Patents Examined by Reena Aurora
  • Patent number: 12379432
    Abstract: A magnetic field detection apparatus includes a substrate, first and second projections, first and second MR films, and first and second wiring lines. The first and second projections are provided on a flat surface of the substrate and each include first and second inclined surfaces. The first and second MR films are provided on the first and second inclined surfaces, respectively. The first wiring line couples the first MR film on the first inclined surface of the first projection and the first MR film on the first inclined surface of the second projection to each other. The second wiring line couples the second MR film on the second inclined surface of the first projection and the second MR film on the second inclined surface of the second projection to each other. The first and second wiring lines intersect on the first inclined surface, the second inclined surface, or both.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2025
    Assignee: TDK CORPORATION
    Inventors: Keisuke Takasugi, Kenzo Makino
  • Patent number: 12372379
    Abstract: Method of determining a position of a sensor device relative to a magnetic source, includes: a) determining a first and a second magnetic field component at a first sensor location; b) determining a third and a fourth magnetic field component at a second sensor location; c) determining a first difference of the first and third component, and determining a second difference of the second and fourth component, and determining a first angle based on a ratio of the first and second difference; d) determining a first sum of the first and third component, and determining a second sum of the second and fourth component; e) determining a second angle based on a ratio of said first and second sum; f) comparing the first and second angle to detect error.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2024
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2025
    Assignee: MELEXIS TECHNOLOGIES SA
    Inventors: Gael Close, Eric Lahaye, Lionel Tombez
  • Patent number: 12372553
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a jumper element, a shunt resistor apparatus, and a method of adjusting characteristic of a shunt resistor apparatus for current detection. The jumper element (10) for constituting the shunt resistor apparatus for current detection is made of conductive metal material. The jumper element (10) includes: a body structure (11) that can be coupled to a resistance element (5) constituting a part of the shunt resistor apparatus; and a protrusion (12) formed on a side portion of the body structure (11), wherein the protrusion (12) is located so as not to overlap the resistor element (5).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2025
    Assignee: KOA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Koichi Hirasawa, Shuhei Matsubara, Katsuhide Nishizawa, Keishi Nakamura
  • Patent number: 12359941
    Abstract: An incremental encoder apparatus including: a scale including a series of periodic features defining an optical incremental scale, and at least one magnetic reference mark; and a readhead. The readhead includes at least one incremental sensor configured to detect light from the optical incremental scale and to output at least one signal dependent thereon, and at least two analogue Hall sensors, each including at least two output terminal pairs, and each configured to switch repeatedly between each output terminal pair so as to reduce any inherent offset in the output of the analogue Hall sensor. The apparatus is configured to determine the presence of the reference mark from the outputs of the at least two analogue Hall sensors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2025
    Assignee: RENISHAW PLC
    Inventors: Colin Keith Howley, Simon Eliot McAdam, Adam Michael Whiting
  • Patent number: 12362136
    Abstract: The apparatus and method herein discloses a voltage measurement device that mounts onto a pedestal, or on a wafer or electrostatic chuck on the pedestal of an RF plasma processing device while open to the air. Then RE power is provided to the pedestal and the apparatus measures the RF voltage distribution at the surface upon which it is mounted, providing information on the uniformity, while mimicking the resistive and reactive impedance of a processing plasma in that chamber. The device comprises a conducting top plate supported at a controlled distance from the wafer or pedestal surface and parallel to it.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2023
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2025
    Inventor: Stephen Savas
  • Patent number: 12360187
    Abstract: An apparatus (10) includes: a radiofrequency (RF) coil (18); a detune circuit (38) operatively coupled to the RF coil, wherein the detune circuit includes a decoupling inductor (40) configured as a transmitter (TX) inductor; and a harvester (44) coupled to the decoupling inductor for harvesting energy from the decoupling inductor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2025
    Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
    Inventors: Aasrith Ganti, Tracy Allyn Wynn, Alan Leroy Holland, George randall Duensing
  • Patent number: 12352606
    Abstract: Method of determining a position of a sensor device relative to a magnetic source, includes: a) determining a first and a second magnetic field component at a first sensor location; b) determining a third and a fourth magnetic field component at a second sensor location; c) determining a first difference of the first and third component, and determining a second difference of the second and fourth component, and determining a first angle based on a ratio of the first and second difference; d) determining a first sum of the first and third component, and determining a second sum of the second and fourth component; e) determining a second angle based on a ratio of said first and second sum; f) comparing the first and second angle to detect error.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2024
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2025
    Assignee: MELEXIS TECHNOLOGIES SA
    Inventors: Gael Close, Eric Lahaye, Lionel Tombez
  • Patent number: 12345550
    Abstract: To reduce the influence of backlash in a reduction mechanism on detection accuracy. An absolute encoder includes a first worm gear portion rotating according to rotation of a main shaft and a first worm wheel portion meshing with the first worm gear portion. The absolute encoder is provided coaxially with the first worm wheel portion and includes a second worm gear portion rotating according to rotation of the first worm wheel portion and a second worm wheel portion meshing with the second worm gear portion. The absolute encoder also includes a biasing mechanism biasing the second worm gear portion in the direction of the second worm wheel portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2025
    Assignee: MINEBEA MITSUMI Inc.
    Inventor: Yasuo Osada
  • Patent number: 12339138
    Abstract: A position sensor system is arranged for determining a position of a sensor device movable along a predefined path relative to a magnetic source. The system includes the magnetic source and the sensor device. The magnetic source has a first plurality of magnetic pole pairs arranged along a first track and a second plurality of magnetic pole pairs arranged along a second track, centrelines of the tracks are spaced apart by a predefined track distance. The sensor device is configured for measuring at least two orthogonal magnetic field components at a first sensor location, and at least two second orthogonal magnetic field components at a second sensor location. The first and second sensor location are spaced apart by a predefined sensor distance smaller than the predefined track distance, in a direction transverse to the tracks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2024
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2025
    Assignee: MELEXIS TECHNOLOGIES SA
    Inventors: Christian Schott, Gael Close, Bruno Brajon
  • Patent number: 12334283
    Abstract: A method of operating a spring-loaded drive of a medium-voltage switchgear system includes at least the following steps: measuring a drive current of an electric auxiliary drive for loading a drive spring of the spring-loaded drive of the medium-voltage switchgear system; loading the drive spring by the electric auxiliary drive; creating an evaluation data set in accordance with the measured drive current; comparing the evaluation data set with an expectation; and outputting a maintenance signal in accordance with a result of the comparison. There is also described a spring-loaded drive and a medium-voltage switchgear system having a spring-loaded drive of this type.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2025
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Stefan Lecheler, Malte Georg Hirte
  • Patent number: 12332091
    Abstract: A control device of a rotation detector inputs an AC signal to an excitation coil and detects a rotation angle on the basis of a signal obtained by a detection coil. The control device includes: a controller that can output a plurality of excitation signals having a predetermined voltage; and a signal generation unit that generates the AC signal on the basis of the plurality of excitation signals output from the controller. In addition, the control device includes a voltage dividing circuit that is interposed between the controller and the signal generation unit and decreases the predetermined voltage of the plurality of excitation signals by a resistor to transmit the voltage to the signal generation unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2025
    Assignee: MABUCHI MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Kohei Hamazaki
  • Patent number: 12320678
    Abstract: An electromagnetic induction type rocker potentiometer is provided, including a base, a sliding disc, a rocker handle, two rocking arms, an iron housing and two potentiometer assemblies. The potentiometer assemblies are disposed on the iron housing and respectively include a shell, a rotor, a permanent magnet and a magnetic sensing circuit board. The magnetic sensing circuit board is molded on the shell to accurately position a magnetic sensor, thereby improving sensing accuracy. The permanent magnet is cuboid and a distance between the permanent magnet and the magnetic sensor in an axial direction of the rotor does not change along with rotation of the rotor. As the rotor rotates forward or backward, the magnetic strength of the permanent magnet at the magnetic sensor increases or decreases linearly, so that the change process of induction signal is synchronized with the rotation process of the rotor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2023
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2025
    Assignee: Guangdong Jinfu Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd
    Inventors: Guosheng Zeng, Zhong Zeng, Shengkai Huang
  • Patent number: 12313806
    Abstract: Systems and methods to detect ferromagnetic objects, particularly submerged, non-naturally occurring ferromagnetic objects, account for contributions to the magnetic field arising from topography, such as magnetic refraction at bathymetric slopes. Removing this topography component of noise from detected total magnetic field enhances detection capability of, for example, naval surveillance systems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2025
    Assignee: NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY, INC.
    Inventors: Alexander V. Soloviev, Cayla W. Dean
  • Patent number: 12315105
    Abstract: In an imaging method, a focal point of a focused optical beam is sequentially mechanically positioned at coarse locations in or on an integrated circuit (IC) wafer or chip. At each coarse location, a two-dimensional (2D) image or mapping tile is acquired by steering the focal point to fine locations on or in the IC wafer or chip using electronic beam steering and, with the focal point positioned at each fine location, acquiring an output signal produced in response to an electrical charge that is optically injected into the IC wafer or chip at the fine location by the focused optical beam. The 2D image or mapping tiles are combined, including stitching together overlapping 2D image or mapping tiles, to generate an image or mapping of the IC wafer or chip. The electronic beam steering may be performed using a galvo mirror. The set of coarse locations may span a three-dimensional (3D) volume.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2025
    Assignee: BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE
    Inventors: Thomas F. Kent, Jeffrey A. Simon
  • Patent number: 12298344
    Abstract: A leakage current detection circuit includes: a mirror circuit configured to copy a leakage current flowing through a node and generate a copy current in a copy node; an oscillation circuit including a charge storage unit, the oscillation circuit being connected to the copy node, charged with the copy current, and configured to generate an oscillation signal by charging and discharging the charge storage unit; and a calculation circuit configured to calculate an amount of the leakage current based on the oscillation signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2023
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2025
    Assignee: SK hynix Inc.
    Inventors: Jong Seok Jung, Chan Keun Kwon, Kyeong Hwan Park, Young Kwan Lee, Suk Hwan Choi
  • Patent number: 12287362
    Abstract: A system for detecting a fault type and faulted phase in a power grid includes a controller and a relay. The relay is configured to monitor a line of the power grid and generate a monitoring signal. The controller may be configured to determine, in response to the monitoring signal received from the relay, sequence voltages and sequence currents in the line. The controller may further determine, in response to the sequence voltages and sequence currents, an absence or a presence of a weak-infeed condition in the line. The controller may further determine, in response to the monitoring signal and the absence or the presence of the weak-infeed condition, a first plane sequence signature and a second plane sequence signature. The controller may further determine a fault type and faulted phase in the power grid in response to the first plane sequence signature and the second plane sequence signature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2025
    Assignee: GE Infrastructure Technology LLC
    Inventors: Venkatesh Chakrapani, Ilia Voloh
  • Patent number: 12287356
    Abstract: The voltage hold circuit is a voltage hold circuit configured to operate every processing cycle, the processing cycle including a hold period and a reset period following the hold period, and hold a voltage value for an input voltage signal, the voltage hold circuit including: a first hold circuit configured to operate to hold a minimum voltage value for the input voltage signal in the hold period every the processing cycle; and a second hold circuit configured to operate to hold a maximum voltage value for the input voltage signal in the reset period every the processing cycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2025
    Assignee: SOCIONEXT INC.
    Inventors: Kengo Komiya, Akimitsu Tajima, Takeshi Kimura
  • Patent number: 12276498
    Abstract: An angular position sensor system includes a two-pole magnet rotatable about a rotation axis; a magnetic sensor device having a plurality of horizontal Hall elements including at least a first, second and third horizontal Hall element located on a virtual circle having a centre located on the rotation axis. The Hall elements are spaced by multiples of 90. The magnetic sensor device has a processing unit connected to the horizontal Hall elements for obtaining a first, second and third signal, and for determining a first pairwise difference between the first and second sensor signal, and for determining a second pairwise difference between the second and third sensor signal, and for determining an angular position of the magnet relative to the sensor device based on a ratio of these pairwise differences.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2025
    Assignee: MELEXIS TECHNOLOGIES SA
    Inventor: Lionel Tombez
  • Patent number: 12270643
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for determining signal offset correction signals. In embodiments, first and second magnetic field sensing elements generate first and second channels that are in quadrature. Signal correction processing includes storing amplitudes of the first and second channel signals when an amplitude of the channel signals cross zero and determine an offset of the first and second channel signals based on the stored amplitudes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2025
    Assignee: Allegro MicroSystems, LLC
    Inventor: Mohammed Safiuddin
  • Patent number: 12270775
    Abstract: A sensor includes a plurality of detecting units and a sensing unit. Each of the detecting units includes a pair of electrodes and a detecting area formed between the electrodes, and is configured to cause a change in electrical resistance between the electrodes as conductive particles accumulate. The sensing unit outputs a sensing signal if at least two or more of the detecting units experience a change in electrical resistance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2025
    Assignee: NABTESCO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazuhiko Sakurai, Masaki Harada