Patents Examined by David Mis
  • Patent number: 8154356
    Abstract: An oscillator is provided which comprises an array of capacitances. At least some capacitances in the array have different capacitance values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
    Inventors: Hans Geltinger, Thomas Gustedt, Andreas Roithmeier, Thomas Mayer
  • Patent number: 8154351
    Abstract: A VCO in a phase-locked loop (PLL) is arranged to receive low-pass data via a first input and high-pass data at a second input. The first input is coupled to a first set of varactors in the VCO. The second input is coupled to a second set of varactors in the VCO. The controller sets the input voltage at the first input and directs a charge pump to operate in a tri-state mode that opens the feedback loop of the PLL. The controller applies different voltages via the second input and measures the change in output frequency. A present gain of the VCO is determined from the ratio of the change in frequency and the change in voltage at the second input.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Skyworks Solutions, Inc.
    Inventor: Shahrzad Tadjpour
  • Patent number: 8145133
    Abstract: A method of sharing spectrum with a legacy communication system includes acquiring spectrum correlation of the legacy communication system, and generating a transmit waveform based on the spectrum correlation. Unlike conventional cognitive radios that utilize spectrum holes only, the proposed method can also utilize spectrally correlated frequency components where primary-user signals are present.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2012
    Assignee: Postech Academy-Industry Foundation
    Inventors: Joon Ho Cho, Yeo-Hun Yun
  • Patent number: 8143964
    Abstract: The PWM control circuit is provided. The PWM control circuit includes: a PWM control signal generator that generates a PWM period signal defining a period of a PWM signal and a PWM resolution signal specifying a resolution in one period of the PWM period signal; and a PWM unit that generates the PWM signal based on the PWM period signal and the PWM resolution signal, wherein the PWM control signal generator changes a frequency of the PWM resolution signal while keeping a frequency of the PWM period signal unchanged.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2012
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Kesatoshi Takeuchi
  • Patent number: 8143963
    Abstract: A voltage source circuit for a crystal oscillation circuit is provided, in which the voltage source circuit and the crystal oscillation circuit are formed with the same process. The voltage source circuit includes a current source, a first PMOS, a first NMOS and a regulator unit. The current source is coupled between a voltage source and an output terminal, in which the output terminal outputs a reference voltage. Both of the gates and drains of the first PMOS and the NMOS are coupled to each other, and the first PMOS and the first NMOS are coupled between the output terminal and a ground. The regulator unit generates a work voltage to the crystal oscillation circuit as a voltage source of the crystal oscillation circuit according to the reference voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2012
    Assignee: eMemory Technology Inc.
    Inventors: Yung-Ching Lin, Chia-Chun Hsu
  • Patent number: 8138825
    Abstract: A multi-chip stack structure and a signal transmission method are disclosed in specification and drawing, where the multi-chip stack structure includes first and second chips. The first chip includes a first inductance coil with a first series capacitor, and the second chip includes a second inductance coil with a second series capacitor. The first and second inductance coils are magnetically coupled to each other. The magnetically coupled inductance coils and the capacitors constitute a coupling filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: National Taiwan University
    Inventors: Hsin-Chia Lu, Guan-Ming Wu, Chun Pan
  • Patent number: 8138824
    Abstract: A recursive demodulation apparatus is provided. Therecursive demodulation apparatus, including: a segment generation unit dividing data symbols with a residual frequency or phase error into a predetermined number of data symbols, and generating a plurality of segments, each of the plurality of segments including the predetermined number of data symbols; and a phase error correction unit sequentially correcting a phase error of each of the data symbols, included in the each of the plurality of segments, for each segment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
    Inventors: Young Kwon Hahm, Eun Sook Jin, Yun Jeong Song, Soo In Lee
  • Patent number: 8138847
    Abstract: An apparatus comprising a transconductance control circuit, a boost control circuit, a current computation circuit and an oscillator circuit. The transconductance control circuit may be configured to generate a current control signal in response to (i) a voltage control signal and (ii) a plurality of range control signals. The boost control circuit may be configured to generate a current boost signal in response to a reference current signal and an enable signal. The current computation circuit may be configured to generate a first control signal and a second control signal in response to the current boost signal and the current control signal. The oscillator circuit may be configured to generate an output signal oscillating at a particular frequency in response to the first control signal and the second control signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: Ambarella, Inc.
    Inventor: Reading Maley
  • Patent number: 8134417
    Abstract: A circuit and method for calibrating a VCO (voltage controlled oscillator) is disclosed. In one embodiment, a circuit includes a VCO and a bias control circuit coupled to a tail node of the VCO. An amplitude control unit may also be coupled to the tail node, wherein the amplitude control unit is configured to determine the amplitude of a VCO output signal based on a voltage present on the tail node. The amplitude control unit may also be configured to generate a bias voltage based on the amplitude of the VCO output signal and a target voltage. The bias control circuit may be coupled to receive the bias voltage from the amplitude control unit and may be further configured to adjust the voltage on the tail node based on the received bias voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2012
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Meei-Ling Chiang, Dennis M. Fischette, Alvin Leng Sun Loke, Michael M. Oshima
  • Patent number: 8134419
    Abstract: A high-frequency generator circuit comprises a signal generating circuit, a delay unit, a selector, a synthesizer circuit, and a controller. The signal generating circuit generates a signal having the same frequency as an output signal. The delay unit includes a plurality of delay circuits, and delays the signal generated by the signal generating circuit. The selector selects an output signal of the delay circuits. The synthesizer circuit synthesizes the signal selected by the selector, and outputs the output signal. The controller controls the selector based on data for setting a waveform of the output signal and a control signal for setting at least amplitude, phase and frequency of the output signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2012
    Assignee: Semiconductor Technology Academic Research Center
    Inventors: Kazuo Nakano, Syuhei Amakawa, Noboru Ishihara, Kazuya Masu
  • Patent number: 8134421
    Abstract: A voltage control oscillator includes: first and second field effect transistors, a drain of one of which is connected to a gate of the other and a drain of the other of which is connected to a gate of the one; third and fourth field effect transistors, a drain of one of which is connected to a gate of the other and a drain of the other of which is connected to a gate of the one; a first inductor connected between the drain of the first field effect transistor and the drain of the second field effect transistor; a second inductor connected between the drain of the third field effect transistor and the drain of the fourth field effect transistor; a third inductor magnetically coupled to the first inductor; a fourth inductor magnetically coupled to the second inductor; a first capacitor that capacitively couples one end of the third inductor and one end of the fourth inductor; and a second capacitor that capacitively couples the other end of the third inductor and the other end of the fourth inductor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2012
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Kenichi Hirashiki, Shinichiro Ishizuka, Nobuyuki Itoh
  • Patent number: 8135203
    Abstract: Cells showing specific characters can be separated from noise, extracted, and analyzed, through processing of a cell image. It is intended to provide a cell image processor (1) comprising: a characteristic quantity measuring section (11) which processes a cell image obtained by photographing cells to measure characteristic quantities of respective cells in the cell image; a characteristic quantity distribution forming section (12) which forms the distribution of the thus measured characteristic quantities; a group forming section (13) which divides cells having continuously distributed characteristic quantities into groups in the thus formed characteristic quantity distribution; and a specific cell extracting section (14) which extracts cells having characteristic quantities falling within a predetermined range at both ends of a characteristic quantity distribution in each group, as specific cells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2012
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Kosuke Takagi, Yuichiro Matsuo, Yoshihiro Shimada
  • Patent number: 8131048
    Abstract: In a method and apparatus for correcting distortion during magnetic resonance imaging k space data in a number of readout encoding directions, sampling points on the phase encoding lines are primarily in low frequency regions of k space and the number of such sampling points is less than that of all sampling points. A view angle tilting compensation gradient is superimposed on the axis of a layer selection gradient. The k space data acquired from the number of directions are then combined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2012
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Guo Bin Li, Bi Da Zhang
  • Patent number: 8131047
    Abstract: In a method and device for correcting distortion in MRI, k-space data are acquired in a number of data readout directions, the data are converted into a number of images, and a corresponding pixel shift map is generated for each image. The geometric distortion in the corresponding image is corrected according to the pixel shift map, and then all geometric distortion-corrected images are combined. Since movement distortion normally exists in the data readout direction, collecting the k-space data from a number of data readout directions can effectively correct movement distortion. Moreover, correcting the geometric distortion for the images converted from data acquired in a number of data readout directions according to the pixel shift map can reduce the geometric distortion of the final image generated from combination of images. The method and device correct not only movement distortion of MRI images, but also geometric distortion of MRI images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2012
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventor: Guo Bin Li
  • Patent number: 8125283
    Abstract: A crystal element manufacturing method for manufacturing a plurality of crystal elements at a wafer level and a crystal resonator is provided. The method provides that when the frequencies of the crystal elements are adjusted by adjusting the thickness of a crystal wafer that constitutes the crystal element in two stages by partial wet etching, the thicknesses of a large number of the step sections are coarse-adjusted in a first stage by collectively subjecting the step sections to partial wet etching, and then variations in the thicknesses of each group of a small number of the step sections are fine-adjusted in a second stage by collectively subjecting the step sections to partial wet etching.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2012
    Assignee: Nihon Dempa Kogyo Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Takehiro Takahashi
  • Patent number: 8120419
    Abstract: A type-A demodulator comprising a first rectifier configured to rectify a radio frequency (RF) signal received through an antenna and output a first voltage, a second rectifier configured to rectify the voltage of the RF signal received through the antenna and output a second voltage having a different voltage level than the first voltage, and a pause data detector configured to compare the first voltage with the second voltage and detect received pause data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2012
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jong Pil Cho, Hyuk Jun Sung
  • Patent number: 8121375
    Abstract: This invention provides a method and a device for producing the parameters of the brain tissue of a patient quickly by using suitable magnetic resonance imaging, utilizing image processing and computer technology, achieving parameters pertaining to the infarction and the ischemic penumbra. This invention also provides a method and a device for producing and assessing data of the suitability for thrombolysis of a patient quickly and properly by using suitable magnetic resonance imaging, utilizing image processing and computer technology, achieving parameters pertaining to the infarction and the ischemic penumbra and predicting the suitability for thrombolysis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2012
    Assignee: Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology
    Inventor: Qingmao Hu
  • Patent number: 8120420
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a demodulator, including: a splitting/matching section for carrying out a matching process of making the amplitude and phase of a first modulated signal match respectively the amplitude and phase of a second modulated signal; and a demodulation section for generating a demodulated signal on the basis of the first modulated signal and the second modulated signal, which have been subjected to the matching process carried out by the splitting/matching section, wherein the splitting/matching section has a splitting section, a first matching section, and a second matching section, the first circuit-element constants determining the first input impedance of the first matching section and the second circuit-element constants determining the second input impedance of the second matching section are set at values determined in advance in order to make the first input impedance equal to the second input impedance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Katsuhisa Ito
  • Patent number: 8115564
    Abstract: Systems and methods for minimizing startup transients in digital audio controllers that may result in audible artifacts in the output of an audio amplification system. One embodiment comprises a digital PWM amplifier that includes a mechanism for controlling the amount of dead time in the audio output signal. When the amplifier starts up, the PWM signals provided to the output stage are simultaneously deasserted (i.e., there is dead time) for most of each switch period. The amount of dead time is gradually reduced over a series of switch periods until a nominal operating amount of dead time in each switch period is reached. Thus, the PWM signals are slowly ramped up from having a very large percentage of dead time (e.g., nearly 100%) to having a very small percentage of dead time (e.g., 1-2% to prevent shoot-through.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Assignee: D2Audio Corporation
    Inventor: Michael A. Kost
  • Patent number: 8115563
    Abstract: The frequency characteristic of a voltage-feedback class-D amplifier circuit for driving an output load is improved. A triangular-wave correction circuit which compensates a gradient of a triangular wave is provided to a triangular-wave signal generator which supplies a triangular wave signal used as a PWM carrier to a comparison circuit for performing PWM modulation of an input signal. In an area where a duty of a command value for an output circuit drive becomes about 50%, a slew rate (gradient) of the triangular wave is decreased.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Assignee: Renesas Electronics Corporation
    Inventor: Naoya Odagiri