Patents by Inventor Hiroshi Funakubo

Hiroshi Funakubo 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: 20090140197
    Abstract: There is disclosed a piezoelectric element having, on a substrate, a piezoelectric body and a pair of electrodes which come in contact with the piezoelectric body, wherein the piezoelectric body consists of a perovskite type oxide represented by the following formula (1): (Bi,Ba)(M,Ti)O3??(1) in which M is an atom of one element selected from the group consisting of Mn, Cr, Cu, Sc, In, Ga, Yb, Al, Mg, Zn, Co, Zr, Sn, Nb, Ta and W, or a combination of the atoms of the plurality of elements.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 2, 2009
    Publication date: June 4, 2009
    Applicants: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA, TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Katsumi Aoki, Kenichi Takeda, Tetsuro Fukui, Hiroshi Funakubo
  • Patent number: 7528532
    Abstract: The present invention provides a piezoelectric substance of single crystal or uniaxial crystal type in which three lattice lengths a, b and c of a unit lattice of the piezoelectric substance are smaller than lattice length a0, b0 and c0 of a unit lattice of a bulk state of single crystal having the same temperature and same composition, respectively, and a volume of the unit lattice of the piezoelectric substance is smaller than a volume of the unit lattice of the bulk state of single crystal having the same temperature and same composition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2009
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Toshihiro Ifuku, Katsumi Aoki, Takanori Matsuda, Hiroshi Funakubo, Shintaro Yokoyama, Satoshi Okamoto
  • Patent number: 7525239
    Abstract: There is disclosed a piezoelectric element having, on a substrate, a piezoelectric body and a pair of electrodes which come in contact with the piezoelectric body, wherein the piezoelectric body consists of a perovskite type oxide represented by the following formula (1): (Bi,Ba)(M,Ti)O3??(1) in which M is an atom of one element selected from the group consisting of Mn, Cr, Cu, Sc, In, Ga, Yb, Al, Mg, Zn, Co, Zr, Sn, Nb, Ta, and W, or a combination of the atoms of the plurality of elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2009
    Assignees: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Katsumi Aoki, Kenichi Takeda, Tetsuro Fukui, Hiroshi Funakubo
  • Patent number: 7485189
    Abstract: This invention provides a thin film deposition process making it possible to form a thin film having a desired composition with good reproducibility and high efficiency; a thin film deposition device therefore; a FTIR gas analyzer used in the thin film deposition process; and a mixed gas supplying device used in the thin film deposition process. The thin film deposition process comprises the steps of mixing a plurality of organic metal gases in a gas mixing chamber and supplying the mixed gas into a reaction chamber to deposit a thin film on a substrate positioned in the reaction chamber, wherein the mixture ratio between/among the organic metal gases supplied into the gas mixing chamber is measured with a FTIR gas analyzer fitted to either the gas mixing chamber or the reaction chamber and then on the basis of results of the measurement, the flow rates of the organic metal gases are individually adjusted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 3, 2009
    Assignee: Horiba, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tsukasa Satake, Koji Tominaga, Hiroshi Funakubo
  • Publication number: 20090026408
    Abstract: The present invention provides a piezoelectric material which can be applied even to the MEMS technique, exhibits satisfactory piezoelectricity even at high ambient temperatures and is environmentally clean, namely, a piezoelectric material including an oxide obtained by forming a solid solution composed of two perovskite oxides A(1)B(1)O3 and A(2)B(2)O3 different from each other in crystalline phase, the oxide being represented by the following general formula (1): X{A(1)B(1)O3}?(1?X){A(2)B(2)O3}??(1) wherein “A(1)” and “A(2)” are each an element including an alkali earth metal and may be the same or different from each other; “B(1)” and “B(2)” each include two or more metal elements, and either one of “B(1)” and “B(2)” contains Cu in a content of 3 atm % or more; and “X” satisfies the relation 0<X<1.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 9, 2008
    Publication date: January 29, 2009
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kaoru Miura, Toshihiro Ifuku, Kenichi Takeda, Tetsuro Fukui, Hiroshi Funakubo
  • Publication number: 20080211881
    Abstract: The invention provides a piezoelectric film having a large piezoelectric property, and a piezoelectric element, a liquid discharge head and a liquid discharge apparatus utilizing the same. The piezoelectric film is formed by an epitaxial oxide of <100> orientation having at least a tetragonal crystal structure, in which the oxide is a perovskite type composite oxide represented by a general formula ABO3 and contains at least domains C, D and E of [100] orientation having mutual deviation in crystal direction, where the angular deviation between [100] directions in domains C and D, in domains D and E, in domains C and E and in domains D and E are respectively 5° or less, 5° or less, 0.3° or less, and 0.3° or more, and the angular deviation between [001] directions in domains C and E and in domains D and E are respectively 1.0° or more, and 1.0° or more.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2008
    Publication date: September 4, 2008
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Toshihiro Ifuku, Tetsuro Fukui, Kenichi Takeda, Hiroshi Funakubo, Hiroshi Nakaki, Rikyu Ikariyama, Osami Sakata
  • Publication number: 20080089832
    Abstract: The present invention provides a piezoelectric element and having a piezoelectric body and a pair of electrodes being contact with the piezoelectric body, wherein the piezoelectric body consists of an ABO3 perovskite oxide in which an A-site atom consists of Bi and a B-site atom is composed of an atom of at least two types of elements.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 4, 2007
    Publication date: April 17, 2008
    Applicants: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA, TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Katsumi Aoki, Kenichi Takeda, Tetsuro Fukui, Hiroshi Funakubo, Shintaro Yasui, Ken Nishida
  • Publication number: 20080067898
    Abstract: There is disclosed a piezoelectric element having, on a substrate, a piezoelectric body and a pair of electrodes which come in contact with the piezoelectric body, wherein the piezoelectric body consists of a perovskite type oxide represented by the following formula (1): (Bi,Ba)(M,Ti)O3 ??(1) in which M is an atom of one element selected from the group consisting of Mn, Cr, Cu, Sc, In, Ga, Yb, Al, Mg, Zn, Co, Zr, Sn, Nb, Ta, and W, or a combination of the atoms of the plurality of elements.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2007
    Publication date: March 20, 2008
    Applicants: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA, TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Katsumi Aoki, Kenichi Takeda, Tetsuro Fukui, Hiroshi Funakubo
  • Publication number: 20080012054
    Abstract: Provided are a piezoelectric film, a piezoelectric film element, a liquid discharge head using the piezoelectric film element, and a liquid discharge apparatus. A piezoelectric film element that can be suitably used for a discharge pressure-generating element of a liquid discharge head is obtained by using an epitaxial oxide film composed of a perovskite composite oxide constituted according to a general formula ABO3 as a piezoelectric film. The epitaxial oxide film has at least an A domain and a B domain having a crystal orientation deviation with respect to each other. The crystal orientation deviation between the A domain and the B domain is less than 2°.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 21, 2007
    Publication date: January 17, 2008
    Applicants: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA, TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Toshihiro IFUKU, Katsumi Aoki, Takanori Matsuda, Hiroshi Funakubo, Shintaro Yokoyama, Yong Kim, Hiroshi Nakaki, Rikyu Ikariyama
  • Patent number: 7319081
    Abstract: A thin film capacity element composition includes a first bismuth layer-structured compound having positive temperature characteristics, that a specific permittivity rises as the temperature rises, in at least a part of a predetermined temperature range and a second bismuth layer-structured compound having negative temperature characteristics, that a specific permittivity declines as a temperature rises, in at least a part of said predetermined temperature range at any mixing ratio; wherein the bismuth layer-structured compound is expressed by a composition formula of CaxSr(1-x)Bi4Ti4O15.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2008
    Assignee: TDK Corporation
    Inventors: Yukio Sakashita, Hiroshi Funakubo
  • Patent number: 7309950
    Abstract: A piezoelectric device includes a piezoelectric member and a pair of electrodes, and for piezoelectric constants d33 and d31 of the piezoelectric member, the following relational expression (I) is established: 0.1?|d33/d31|?1.8.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2007
    Assignees: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Katsumi Aoki, Kenichi Takeda, Toshihiro Ifuku, Takanori Matsuda, Hiroshi Funakubo, Shintaro Yokoyama, Satoshi Okamoto
  • Publication number: 20070241379
    Abstract: A thin-film capacitor (2) in which a lower electrode (6), a dielectric thin-film (8), and an upper electrode (10) are formed in order on a substrate (4). The dielectric thin-film (8) is made of a composition for thin-film capacitance devices. The composition includes a bismuth layer-structured compound whose c-axis is oriented vertically to the substrate and which is expressed by a formula: (Bi2O2)2+(Am?1BmO3m+1)2?, or Bi2Am?1BmO3m+3 wherein “m” is an even number, “A” is at least one element selected from Na, K, Pb, Ba, Sr, Ca and Bi, and “B” is at least one element selected from Fe, Co, Cr, Ga, Ti, Nb, Ta Sb, V, Mo and W. The temperature characteristics of the dielectric constant are excellent. Even if the dielectric thin-film is made more thinner, the dielectric constant is relatively high, and the loss is small. The leak characteristics are excellent, the break-down voltage is improved and the surface smoothness is excellent.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2007
    Publication date: October 18, 2007
    Applicant: TDK CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yukio Sakashita, Hiroshi Funakubo
  • Patent number: 7280208
    Abstract: The spectroscopic ellipsometer, by a computer program incorporated therein, applies voltage to a sample placed on a stage, with a power supply device and conducting probe stands, polarizes multi-wavelength light, with a light polarizer, generated by a xenon lamp and irradiates the polarized light to the sample. The sample is provided with a multilayer film and electrodes formed on a substrate and the sample's surface, and light reflected from the sample is received by the light receiver and measured by the spectrometer. The computer analyzes the optical characteristic of the sample individually for each layer of the multilayer film on the basis of the measurement result and a value calculated from a model which is formed according to the sample structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2007
    Assignee: Horiba, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Funakubo, Yoshihisa Honda, Nataliya Nabatova-Gabain, Asuka Terai
  • Publication number: 20070215715
    Abstract: The invention is to provide an optical element satisfactory in transparency and characteristics as an optical modulation element, and a piezoelectric substance element satisfactory in precision and reproducibility as a fine element such as MEMS. The piezoelectric substance element includes, on a substrate, at least a first electrode, a piezoelectric substance film and a second electrode; wherein the piezoelectric substance film does not contain a layer-structured boundary plane; the crystal phase constituting the piezoelectric substance film comprises at least two of a tetragonal, a rhombohedral, a pseudocubic, an orthorhombic and a monoclinic; and the piezoelectric substance film includes, in a portion in which a change in the composition is within a range of ±2%, a portion where a proportion of the different crystal phases changes gradually in a thickness direction of the film.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2007
    Publication date: September 20, 2007
    Applicants: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA, TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Tetsuro Fukui, Kenichi Takeda, Katsumi Aoki, Toshihiro Ifuku, Takanori Matsuda, Hiroshi Funakubo, Shintaro Yokoyama, Takashi Katoda, Ken Nishida
  • Patent number: 7265483
    Abstract: A dielectric member including, on a substrate, a lower electrode, an oriented dielectric layer, and an upper electrode, in which at least either of the electrodes has an at least two-layered structure constituted of perovskite type oxide conductive layers, and has an orientation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2007
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki kaisha
    Inventors: Kenichi Takeda, Toshihiro Ifuku, Tetsuro Fukui, Hiroshi Funakubo, Shoji Okamoto
  • Patent number: 7262544
    Abstract: To provide a dielectric layer of crystal structure preferentially or uniaxially oriented on a common substrate. A dielectric element of desired quality can be stably produced even on a common substrate for film-making by forming a lower electrode layer, dielectric layer and upper electrode layer in this order on a substrate, wherein each of these layers are designed to be preferentially or uniaxially oriented, and to have a specific half bandwidth, determined by fitting a pseudo-Voigt function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2007
    Assignees: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Katsumi Aoki, Kenichi Takeda, Tetsuro Fukui, Hiroshi Funakubo, Shoji Okamoto, Goji Asano
  • Patent number: 7242044
    Abstract: A thin-film capacitor (2) in which a lower electrode (6), a dielectric thin-film (8), and an upper electrode (10) are formed in order on a substrate (4). The dielectric thin-film (8) is made of a composition for thin-film capacitance devices. The composition includes a bismuth layer-structured compound whose c-axis is oriented vertically to the substrate and which is expressed by a formula: (Bi2O2)2+(Am?1BmO3m+1)2?, or Bi2Am?1BmO3m+3 wherein “m” is an even number, “A” is at least one element selected from Na, K, Pb, Ba, Sr, Ca and Bi, and “B” is at least one element selected from Fe, Co, Cr, Ga, Ti, Nb, Ta Sb, V, Mo and W. The temperature characteristics of the dielectric constant are excellent. Even if the dielectric thin-film is made more thinner, the dielectric constant is relatively high, and the loss is small. The leak characteristics are excellent, the break-down voltage is improved and the surface smoothness is excellent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2007
    Assignee: TDK Corporation
    Inventors: Yukio Sakashita, Hiroshi Funakubo
  • Publication number: 20070120164
    Abstract: The invention provides a method of forming, on a substrate, a thin film of a perovskite type oxide in which at least either of a site A and a site B is constituted of plural elements and the plural elements in at least either site include elements different in valence number within such site, the method including steps of dividing the elements belonging to the site A and the site B in plural groups in such a manner that the elements different in valence number belong to a same group, and supplying the substrate with raw materials containing the elements belonging to such respective groups in respectively different steps.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 19, 2006
    Publication date: May 31, 2007
    Applicants: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA, TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: TETSURO FUKUI, KENICHI TAKEDA, TAKANORI MATSUDA, HIROSHI FUNAKUBO, SHINTARO YOKOYAMA
  • Publication number: 20070090730
    Abstract: To provide a film forming method capable of obtaining a high-quality perovskite type oxide thin film, piezoelectric element having a piezoelectric substance constituted of the thin film formed by the film forming method, liquid discharge head having the piezoelectric element and liquid discharge apparatus having the liquid discharge head. A method for forming a perovskite type oxide thin film having a composition expressed by (A1x, A2y A3z) (B1j, B2k, B3l, B4m B5n)Op is included, which is a film forming method having a plurality of steps for supplying a material containing the elements onto the substrate, dividing the elements A1 to A3 and B1 to B5 into a plurality of groups and supplying each material containing the elements included in the groups onto the substrate in separate steps.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 18, 2006
    Publication date: April 26, 2007
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Tetsuro Fukui, Kenichi Takeda, Takanori Matsuda, Hiroshi Funakubo, Shintaro Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20070060467
    Abstract: A perovskite type oxide of a single crystal structure or a uniaxial-oriented crystal structure represented by ABO3 where site A includes Pb as a main component and site B includes a plurality of elements, wherein the perovskite type oxide includes a plurality of crystal phases selected from the group consisting of tetragonal, rhombohedral, orthorhombic, cubic, pseudo-cubic and monoclinic systems and the plurality of crystal phases are oriented in the direction of <100>.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 7, 2006
    Publication date: March 15, 2007
    Applicants: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA, TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Takanori Matsuda, Katsumi Aoki, Toshihiro Ifuku, Kenichi Takeda, Tetsuro Fukui, Hiroshi Funakubo, Shintaro Yokoyama