Patents Examined by Joseph Chang
  • Patent number: 11409185
    Abstract: Systems and methods for precision control of microresonator (MR) based frequency combs can implement optimized MR actuators or MR modulators to control long-term locking of carrier envelope offset frequency, repetition rate, or resonance offset frequency of the MR. MR modulators can also be used for amplitude noise control. MR parameters can be locked to external reference frequencies such as a continuous wave laser or a microwave reference. MR parameters can be selected to reduce cross talk between the MR parameters, facilitating long-term locking. The MR can be locked to an external two wavelength delayed self-heterodyne interferometer for low noise microwave generation. An MR-based frequency comb can be tuned by a substantial fraction or more of the free spectral range (FSR) via a feedback control system. Scanning MR frequency combs can be applied to dead-zone free spectroscopy, multi-wavelength LIDAR, high precision optical clocks, or low phase noise microwave sources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: IMRA America, Inc.
    Inventors: Naoya Kuse, Martin E. Fermann, Tomohiro Tetsumoto, Antoine Jean Gilbert Rolland
  • Patent number: 11404914
    Abstract: A power transmitter for wireless power transfer at an operating frequency selected from a range of about 87 kilohertz (kHz) to about 360 kHz is disclosed. The power transmitter includes a control and communications unit and an inverter circuit configured to receive input power and convert the input power to a power signal. The power transmitter further includes a coil configured to transmit the power signal to a power receiver, the coil formed of wound Litz wire and including at least one layer. The power transmitter further includes a shielding comprising a magnetic backing and a magnetic wall, the magnetic wall and magnetic backing defining a cavity, the magnetic wall including a top surface, the cavity extending, at least, from the magnetic backing to the coil, the coil positioned proximate to the top surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: NuCurrent, Inc.
    Inventor: Md Nazmul Alam
  • Patent number: 11404913
    Abstract: Induction charging devices and methods are disclosed for a portable electronic device that has a reception coil coupled to a power source and an outwardly projecting attachment mounted thereon. In some versions, the devices include a housing having a wall with an outwardly facing charging surface and a recess sized to receive the attachment with the portable electronic device disposed on the charging surface. In some versions, devices can include an attachment device coupled to a rear of a housing that can releasably secure to a portion of a vehicle and a mount coupled to a front of the housing configured to receive a portion of the attachment therein to secure the portable electronic device to the housing. A charging assembly within the housing can include a transmission coil disposed so that with the recess or mount receiving the attachment therein, the transmission and reception coils are sufficiently aligned to charge the power source of the portable electronic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: PopSockets LLC
    Inventors: Altan Nahum, Randy Yang Chiang, Judd Nutting
  • Patent number: 11398796
    Abstract: Temperature compensated oscillators and associated methods are disclosed. The oscillator may include an inverter with a variable load configured to provide different conductance values based on an operating temperature of the oscillator. The variable load includes two or more branches in parallel, where each branch has a unique conductance value different from each other. Further, the variable load is coupled to a temperature sensor that generates signals based on determining the operating temperature. The signals of the temperature sensor can activate one or more branches of the variable load. As a result, the inverter may trigger at different voltage levels such that variations in the frequency of the clock signal that the oscillator generates can be reduced across different operating temperatures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2022
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Jung-Hwa Choi
  • Patent number: 11394371
    Abstract: The polysilicon resistance has a large resistance variation rate after the end of the mold packaging process. In order to enable high-precision trimming, it is desired to realize a resistance which is hardly affected by stress and temperature fluctuation generated in a substrate by a mold packaging process. A resistance element is formed in a plurality of wiring layers, and has a first conductive layer formed in a first wiring layer, a second conductive layer formed in a second wiring layer, and a repeating pattern of an interlayer conductive layer connecting the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer, and the interlayer conductive layer is formed of a plurality of types of materials.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2022
    Assignee: RENESAS ELECTRONICS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Chiemi Hashimoto, Kosuke Yayama, Tomokazu Matsuzaki
  • Patent number: 11387674
    Abstract: A power transmitter includes a control and communications unit and an inverter circuit configured to receive input power and convert the input power to a power signal. The power transmitter further includes a shielding comprising a ferrite core including a magnetic backing and a magnetic ring, the magnetic backing and magnetic ring, in combination, defining a concave cavity, the magnetic ring defining a bottom portion, a top portion, and an inner side wall between the bottom portion and the top portion, the inner sidewall defining an outward extending shape, the outward extending shape extending radially outward from the bottom portion to the top portion. The power transmitter further includes a coil configured to transmit the power signal to a power receiver, the coil formed of wound Litz wire and positioned within the concave cavity of the shielding and radially inward from the inner wall.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: NuCurrent, Inc.
    Inventor: Md Nazmul Alam
  • Patent number: 11387684
    Abstract: A power transmitter includes a coil configured to transmit the power signal to a power receiver, the coil formed of wound Litz wire and including a first coil portion and a second coil portion, the second coil portion positioned radially outward of the first coil portion. The power transmitter includes a shielding comprising a first shield portion and a second shield portion. The first shield portion defining a first cavity configured such that the ferrite core substantially surrounds all but the top face of the first coil portion. The second shield portion includes a magnetic backing and a magnetic ring, which, in combination, define a second cavity, the magnetic ring defining a bottom portion, a top portion, and an inner sidewall defining an outward extending shape extending radially outward from the bottom portion to the top portion, the second coil portion positioned within the second cavity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: NuCurrent, Inc.
    Inventor: Md Nazmul Alam
  • Patent number: 11387782
    Abstract: A stacked-die oscillator package includes an oscillator circuit die having inner bond pads, and outer bond pads, and a bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonator die having a piezoelectric transducer with a first and second BAW bond pad on a same side coupled to a top and bottom electrode layer across a piezoelectric layer. A first metal bump is on the first BAW bond pad and a second metal bump is on the second BAW bond pad flip chip bonded to the inner bond pads of the oscillator circuit die. A polymer material is in a portion of a gap between the BAW and oscillator circuit die.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Ricky A. Jackson, Kurt Peter Wachtler
  • Patent number: 11387815
    Abstract: An apparatus is provided to improve lock time of a phase locked loop, wherein the apparatus comprises: a ring oscillator including at least two delay stages, wherein each delay stage has a controllable delay; and a multiphase frequency monitor coupled to the ring oscillator to monitor frequency at an output of at least two delay stages of the ring oscillator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: William Li, Mohsen Nasroullahi, Khoa Nguyen
  • Patent number: 11374435
    Abstract: A wireless power-transmission apparatus includes at least one antenna element disposed at a specific position in a three-dimensional space having a predetermined shape and size, to transmit a power transmission beam, an acquirer to acquire an inclination angle of the antenna element to a plane direction of a reference plane and a height of the antenna element to the reference plane, and a controller to control at least one of antenna power and a power transmission direction of the power transmission beam so that interference power of the power transmission beam toward an outside of the three-dimensional space becomes equal to or smaller than a predetermined allowable value when the antenna element is disposed at the acquired inclination angle and height.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Kentaro Murata, Kohei Onizuka, Toshiya Mitomo
  • Patent number: 11374433
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for operating a circuit for generating an electromagnetic field for inductive energy transmission, wherein an inverter for providing an AC voltage is operated at a first clock frequency, wherein operation at an additional clock frequency is superimposed on the operation at the first clock frequency; and a circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: Molex CVS Dabendorf GmbH
    Inventor: Joerg Meyer
  • Patent number: 11366020
    Abstract: According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a sensor for detecting a temperature. The sensor comprises a switch circuit; a charge/discharge circuit connected to the switch circuit, and configured to be charged and discharged under control of the switch circuit; a sensing circuit connected to the charge/discharge circuit, and configured to cause a charge/discharge period of the charge/discharge circuit to change with a temperature of the sensing circuit; and an oscillation circuit connected to the switch circuit and the charge/discharge circuit, and configured to generate, under action of the charge/discharge circuit, an oscillation signal for controlling the switch circuit, wherein an oscillation frequency of the oscillation signal is dependent on the charge/discharge period and thus indicates the temperature of the sensing circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: BOE TECHNOLOGY GROUP CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Haisheng Wang, Xue Dong, Jing Lv, Xiaochuan Chen, Chunwei Wu, Yingming Liu, Xiaoliang Ding
  • Patent number: 11358490
    Abstract: A power feed system includes a power feed controller that controls a plurality of vehicles including a first vehicle and a second vehicle to successively carry out external power feed in a relayed manner. In passing on external power feed in the relayed manner from the first vehicle to the second vehicle, the power feed controller controls the first vehicle and the second vehicle to make transition from external power feed by the first vehicle to external power feed by the second vehicle with an overlapping period being interposed. During the overlapping period, both of the first vehicle and the second vehicle simultaneously carry out external power feed. The power feed controller controls at least one of the first vehicle and the second vehicle to set total electric power to target electric power during the overlapping period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Toru Nakamura, Hidetoshi Kusumi, Shigeki Kinomura, Yoshiyuki Tsuchiya, Hironobu Kitaoka
  • Patent number: 11356058
    Abstract: An example voltage controlled oscillator includes an inductor, a capacitor coupled to the inductor, and a signal source coupled to the inductor and the capacitor to sustain an oscillating signal. The voltage controlled oscillator includes a first varactor coupled to the inductor and the capacitor, wherein the first varactor is biased by a first bias voltage and is configured to change a frequency of the oscillating signal based on a first control voltage signal. The voltage controlled oscillator includes a second varactor coupled to the inductor, the capacitor, and the first varactor, wherein the second varactor is biased by a second bias voltage and is configured to compensate temperature variation of the frequency of the oscillating signal over a plurality of frequency bands based on second control voltage signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
    Inventors: Chenxi Huang, Yung Chen
  • Patent number: 11356057
    Abstract: In-package temperature is controlled with higher accuracy. To this end, a temperature control circuit includes a temperature sensor arranged in a package and detecting temperature in the package, a heater current detection circuit detecting a driving amount of a heater, a target temperature generation circuit generating a target temperature from an intended temperature of a resonator and a detection value of the driving amount detected by the heater current detection circuit, a heater current driver controlling the heater so that the detection temperature detected by the temperature sensor coincides with the target temperature, and an Nth-order correction circuit receiving the detection value of the driving amount detected by the heater current detection circuit or a signal based on the target temperature and cancelling influence of a second or higher order fluctuation component generated in the heater current detection circuit on temperature of the resonator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: Asahi Kasei Microdevices Corporation
    Inventor: Takayuki Sato
  • Patent number: 11349343
    Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided to facilitate the estimation of a measured parameter. In the context of a method, a series of measurement and transmission phases are conducted. During the measurement phase, the method includes receiving an input based on a measured parameter and comparing a voltage that is based on the input that is received over time to a threshold. The method also includes triggering the transmission phase in which a control signal is provided to facilitate discharge of the voltage in response to satisfaction of the threshold. The method further includes evaluating the transmission phases to determine an estimate of the input that is based on the measured parameter. A corresponding apparatus is also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2022
    Assignee: NOKIA TECHNOLOGIES OY
    Inventor: Marijan Herceg
  • Patent number: 11349484
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for hopping a digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) among a plurality of channels, wherein a gain of the DCO KDCO is a nonlinear function of frequency. A first normalized tuning word (NTW) corresponding to a first channel of the plurality of channels is generated. A first normalizing gain multiplier X is generated based on the nonlinear function of frequency, on an estimate of the nonlinear function of frequency, at a first frequency corresponding to the first channel. The first NTW is multiplied by the first X to obtain a first oscillator tuning word (OTW). The first OTW is input to the DCO to cause the DCO to hop to the first channel. A system for hopping among a plurality of channels at a plurality of respective frequencies comprises a phase-locked loop (PLL), a digitally controlled oscillator (DCO), a multiplexer, and an arithmetic module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2022
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited
    Inventors: Chao Chieh Li, Min-Shueh Yuan, Robert Bogdan Staszewski, Chia-Chun Liao
  • Patent number: 11342883
    Abstract: A programmable variable capacitor includes a fixed varactor controlled by a control voltage connected in a first polarity and a plurality of contingent varactors conditionally controlled by the control voltage in accordance with a plurality of logical signals, respectively, each of said plurality of contingent varactors having: a first varactor controlled by a first voltage connected in the first polarity, a second varactor controlled by a second voltage connected in a second polarity, a first multiplexer configured to output the first voltage by selecting between a first DC (direct-current) voltage and the control voltage in accordance with a respective logical signal among said plurality of logical signals, and a second multiplexer configured to output the second voltage by selecting between a second DC voltage and a medium DC voltage in accordance with the respective logical signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: REALTEK SEMICONDUCTOR CORP.
    Inventor: Chia-Liang (Leon) Lin
  • Patent number: 11342952
    Abstract: A mobile communication device that is configured to cancel interference within received millimeter wave band signals. The device includes a receiver circuit that is configured to receive a millimeter wave band signal, adjust gain provided to the millimeter wave band signal at a first amplifier, cancel interference in millimeter wave band signal after gain is adjusted by the first amplifier, and adjust gain provided to the millimeter wave band signal at a second amplifier after interference is cancelled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Mikhail T. Galeev, Oner Orhan, Arnaud Lucres Amadjikpe, Benjamin Grewell, Navid Naderializadeh, Hosein Nikopour, Susruth Sudhakaran, Shilpa Talwar, Liang Xian
  • Patent number: 11336268
    Abstract: Integrated circuit, comprising at least one ring oscillator including a succession of inverters looped back to form the ring, the at least one oscillator being intended to operate at a desired output frequency and configured so that the inverter transistors operate in or near their temperature inversion zone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2022
    Assignee: STMICROELECTRONICS (ROUSSET) SAS
    Inventor: Bruno Gailhard