Patents Examined by Sean Curtis
  • Patent number: 11009425
    Abstract: A system for detecting the formation of a crack in a metal joint includes an electrochemical electrical current detection device. Carrier material surrounds the metal joint, at least partially, with conductive media having electrolyte therein. An auxiliary electrode is in electrical contact with the carrier material. The placement of the auxiliary electrode in electrical contact with carrier material forms a passive layer on the metal joint. The formation of a crack in the metal joint ruptures the passive layer to generate a current for detection by the electrochemical electrical current detection device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Inventors: Mehrooz Zamanzadeh, Carolyn Tome, Aaron Ulmer
  • Patent number: 11002812
    Abstract: In a general aspect, a magnetic resonance system includes a primary magnet system configured to generate a principal magnetic field in a sample region. The magnetic resonance system also includes a field source device. The field source device includes a substrate and first and second conductor layers on the substrate. The first conductor layer includes a constriction configured to generate a radio frequency magnetic field in the sample region. The second conductor layer is vertically centered above the first conductor layer, and includes gradient coils configured to generate first, second, and third magnetic field gradients along respective first, second and third mutually-orthogonal spatial dimensions in the sample region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: Quantum Valley Investment Fund LP
    Inventors: Raffi Ohannes Budakian, Holger Haas
  • Patent number: 11002167
    Abstract: A wireless power transfer system for a train that includes one or more locomotive units with an energy storage system and one or more passenger cars units that transmit power to the one or more locomotive units. The wireless power transfer system includes one or more HEP cables through which power is provided from the one or more passenger car units to the one or more locomotive units, one or more wireless power transfer (WPT) transmitters mounted to the rail separate from the train, a WPT receiver on one of the one or more passenger cars configured to receive power from one of the one or more WPT transmitters, and an inverter on the one of the one or more passenger car units connected to the HEP cables. The inverter receives power from the WPT receiver and sends the power to the energy storage system through the HEP cables.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: Clean Train Propulsion
    Inventor: David Cook
  • Patent number: 11002568
    Abstract: An inductive position sensor is configured to determine a position of a target device. The inductive position sensor comprises at least two coils for determining said position. At least two of the at least two coils for determining the position at least partially overlap. The at least two coils each have a plurality of portions being equally distributed over N substantially parallel planes, with N being an integer larger than or equal to two. For each of the at least two coils the portions distributed over the N substantially parallel planes are substantially identical, so that mutual inductance between the at least two coils is substantially unaffected by misalignments between the N substantially parallel planes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: MELEXIS TECHNOLOGIES SA
    Inventors: Lorenzo Lugani, Wolfram Kluge
  • Patent number: 10996300
    Abstract: An MRI system uses a Cartesian-radial hybrid k-space trajectory to capture three-dimensional k-space data and reconstruct an image of an area of interest of a subject. The MRI system performs a series of k-space acquisitions to collect the data. A first k-space acquisition includes acquiring a two-dimensional EPI projection in a first plane parallel to a frequency-encoding direction and acquiring additional two-dimensional EPI projections in planes that are radially shifted about a center axis parallel to the frequency-encoding direction with respect to the first plane, until a selected number of projections are acquired. Each subsequent k-space acquisition includes acquiring an additional set of two-dimensional EPI projections in all of the planes in which an EPI projection was acquired during the first k-space acquisition, each additional set of EPI projections being shifted along a respective plane in a direction perpendicular to the frequency-encoding direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2021
    Assignees: Siemens Healthcare GmbH, University of Utah Research Foundation
    Inventors: Sunil Goraksha Patil, Henrik Odeen, Dennis L. Parker
  • Patent number: 10996183
    Abstract: A detection device includes a plurality of detection units formed on a semiconductor circuit, a correction capacitive element that indicates a correction capacitance value for correcting detected capacitance values detected by the detection units, a difference acquisition circuit that acquires a difference value between each of the detected capacitance values and the correction capacitance value, and a conversion circuit that converts the difference value into a digital signal. The correction capacitive element, the difference acquisition circuit, and the conversion circuit are formed on the semiconductor circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2021
    Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Noboru Iwata, Tatsuhito Arimura
  • Patent number: 10983185
    Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for radio frequency (RF) coils for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems. In one embodiment, a system comprises: a radio frequency (RF) coil array for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, including: a flexible shell including an inner layer; and a plurality of flexible RF coils embedded within the inner layer, with each RF coil of the plurality of RF coils including two distributed capacitance wire conductors. In this way, the RF coil array may deform in order to conform to a body of a patient.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Ceara Delmore Stack, Fraser John Laing Robb, Victor Taracila, Robert Steven Stormont, Luke Charles Smith
  • Patent number: 10977966
    Abstract: A system, apparatus and method for light diffusion and testing fixtures. The system includes remote derangement controls to test the operation of a battery backup system associated with a fixture. The light fixture may incorporate light diffusion features including back mounted light sources, channeled corners in a translucent material and/or pitted surfaces of a translucent material. The system may further include remote monitoring elements and/or sensors to evaluate proper operation of the light diffusion characteristics of a fixture during operation of the battery backup system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2021
    Assignee: Architectural Safety Components, LLC
    Inventor: Mark Scott Wamble
  • Patent number: 10969251
    Abstract: A method of correcting a position reading from a position sensing arrangement. The position sensing arrangement is suitable for sensing the position of a revolute joint of an articulated structure, and comprises a disc having a magnetic ring with magnetic pole pairs and a magnetic sensor assembly comprising a magnetic sensor array for detecting the magnetic pole pairs of the magnetic ring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2021
    Assignee: CMR SURGICAL LIMITED
    Inventors: Edward John Mottram, Paul Christopher Roberts
  • Patent number: 10969447
    Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for radio frequency (RF) coil arrays for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems. In an embodiment, a RF coil array assembly for a MRI system includes a compressible body; an upper posterior RF coil array including a first plurality of RF coils embedded in the compressible body; a lower posterior RF coil array including a second plurality of RF coils embedded in the compressible body; and a head and neck RF coil array removably coupled to the upper posterior RF coil array. The head and neck RF coil array includes a third plurality of RF coils embedded in the compressible body, and one or more neck straps configured to fold over a neck of a subject to be imaged by the MRI system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2021
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Ceara Stack, Thomas Grafendorfer, Fraser Robb, Steven Falk, Yun-Jeong Stickle, Taylan Dalveren, Guido Kudielka, Robert Stormont, Scott Lindsay, Victor Taracilla
  • Patent number: 10962605
    Abstract: A method for detecting an insulation damage location in a reflux rail of a subway/coal mine and a transition resistance thereof includes the following steps: connecting a reflux rail to a negative electrode of a substation, selecting a location at a connecting point as a reference location, and mounting a potential detection apparatus at the reference location; mounting a travel distance detection apparatus and a traction current detection apparatus on a locomotive, traveling, by the locomotive, to the substation along the reflux rail, where the three detection apparatuses send respectively recorded data to a control unit; and determining, by the control unit, a potential jump from received potential data and a corresponding jump time, and determining a running distance of the locomotive at a jump moment and a total running length of the locomotive, so as to determine a ground insulation damage location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2021
    Assignees: CHINA UNIVERSITY OF MINING AND TECHNOLOGY, XUZHOU ZHONGMINE TRANSMISSION TRACK TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD
    Inventors: Shaoyi Xu, Fangfang Xing, Wei Li, Yuqiao Wang, Yao Chen, Hongyu Xue
  • Patent number: 10962386
    Abstract: A magnetic revolution counter, and method for determining a predefinable number n of revolutions to be determined of a rotating magnetic field, generated by a magnetic system includes a revolution sensor, which includes magnetic domain wall conductors composed of open spirals or closed, multiply-wound loops, which are formed by a GMR layer stack or a soft magnetic layer comprising locally present TMR layer stacks and in which magnetic 180° domain walls can be introduced and located by measuring the electrical resistance of predefinable spiral or loop sections, wherein a single domain wall is, or at least two magnetic domain walls are, introduced into the domain wall conductors such that the at least two domain walls are brought into a defined separation of greater than 360° with respect to one another, based on the change in location thereof from a first to a second position, with a rotation of the outer magnetic field by the angle of greater than 360°, and are permanently thus spaced apart from one another,
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2021
    Assignees: HORST SIEDLE GMBH & CO. KG, LEIBNIZ-INSTITUT FUER PHOTONISCHE TECHNOLOGIEN E.V.
    Inventors: Roland Mattheis, Marco Diegel
  • Patent number: 10942232
    Abstract: An RF coil array for use in MRI is disclosed, which includes a plurality of transmit coil elements and a plurality of RF power amplifiers. Each RF power amplifier is integrated with at least one transmit coil element for driving the at least one transmit coil element. An MRI transmit array is also disclosed, which includes a plurality of RF transmitters for generating a plurality of RF signals, the RF coil array above-mentioned, and a DC voltage source for providing a DC voltage to the plurality of transmit coil elements. The RF coil array further includes an RF shield for shielding the plurality of transmit coil elements from interacting with magnet cryostat and gradient coil elements. The plurality of RF power amplifiers are connected with respective RF transmitters and configured for power amplification of the RF signals from the respective RF transmitters, and the plurality of transmit coil elements are configured for transmitting respective amplified RF signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2021
    Assignee: GE PRECISION HEALTHCARE LLC
    Inventors: Tingting Song, Desmond Teck Beng Yeo, Thomas Kwok-Fah Foo, Xin Jiang
  • Patent number: 10928430
    Abstract: The invention disclosed a high precision decade capacitor standard box. It comprises 6 sets of physical capacitors, 6 changeover switches, and output ports. Each set of physical capacitors include 4 physical capacitors, at least one capacitor has single-unit capacitance. The changeover switch implements the decade encoding of all the combinations of 4 physical capacitors. The changeover switch has input terminals that connect to two electrodes of physical capacitors, and output terminals that connect to the output ports of capacitor standard box to provide the selected capacitance. The capacitance values can be selected any integer from 0 to 10 times of single-unit capacitance. The decade encoding of all the combinations of 4 capacitors can reduce the number of required capacitors and wires for connecting capacitors. The open and short compensation are adopted in this decade capacitor standard, which minimizes error, improve accuracy, and is convenient for measurement, transport, and field application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: Chengdu Kaipu Electronic Science and Technologies Co. Ltd.
    Inventors: Guiying Li, Pan Jin, Yanjun Xu, Lin Pu, Dian Jin
  • Patent number: 10930432
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to the field of measurement and calibration of capacitance, especially the instrument of transferring capacitance. A wide range capacitor standard box comprises a chassis, 36 physical capacitors, and 4 changeover switches. Output ports are on the front panel of the chassis. 4 dial-switches select the output capacitance in values of 1, 2, 5 times of single-unit capacitance. The changeover switch has input terminals that connect to two electrodes of the physical capacitors, and output terminals that connect to the output ports. Comparing to decade capacitor standard boxes, the present box realizes capacitance outputs from 1 pF˜500 mF in values of 1, 2, 5 times of single-unit capacitance. The present box significantly extends the measurement range of capacitance, and makes the capacitor standard box smaller and lighter. By introducing a compensation function for open and short circuits, it is convenient and suitable for precision measurement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: Chengdu Kaipu Electronic Science and Technologies Co. Ltd.
    Inventors: Pan Jin, Yanjun Xu, Dian Jin, Pu Lin
  • Patent number: 10921399
    Abstract: Various methods and systems are provided for a flexible, lightweight, low-cost radio frequency (RF) coil array of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system. In one example, a RF coil assembly for a MRI system includes a loop portion comprising distributed capacitance wire conductors, a coupling electronics portion including a pre-amplifier. A coupler slidably connects two adjacent coil loops together. An open area is formed inside the loops enabling tissue manipulation or biopsies from interventional or surgical procedures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2021
    Assignee: GE PRECISION HEALTHCARE LLC
    Inventors: Stephen Gerard Hushek, Scott Allen Lindsay, Robert Steven Stormont
  • Patent number: 10900769
    Abstract: A grip, a magnet 140, and a substrate 150 are included. The grip is rotatable between positions where a throttle is fully closed and a position where the throttle is fully open with a rotating shaft as a center. The magnet 140 rotates integrally with the grip. The substrate 150 includes a plurality of Hall elements 165 and 175, and is fixed to face the magnet 140. The plurality of Hall elements 165 and 175 are disposed in such a way that magnetic flux densities different from each other are respectively applied to the plurality of Hall elements 165 and 175 when an external magnetic field acts in a state where the grip is located in the position where the throttle is fully closed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2021
    Assignee: TOYO DENSO CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shoji Kishi, Toshiya Yoshida
  • Patent number: 10900353
    Abstract: Methods and systems for identifying a salinity gradient in a formation surrounding a bore of a subterranean well includes introducing an antenna assembly into the bore of the subterranean well. The antenna assembly has an elongated antenna body. An emitting antenna extends axially along an outer surface of the antenna body. A receiving antenna extends axially along the outer surface of the antenna body, the receiving antenna being spaced circumferentially apart from the emitting antenna. An electromagnetic interrogation wave is produced into the formation with the emitting antenna with a pulse duration of no greater than 0.01 seconds. A reflected wave is received with the receiving antenna. The amplitude of the reflected wave is analyzed to determine a distribution of chlorine ion concentration in the formation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2021
    Assignee: SAUDI ARABIAN OIL COMPANY
    Inventors: Mohamed Nabil Noui-Mehidi, Ilies Mostefai
  • Patent number: 10901026
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for detection of a failure of a rectifier connected to a passive harmonic filter with a tuned circuit reactor, or of the filter itself, using low cost voltage sensing, modeling of reactor resistance and saturable inductance, and a mathematical integration. The harmonic spectrum of the rectifier current is used to determine an estimate of the rectifier impedance. A template of expected rectifier current is calculated, and compared against a rectifier current calculated on the basis of sensed voltages, to generate a difference signal. The difference signal is compared against a predetermined fault threshold to determine if an error has occurred. The apparatus includes a DSP obtaining the voltages of the source and load, and the tuned circuit reactor voltage, and configured to compare the currents calculated from the actual voltages with the currents in the template, and to thereby determine whether to annunciate a fault.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2021
    Assignee: TCI, LLC
    Inventors: William Kranz, Ian Wallace, Skyler Sandlin, Ashish Bendre, James Pomes
  • Patent number: 10895633
    Abstract: The number of pulses of a stimulus signal provided by a conducted electrical weapon (“CEW”) between launch and establishing an electrical circuit with a human or animal target may be counted to determine the distance between the CEW and the target and the distance between electrodes launched by the CEW toward the target while positioned in or near target tissue.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2021
    Assignee: Axon Enterprise, Inc.
    Inventors: Magne Nerheim, Steven N. D. Brundula