Patents Examined by Jeffrey R West
  • Patent number: 7630845
    Abstract: A method for calculating a tolerable value for simultaneous switching noise in an input/output circuit having a differential input supplied with a power supply voltage. The method includes providing an input/output circuit having a differential input unit with a pulse signal of a predetermined duty ratio, setting a tolerable range for the duty ratio of the output signal of the input/output circuit with respect to the pulse signal, changing the power supply voltage supplied to the differential input unit of the input/output circuit, measuring the duty ratio of the output signal corresponding to the voltage change, comparing the measured duty ratio with the tolerable range, and calculating a tolerable value for the simultaneous switching noise.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2009
    Assignee: Fujitsu Microelectronics Limited
    Inventors: Ryo Shibata, Tomohiko Koto
  • Patent number: 7577551
    Abstract: A method for coding an event history is disclosed. Information relating to a real time state of an event is received. For a defined interval of time, it is determined whether the state of the event is in one of two states. In response to the event being in a first state, a data stream is appended with a first characteristic representative of the first state, and in response to the event being in a second different state, the data stream is appended with a second characteristic representative of the second state. The appended data stream is saved, and the process repeated for the next sequential defined interval of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2009
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations, Inc.
    Inventor: Fangming Gu
  • Patent number: 7542866
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method and apparatus for setting threshold values for use by a radar level transmitter to detect reflected wave pulses corresponding to portions of a transmitted microwave pulse which reflect from interfaces contained in a container. The present invention estimates these threshold values based upon various parameters. Some of these parameters can relate to properties of the materials forming the interfaces while others relate to properties of the antenna and user-defined parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2009
    Assignee: Rosemount Inc.
    Inventors: Eric R. Lovegren, Kurt C. Diede, Ryan R. Carlson
  • Patent number: 7526394
    Abstract: Non-intrusive speech quality assessment method and apparatus for: storing a sequence of intercepted packets associated with a call, each packet containing speech data, and an indication of a transmission time of the packet; storing with each intercepted packet an indication of an intercept time of the packet; extracting a set of parameters from the sequence of packets; and generating an estimated mean opinion score in dependence upon the set of parameters. The extracting step comprises the sub steps of: generating a jitter parameter for each packet of the sequence of stored packets; and generating a consecutive positive jitter parameter for the stored packet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2009
    Assignee: Psytechnics Limited
    Inventors: Richard Reynolds, Simon Broom, Paul Barrett
  • Patent number: 7519506
    Abstract: A system and method for monitoring and managing electrical power transmission and distribution networks through use of a deterministic, non-iterative method using an holomorphic embedding and algebraic approximants for determining the real-time load flow in a power generating system having an electrical grid. Such method may be employed for real-time or off-line applications for electric power systems reliability assessment, and is capable of determining whether or not a physical solution to the load flow problem exists, or if the system is in a state of voltage collapse.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2009
    Inventor: Antonio Trias
  • Patent number: 7496458
    Abstract: An electrical transducer has a sensor outputting a value corresponding to the quantity to be measured, an analog end stage connected downstream of the sensor, a processor circuit, and an analog measurement signal transmission path. The end stage converts the sensor output signal into an impressed output current related to the magnitude of the quantity measured, the electronic transducer being controlled with the processor circuit. The electrical transducer can be scaled by the user, has low inherent power consumption and ensures high response speed because the processor circuit in normal operation is shifted temporarily into a sleep mode, in the analog measurement signal transmission path an analog scaling unit is inserted, the output signal of the sensor and at least one analog setting value are supplied to the analog scaling unit, and the output signal of the analog scaling unit is supplied to the analog end stage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2009
    Assignee: i f m electronic GmbH
    Inventors: Heinz Walter, Alfred Wagner
  • Patent number: 7467066
    Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product for benchmarking a stream processing system are disclosed. The method comprises generating a plurality of correlated test streams. A semantically related data set is embedded within each of the test streams in the plurality of correlated test streams. The plurality of correlated test streams is provided to at least one stream processing system. A summary is generated for each of the semantically related embedded data sets. A common identifier, which is transparent to the system being tested, is embedded within each stream in the plurality of correlated test streams. The common identifier is extracted from the output data set generated by the stream processing system. At least one of the stored copies of the summaries and the common identifier are compared to an output data set including a set of zero or more correlation results generated by the stream processing system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2008
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kay S. Anderson, Joseph P. Bigus, Eric Bouillet, Parijat Dube, Zhen Liu, Dimitrios Pendarakis
  • Patent number: 7437267
    Abstract: A case base (54) is generated from historical data containing inflow data (31) that indicates a sewage inflow measured at a sewage treatment plant (10) and meteorological data (33) corresponding to the inflow data (31). A similar case search section (56) and output estimation section (57) predict a sewage inflow corresponding to an input prediction condition (40) after a predetermined prediction time in real time using the case base (54) and output inflow prediction data (20).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2002
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2008
    Assignee: Yamatake Corporation
    Inventors: Toshiaki Oka, Hiroaki Tsutsui
  • Patent number: 7401001
    Abstract: A position determining system for determining a position of a rotor of a rotating motor has sensors that are coupled to the rotor. The sensors generate, in response to a rotation of the rotor, a quadrature signal that has sine and cosine components. The position determining system calculates a sum (A2) of a squared value of the sine component (A2sin2x) and a squared value of the cosine component (A2cos2x). An amplitude correction factor (A) is calculated as the squared root of the sum (A2). An amplitude corrected sine component (sin(x)) is obtained by dividing the sine component (Asin(x)) by the amplitude correction factor (A). An amplitude corrected cosine component (cos(x)) is obtained by dividing the cosine component (Acos(x)) by the amplitude correction factor (A).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2008
    Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
    Inventors: Aalbert Stek, Anthonius Petrus Gerardus Emanuel Janssen
  • Patent number: 7395173
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a temperature sensing device with a first temperature sensor mounted to a housing at a first location proximate a first surface of the housing. The first temperature sensor senses a first temperature while a second temperature sensor senses a second temperature. A processor circuit is coupled to the first and second temperature sensors and a mounting device is coupled to either the housing or the processor circuit. The mounting device mounts the second temperature sensor at a second location proximate a second surface of the housing which is spaced apart from the first surface. The processor circuit is configured to estimate a third temperature based on the first and second temperatures and a distance between the first and second locations which is an estimate of a temperature at a third location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2008
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Thomas O. Kautz, Dominic Ticali, Robert R. Freimuth, II
  • Patent number: 7379847
    Abstract: The above and other needs are met by an inspection system having a sensor array that is connected to a high speed network connection, and is adapted to provide image data in regard to images of a substrate. A process node is also connected to the high speed network connection, and is adapted to received the image data over the high speed network connection and to analyze the image data to detect anomalies in the images. In this manner, commercially available hardware can be used to construct the inspection system, which thus overcomes many of the problems with expensive, unreliable, and inflexible prior art inspection systems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2008
    Assignee: KLA-Tencor Corporation
    Inventors: Joseph M. Blecher, Carl E. Hess
  • Patent number: 7328126
    Abstract: A method and system of monitoring a processing system and for processing a substrate during the course of semiconductor manufacturing. As such, data is acquired from the processing system for a plurality of observations, the data including a plurality of data parameters. A principal components analysis (PCA) model is constructed from the data and includes centering coefficients. Additional data is acquired from the processing system, the additional data including an additional observation of the plurality of data parameters. The centering coefficients are adjusted to produce updated adaptive centering coefficients for each of the data parameters in the PCA model. The updated adaptive centering coefficients are applied to each of the data parameters in the PCA model. At least one statistical quantity is determined from the additional data using the PCA model. A control limit is set for the statistical quantity and compared to the statistical quantity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2008
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventor: Kevin Andrew Chamness
  • Patent number: 7313495
    Abstract: A method of processing marine magnetic data is disclosed which comprises towing first and second magnetometers M1 and M2 behind a ship (10). Raw magnetic gradient data is obtained from the sensors and the trend of the gradient of the ship bias detected by the sensors determined. The method includes subtracting the trend from the raw magnetic gradient data to obtain corrected gradient data, and processing the corrected gradient data to provide a data output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2007
    Assignee: BHP Billiton Innovation Pty Ltd.
    Inventors: Yi Zeng, Peter Mitchell Stone, Marion Elizabeth Rose
  • Patent number: 7308375
    Abstract: A system and method are provided for determining a light output of a light emitting diode (LED) in a scanner. The system includes a processor circuit to execute current control logic to obtain an optimum light output from the LED. The current control logic repeatedly applies increasing or decreasing currents to the LED until a saturation point is identified. This may be accomplished, for example, by comparing two measures of the light output of the LED for two different currents applied to the LED. When a difference equaling a predetermined threshold between the two measures is detected, then the saturation point is identified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2007
    Inventors: Nanette C. Jensen, Douglas G. Keithley, Virginia K. Capps, David G. Bohan
  • Patent number: 7289922
    Abstract: An apparatus and method to decompose measured phase jitter into a deterministic component and a random component. After filtering a time-domain measured phase jitter signal, a discrete Fourier transform is applied, followed by squaring. A density function is formed from the square of the discrete Fourier transform, from which a noise floor is estimated. The frequency-domain phase jitter is processed by zeroing out those frequency components having a magnitude equal to or less than the noise floor, and the remaining frequency components are processed by subtracting out a pseudo-random sequence having a magnitude equal to the noise floor and having a uniformly distributed phase. This processing provides an estimate of the deterministic component in the frequency domain, and an inverse discrete Fourier transform may be applied to transform into the time domain to yield an estimate of the deterministic component of the phase jitter in the time domain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2007
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventor: Oleg Mikulchenko
  • Patent number: 7277822
    Abstract: An apparatus providing a means for assessment of the integrity of insulated conduits, harnesses, cables, pipelines and other interconnection systems constructed with integral sensitized media, discrete sensors, and electronics providing a means for transforming sensed data into information and a means for communicating information for the purpose of understanding the location, degree and risk of damage and deterioration, and the probable causes thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2007
    Inventor: Kenneth G. Blemel
  • Patent number: 7275016
    Abstract: In a complex plant most of the problems or errors will occur only once. Therefore corrective maintenance and trouble-shooting staff can not go back or hark back to ready-made solutions for these problems or errors. The present invention provides a method and a computerized system which enables the corrective maintenance and trouble-shooting staff having access to experiences made on third party plants regarding these problems or errors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2007
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Wolfgang Gross, Werner Hofler
  • Patent number: 7266465
    Abstract: An apparatus for confirming a frequency measurement of a received signal includes a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) module for receiving a sampled digital signal. The DFT module is configured to analyze the received sampled digital signal, and output amplitude values at different frequency components. A threshold comparator is included for receiving the amplitude values of the frequency components and outputting a thresholded-amplitude value exceeding a predetermined threshold value. A frequency confirmation is provided based on the thresholded-amplitude value. The sampled digital signal is sampled at a sampling frequency of fs, and the DFT module is configured to analyze the received sampled digital signal at a frequency bandwidth that is equal to or less than fs. The frequency bandwidth is equal to the sampling frequency of fs, when the received sampled digital signal includes I and Q signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2007
    Assignee: ITT Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc.
    Inventors: James B. Y. Tsui, Charles Richard Ward, Stuart Mitchell Lopata
  • Patent number: 7263449
    Abstract: A means for determining long-term discharge performance, particularly in a lithium/silver vanadium oxide cell, by analyzing and characterizing the initial pulse voltage waveform, is described. The relationship between the initial P1 (Pmin) voltage drop and the extent of that initial voltage drop with Plast (the final voltage under load) is a reliable indication of long-term discharge performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2007
    Assignee: Greatbatch Ltd.
    Inventor: Gary Freitag
  • Patent number: 7260505
    Abstract: A method of developing fault codes for complex systems based on historical data that in one aspect is a software program arranged to be installed and to operate on a processor to process the historical data in order to facilitate development of the fault codes, the software program resulting in the processor performing the method including: grouping the historical data into a plurality of observations and a plurality of repairs; analyzing the plurality of repairs to determine associated observation signatures, each of the observation signatures being one or more of the observations; and assigning a fault code to each observation signature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2007
    Assignee: Honeywell International, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy J. Felke, John F. Stone