Patents by Inventor Katsuya Oto

Katsuya Oto 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: 8410749
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a power supply device includes a fuel cell, a battery, a switch, and a controller. The fuel cell supplies electric power to an electronic device provided with a built-in battery. The battery is charged with electric power supplied from the fuel cell and supplies electric power to the electronic device. The switch switches the battery between charge mode and discharge mode. The controller controls the switch to switch the battery between the charge mode and the discharge mode. The controller calculates integrated discharge electric power and integrated discharge amount of the battery and, when the integrated discharge electric power reaches predetermined discharge electric power, switches the battery from the discharge mode to the charge mode. The controller calculates integrated charge amount of the battery and, when the integrated charge amount reaches the integrated discharge amount, switches the battery from the charge mode to the discharge mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2013
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventor: Katsuya Oto
  • Publication number: 20110127943
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a power supply device includes a fuel cell, a battery, a switch, and a controller. The fuel cell supplies electric power to an electronic device provided with a built-in battery. The battery is charged with electric power supplied from the fuel cell and supplies electric power to the electronic device. The switch switches the battery between charge mode and discharge mode. The controller controls the switch to switch the battery between the charge mode and the discharge mode. The controller calculates integrated discharge electric power and integrated discharge amount of the battery and, when the integrated discharge electric power reaches predetermined discharge electric power, switches the battery from the discharge mode to the charge mode. The controller calculates integrated charge amount of the battery and, when the integrated charge amount reaches the integrated discharge amount, switches the battery from the charge mode to the discharge mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 24, 2010
    Publication date: June 2, 2011
    Inventor: Katsuya Oto
  • Publication number: 20110129750
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a fuel cell, includes a stack includes blocks, each of the blocks includes direct methanol type cells, a connection module configured to switch between connection and disconnection between a block of the blocks and a load, according to an instruction, a voltage value detector configured to detect an output voltage value of the block, a determination module configured to determine whether an output restoration process is performed on the block based on an output voltage value of the block, and a controller configured to transmit, to the connection module, an instruction for connecting the load to the block when first determination module determines that the output restoration process is performed on the block, and to transmit, to the connection module, an instruction for disconnecting the load from the block when the output voltage value has become less than or equal to a set voltage value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 8, 2010
    Publication date: June 2, 2011
    Inventors: Tomohiro Hirayama, Katsuya Oto
  • Patent number: 7785745
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a fuel cell apparatus includes a cell stack of an active direct methanol type, and a DC-DC converter configure to receive output voltage of the cell stack and to control an output current of the cell stack so that the output voltage of the cell stack becomes greater than a lower-limit threshold Vt and the output current of the cell stack lies in a range of I1 to I2 (<I1).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2010
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Katsuya Oto, Tomohiro Hirayama, Terumasa Nagasaki
  • Publication number: 20090243390
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a power supply apparatus comprises a DC/DC converter coupled to an output of a fuel cell, a first diode connected between the output of the DC/DC converter and an output terminal of the apparatus, a second diode connected between an output of a secondary battery and the output terminal, a first transistor connected in parallel with the first diode, a second transistor connected in parallel with the second diode, and a control module configured to set the first and the second transistor to the off and the on state, respectively, when the output voltage of the DC/DC converter is equal to or lower than a reference voltage, and to set the first and the second transistor to the on and the off state, respectively, when the output voltage of the DC/DC converter is higher than the reference voltage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 26, 2009
    Publication date: October 1, 2009
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventor: Katsuya Oto
  • Publication number: 20090142630
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a fuel cell apparatus includes a cell stack of an active direct methanol type, and a DC-DC converter configure to receive output voltage of the cell stack and to control an output current of the cell stack so that the output voltage of the cell stack becomes greater than a lower-limit threshold Vt and the output current of the cell stack lies in a range of I1 to I2 (<I1).
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 3, 2008
    Publication date: June 4, 2009
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Katsuya Oto, Tomohiro Hirayama, Terumasa Nagasaki