Patents Examined by Diego Gutierrez
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Patent number: 7511510Abstract: Disclosed is a fault isolation and measurement system that provides multiple near-field scanning isolation techniques on a common platform. The system incorporates the use of a specialized holder to supply electrical bias to internal circuit structures located within an area of a device or material. The system further uses a multi-probe assembly. Each probe is mounted to a support structure around a common reference point and is a component of a different measurement or fault isolation tool. The assembly moves such that each probe can obtain measurements from the same fixed location on the device or material. The relative positioning of the support structure and/or the holder can be changed in order to obtain measurements from multiple same fixed locations within the area. Additionally, the system uses a processor for providing layered images associated with each signal and for precisely aligning those images with design data in order to characterize, or isolate fault locations within the device or material.Type: GrantFiled: November 30, 2005Date of Patent: March 31, 2009Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Philip V. Kaszuba, Theodore M. Levin, David P. Vallett
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Patent number: 7511511Abstract: A biological tissue equivalent phantom unit to be used by the specific absorption rate measuring system for evaluating absorption of electromagnetic wave energy includes a biological tissue equivalent phantom for absorbing an electromagnetic wave. In addition, two or more electro-optical crystals are arranged at two or more measurement points in the biological tissue equivalent phantom. The electro-optical crystals have a dielectric constant that is approximately equal to that of the biological tissue equivalent phantom. Two or more optical fibers are laid in the biological tissue equivalent phantom for optically connecting each of the electro-optical crystals to an external destination.Type: GrantFiled: May 29, 2007Date of Patent: March 31, 2009Assignees: NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Nippon Telegraph and Telephone CorporationInventors: Teruo Onishi, Ryo Yamaguchi, Shinji Uebayashi, Tadao Nagatsuma, Naofumi Shimizu, Hiroyoshi Togo
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Patent number: 7511494Abstract: A diffusion-weighted MRI pulse sequence employs a two-dimensional diffusion weighting gradient that is sensitive to spin diffusion in a plane defined by two orthogonal gradients to acquire an image. The resulting magnitude image indicates the location of neuronal fibers perpendicular to this plane and by repeating the acquisition with the plane oriented at different angles, neuronal fibers extending through the field of view at any angle are detected. The magnitude images are used to produce a fiber tracking image.Type: GrantFiled: May 11, 2007Date of Patent: March 31, 2009Assignee: The General Hospital CorporationInventor: Van J. Wedeen
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Patent number: 7511489Abstract: In a method for magnetic resonance imaging on the basis of a partially-parallel acquisition (PPA) reconstruction method and a magnetic resonance tomography apparatus, data for at least two two-dimensional slices of a patient are acquired (which two-dimensional slices are displaced in the direction of a slice-selection gradient (z-gradients) defining the slice-normal direction) with at least one data acquisition in k-space (which acquisition forms a partial data set) per slice with a number of component coils, with the sum of all partial data sets forming a complete data set in k-space. The coil sensitivities of each component coil are determined on the basis of the complete data set. At least one partial data set of each slice is completed with a PPA reconstruction method on the basis of the determined coil sensitivities. The completed slices in k-space are transformed into whole images in the spatial domain.Type: GrantFiled: April 21, 2006Date of Patent: March 31, 2009Assignee: Siemens AktiengesellschaftInventors: Hans-Peter Fautz, Stephan Kannengiesser
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Patent number: 7508224Abstract: A method for measuring a stability margin at a node of a polyphase power grid injects suppressed-carrier stimulus into a node of the power grid by low-level amplitude modulation of the output voltage of a pre-exiting generator connected to the node. Response signals are obtained and product demodulated on a per-phase basis and summed in three-phase groups. Demodulated and summed responses contain signals that represent the suppressed-carrier impedance upstream and downstream of the stimulus injection point, and are processed to determine the stability margin at the node.Type: GrantFiled: March 27, 2007Date of Patent: March 24, 2009Inventor: Michael Lamar Williams
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Patent number: 7508220Abstract: An assembly for capacitively detecting an object on a support structure includes at least one electrode being arranged in the vicinity of the support structure, and at least one cable being connected to the at least one electrode. The at least one cable has a first conductor and a second conductor. The first conductor is connected to a series connection of a DC source and a first AC source. A control device is arranged to control the DC source to provide a predetermined DC voltage to the at least one electrode to provide a clamping force on the object, and control the first AC source to provide a predetermined first AC voltage with a first amplitude and a first phase via the first conductor to the at least one electrode for capacitively detecting the object. The assembly includes a second AC source connected to the second conductor and the control device is arranged to control the second AC source to provide a predetermined second AC voltage to the second conductor.Type: GrantFiled: January 14, 2004Date of Patent: March 24, 2009Assignee: ASML Netherlands B.V.Inventor: Patricius Aloysius Jacobus Tinnemans
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Patent number: 7504836Abstract: The invention relates to a device for measuring the quality and/or degradation of a fluid, especially an oil, comprising a sensor consisting of at least one pair of electrodes which are distanced from each other. Said sensor is immersed in the fluid which is to be measured. The electrodes and the fluid form a capacitive element whose capacity varies according to the dielectric constant of the fluid. The sensor can provide an electric output signal representing said dielectric constant. The inventive device also comprises processing means which receive the output signal and which can determine the degree of quality and/or degradation of the fluid on the basis of said output signal. The invention is characterized in that the electrodes extend substantially on the same plane and in that the fluid surrounds the two surfaces of the electrodes on both sides of said plane.Type: GrantFiled: December 30, 2003Date of Patent: March 17, 2009Assignees: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de LausanneInventors: Gérald Chambon, Martin Gijs
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Patent number: 7501826Abstract: A dividing wall made from at least one first wall material for delimitation of a patient positioning region from an antenna structure of a magnetic resonance tomography apparatus has at least one region at which a specific sub-structure of the antenna structure is located on the side of the dividing wall facing away from the patient positioning region, at which the dividing wall has a wall part made from a second wall material with a dielectric constant that is lower than the dielectric constant of the first wall material.Type: GrantFiled: August 28, 2007Date of Patent: March 10, 2009Assignee: Siemens AktiengesellschaftInventors: Ludwig Eberler, Wolfgang Renz, Guenther Zebelein
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Patent number: 7501830Abstract: Method, apparatus and computer-readable code are provided for detecting a location of an incipient ground fault in an electrical propulsion system. The apparatus may include a sensor configured to sense a respective ground leakage signal associated with a ground of the propulsion system. The apparatus may further include a compensator coupled to the sensor to combine the ground leakage signal and a compensation signal to generate a compensated ground leakage signal. A correlator is coupled to the compensator to receive the compensated ground leakage signal, and is further coupled to receive at least one signal indicative of a respective energization state of a respective electrical phase for each respective one of the plurality of electrical devices.Type: GrantFiled: June 13, 2007Date of Patent: March 10, 2009Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventor: Ajith Kuttannair Kumar
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Patent number: 7501821Abstract: In a method for determination of the transverse relaxation time T2* in MR data, the T2* relaxation is detected in a measurement volume and the transverse relaxation time is determined from the time curve of the magnetization in the measurement volume. In order to be able to more reliably determine the transverse relaxation time T2*, a local magnetic field in the measurement volume is determined and the transverse relaxation time is corrected dependent on the local magnetic field such that a corrected transverse relaxation time is obtained. The local magnetic field is determined by determination of the phase curve of the magnetization from multiple predetermined echo times, the echo times having different intervals (?TE) from one another, and determination of the local magnetic field from the phase curve of the magnetization. The interval between the echo times at least at one point in the measurement volume is adapted such that the local magnetic field can be determined without phase compression.Type: GrantFiled: December 20, 2006Date of Patent: March 10, 2009Assignee: Siemens AktiengesellschaftInventor: Stefan Thesen
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Patent number: 7501807Abstract: A spectrum analyzer is described which comprises a mixer for mixing the conjugate complex input signal v*(t) into a base band signal x(t), and a resolution filter for narrow-band filtering the base band signal. The resolution filter has a complex, discrete impulse response using a variation parameter k0 set to compensate for the frequency overshoot determined by the group delay of the resolution filter.Type: GrantFiled: November 11, 2004Date of Patent: March 10, 2009Assignee: Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co. KGInventor: Kurt Schmidt
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Patent number: 7501836Abstract: An apparatus for determining capacitance variation in an integrated circuit, includes at least two capacitances, a stimulus provided to the at least two capacitances, and a first logic element coupled to the stimulus and the at least two capacitances, the first logic element configured to switch state upon a state transition of the stimulus when the at least two capacitances differ in value by a predetermined amount.Type: GrantFiled: November 14, 2006Date of Patent: March 10, 2009Assignee: Avago Technologies Enterprise IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.Inventors: James E. Hansen, Robert H. Hansen, Gregory J. Milburn
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Patent number: 7501833Abstract: The present invention generally relates to an evanescent microwave spectroscopy probe and methods for making and using the same. Some embodiments relate to a probe in electrical communication with sapphire tuning capacitors that are arranged in parallel. Some embodiments relate to using capacitors arranged in this manner to achieve higher Q values. Furthermore, probe can be used in microwave microscopy applications, and for imaging samples thereby.Type: GrantFiled: July 11, 2006Date of Patent: March 10, 2009Assignee: Wright State UniversityInventors: Richard A. Kleismit, Gregory Kozlowski
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Patent number: 7501834Abstract: A voice coil actuator having a capacitive sensor. A magnetic housing contains at least one magnet, and has a wall that defines a first cavity. A magnetic core is coupled to the magnetic housing and extend from an interior surface of the magnetic housing in a direction of a center axis of the wall of the magnetic housing. A coil assembly has a wall defining a second cavity that at least partly envelops the magnetic core, disposed at least partly inside the first cavity, and adapted to move linearly with respect to the magnetic housing. The coil assembly forms a capacitive sensor with the magnetic core, the capacitive sensor adapted to measure at least one of position, velocity and acceleration of the coil assembly with respect to the magnetic housing.Type: GrantFiled: June 21, 2005Date of Patent: March 10, 2009Assignee: Custom Sensors & Technologies, Inc.Inventors: Asad M. Madni, Jim B. Vuong, Robert K. Hansen
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Patent number: 7498820Abstract: Method, apparatus and computer-readable code for detecting an incipient ground fault. The apparatus includes a sensor for sensing a ground leakage signal. The apparatus further includes a correlator that receives the ground leakage signal, and at least one signal indicative of a respective energization state of a respective electrical phase for each of a plurality of electrical devices. The signal indicative of the respective energization state is modified during a time interval when a predetermined rate of change of voltage is expected. This rate of change is sufficient to cause an effect in the ground leakage signal. The correlator is configured to correlate the ground leakage signal with each received phase energization state signal, and supply a correlation signal. A processor is coupled for processing each of the individual correlation signals and extracting a correlation value from the supplied correlation signals that may be indicative of an incipient ground fault.Type: GrantFiled: June 13, 2007Date of Patent: March 3, 2009Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventor: Ajith Kuttannair Kumar
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Patent number: 7498819Abstract: Method, apparatus and computer-readable code are provided for detecting a location of an incipient ground fault in an electrical propulsion system. The apparatus may include a sensor configured to sense a respective ground leakage signal associated with a ground of the propulsion system. The apparatus may further include a second sensor configured to sense a voltage difference across a positive rail and a negative rail of the direct current bus. A correlator is coupled to the first sensor to receive the ground leakage signal, and further coupled to receive at least one signal indicative of a respective energization state of a respective electrical phase for each respective one of the plurality of electrical devices. The correlator is configured to individually correlate the ground leakage signal with each received phase energization state signal, and supply an individual correlation signal between the received ground leakage signal and each received phase energization state signal.Type: GrantFiled: June 13, 2007Date of Patent: March 3, 2009Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventor: Ajith Kuttannair Kumar
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Patent number: 7498809Abstract: An MRI apparatus suitable for realizing selective excitation utilizing multiple RF transmitting coils (parallel transmission) is provided. This MRI apparatus is provided with, as an RF receiving coil or RF transmitting coil, an RF transmitting coil 104 comprising a loop coil 210, primary differential coil 220 and secondary differential coil 230 having a common central axis 201. Upon imaging, the coils 210, 220 and 230 constituting the RF transmitting coil 104 are simultaneously driven by RF signals with the same phase, and only the differential coils 220 and 230 are driven in the second half of irradiation time with phases different by 180° from the phases for the first half.Type: GrantFiled: December 24, 2003Date of Patent: March 3, 2009Assignee: Hitachi Medical CorporationInventors: Tetsuhiko Takahashi, Hiroyuki Takeuchi, Masahiro Takizawa
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Patent number: 7495438Abstract: Three-dimensional MR motion estimation on a single image plane based on tagged MRI and HARP processing. Tagged magnetic resonance imaging technique encodes and automatically tracks displacement of spatially modulated object in three dimensions, encoding both in plane and through-plane motion in a single image plane without affecting acquisition speed. Post-processing unravels encoding in order to directly track 3-D displacement of points within the image plane throughout image sequence. The invention is particularly suited to use on a heart for tracking and determining myocardial displacement. In one embodiment, an MR pulse sequence extends a slice following complementary spatial modulation of magnetization (CSPAMM) pulse sequence with two small z-encoding gradients immediately before the readouts in successive CSPAMM acquisitions, thereby adding a through-plane encoding from which through-plane motion can be computed from acquired images.Type: GrantFiled: May 4, 2006Date of Patent: February 24, 2009Assignee: John Hopkins UniversityInventors: Jerry L. Prince, Matthias Stuber, Nael Fakhry Osman, Khaled Zakarya Abd-Elmoniem
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Patent number: 7495428Abstract: The present invention provides, a pulse generator, which is configured so as to generate pulses with a predetermined pulse width, comprises: multiple pulsers each of which is configured so as to adjust the pulse width of input pulses, and so as to output pulses with a predetermined pulse width thus adjusted, and which are connected in series; multiple signal acquisition units which are provided corresponding to the multiple pulsers, and each of which allows the pulses output from a corresponding one of the pulsers to be acquired at a position immediately after the output terminal of the corresponding pulser; a selection unit which allows the pulses acquired by one of the multiple signal acquisition units to be selected; a feedback path for inputting the pulses thus selected by the selection unit to the first pulser of the multiple pulsers; and a measurement unit for measuring the pulse width of the pulses thus selected by the selection unit based upon the loop cycle time of the pulse selected by the selectionType: GrantFiled: May 16, 2006Date of Patent: February 24, 2009Assignee: Advantest CorporationInventor: Naoki Sato
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Patent number: 7495436Abstract: A partial least squares (PLS) regression relates spin echo signals with samples having a known parameter such as bound water (BW), clay bound water (CBW), bound volume irreducible (BVI), porosity (PHI) and effective porosity (PHE). The regression defines a predictive model that is validated and can then be applied to spin echo signals of unknown samples to directly give an estimate of the parameter of interest. The unknown samples may include earth formations in which a NMR sensor assembly is conveyed in a borehole.Type: GrantFiled: March 18, 2005Date of Patent: February 24, 2009Assignee: Baker Hughes IncorporatedInventors: Mouin Hamdan, Holger Thern