Patents by Inventor Akihiro Motoki

Akihiro Motoki has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20120161576
    Abstract: In a method of manufacturing a laminate type electronic component, while the distance between adjacent exposed ends of a plurality of internal electrodes is adjusted preferably to be about 50 ?m or less, a plurality of conductive particles composed of Pd, Pt, Cu, Au, or Ag are provided on the surface of a component main body. The conductive particles have an average particle size of about 0.1 nm to about 100 nm, which are distributed in island-shaped configurations over the entire surface of the component main body, while the average distance between the respective conductive particles is adjusted to fall within the range of about 10 nm to about 100 nm. The component main body is subjected to electrolytic plating such that plating growth develops in and around a region including the respective exposed ends of the plurality of internal electrodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 9, 2011
    Publication date: June 28, 2012
    Applicant: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Akihiro MOTOKI, Makoto OGAWA
  • Patent number: 8200646
    Abstract: Prefixes are registered on a first list as index elements for respective registration patterns. Each prefix is selected as the longest of different-length prefixes that are extractable from a registration pattern in accordance with an extraction rule. Suffixes, which are the remaining parts of the registration patterns excluding the respective prefixes, are registered on a second list. Using different-length prefixes that are extracted from a retrieval key in accordance with the extraction rule, a prefix retriever searches the first list to retrieve a registration pattern whose prefix matches any of the prefixes of the retrieval key. A suffix checker carries out a check on the suffix of the registration pattern retrieved by the prefix retriever, among the suffixes on the second list, as to whether the suffix of the registration pattern matches the suffix of the retrieval key.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2012
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Akihiro Motoki
  • Publication number: 20120140374
    Abstract: A laminated electronic component includes outer terminal electrodes including lower plating films including metal particles having an average size of 0.5 ?m or less, the lower plating films being formed by directly plating an outer surface of an electronic component body such that the lower plating films are electrically connected to exposed portions of inner conductors. The outer terminal electrodes may further include upper plating films formed on the lower plating films, the upper plating films being defined by one or more layers. Metal particles defining the upper plating films may have an average size of 0.5 ?m or less. The metal particles defining the lower plating films may be Cu particles.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 3, 2012
    Publication date: June 7, 2012
    Applicant: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kenichi KAWASAKI, Shunsuke TAKEUCHI, Akihiro MOTOKI, Makoto OGAWA, Toshiyuki IWANAGA
  • Patent number: 8194391
    Abstract: A multilayer ceramic electronic component including thin external terminal electrodes each having a superior bonding force to a ceramic base body is provided. In order to form the external terminal electrodes, after Cu plating films are deposited on exposed portions of internal electrodes by direct plating on a ceramic base body, a Cu liquid phase, an O2-containing liquid phase, and a Cu solid phase are generated between the Cu plating film and the ceramic base body by a heat treatment, so that Cu oxides are dispersed in the Cu plating film, at least near an interface with the ceramic base body. Since the Cu oxides function as an adhesive, a bonding force of the Cu plating film to the ceramic base body can be increased, and hence the external terminal electrode having a superior bonding force to the ceramic base body can be obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunsuke Takeuchi, Kenichi Kawasaki, Akihiro Motoki, Makoto Ogawa, Shuji Matsumoto, Seiichi Nishihara
  • Patent number: 8184424
    Abstract: A multilayer electronic component includes a laminate including insulating layers that are laminated to each other and internal electrodes provided along interfaces between the insulating layers, edges of the internal electrodes being exposed at a predetermined surface of the laminate and an external electrode provided on the predetermined surface. The external electrode includes a plated film which is directly provided on the predetermined surface of the laminate so as to electrically connect edges of the internal electrodes exposed at the predetermined surface of the laminate, and at a boundary portion between each of the internal electrodes and the plated film, a counter diffusion layer is provided, in which a metal component in the plated film and a metal component in the internal electrodes are both detectable, and extend to both sides of the internal electrodes and the plated film, and, at a side of the internal electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2012
    Assignee: Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihiro Motoki, Makoto Ogawa, Kenichi Kawasaki, Shunsuke Takeuchi, Shigeyuki Kuroda
  • Publication number: 20120119867
    Abstract: A multilayer coil component is provided to have high reliability and in which internal stress arising from the difference in firing shrinkage behavior and/or thermal expansion coefficient between ferrite layers and internal conductor layers is alleviated without forming conventional voids between the ferrite layers and the internal conductor layers. A method of manufacturing a multilayer coil includes a step of isolating interfaces between internal conductors and surrounding ferrite by allowing a complexing agent solution to reach interfaces between the internal conductors and the surrounding ferrite through side gap portions from side surfaces of a ferrite element including a helical coil. The complexing agent solution contains at least one selected from the group consisting of an aminocarboxylic acid, a salt of the aminocarboxylic acid, an oxycarboxylic acid, a salt of the oxycarboxylic acid, an amine, phosphoric acid, a salt of phosphoric acid, and a lactone compound.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 24, 2012
    Publication date: May 17, 2012
    Applicant: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Mitsuru ODAHARA, Akihiro MOTOKI, Akihiro ONO
  • Patent number: 8154848
    Abstract: A multilayer ceramic electronic component includes a laminate including a stack of a plurality of ceramic layers and a plurality of internal electrodes extending along interfaces between the ceramic layers, and a plurality of external electrodes electrically connecting the internal electrodes exposed at surfaces of the laminate. Each external electrode includes a plating layer at least at the portion directly connected to the internal electrodes. The plating layer has a compressive film stress of about 100 MPa or less or a tensile film stress of about 100 MPa or less.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihiro Motoki, Makoto Ogawa, Shunsuke Takeuchi, Kenichi Kawasaki
  • Patent number: 8154849
    Abstract: A laminate is prepared in which adjacent internal electrodes are electrically insulated from each other at an end surface at which the internal electrodes are exposed, a space between the adjacent internal electrodes, which is measured in the thickness direction of insulating layers, is about 10 ?m or less, and a withdrawn distance of the adjacent internal electrodes from the end surface is about 1 ?m or less. In an electroplating step, electroplating deposits deposited on the ends of the adjacent internal electrodes are grown so as to be connected to each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
    Inventors: Tatsuo Kunishi, Yoshihiko Takano, Shigeyuki Kuroda, Akihiro Motoki, Hideyuki Kashio, Takashi Noji
  • Patent number: 8149566
    Abstract: A method for manufacturing a laminated electronic component includes the steps of preparing a component main body having a laminated structure, the component main body including a plurality of internal electrodes formed therein, and each of the internal electrodes being partially exposed on an external surface of the component main body, and forming an external terminal electrode on the external surface of the component main body such that the external terminal electrode is electrically connected to the internal electrodes. The step of forming the external terminal electrode includes the steps of forming a first plating layer on exposed surfaces of the internal electrodes of the component main body, applying a water repellant at least on a surface of the first plating layer and on a section in the external surface of the component main body at which an end edge of the first plating layer is located, and then forming a second plating layer on the first plating layer having the water repellant applied thereon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2012
    Assignee: Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihiro Motoki, Makoto Ogawa, Kenichi Kawasaki, Shunsuke Takeuchi
  • Patent number: 8139342
    Abstract: A laminated electronic component is configured to include substrate plating films disposed on outer surfaces of an electronic component main body through direct plating such that external terminal electrodes are connected to exposed portions of internal conductors (internal electrodes), and the average particle diameter of metal particles defining the substrate plating film is at least about 1.0 ?m. The external terminal electrode includes at least one layer of an upper plating film disposed on the substrate plating film. The metal particles defining the substrate plating film are Cu particles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunsuke Takeuchi, Kenichi Kawasaki, Akihiro Motoki, Makoto Ogawa, Toshiyuki Iwanaga
  • Publication number: 20120058257
    Abstract: A laminated electronic component is configured to include substrate plating films disposed on outer surfaces of an electronic component main body through direct plating such that external terminal electrodes are connected to exposed portions of internal conductors (internal electrodes), and the average particle diameter of metal particles defining the substrate plating film is at least about 1.0 ?m. The external terminal electrode includes at least one layer of an upper plating film disposed on the substrate plating film. The metal particles defining the substrate plating film are Cu particles.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 14, 2011
    Publication date: March 8, 2012
    Applicant: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shunsuke TAKEUCHI, Kenichi KAWASAKI, Akihiro MOTOKI, Makoto OGAWA, Toshiyuki IWANAGA
  • Patent number: 8130485
    Abstract: When external electrodes of a multilayer ceramic capacitor are formed by performing direct plating on surfaces at which internal electrodes are exposed without forming paste electrode layers, bonding forces of plating layers are relatively weak, and in addition, when glass particles are included in the plating layers, blisters are often generated. To overcome these problems, a multilayer ceramic capacitor is formed by performing electrolytic plating using a plating bath including glass particles, electrolytic plating layers including glass particles dispersed therein are formed as the external electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2012
    Assignee: Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Makoto Ogawa, Akihiro Motoki, Ichiro Nakamura, Norihiro Yoshikawa, Toshiyuki Iwanaga, Kenichi Kawasaki, Shunsuke Takeuchi
  • Patent number: 8125763
    Abstract: A multilayer ceramic electronic component includes external terminal electrodes that are formed by depositing metal plating films on exposed portions of internal conductors embedded in a ceramic body, depositing a copper plating films that cover the metal plating films and make contact with the ceramic body around the metal plating films, and heat-treating the ceramic body to generate a copper liquid phase, an oxygen liquid phase, and a copper solid phase between the copper plating films and the ceramic body. The mixed phase including these phases forms a region at which a copper oxide is present in a discontinuous manner inside the copper plating film at least at the interfaces between the ceramic body and the copper plating films. The copper oxide securely attaches the copper plating films to the ceramic body and enhances the bonding force of the external terminal electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2012
    Assignee: Murata Maunufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tatsunori Kobayashi, Akihiro Motoki, Makoto Ogawa, Toshiyuki Iwanaga, Shunsuke Takeuchi, Kenichi Kawasaki
  • Publication number: 20120039014
    Abstract: In a laminate type ceramic electronic component, when an external electrode for a laminated ceramic capacitor is formed directly by plating onto a surface of a component main body, the film that is directly plated may have a low fixing strength with respect to the component main body. As the external electrode, a first plating layer composed of a Ni—P plating film with a P content rate of about 9 weight % or more is first formed such that a plating deposition deposited with the exposed ends of respective internal electrodes as starting points is grown on at least an end surface of a component main body. Then, a second plating layer composed of a Ni plating film containing substantially no P is formed on the first plating layer. Preferably, the first plating layer is formed by electroless plating, whereas the second plating layer is formed by electrolytic plating.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 12, 2011
    Publication date: February 16, 2012
    Applicant: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Makoto OGAWA, Akihiro MOTOKI, Takehisa SASABAYASHI, Takayuki KAYATANI
  • Publication number: 20120041958
    Abstract: Prefixes are registered on a first list as index elements for respective registration patterns. Each prefix is selected as the longest of different-length prefixes that are extractable from a registration pattern in accordance with an extraction rule. Suffixes, which are the remaining parts of the registration patterns excluding the respective prefixes, are registered on a second list. Using different-length prefixes that are extracted from a retrieval key in accordance with the extraction rule, a prefix retriever searches the first list to retrieve a registration pattern whose prefix matches any of the prefixes of the retrieval key. A suffix checker carries out a check on the suffix of the registration pattern retrieved by the prefix retriever, among the suffixes on the second list, as to whether the suffix of the registration pattern matches the suffix of the retrieval key.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 19, 2011
    Publication date: February 16, 2012
    Applicant: NEC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Akihiro MOTOKI
  • Publication number: 20120039015
    Abstract: In a laminate type ceramic electronic component, when an external electrode is formed directly by plating onto a surface of a component main body, the plating film that is to serve as the external electrode may have a low fixing strength with respect to the component main body. In order to prevent this problem, an external electrode includes a first plating layer composed of a Ni—B plating film and is first formed such that a plating deposition deposited with the exposed ends of respective internal electrodes as starting points is grown on at least an end surface of a component main body. Then, a second plating layer composed of a Ni plating film containing substantially no B is formed on the first plating layer. Preferably, the B content of the Ni—B plating film constituting the first plating layer is about 0.1 wt % to about 6 wt %.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 12, 2011
    Publication date: February 16, 2012
    Applicant: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masahito SARUBAN, Makoto OGAWA, Akihiro MOTOKI, Takehisa SASABAYASHI, Takayuki KAYATANI
  • Patent number: 8102640
    Abstract: A monolithic ceramic electronic component includes a laminate including a plurality of stacked ceramic layers and a plurality of internal electrodes extending between the ceramic layers and also includes external electrodes disposed on the laminate. The internal electrodes are partly exposed at surfaces of the laminate and are electrically connected to each other with the external electrodes. The external electrodes include first plating layers and second plating layers. The first plating layers are in direct contact with the internal electrodes. The second plating layers are located outside the first plating layers and contain glass particles dispersed therein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2012
    Assignee: Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Makoto Ogawa, Akihiro Motoki, Tatsuo Kunishi, Shunsuke Takeuchi, Kenichi Kawasaki
  • Patent number: 8094432
    Abstract: A method for manufacturing a multilayer ceramic electronic component includes a first substep of depositing precipitates primarily made of a specific metal on an end of each of internal electrodes exposed at a predetermined surface of a laminate and growing the precipitates to coalesce into a continuous plated sublayer, and a second substep of heat-treating the laminate including the plated sublayer at a temperature of at least about 800° C., wherein a plated layer including a plurality of plated sublayers is formed by continuously performing at least two cycles of the first substep and the second substep.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2012
    Assignee: Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihiro Motoki, Makoto Ogawa, Shunsuke Takeuchi, Kenichi Kawasaki
  • Patent number: 8095526
    Abstract: Prefixes are registered on a first list as index elements for respective registration patterns. Each prefix is selected as the longest of different-length prefixes that are extractable from a registration pattern in accordance with an extraction rule. Suffixes, which are the remaining parts of the registration patterns excluding the respective prefixes, are registered on a second list. Using different-length prefixes that are extracted from a retrieval key in accordance with the extraction rule, a prefix retriever searches the first list to retrieve a registration pattern whose prefix matches any of the prefixes of the retrieval key. A suffix checker carries out a check on the suffix of the registration pattern retrieved by the prefix retriever, among the suffixes on the second list, as to whether the suffix of the registration pattern matches the suffix of the retrieval key.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2012
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Akihiro Motoki
  • Publication number: 20110309718
    Abstract: When an external terminal electrode of a ceramic electronic component such as a laminated ceramic capacitor is formed by plating, plating growth may be also caused even in an undesired location. The ceramic surface provided by a component main body is configured to include a high plating growth region of, for example, a barium titanate based ceramic, which exhibits relatively high plating growth, and a low plating growth region of, for example, a calcium zirconate based ceramic, which exhibits relatively low plating growth. The plating film constituting a first layer to define a base for an external terminal electrode is formed in such a way that the growth of a plated deposit deposited with conductive surfaces provided by exposed ends of internal electrodes as starting points is limited so as not to cross over a boundary between the high plating growth region and the low plating growth region toward the low plating growth region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 16, 2011
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Makoto OGAWA, Akihiro MOTOKI, Masahito SARUBAN, Toshiyuki IWANAGA, Syunsuke TAKEUCHI, Kiyoyasu SAKURADA