Patents by Inventor Hans Zou

Hans Zou 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).

  • Patent number: 11940864
    Abstract: A multiphase power supply including a controller and phases can respond to a drop in load level by reducing all but one active phase to reduce power consumption. If the load level drops further, further reduction of the power consumption could be achieved by reducing, changing, or disabling the functions of some circuits within the active phase during these conditions. Estimating these conditions, however, may be difficult for a controller when the communication between the controller and the phase is limited. The disclosure describes an active phase that estimates a state of the load based on a sensed output current and a pulse width modulation control signal. The active phase may change its operating mode to match the estimated state of the load so that lighter load conditions consume less power. Furthermore, the idle phase(s) may nearly turn off all function except PWM detection to save power. Because this mode change is local to the phase, no additional communication with the controller is required.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC
    Inventor: Han Zou
  • Publication number: 20240093548
    Abstract: An apparatus provides for the flexible adjustment of the position of the windows, as well as for the ability to change the light transmission area of a single window, without wasting too much space. The apparatus can transform windows into completely opaque walls, for example, to achieve partial or complete light blockage by moving several wall panels hidden inside the sill up and down to specified positions. A set of push plates inside the sill can be used to displace the wall panels horizontally and a set of lifting plates on the window frame can be used to move the wall panels up and down along a track. At the same time, after selecting the specified position, the corresponding position can have a stick to push the wall panel into the specified position and tighten and fix the wall panel in the desired position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 16, 2022
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Inventors: Jiuqi Wang, Xunmin Jiang, Zhuangboyu Zhou, Sichen Li, Ju Gao, Han Qin, Jiayang Qin, Keguan Zou
  • Publication number: 20240093482
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method for framing a building structure prefabricated with electrical wiring, plumbing, and HVAC system, the method comprising: designing interior functions of each floor within the building structure; determining the positions of the electrical column, the plumbing column, the HVAC column, the electrical beams, the plumbing beams, and the HVAC beams in the building structure based on the interior design of the previous step, and these positions also comply with a location selection principle; installing the electrical column, the plumbing column, the HVAC column, the electrical beams, the plumbing beams and the HVAC beams; and connecting the electrical wires on the electrical columns and the electrical beams, the water pipes on the plumbing column and the plumbing beams, and the ventilation spaces in the HVAC column and the HVAC beams. Through above-mentioned method, the present invention is intended to realize rapid house building process with safety.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 16, 2022
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Inventors: Zhuangboyu Zhou, Jiuqi Wang, Keguan Zou, Sichen Li, Han Qin, Jiayang Qin
  • Publication number: 20240094140
    Abstract: An on-line detection system for defects of an MEA is provided. The detection system includes a workbench, two connecting rods are arranged inside the workbench, two ends of the two connecting rods are both connected to two side walls of the workbench by means of bearings, and conveying rollers are fixedly arranged outside the two connecting rods in a sleeving manner. One side of the workbench is fixedly provided with a first electric motor, and an output end of the first electric motor is fixedly connected to one of the connecting rods. Belt pulleys are fixedly arranged outside the two connecting rods in a sleeving manner, and a belt is arranged outside the two belt pulleys in a sleeving manner. A hollow roller is arranged on an inner side of the workbench, and a plurality of exhaust holes are provided in a top of the hollow roller.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 18, 2023
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Applicant: China University of Petroleum (East China)
    Inventors: Min WANG, Jiexin ZOU, Mingbo WU, Han HU, Zhongtao LI, Debin KONG, Guanxiong WANG
  • Publication number: 20240097419
    Abstract: The present invention provides a power cable system prefabricated in a building structure, the building structure contains at least one floor, and each floor has at least one starting column, a plurality of main beams and a plurality of auxiliary beams, the main beams are connected with the starting column, and the auxiliary beams are respectively connected with the main beams and the starting column; wherein main wires, first secondary wires, second secondary wires, and third secondary wires are correspondingly prefabricated on the starting column, the main beams, and the auxiliary beams respectively. Through those structure, the workers can quickly construct a power cable system while construct the beam-column system, which can significantly improve the construction efficiency.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 16, 2022
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Inventors: Zhuangboyu Zhou, Jiuqi Wang, Keguan Zou, Sichen Li, Han Qin, Jiayang Qin
  • Publication number: 20240084539
    Abstract: A root-like expandable foundation pile is disclosed. It includes a movable drill, a foundation body, a number of foundation blade, a foundation cap and a stopper. The foundation blades are designed to have the warped portion protruding outward, so that they can expand outward by rotating the root-like expandable foundation pile in a direction different from that makes the root-like expandable foundation pile drilled into the soil. Extra bearing capacity can be available from the expanded foundation blades. Time and cost of installation can both be saved.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2022
    Publication date: March 14, 2024
    Inventors: Jiuqi Wang, Keguan Zou, Han Qin, Zhuangboyu Zhou, Sichen Li, Jiayang Qin, Xunmin Jiang, Ju Gao
  • Patent number: 11894880
    Abstract: An automatic wireless fine-grained ratio map construction and adaptation system may include a Gaussian process regression (GPR) model constructed with real wireless received signal strength (RSS) measurements collected in a free space to provide coarse RSS estimation in a constrained space, and a generative adversarial network (GAN) to provide fine-grained RSS estimation in the constrained space by using an output of GPR as an input for a generator of GAN, modeling the irregular RSS distributions in complex indoor environments. The system may generate realistic RSS data in the constrained space that has not been manually site-surveyed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
    Inventors: Han Zou, Costas J. Spanos, Yuxun Zhou
  • Publication number: 20240037057
    Abstract: A power stage configured for assigning each phase a unique address is disclosed. In particular, the disclosed power stage includes temporarily using a dedicated pulse width modulation (PWM) connection between a controller and a phase to assign a unique address to the phase. Then, after the assignment, the PWM connection may be returned to use for regulation, while the phases can communicate over a common communication bus using their assigned addresses. This addressed communication can be used to control a power state of all phases, all phases of a particular rail, or a particular phase. Controlling the power state with addressed commands communicated over a communication bus can help reduce the current consumed by the power stage during light load conditions or sleep states.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 29, 2022
    Publication date: February 1, 2024
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC
    Inventors: Han ZOU, Owen CREGG, Margaret SPILLANE, Paul J. HARRIMAN, Kevin KELLIHER
  • Publication number: 20220124154
    Abstract: A system can include multiple WiFi-enabled commercial off the shelf (COTS) Internet of Things (IoT) devices disposed within an environment and configured to be a transmitter (TX) or a received (RX) to send or receive data over a WiFi radio frequency communication link. A server can be configured to receive and parse the CSI data transmitted from the RX, store the CSI data with a corresponding human identity label collected for training, train a human identification classifier using a Convex Clustered Concurrent Shapelet Learning (C3SL) method, and estimate an identification of a user based on the CSI data and the C3SL method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2019
    Publication date: April 21, 2022
    Inventors: HAN ZOU, COSTAS SPANOS, YUXUN ZHOU, JIANFEI YANG, LIHUA XIE
  • Publication number: 20220077944
    Abstract: An automatic wireless fine-grained ratio map construction and adaptation system may include a Gaussian process regression (GPR) model constructed with real wireless received signal strength (RSS) measurements collected in a free space to provide coarse RSS estimation in a constrained space, and a generative adversarial network (GAN) to provide fine-grained RSS estimation in the constrained space by using an output of GPR as an input for a generator of GAN, modeling the irregular RSS distributions in complex indoor environments. The system may generate realistic RSS data in the constrained space that has not been manually site-surveyed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 16, 2019
    Publication date: March 10, 2022
    Inventors: Han Zou, Costas J. Spanos, Yuxun Zhou
  • Publication number: 20220057855
    Abstract: A multiphase power supply including a controller and phases can respond to a drop in load level by reducing all but one active phase to reduce power consumption. If the load level drops further, further reduction of the power consumption could be achieved by reducing, changing, or disabling the functions of some circuits within the active phase during these conditions. Estimating these conditions, however, may be difficult for a controller when the communication between the controller and the phase is limited. The disclosure describes an active phase that estimates a state of the load based on a sensed output current and a pulse width modulation control signal. The active phase may change its operating mode to match the estimated state of the load so that lighter load conditions consume less power. Furthermore, the idle phase(s) may nearly turn off all function except PWM detection to save power. Because this mode change is local to the phase, no additional communication with the controller is required.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 20, 2021
    Publication date: February 24, 2022
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC
    Inventor: Han ZOU
  • Publication number: 20210279549
    Abstract: An Internet of Things (IoT) device can include a switch module configured to control a power supply for at least one powered device, a WiFi module configured to perform wireless communication and occupancy activity sensing, and a processor configured to determine human activity recognition WiFi measurements from the WiFi module based on the occupancy activity sensing and generate corresponding commands for the switch module based on the determined human activity recognition WiFi measurements.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2019
    Publication date: September 9, 2021
    Inventors: Costas Spanos, Han Zou, Yuxun Zhou
  • Patent number: 11108322
    Abstract: A multi-phase switch-mode power supply to control an output in two possible modes is disclosed. A first mode can be applied for normal load conditions. In the first mode, control is achieved using an error signal based on a difference between an output voltage and a set voltage level. In heavy load conditions a load attempts to draw too more power than the switch-mode power supply can provide. As a result, control of the output voltage is lost and the current of each phase becomes saturated at a limit. When this condition is detected, a second mode can be applied. In the second mode, control is achieved using an error signal based on a difference between an output current and a set current level. The set current level is chosen so that the current of each phase is no longer saturated and control of the output current is maintained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Assignee: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC
    Inventor: Han Zou
  • Publication number: 20210161805
    Abstract: A capsule includes a compressible reservoir and a gas generating unit disposed in a housing. A threshold valve seals an opening in the housing, through which contents of the reservoir may exit the capsule. Gas generated by the gas generating unit increases pressure in the capsule, thereby compressing the reservoir. When a pressure acting on the threshold valve reaches a threshold pressure, the threshold valve opens, releasing contents of the reservoir.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 8, 2021
    Publication date: June 3, 2021
    Inventors: Hans Zou, Jeffrey A. Shimizu, Ventzeslav Petrov Iordanov, Klaas Kerkhof, Christoph Wanke
  • Publication number: 20210136617
    Abstract: A mobile device and user association system can include wireless routers to execute software for capturing data including received signal strength (RSS) values and media access controller (MAC) addresses for a number of mobile devices (MDs) from existing wireless fidelity (WiFi) traffic. The system can also include a server to receive the RSS values and MAC addresses of the MDs to estimate a location of each MD and generate historical location data of each MD, identify and filter out temporary MDs, classify each non-temporary MDs as either a static device (SD) or a mobile phone (MP), and associate a user with each SD and MP.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 23, 2019
    Publication date: May 6, 2021
    Inventors: HAN ZOU, COSTAS SPANOS, YUXUN ZHOU, JIANFEI YANG
  • Publication number: 20210119532
    Abstract: A multi-phase switch-mode power supply to control an output in two possible modes is disclosed. A first mode can be applied for normal load conditions. In the first mode, control is achieved using an error signal based on a difference between an output voltage and a set voltage level. In heavy load conditions a load attempts to draw too more power than the switch-mode power supply can provide. As a result, control of the output voltage is lost and the current of each phase becomes saturated at a limit. When this condition is detected, a second mode can be applied. In the second mode, control is achieved using an error signal based on a difference between an output current and a set current level. The set current level is chosen so that the current of each phase is no longer saturated and control of the output current is maintained.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 5, 2019
    Publication date: April 22, 2021
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC
    Inventor: Han ZOU
  • Patent number: 10935999
    Abstract: A voltage regulator with a load line circuit is disclosed. The load line circuit is configured to receive a sensed voltage corresponding to an output current of the voltage regulator. The load line circuit is further configured to generate a complex (e.g., nonlinear) load line voltage that is combined with the output voltage of the voltage regulator and compared with a set voltage of the voltage regulator to produce an error signal. The error signal is used as feedback for the voltage regulator so that the output voltage of the voltage regulator can droop by a particular amount corresponding to a particular output current of the voltage regulator. The disclosed analog approach requires neither clock signals nor digital circuitry and utilizes a parallel topology that allows the disclosed approach to be fast and energy efficient.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC
    Inventor: Han Zou
  • Publication number: 20210034084
    Abstract: A voltage regulator with a load line circuit is disclosed. The load line circuit is configured to receive a sensed voltage corresponding to an output current of the voltage regulator. The load line circuit is further configured to generate a complex (e.g., nonlinear) load line voltage that is combined with the output voltage of the voltage regulator and compared with a set voltage of the voltage regulator to produce an error signal. The error signal is used as feedback for the voltage regulator so that the output voltage of the voltage regulator can droop by a particular amount corresponding to a particular output current of the voltage regulator. The disclosed analog approach requires neither clock signals nor digital circuitry and utilizes a parallel topology that allows the disclosed approach to be fast and energy efficient.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 23, 2019
    Publication date: February 4, 2021
    Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC
    Inventor: Han ZOU
  • Publication number: 20180318496
    Abstract: A drug delivery device (50) is provided comprising a drug reservoir (10) and a piston (11). The drug reservoir (10) is provided for comprising a drug and comprises a flexible wall (22) and a dispensing hole (15) for dispensing the drug into an environment of the drug delivery device (50). The piston (11) is provide for pressing against the flexible wall (22) to compress the drug reservoir (10) for pushing an amount of the drug through the dispensing hole (15). An adhesion interface (51) between a surface of the piston (11) and the flexible wall (22) prevents sliding between the surface of the piston (11) and the flexible wall (22).
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 13, 2018
    Publication date: November 8, 2018
    Applicant: Progenity, Inc.
    Inventors: Hans Zou, Jeff Shimizu, Johan Frederik Dijksman
  • Patent number: 10116216
    Abstract: An embodiment of a buck-boost power converter may include an inductor driver section configured to control four switches to control an output of the converter, and a PWM circuit to generate a PWM control signal responsive to an output level of the output. An embodiment of a switch control is configured to, when an on time of the second switch becomes less than a specified entry value, force the third switch to generate boot refreshing pulses with an on time of a specified duration value at a rate more than a specified frequency, and when an on time of the third switch becomes less than the specified entry value, force the second switch to generate boot refreshing pulses with an on time of the specified duration value at the rate more than the specified frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2018
    Assignee: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC
    Inventors: Jinseok Park, Han Zou, Kedar Bharat Patel