrate which can be manufactured simultaneously with other touch panel glass substrates, is free of microcracks in edges, and has predetermined strength, and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. An original glass plate as large as to cut out a plurality of glass substrates is prepared. Detection electrode traces and lead wiring traces on each glass substrate are simultaneously formed on the original glass plate. The original glass plate is then chemically etched to separate the touch panel glass substrates. The separation by chemical etching produces no microcracks in edges.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 24, 2012
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: SMK CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naomi NAKAYAMA, Tsutomu INOUE, Toshiyuki MAEHARA
  • Publication number: 20120230063
    Abstract: There is provided a self-excited switching power supply circuit. A cycle control capacitor is charged with a flyback voltage generated in a feedback winding of a transformer during OFF operation period in which an exciting current does not flow in a primary winding of the transformer. An OFF control capacitor the charging speed of which changes ON operation period is charged with the charging voltage of the cycle control capacitor during the ON operation period in which an exciting current flows in the primary winding. The charging voltage of the cycle control capacitor is changed with a periodic cycle Tc sufficiently longer than an oscillation cycle To to make the oscillation cycle To of continuous oscillating operation variable based on the periodic cycle Tc. As a result, the frequency of a harmonic is distributed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2012
    Publication date: September 13, 2012
    Applicants: SMK CORPORATION, CANON DENSHI KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Katsuhiko OKITSU, Toshihiro AMEI, Kenji HATANO, Yoshitaka KIMURA
  • Publication number: 20120231644
    Abstract: Electrical connection reliability of a vehicle charge cable socket connector is maintained for a long period. Dust particles and rain drops that inevitably get into a socket contact can be let out through a contact through hole and a housing through hole that extend from inside the socket contact to outside a housing. Such a configuration can avoid adverse effects of dust particles and drain drops on electrical contact and maintain high connection reliability for a long period.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2012
    Publication date: September 13, 2012
    Applicant: SMK CORPORATION
    Inventor: Katsuhiro KINOSHITA
  • Publication number: 20120230061
    Abstract: There is provided a self-excited switching power supply circuit which shifts to continuous oscillating operation immediately after the self-excited switching power supply circuit is connected to an AC power supply and started and which does not cause start-up failure while using a start-up resistor of a high resistance value to maintain standby power consumption at a low level. A bypass charging circuit connected in series to a start-up resistor is connected between a high-voltage side terminal of a DC input power supply and the gate of an oscillation field effect transistor. A charging current flowing in the start-up resistor, and additionally, a charging current to charge a start-up capacitor through the bypass charging circuit flow in a transitional period during which the voltage of the DC input power supply increases.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2012
    Publication date: September 13, 2012
    Applicants: SMK CORPORATION, CANON DENSHI KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Katsuhiko OKITSU, Toshihiro AMEI, Kenji HATANO
  • Patent number: 8247712
    Abstract: A coordinate inputting device includes an X+ electrode having a plurality of X+ branch patterns extending from one side to the other side in the X direction, an X? electrode having a plurality of X? branch patterns extending from one side to the other side in the X direction, a Y+ electrode having a plurality of Y+ branch patterns extending from one side to another side in the Y direction, and a Y? electrode having a plurality of Y? branch patterns extending from one side to the other side in the Y direction. An X, Y coordinate position of an object is detected from, respectively, the difference between the floating capacitances of the X+ electrode and X? electrode, and the difference between the floating capacitances of Y+ electrode and Y? electrode, which change according to the surface area of the electrodes in proximity to the object to be detected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: SMK Corporation
    Inventor: Osamu Yoshikawa
  • Publication number: 20120175508
    Abstract: A sensor module includes a lens attached on an opening side of a housing and a circuit board with a sensor device mounted thereon attached on the other opening side. A stepped part is formed on the inside of the housing. An adjustment gap for adjusting the position of the circuit board is formed between a vertical face of this stepped part and an outer peripheral face of the circuit board. An adhesive injection groove that varies the width of the adjustment gap is formed by providing a recess and/or a projection on the vertical face of the stepped part and an opposing face of the outer peripheral face of the circuit board in at least one of at least two fixing portions where the circuit board is fixed to the stepped part with an adhesive. Adhesive is applied into the adhesive injection groove.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 22, 2011
    Publication date: July 12, 2012
    Applicant: SMK CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masayoshi Kashima, Nobuyuki Mano
  • Publication number: 20120154323
    Abstract: A capacitive touch panel that detects an input position accurately with a limited number of sensing electrodes is provided. First and second sensing electrodes adjacent to each other in a detecting direction are arranged such that among a plurality of branch patterns of the first sensing electrode a branch pattern closer to the second sensing electrode, and among a plurality of branch patterns of the second sensing electrode a branch pattern closer to the first sensing electrode are alternately arranged in the detecting direction. The widths in the detecting direction of the plurality of branch patterns of each sensing electrode are set such that the branch patterns on the opposite sides in the detecting direction have the smallest width, and the width of a branch pattern gradually becomes greater as the branch pattern gets closer to a branch pattern at the center.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 23, 2011
    Publication date: June 21, 2012
    Applicant: SMK Corporation
    Inventor: Mototoshi Nambu
  • Patent number: 8194035
    Abstract: An instruction inputting device detects input operations in the XY plane and in a rotational direction on a hemispherical input operation surface. Four detection electrodes insulated from each other are formed at 90° intervals around the Z axis of the hemisphere, on the surface of a spherical crown-shaped insulator. Surface areas of each of the detection electrodes decrease moving toward an apex P on the Z axis and moving in a circumferential direction away from the positions at which the 90° intervals are formed. As a result, the surface areas of the detection electrodes facing an object to be detected for causing the input operation differ depending on the positioning of the object, thereby causing differences in the floating capacitances of the detection electrodes which are sensed by a circuit portion of the device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: SMK Corporation
    Inventor: Osamu Yoshikawa
  • Patent number: 8188842
    Abstract: The rotation operation plane of the ring-shaped operation members that operate the rotation is inclined with respect to the horizontal plane so that the rotation operation of the ring-shaped operation member can be performed without holding a finger in the vertical direction. Furthermore, since the rotation operation plane is inclined with respect to the placement plane of the case, static friction on the placement plane is generated by a force component of the operation force acting on the rotation operation plane and is perpendicular to the placement plane, thus the case does not move toward the rotation operation direction during the rotation operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2012
    Assignee: SMK Corporation
    Inventors: Kenji Otsuka, Ryuhei Noguchi, Noriaki Miyata
  • Publication number: 20120109409
    Abstract: It is an object to provide a system for assisting a vehicle on the edge of battery exhaustion. An information providing device includes: an information acquiring part for acquiring the current location of a vehicle and the amount of power stored in a power storage unit of the vehicle from a plurality of vehicles; a vehicle selecting part for selecting one or more vehicles as available vehicles for power supply from the plurality of vehicles based on the respective current locations and the amounts of stored power of the plurality of vehicles, the one or more vehicles to be selected being capable of supplying charging power to a target vehicle requiring charge of its power storage unit; and a notifying part for notifying of an available vehicle for power supply selected by the vehicle selecting part.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2011
    Publication date: May 3, 2012
    Applicant: SMK CORPORATION
    Inventor: Tetsuo HARA
  • Patent number: 8154150
    Abstract: A power line communication system which enables high quality communication utilizing a pair of power lines connected to a vehicle mounted battery, has a pair of communication lines connected to a pair of power lines, respectively, to communicate a high frequency signal of 1 MHz or more. This system has a balance filter which is interposed between each of the communication lines and a vehicle mounted communication apparatus, the filter, a circuit configuration of which is formed in balance type. The communication system also has a pair of electrically balanced lines which are connected between the balance filter and each of the communication apparatuses and are power-fed from the battery, for performing communication between the communication apparatuses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignees: SMK Corporation, Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Katsumi Sakai, Koki Goto, Hajime Takata, Kunihiro Ohta
  • Patent number: 8138942
    Abstract: An annular operation unit is formed as an outer shape to cover entire outline of a surface of a case, and inputting switches and displaying unit are attached inside of an opening at the center side of the annular operation unit, allowing the annular operation unit to have a size to perform fine rotational operations in case the entire size of the remote control transmitting device is miniaturized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: SMK Corporation
    Inventors: Kenji Otsuka, Ryuhei Noguchi, Noriaki Miyata
  • Patent number: 8134453
    Abstract: An RF communications system including a controlled apparatus configured to receive a RF signal transmitted from a remote control transmitter on a channel that the controlled apparatus can receive, without providing a response signal to the remote control transmitter. The RF transmitting circuit unit of the remote control transmitter transmits RF signals on all of a number of selected transmission channels in a wireless frequency band, while the RF receiving circuit unit of the controlled apparatus stands by to receive an RF signal on a channel of the selected channels that has a relatively low electric field intensity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2012
    Assignee: SMK Corporation
    Inventor: Kenji Ootsuka
  • Publication number: 20120019265
    Abstract: Changes of the stray capacitances of a large number of sensing electrodes can be detected simultaneously. Further, even if a stray capacitance changes slightly, an input operation to a sensing electrode can be detected based on elapsed time until the electric potential of the sensing electrode becomes the same as a threshold potential. The stray capacitance of a sensing electrode and a resistor of the sensing electrode form a CR time constant circuit. Charge or discharge of the stray capacitance of the sensing electrode is controlled while a rest time in a predetermined time ratio is set. A stray capacitance that slightly increases in response to an input operation made near a sensing electrode can be detected by detecting the stray capacitance in extended elapsed time until the electric potential of the sensing electrode becomes the same as the threshold potential.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 3, 2011
    Publication date: January 26, 2012
    Applicant: SMK CORPORATION
    Inventor: Osamu YOSHIKAWA
  • Publication number: 20120019266
    Abstract: A capacitive touch panel can select a way of voltage control with a high degree of detection accuracy according to operating environment. In response to approach of an input unit, the stray capacitance of the sensing electrode the input unit approached increases. Accordingly, charge and discharge of the stray capacitances of a plurality of sensing electrodes are controlled, and a sensing electrode the potential change of which is made slow by the increase in stray capacitance and resultant increase in time constant is detected as a sensing electrode the input unit approached. The stray capacitance of a sensing electrode can selectively be controlled either by the charge control or by the discharge control, and optimum one of the controls is selected according to operating environment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 3, 2011
    Publication date: January 26, 2012
    Applicant: SMK CORPORATION
    Inventor: Osamu YOSHIKAWA
  • Patent number: D652804
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2012
    Assignee: SMK Corporation
    Inventor: Haruo Yoshida
  • Patent number: D665758
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: SMK Corporation
    Inventor: Haruo Yoshida
  • Patent number: D671503
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: SMK Corporation
    Inventor: Haruo Yoshida
  • Patent number: D678220
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: SMK Corporation
    Inventor: Haruo Yoshida