IBM Patents

The International Business Machines Corporation provides IT infrastructure and services to enterprise customers.

IBM Patents by Type
  • IBM Patents Granted: IBM patents that have been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
  • IBM Patent Applications: IBM patent applications that are pending before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
  • Patent number: 10362025
    Abstract: A method, a computer program product, and a computer system for securely sharing confidential information in a document. A first computer sets one or more confidential attributes of the confidential information in the document and creates metadata of the confidential information. The first computer creates a first file including the confidential information and the metadata. The first computer creates a second file including non-confidential information in the document and the metadata; the metadata in the second file is as a reference to the confidential information. The confidential information in the first file is displayed by a second computer at a confidential information visibility level in accordance with an authorization level of an authorized user of the second computer. The second file is displayed at a visibility level without showing the confidential information and is accessible by all users.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Masashi Doi, Kenya Ishimoto, Nobuyuki Yoshifuji
  • Patent number: 10359210
    Abstract: The invention generally relates to ventilation systems and methods, and more particularly to selectively configurable climate control systems and methods for use in data centers and the like. A device includes a support element in the form of a tile, and a plurality of ducts connected to the support element. The device also includes a manifold in fluid communication with each one of the plurality of ducts and a plurality of valves. Each respective one of the plurality of valves is associated with a respective one of the plurality of ducts. Moreover, there is at least one actuator operatively connected to the plurality of valves, which is structured and arranged to individually actuate each one of the plurality of valves.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Christopher J. Dawson, Vincenzo V. Diluoffo, Rick A. Hamilton, II, Michael D. Kendzierski
  • Patent number: 10360626
    Abstract: In one example, a method includes: receiving a first input value associated with a first data field; responsive to determining that the first data field is associated with an equivalence operation, selecting a second input value associated with a second data field of a previously transmitted message, wherein the second input field corresponds to the first input field; comparing the first input value and the second input value to determine if the first input value and the second input value are equivalent; and when the first input value and the second input value are equivalent, generating a message that omits the first input value for the first data field, and providing an operator symbol indicating the equivalence operation to specify that the second input value of the second data field in the previously transmitted message is to be associated with the first data field of the message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ravi Ravisankar, Roy A. Wood, Jr.
  • Patent number: 10360412
    Abstract: A restricted access device such as a cellphone, a tablet or a personal computer, analyzes contemporaneous keyboard inputs of a password and gestures to authenticate the user and enable further access to applications and processes of the restricted access device. The gestures may be facial gestures detected by a camera or may be gestures made by an avatar rendered on a display of the device. The password may be shorted based upon the context of the authentication as well as any gestures occurring during password entry. The gestures may be learned by the restricted access device during the password entry process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Lorraine Herger, Neal Keller, James R. Kozloski, Matthew A. McCarthy, Clifford A. Pickover, Andrew Wyskida
  • Patent number: 10361976
    Abstract: A method, computer program product, and computer system for defining, at a first computing device, at least a portion of a display area associated with the first computing device. A specialized communication from a second computing device is received at the first computing device. The specialized communication is rendered at the first computing device in at least the portion of the display area. Use of an application within at least the portion of the display is prevented at least while the specialized communication is accessed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Corville O. Allen, Faheem Altaf, Robert E. Loredo, Henri F. Meli
  • Patent number: 10362470
    Abstract: Methods, computer program products, and systems are presented. The methods computer program products, and systems can include, for instance: obtaining emergency event data and user data of a mobile device user, wherein the user data of the mobile device user includes user biometric data obtained from a mobile device of the mobile device user; examining data of the emergency event data and data of the user data; and responsively to the examining, automatically outputting one or more text based status message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: James E. Bostick, John M. Ganci, Jr., Martin G. Keen, Sarbajit K. Rakshit
  • Patent number: 10360280
    Abstract: An embodiment of the invention may include a method, computer program product and computer system for building and disseminating a smart encyclopedia. The method, computer program product and computer system may include a computing device that receives source content. The computing device may determine a first relationship. The first relationship corresponds to a relationship between a first portion of the source content and a second portion of the source content. The computing device may determine a first location of the first relationship within an index. The computing device may identify a user location within the index. The computing device may determine whether the user location is located beyond the first location within the index. The computing device may display the first relationship to the user based on the determination that the user location is beyond the first location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Coporation
    Inventors: Pasquale A. Catalano, Andrew G. Crimmins, Casimer M. DeCusatis, Rajaram B. Krishnamurthy, Michael Onghena, Anuradha Rao
  • Patent number: 10360384
    Abstract: Analysis system, analysis method and program. The system includes: trace means for acquiring a command issued by software executed in an information processing system and a physical address of a memory used by the command as trace data, and recording the trace data to storage means; event detecting means for detecting an event caused to occur by the software and acquiring event information; conversion means for converting the event information to a memory access pattern configured with a plurality of commands for accessing the memory and a plurality of physical addresses; and memory accessing means for accessing the memory using the converted memory access pattern, causing the trace means to acquire trace data and record the trace data to the storage means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Seiji Munetoh
  • Patent number: 10360036
    Abstract: A computer processing system is provided. The computer processing system includes a processor configured to crack a Move-To-FPSCR instruction into two internal instructions. A first one of the two internal instructions executes out-of-order to update a control field and a second one of the two internal instructions executes in-order to compute a trap decision.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Brian J. D. Barrick, Maarten J. Boersma, Niels Fricke, Michael J. Genden
  • Patent number: 10360505
    Abstract: A plurality of messages comprising a stream of sensed data is received from an Internet of Things (IoT) device. A plurality of rules is identified. Responsive to a received message of the plurality of messages, the plurality of rules are distributed into a rule index tree based upon a cost model which minimizes a cost for analyzing the plurality of rules to determine whether or not each of the plurality of rules can be applied to the received message. The rule index tree is used to identify a set of rules of the plurality of rules that can be applied to the received message. The set of rules is applied to the received message to generate an outgoing message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Xiao Yan Chen, Yao Liang Chen, Sheng Huang, Yun Jie Qiu, Xiao Min Xu
  • Patent number: 10360219
    Abstract: An approach is provided to identify permanence data corresponding to terms included in a corpus of a question answering (QA) system. Based on the identified permanence, a time-based confidence of each of the terms is established. Terms are identified as a plurality of candidate answers to a question posed to the QA system. Each of the plurality of candidate answers are scored with the scoring being at least partially based on the time-based confidence established for each of the terms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Darryl M. Adderly, Corville O. Allen, Scott N. Gerard, Robert K. Tucker
  • Patent number: 10360087
    Abstract: A method for recommending a web application programming interface (API) includes: a cloud computing service retrieving test source code from a remote computer of the developer; the cloud computing service determining whether a call to a first web API among a plurality of web APIs is present in the test source code; and when it is determined that the call is present, the cloud computing service reading at least one log file to extract information about at least one application that has used the first web API; the cloud computing service determining a first quality of the first web API from the log file; and the cloud computing service sending a message to the remote computer recommending a second web API among the web APIs having a second quality higher than the first quality.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Philippe Suter, Salman A. Baset, John E. Wittern
  • Patent number: 10359292
    Abstract: An entry on an allergen map may be generated by a computer system where a deep learning model is trained using online content data. Allergen content data which contains geographic data may be detected from the online content data. The allergen content data may be analyzed by the computer system and tagged with a quality and intensity indicator. Based on the tagging and the geographic location, an allergen map may be generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Paul R. Bastide, Anca Sailer, Benjamin C. Wisnewski, Mattia Tomasoni, Sunil K. Mishra
  • Patent number: 10361971
    Abstract: An approach is provided in which an information handling system establishes a resource reservation protocol (RSVP) session corresponding to a flow between a first entity and a second entity operating within a computer environment that implements a network virtualization overlay protocol. Once the RSVP session is established, the information handling system encapsulates data packets of the flow based on the network virtualization overlay protocol and, in turn, sends the encapsulated data packet over the computer network with a quality of service (QoS) assurance level that is based on the established RSVP session.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Guo Xing He, Zi Jin Tao, Lu Zhang, Yuan Yuan Zhang
  • Patent number: 10360080
    Abstract: A technique for short-circuiting normal read-copy update (RCU) grace period computations in the presence of expedited RCU grace periods. The technique may include determining during normal RCU grace period processing whether at least one expedited RCU grace period elapsed during a normal RCU grace period. If so, the normal RCU grace period is ended. If not, the normal RCU grace period processing is continued. Expedited RCU grace periods may be implemented by expedited RCU grace period processing that periodically awakens a kernel thread that implements the normal RCU grace period processing. The expedited RCU grace period processing may conditionally throttle wakeups to the kernel thread based on CPU utilization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Paul E. McKenney
  • Patent number: 10361308
    Abstract: A method of forming a semiconductor device that includes forming a gate structure over a plurality of fin structures, wherein the gate structure provides a first fill pinch off between the fin structures separated by a first pitch; and forming a material stack of a silicon containing layer, and a dielectric layer over the plurality of fin structures, wherein the dielectric provides a second fill pinch off between fin structures separated by a second pitch. The silicon containing layer is converted into an oxide material layer. The second dielectric that provides the second fill pinch off is removed, and an opening is etched in a remaining silicon containing layer exposed by removing the second fill pinch off. An underlying gate cut region is etched in the gate structure using the opening in the remaining portion of the silicon containing layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kangguo Cheng, Peng Xu
  • Patent number: 10361980
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a method for lossy data compression is provided. The method may also include determining a length and a plurality of bounding characters associated with each data item within the data message. The method may further include encoding each data item within the data message by replacing each data item with the determined length and the determined plurality of bounding characters. The method may also include transmitting the data message to a recipient.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Hamish C. Hunt, Nicholas K. Lincoln, Christopher J. Poole, Mark A. Woolley
  • Patent number: 10360603
    Abstract: The new creation and use of entitlement constraint templates methods and systems can be linked to software offerings in a software catalog. Allowing software catalog experts to link contractual entitlement data with software product offerings via constraint templates on such a varying list of constraint types, establishes a highly robust software catalog knowledgebase. The result is significant cost savings in terms of time spent inputting entitlement constraint data by contract analysts as well as minimizing errors by those analysts who would otherwise be required to have a very high level of expertise in the software offerings while potentially inputting the same constraint data repeated times.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Michael K. Boudreau, Jamie B. Marsnik, Bradley T. Moore
  • Patent number: 10361130
    Abstract: A method of forming fin structures that includes providing at least one silicon germanium containing fin structure, and forming a fin liner on the at least one silicon germanium containing fin structure. The fin liner includes a silicon germanium and oxygen containing layer. The method continues with annealing the at least on silicon germanium containing fin structure having the fin liner present thereon. During the annealing, the silicon germanium oxygen containing layer reacts with the silicon germanium containing fin structure to provide surface formation of a silicon rich layer on the silicon germanium containing fin structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ruqiang Bao, Hemanth Jagannathan, Choonghyun Lee, Richard G. Southwick
  • Patent number: 10361983
    Abstract: Aspects provide message queue management as a function of processing time estimation, wherein a processor stores a message directed to a user from a messaging server in a distraction queue, and predicts a processing time required by the user to process the received message as a function of sender identity or of an identified message topic or type. The processor increments a processing time counter value for the distraction queue with the predicted processing time of the message, and notifies the user of the received message and all other messages currently saved to the distraction queue in response to determining that the incremented processing time counter value meets a threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Adam G. Archer, Herman S. Badwal, Robin Y. Bobbitt, Christopher M. Lee-Shanok, Robert Retchless, Lauren H. Schaefer, Christopher N. Taylor
  • Patent number: 10360338
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for extracting a capacitance for a target wire of an integrated circuit includes receiving a design of the integrated circuit having a plurality of wiring layers and selecting a target wire to perform the capacitance extraction. The method further includes determining a first adjacent wiring layer and a second adjacent wiring layer and removing a first subset and a second subset of a plurality of non-adjacent wiring layers from the plurality of wiring layers. The method includes approximating a first plate to be used in the extraction based on the first subset of the plurality of non-adjacent wiring layers and approximating a second plate to be used in the extraction based on the second subset of the plurality of non-adjacent wiring layers and performing the extraction of the target wire based on the first and second adjacent wiring layers and the first and second plates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Susan E. Cellier, Lewis W. Dewey, III, Anthony D. Hagin, Adam P. Matheny, Ron D. Rose, David J. Widiger, Patrick M. Williams
  • Patent number: 10360283
    Abstract: A method, computer program product, and circuit are provided for noise and bound management for a Resistive Processing Unit (RPU) array having an op-amp. The method includes reducing the noise in an output signal from the RPU array by using a largest value, in a sigma vector having a plurality of values, as a representation for a window for an input signal to the RPU array. The input signal to the RPU array is formed from the plurality of values. The method further includes sensing saturation at an output of the op-amp. The method also includes managing the bound to eliminate the saturation by reducing the plurality of values from which the input signal to the RPU is formed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tayfun Gokmen, Oguzhan Murat Onen
  • Patent number: 10361117
    Abstract: A method is presented forming a fully-aligned via (FAV) and airgaps within a semiconductor device. The method includes forming a plurality of copper (Cu) trenches within an insulating layer, forming a plurality of ILD regions over exposed portions of the insulating layer, selectively removing a first section of the ILD regions in an airgap region, and maintaining a second section of the ILD regions in a non-airgap region. The method further includes forming airgaps in the airgap region and forming a via in the non-airgap region contacting a Cu trench of the plurality of Cu trenches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher J. Penny, Benjamin D. Briggs, Huai Huang, Lawrence A. Clevenger, Michael Rizzolo, Hosadurga Shobha
  • Patent number: 10360113
    Abstract: A technique for transaction recovery by one transaction manager of another transaction manager's transactions in which each transaction manager is adapted to manage two phase commit transactional operations on transactional resources and to record commit or rollback decisions in a transaction recovery log. The recovery transaction manager detects apparent unavailability of the another transaction manager for transaction processing and initiates a transaction recovery process for the another transaction manager's transactions. This process also determines whether any of the transactions of the another transaction manager have all respective resources prepared to commit without there yet being a pending commit decision record in the another transaction manager's recovery log. If so, the recovery transaction manager writes a rollback record indicating an intention to roll back the identified transaction, in the another transaction manager's recovery log provided no commit decision record has been recorded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Simon J. Maple, Ian Robinson
  • Patent number: 10361311
    Abstract: A semiconductor structure includes a substrate, and a replacement metal gate (RMG) structure is attached to the substrate. The RMG structure includes a lower portion and an upper tapered portion. A source junction is disposed on the substrate and attached to a first low-k spacer portion. A drain junction is disposed on the substrate and attached to a second low-k spacer portion. A first oxide layer is disposed on the source junction, and attached to the first low-k spacer portion. A second oxide layer is disposed on the drain junction, and attached to the second low-k spacer portion. A cap layer is disposed on a top surface layer of the RMG structure and attached to the first oxide layer and the second oxide layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignees: International Business Machines Corporation, GLOBALFOUNDRIES INC.
    Inventors: Xiuyu Cai, Kangguo Cheng, Ali Khakifirooz, Ruilong Xie
  • Patent number: 10360189
    Abstract: An object-based data storage system includes a memory and a processor for executing machine executable instructions configured for implementing logical containers for data objects each having a global identifier. The containers are configured for storing metadata including a first parameterization value descriptive of a number of storage nodes and a second parameterization value descriptive of a classification of the data objects. The machine executable instructions are further configured for implementing a first object storage ring for addressing storage locations across the multiple storage nodes using a surjective function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Basham, Michael Factor, Robert Haas, Simon Lorenz, William W. Owen, Slavisa Sarafijanovic, Harald Seipp, Thomas D. Weigold
  • Patent number: 10360546
    Abstract: A method supplying AC power and billing a customer using frequency regulation credits. The method includes using an AC frequency measuring device, measuring a current AC frequency on an AC power line; using a power consumption measuring device, measuring a current power consumption on the AC power line over a period of time equal to a sampling interval; calculating a power consumption moving average of a last N power current power consumptions measured, where N is a positive integer greater than 1; generating credits or debits based on the current power consumption, the current AC frequency and the power consumption moving average; adding the credits or debits to a frequency regulation credit; and for each next sampling interval repeating measuring the current AC frequency, measuring current power consumption, calculating the power consumption moving average, generating the credits or debits, and adding the credits or debits to the frequency regulation credit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gregory J. Boss, Rick A. Hamilton, II, Julianne F. Haugh, Anne R. Sand
  • Patent number: 10360512
    Abstract: Approaches presented herein enable intelligent service request classification and assignment learning. More specifically, a request comprising a free form text or spoken description is received from a user. The request description is parsed and classified by a regression-based classifier. The regression-based classifier classifies based on, for example: the description itself; the requestor's history of requests, and/or supplemental demographics about a requestor. Optionally, a user may verify the classification or select from a plurality of returned classifications. A service provider or administrator confirms that a classification is correct. If not, the incorrectly classified request is queued. If so, the correctly classified request is added to a set of training data to be used in classifying future requests.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Tyson R. Midboe
  • Patent number: 10360402
    Abstract: An example system includes a processor to receive hashed sensitive data including attributes, a hashing function, and text classifiers. The processor is to also monitor a user interface and detect an input text or an output text. The processor is to further scan the detected input text or the detected output text to detect a candidate based on the text classifiers. The processor is also to hash the detected candidate using the hashing function to generate a hashed candidate. The processor is to match the hashed candidate with hashed sensitive data. The processor is to also further extract an attribute from the matched hashed sensitive data. The processor is to intercept the output text based at least on the extracted attribute.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ariel Farkash, Ayman Jarrous, Micha Moffie, Gal Peretz, Tamer Salman
  • Patent number: 10362016
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method includes receiving user data from a plurality of data sources, where the user data describes a user. A plurality of events are determined within the user data by applying anomaly detection to the user data. A request to authenticate the user is received. A key event is selected from among the plurality of events, responsive to the request to authenticate the user. For the user, a challenge is generated, by a computer processor, based on the key event and responsive to the request to authenticate the user. A response to the challenge is received. It is decided whether to authenticate the user based on the response to the challenge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Inseok Hwang, Michael D. Kistler, Janani Mukundan, Gelareh Taban
  • Patent number: 10359775
    Abstract: One embodiment provides a method including: prior to an initial period of operation of an appliance, storing in memory a first set of characteristics of the appliance; during an initial period of operation of the appliance, learning a second set of characteristics of the appliance; during subsequent operation of the appliance: detecting an adverse operating condition of the appliance; and based on the first set of characteristics, the second set of characteristics and the detected adverse operating condition, determining a corrective action to be taken with regard to the appliance, the corrective action comprising at least one of: switching off the appliance and warning a user of the detected adverse operating condition. Other aspects are described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignees: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, UNIVERSITI BRUNEI DARUSSALAM
    Inventors: Vijay Arya, Tanuja Hrishikesh Ganu, Saiful A. Husain, Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, Ashok Pon Kumar, Chandratilak De Silva Liyanage, Dwi Rahayu, Devasenapathi Periagraharam Seetharamakrishnan
  • Patent number: 10361197
    Abstract: A method of forming features of a finFET structure includes forming fins on a surface of a substrate. A first liner is formed around each fin and a shallow trench isolation region is formed around each fin. A dopant layer is implanted in each fin. A portion of the shallow trench isolation region is etched from each fin. A first portion of the structure is blocked and the first liner replaced with a second liner in a second portion of the structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kangguo Cheng, Xin Miao, Wenyu Xu, Chen Zhang
  • Patent number: 10360050
    Abstract: A method, apparatus and program product simulate a high performance computing (HPC) application environment by creating a cluster of virtual nodes in one or more operating system instances executing on one or more physical computing node, thereby enabling a plurality of parallel tasks from an HPC application to be executed on the cluster of virtual nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jun He, Tsai-Yang Jea, William P. LePera, Hanhong Xue
  • Patent number: 10361265
    Abstract: A semiconductor structure that includes a resistor that is located within an interconnect dielectric material layer of an interconnect level is provided. The resistor includes a diffusion barrier material that is present at a bottom of a feature that is located in the interconnect dielectric material layer. In some embodiments, the resistor has a topmost surface that is located entirely beneath a topmost surface of the interconnect dielectric material layer. In such an embodiment, the resistor is provided by removing sidewall portions of a diffusion barrier liner that surrounds a metal-containing structure. The removal of the sidewall portions of the diffusion barrier liner reduces the parasitic noise that is contributed to the sidewall portions of a resistor that includes such a diffusion barrier liner. Improved precision can also be obtained since sidewall portions may have a high thickness variation which may adversely affect the resistor's precision.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Baozhen Li, Kirk Peterson, John Sheets, Lawrence A. Clevenger, Junli Wang, Chih-Chao Yang
  • Patent number: 10360602
    Abstract: A method for metering accelerator usage in a computing system includes receiving, from an accelerator, a set of metering rules, the metering rules including a unit of accelerator usage and a tariff per unit of accelerator usage. The unit of accelerator usage corresponds with an amount of work performed by the accelerator in executing data processing operations. The method may further include receiving on a first bus from a partition of the computing system a command block, the command block having data processing operations executable by the accelerator. The method may additionally include calculating, based on the command block and the set of metering rules, an accelerator usage value for the partition. The method may then include providing, on a second bus, the accelerator usage value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Saravanan Devendra, Venkatesh Sainath
  • Patent number: 10360894
    Abstract: In response to commencement of a meeting, embodiments select audio signals provided by the host of a meeting as a primary audio data source broadcast to a first meeting participant through a speaker of headphones worn by the first participant; determine a direction of gaze of the first meeting participant as a function of orientation data of the headphones; in response to determining that a second meeting participant is located within the gaze and that attention of the first participant is focused upon the second participant, initiate a side conversation between the first and second participants and set audio signals provided by the second participant as the primary source to the first participant through the headphones speaker.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Sarbajit K. Rakshit, John M. Ganci, Jr., Martin G. Keen, James E. Bostick
  • Patent number: 10358359
    Abstract: Techniques for solar thermal water purification by recycling photovoltaic reflection losses are provided. In one aspect, a solar thermal water purification system includes: a water purification component for desalinating salt water, the water purification component having multiple stages through which the salt water passes, and condensers in each of the stages; and a photovoltaic component configured to heat the salt water prior to the salt water entering a first stage of the water purification component, wherein desalinated water evaporates and condenses in each of the stages to be collected as pure water. A system using reverse osmosis and a heat-driven water pump is also provided. Methods for water purification are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Talia S. Gershon, Theodore G. van Kessel
  • Patent number: 10359838
    Abstract: An approach is provided that maps a user's hand into a number of areas. The approach detects when a selection of one of the mapped areas by the user, such as by using a finger from the user's other hand. The approach then identifies an input that corresponds to the area selected by the user. This input is then transmitted to the information handling system for processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jeremy A. Greenberger, Zachary M. Greenberger, Sarbajit K. Rakshit
  • Patent number: 10361989
    Abstract: A method, a processing device, and a computer program product are provided. An initial state of a message is captured by at least one processing device. At least one external reference from the message is extracted by the least one processing device. The at least one external reference is analyzed to establish a baseline state of the message. A state of the message is monitored with respect to the baseline state of the message. A visibility of the message is changed based on detecting changes in relation to the baseline state of the message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Paul R. Bastide, Lisa M. W. Bradley, Jonathan Dunne, Liam Harpur
  • Patent number: 10360885
    Abstract: A method for generating a musical composition based on user input is described. A first set of musical characteristics from a first input musical piece is received as an input vector. The first set of musical characteristics is perturbed to create a perturbed input vector as input in a first set of nodes in a first visible layer of an unsupervised neural net. The unsupervised neural net comprised of a plurality of computing layers, each computing layer composed of a respective set of nodes. The unsupervised neural net is operated to calculate an output vector from a higher level hidden layer in the unsupervised neural net. The output vector is used to create an output musical piece.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Inseok Hwang, Jente B Kuang, Janani Mukundan
  • Patent number: 10361303
    Abstract: A method of forming vertical transport fin field effect transistors, including, forming a bottom source/drain layer on a substrate, forming a channel layer on the bottom source/drain layer, forming a recess in the channel layer on a second region of the substrate, wherein the bottom surface of the recess is below the surface of the channel layer on a first region, forming a top source/drain layer on the channel layer, where the top source/drain layer has a greater thickness on the second region of the substrate than on the first region of the substrate, and forming a vertical fin on the first region of the substrate, and a vertical fin on the second region of the substrate, wherein a first top source/drain is formed on the vertical fin on the first region, and a second top source/drain is formed on the vertical fin on the second region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Zhenxing Bi, Kangguo Cheng, Juntao Li, Peng Xu
  • Patent number: 10361119
    Abstract: A method is presented for forming an enlarged contact area. The method includes forming a trench for receiving a first conductive material, forming a noble metal cap over a portion of the first conductive material, forming a dielectric capping layer over the noble metal cap, etching a portion of the first conductive material to create a via anchoring structure and an undercut region exposing a bottom surface of the noble metal cap, and depositing a plurality of liners such that one liner of the plurality of liners directly contacts an entirety of the exposed bottom surface of the noble metal cap.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Koichi Motoyama, Chih-Chao Yang, James J. Kelly, Cornelius Brown Peethala
  • Patent number: 10360030
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to processing a microprocessor instruction by receiving a microprocessor instruction for processing by a microprocessor, and processing the microprocessor instruction in a multi-cycle operation by acquiring a unit of data having a plurality of ordered bits, where the acquiring is performed by the microprocessor during a first clock cycle, and shifting the unit of data by a number of bits, where the shifting is performed by the microprocessor during a second clock cycle subsequent to the first clock cycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Eyal Naor, Martin Recktenwald, Christian Zoellin, Aaron Tsai
  • Patent number: 10361219
    Abstract: A silicon-on-insulator substrate which includes a semiconductor substrate, a buried oxide layer, and a semiconductor layer is provided. A hard mask layer is formed over a first region of the silicon-on-insulator substrate. A first silicon-germanium layer is epitaxially grown on the semiconductor layer within a second region of the silicon-on-insulator substrate. The second region is at least a portion of the semiconductor layer not covered by the hard mask layer. A thermal annealing process is performed, such that germanium atoms from the first silicon-germanium layer are migrated to the portion of the semiconductor layer to form a second silicon-germanium layer. The hard mask layer is removed. A layer of semiconductor material is epitaxially grown on top of the semiconductor layer and the second silicon-germanium layer, where the layer of semiconductor material composed of the same material as semiconductor layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Josephine B. Chang, Leland Chang, Isaac Lauer, Jeffrey W. Sleight
  • Patent number: 10360107
    Abstract: A method for execution by a resource allocation module includes facilitating migration of a first set of encoded data slices stored at a storage unit for decommissioning to a newly commissioned storage unit, and facilitating migration of a remaining set of encoded data slices stored at the storage unit for decommissioning as foster encoded data slices to at least one other storage unit. For each foster encoded data slice, it is determined whether to facilitate migration of the foster encoded data slice to the newly commissioned storage unit. When determining to facilitate the migration of the foster encoded data slice, the migration of the foster encoded data slice to the newly commissioned storage unit is facilitated. An association of the newly commissioned storage unit and identity of the foster encoded data slice is updated in response to detecting successful migration of the foster encoded data slice.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Thomas F. Shirley, Jr., Gary W. Grube, Bart R. Cilfone, Ravi V. Khadiwala, Greg R. Dhuse, Thomas D. Cocagne, Michael Colin Storm, Yogesh R. Vedpathak, Wesley B. Leggette, Jason K. Resch, Andrew D. Baptist, Ilya Volvovski
  • Patent number: 10361331
    Abstract: Photovoltaic structures having multiple absorber layers separated by a diffusion barrier are provided. In one aspect, a method of forming an absorber on a substrate includes: depositing a first layer of light absorbing material on the substrate; depositing a diffusion barrier; depositing a second layer of light absorbing material on the diffusion barrier, wherein the first layer of light absorbing material has a different band gap from the second layer of light absorbing material; and annealing the absorber, wherein the diffusion barrier prevents diffusion of elements between the first layer of light absorbing material and the second layer of light absorbing material during the annealing. A solar cell and method for formation thereof are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Priscilla D. Antunez, Arthur W. Ellis, Richard A. Haight, James B. Hannon, Satoshi Oida
  • Patent number: 10361285
    Abstract: A method of forming a vertical transport field effect transistors with uniform bottom spacer thickness, including, forming a plurality of vertical fins on a substrate, forming a protective liner layer on the plurality of vertical fins, forming a sacrificial liner on the protective liner layer, forming a spacer liner on a portion of the sacrificial liner, wherein at least a top surface of the sacrificial liner on each of the vertical fins is exposed, converting the exposed portion of the sacrificial liner on each of the vertical fins to a conversion cap, and removing the conversion cap from each of the vertical fins to expose an upper portion of each vertical fin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kangguo Cheng, Xuefeng Liu, Peng Xu, Yongan Xu
  • Patent number: 10360191
    Abstract: The system, method, and computer program product described herein provides a built-in feedback mechanism for a blockchain to sanction validator nodes that consistently “vote” in a manner that does not match the ultimate consensus. The method includes receiving a vote on whether to add a transaction to the blockchain, comparing the vote to a consensus decision on whether to add the transaction to the blockchain, determining based on the comparison that the vote does not match the consensus decision, in response to determining that the vote does not match the consensus decision, incrementing a value associated with the validator node in a feedback registry, determining that the value associated with the validator node is above a predetermined threshold value, and in response to determining that the value associated with the validator node is above the predetermined threshold, proposing a sanction of the validator node to the plurality of validator nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Konstantinos Christidis, Anna D. Derbakova, Nitin Gaur, Praveen Jayachandran, Srinivasan Muralidharan
  • Patent number: 10360404
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, computer program product, and system for text author anonymization for de-identification of written text. This may be used to replace written text after learning text author writing characteristics, such frequently written terms, grammar patterns, grammar errors, and writing tone. Portions of the written text which may identify the text author may be replaced, for example the text author writing characteristics, social status, geographical location, and specific organization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Itai Gordon, Peter Hagelund, Ilan D. Prager
  • Patent number: 10360675
    Abstract: Methods and systems for automatically analyzing clinical images using rules and image analytics. One system includes a server including an electronic processor and an interface for communicating with at least one data source. The electronic processor is configured to receive training information from the at least one data source over the interface. The training information includes a plurality of images and graphical reporting associated with each of the plurality of images. The electronic processor is also configured to perform machine learning to develop a model using the training information and receive an image for analysis. The electronic processor is also configured to determine a set of rules for the image and automatically process the image using the model and the set of rules to generate a diagnosis for the image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Murray A. Reicher, Jon T. DeVries, Michael W. Ferro, Jr., Marwan Sati