Patents Examined by David B Frederiksen
  • Patent number: 11965756
    Abstract: Implementations relate to a sensor assembly for determining rotation about an axis and linear movement parallel to the axis. The sensor assembly comprises a magnetic structure comprising a north pole radially displaced from the axis and a south pole radially displaced from the axis and opposite to the north pole. The north pole and the south pole of the magnet extend radially into the direction of the axis at an axial end of the sensor assembly. The sensor assembly further comprises at least one sensor element sensitive to magnetic fields radially between the north pole and the south pole.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
    Inventors: Joo Il Park, Richard Heinz, Hyun Jeong Kim, Sehwan Kim, Stephan Leisenheimer, Severin Neuner
  • Patent number: 11959778
    Abstract: A device has a sensor unit for detecting measurement data about a relative movement of two components that are moved relative to one another. The sensor unit includes a scale unit connected to one of the components and extending in a movement direction of the relative movement over a measuring section. The scale unit includes a structure having magnetic bodies repeating in a defined manner along the measuring section. The magnetic bodies are axially magnetized and are arrayed having identical magnetic poles along the measuring section and/or the magnetic bodies are radially magnetized and are arrayed in alternation with respect to their magnetic poles along the measuring section. The sensor unit includes a pre-tensioning unit which fixes the arrayed magnetic bodies using a pre-tensioning force.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: INVENTUS Engineering GmbH
    Inventor: Stefan Battlogg
  • Patent number: 11953577
    Abstract: In various embodiments, a process for performing metering component testing includes obtaining a configuration associated with at least one metering component installed at a site to be metered and performing a metering component test. The metering component test includes at least one of: detecting phase assignment of the at least one metering component based at least on the configuration, and detecting polarity of the at least one metering component based at least on the configuration. The process includes outputting information associated with the metering component test.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: Lunar Energy, Inc.
    Inventors: Kyle Breuning Evans, Sebastian Wolf
  • Patent number: 11946776
    Abstract: A system includes a longitudinal rack storing a plurality of items, a shoe movably attached to the rack, a magnet coupled to the shoe and a longitudinal circuit board arranged along the length of the rack. The circuit board includes an array of sensors along the length of the rack, wherein spacing between each pair of sensors equals a pre-selected thickness. Each sensor generates a value depending on a position of the magnet in relation to the sensor. The circuit board further includes a memory storing values generated by the sensors, and a processor configured to determine a position of the shoe/magnet based on the values and determine a count of the items based on the position of the shoe/magnet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2024
    Assignee: 7-ELEVEN, INC.
    Inventors: Shahmeer Ali Mirza, Matthew O'Daniel Redmond
  • Patent number: 11940299
    Abstract: This invention describes a magnetoresistive inertial sensor chip, comprising a substrate, a vibrating diaphragm, a magnetic field sensing magnetoresistor and at least one permanent magnet thin film. The vibrating diaphragm is located on one side surface of the substrate. The magnetic field sensing magnetoresistor and the permanent magnet thin film are set on the surface of the vibrating diaphragm displaced from the base of the substrate. A contact electrode is also arranged on the surface of the vibrating diaphragm away from the base of the substrate. The magnetic field sensing magnetoresistor is connected to the contact electrode through a lead. The substrate comprises a cavity formed through etching and either one or both of the magnetic field sensing magnetoresistors and the permanent magnet thin film are arranged in a vertical projection area of the cavity in the vibrating diaphragm portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: MultiDimension Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Bin Qi, Lixian Feng, Haiping Guo, Weifeng Shen, Songsheng Xue
  • Patent number: 11940468
    Abstract: An AMI/AMR in-ground meter box, including first and second side panels, each having an interior side and an exterior side; and first and second end panels, each having an interior side and an exterior side; wherein each of said side panels and end panels include a generally rectangular planar portion having a top edge, a bottom edge, a first interlocking end having a plurality of male elements and female slots, an arcuate second end having a 90-degree bend which forms a corner of the assembled meter box and terminating in an interlocking end having a plurality of male elements and female slots configured to interlock with paired male elements and female slots in said first interlocking end.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: NICOR, INC.
    Inventor: Jeffrey A. Cook
  • Patent number: 11940300
    Abstract: The magnetic sensor of the invention has an element portion that is elongate, that exhibits magnetoresistive effect and that has a magnetically sensitive axis in a direction of a short axis thereof. The element portion is non-oval and can be arranged in an imaginary ellipse, wherein the imaginary ellipse has a major axis that connects both ends of the element portion with regard to a direction of a long axis thereof to each other and a minor axis that connects both ends of the element portion with regard to a direction of the short axis thereof to each other, as viewed in a direction that is perpendicular both to the short axis and to the long axis of the element portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: TDK Corporation
    Inventors: Keisuke Uchida, Kazuya Watanabe
  • Patent number: 11927611
    Abstract: A system includes a sensor configured at a first position to sense an orientation of an electricity meter. The electricity meter can be configured at a second position. The electricity meter can be configured at a normal orientation to measure delivered energy sent to one or more locations and received energy received from the one or more locations. The electricity meter can be configured at an inverted orientation to identify and measure the delivered energy sent to the one or more locations and the received energy received from the one or more locations. The sensor is configured to identify when the electricity meter is in the normal orientation, and when the electricity meter is in the inverted orientation. A display is configured within the electricity meter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC.
    Inventors: Mark Alan Ranta, Dacon Thomas Chow, Michael Anthony Murphy, William Egolf
  • Patent number: 11920959
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a displacement sensor. A displacement sensor according to the embodiment of the present disclosure includes a coil structure consisting of wound coil, a shield member formed to surround an outer periphery of the coil structure and a housing, wherein the housing comprises an upper side wall part surrounding an outer periphery of the shield member and a lower side wall part formed to extend from the upper side wall part, wherein an inner circumferential surface of the lower side wall part is protruded toward the inside of the housing more than an inner circumferential surface of the upper side wall part, wherein an outer circumferential surface of the lower side wall part may include a depressed region formed to be depressed into the inside of the housing by a predetermined depth.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventors: Seongki Baek, Kiwook Lee, Sena Jeong
  • Patent number: 11920927
    Abstract: A position encoder comprises: a first and second member, with the first member movable relative to the second member; a first sensor arranged at one of the first or second members, and a first track arranged at the other one of the first or second members such that the first sensor moves along the first track when the first member moves relative to the second member, with the first sensor capturing at least one of its position or displacement along the first track; a second sensor arranged at one of the first or second members, and a second track arranged at the other one of the first or second members such that the second sensor moves along the second track when the first member moves relative to the second member, with the second sensor capturing at least one of its position or displacement along the second track.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: Vishay MCB Industrie S.A.S.
    Inventors: Maxime Launay, Pierre Karciauskas
  • Patent number: 11921532
    Abstract: A power supply control circuit for controlling operation of a power supply for an electricity meter during an alternating current (AC) power outage includes: an input section configured to receive a representation of an output voltage of the power supply and a power loss signal; a comparator section configured to generate an output signal based on the power loss signal and the representation of the output voltage; and a feedback control section configured to control a feedback signal to the power supply based on the output signal from the comparator section. When activated by the output signal from the comparator section, the feedback control section is configured to change the feedback signal with respect to the feedback signal from a feedback circuit caused the output voltage. The change in the feedback signal causes the power supply to stop supplying the output voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: Landis+Gyr Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Doug Busekrus
  • Patent number: 11913813
    Abstract: A power generation element includes a magnetic member that produces a large Barkhausen effect and magnetism collection members including an insertion part having the magnetic member inserted therethrough. The magnetism collection member includes a first component on an opposite side of a boundary plane to a magnetic field generation unit and a second component on the same side of the boundary plane as the magnetic field generation unit, the boundary plane passing through a center of an imaginary circle inscribed in the insertion part and having a diameter equal to a length of the insertion part in a third direction perpendicular to first and second directions, the first direction is a direction of the insertion of the magnetic member, and the second direction is a direction in which the magnetic field generation unit is disposed. A volume of the second component is larger than a volume of the first component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoshitomo Nakamura, Yoshinori Miyamoto, Shinichiro Yoshida, Hisanori Torii, Takeshi Musha, Masanori Nimura, Shizuka Ueda, Takuya Noguchi, Toshio Mekata, Yuji Kubo, Hitoshi Hasegawa
  • Patent number: 11909353
    Abstract: A ground-fault detecting device includes: a first detecting module, having a first input terminal, a second input terminal, and a third input terminal coupled to a first-phase electric power, a second-phase electric power, and a third-phase electric power on an AC side of a photovoltaic power generating system respectively, for sampling voltages of the first-phase electric power, the second-phase electric power, and the third-phase electric power to generate a first sampled voltage, a second sampled voltage, and a third sampled voltage respectively; and a controller, coupled to the first detecting module, for determining if a ground-fault occurs in the AC side before the photovoltaic power generating system is connected to a grid according to the first sampled voltage, the second sampled voltage, and the third sampled voltage; wherein the controller generates an alarm signal when the ground-fault occurs in the AC side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: KEHUA HENGSHENG CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Chunbao Zeng, Peizai Hong, Wen Wei, Zhenhuang Lin, Kailong Chen
  • Patent number: 11898885
    Abstract: A sensor assembly for a rotary sensor is provided. The sensor assembly comprises a sensor housing, a sensor shield, and a sensor. The sensor housing defines a cavity. The sensor shield is disposed within the cavity of the sensor housing and defines a slot along a length of the sensor shield. The sensor shield is composed of a highly permeable material. The sensor is disposed within the cavity and at least a portion of the sensor is positioned within the slot of the sensor shield. The sensor comprises a printed circuit board having a plurality of sensor elements disposed along an inner circumference of the printed circuit board in a radially outward direction, and each sensor element is positioned at an equal distance from each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC.
    Inventors: James C. Falk, Keith D. Larson
  • Patent number: 11892524
    Abstract: A magnetic field sensor includes a magnetic field sensing element to generate a magnetic field signal indicative of a sensed magnetic field, a modulator to modulate the magnetic field signal at a chopping frequency, a front end amplifier coupled to receive the magnetic field signal and generate an amplified signal, and a demodulator configured to demodulate the amplified signal at the chopping frequency. The sensor further includes a low pass filter to process the amplified signal and generate a low pass filtered signal and a Schmitt trigger circuit. The Schmitt trigger circuit includes a comparator having a first input coupled to receive the low pass filtered signal, a second input coupled to receive a reference signal, and an output at which a comparator output signal is provided. The comparator is configured to perform a plurality of comparisons within a chopping time period that is the inverse of the chopping frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: Allegro MicroSystems, LLC
    Inventors: Ezequiel Rubinsztain, Octavio H. Alpago, Franco Noel Martin Pirchio
  • Patent number: 11879917
    Abstract: A phase detector includes: a phase shift circuit to phase-shift a first positive-phase signal included in a first differential signal and a first negative-phase signal included in the first differential signal, and phase-shift a second positive-phase signal included in a second differential signal and a second negative-phase signal included in the second differential signal; a multiplication circuit to perform multiplication of two signals for all combinations of the first positive-phase signal and the first negative-phase signal with the phase-shifted second positive-phase signal and the phase-shifted second negative-phase signal, and perform multiplication of two signals for all combinations of the phase-shifted first positive-phase signal and the phase-shifted first negative-phase signal with the second positive-phase signal and the second negative-phase signal; and a phase difference calculating circuit to calculate a phase difference between the first differential signal and the second differential signa
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2024
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Akihito Hirai, Masaomi Tsuru
  • Patent number: 11860194
    Abstract: One embodiment is a device, which comprises a meter portion having one or more blades, the blades configured to reside within both a premises-side opening and a utility-side opening within a socket, a supply unit connected to the meter portion, a metering unit connected to the supply unit and configured to measure an amount of electricity that passes through the meter portion, and a sensor connected to the meter portion, wherein when the meter portion is placed in the socket, the sensor collects data associated with the placing of the meter portion in the socket.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC.
    Inventors: Sean M. Scoggins, Vlad Pambucol, Michael Anthony Murphy, Thomas Owen McBride
  • Patent number: 11852664
    Abstract: A power metering apparatus, a power metering server, and a power metering method based on a blockchain are disclosed. Particularly, in order to simultaneously assure integrity and transparency of power metering data based on a blockchain, power metering data generated by measuring an amount of power generated by an energy source and a unique key are stored in a database linked to a power metering server, and a digitally signed hash value of the power metering data is stored in a blockchain node. Accordingly, disclosed are blockchain-based power metering system and method for preventing forgery and tampering of power metering data, solving a problem associated with a blockchain storage capacity that may occur when storing the power metering data, and protecting sensitive information on the power metering data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
    Inventors: Tae in Hwang, Il Woo Lee
  • Patent number: 11846506
    Abstract: Circuitry for identifying a misaligned wheeled irrigation tower within a plurality of wheeled irrigation towers is described. The circuitry includes a test resistance configured for installation in a center pivot irrigation system. The circuitry also includes a plurality of resistances. Each resistance of the plurality of resistances is configured for installation in a wheeled irrigation tower of the center pivot irrigation system and to be coupled to the test resistance. Each resistance of the plurality of resistances is configured to be coupled to a corresponding switch of a respective wheeled irrigation tower and a neutral line. The circuitry further includes detection circuitry coupled to the test resistance. The detection circuitry is configured, when installed in the center pivot irrigation system, to identify a misaligned wheeled irrigation tower of a plurality of wheeled irrigation towers based on a detected voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2023
    Inventors: James G. Stewart, II, Brad J. Wardle
  • Patent number: 11846529
    Abstract: A linear magnetic encoder or position sensor having read head with a freely rotatable generally cylindrical bipolar magnet onboard having an axially extending axis of rotation through the center of the sensor magnet that is generally parallel with respect to the longitudinal extent of a plurality of pairs of elongate bar position magnets arranged with alternating opposite magnetic poles facing toward to the read head and sensor magnet that are generally aligned and spaced apart a common fixed distance along a track along which the read head and sensor magnet travels. Magnetic fields extending between the opposite magnetic poles of each pair of position magnets interact with and preferably magnetically couple with a magnetic field of the sensor magnet inducing a force, preferably a torque, therein driving the sensor magnet into rotation as the head and sensor magnet travel along the position magnet pair.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2023
    Assignee: Joral LLC
    Inventors: Carl D. Schrubbe, Jordan G. Schrubbe