Patents by Inventor Kazuhiro Murata

Kazuhiro Murata 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: 7314185
    Abstract: A liquid jetting apparatus (20) to jet a droplet of a charged liquid solution onto a base material, having: a nozzle (21) in which an edge portion thereof is arranged to face the base material K having a receiving surface to receive the jetted droplet, and an inside diameter of the edge portion from which the droplet is jetted is not more than 30 [?m]; a liquid solution supplying section (29) to supply the liquid solution into the nozzle (21); a jetting voltage applying section (25) to apply a jetting voltage to the liquid solution in the nozzle (21); and a convex meniscus forming section (40) to form a state where the liquid solution in the nozzle (21) protrudes from the nozzle edge portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2008
    Assignees: Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc., Sharp Kabushiki Kaishi, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
    Inventors: Yasuo Nishi, Kaoru Higuchi, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20070253228
    Abstract: A feedback circuit (3) generates an error amplification signal VEAO for stabilizing an output voltage Vo at the reference voltage. The reference voltage is set beforehand in the feedback circuit (3). The peak value of drain current ID passing through a switching element (1) is controlled by the error amplification signal VEAO and the output voltage Vo is stabilized. Meanwhile, when a load (132) increases, a reference voltage variable circuit (13) increases the internal reference voltage of the feedback circuit (3) based on the error amplification signal VEAO, so that fluctuations in output voltage due to load fluctuations are reduced.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 1, 2007
    Publication date: November 1, 2007
    Applicant: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Naohiko Morota, Kazuhiro Murata
  • Patent number: 7265999
    Abstract: A power supply regulation circuit is provided which can achieve a preferable constant current drooping characteristic without the need for a constant current control circuit on the secondary side. During a constant current operation, a switching element (1) is turned on so as to keep constant the on duty of secondary current passing through a secondary winding (110B) of a transformer (110), so that a constant current drooping characteristic is achieved. Further, at this moment, a current limit dictating the maximum value of drain current (ID) passing through the switching element (1) is changed between first and second levels during the on time of the switching element such that the drain current (ID) has a constant peak value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2007
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuhiro Murata, Yoshihiro Mori
  • Publication number: 20070195152
    Abstract: An ink jet apparatus electrifies ink (2) in a nozzle (4), and ejects the ink (2) from an ink ejecting hole (4b) onto a printing medium (8) by a first electric field generated between the nozzle (4) and the printing medium (8). The ink jet apparatus includes an ink catching device which includes an ink catching portion (14) provided at a position adjacent to the nozzle (4) and catches an ejected substance ejected from the nozzle (4). In addition, between the nozzle (4) and the ink catching portion (14), the ink jet apparatus applies a voltage for generating a second electric field which (i) causes the ejected substance, which is formed from the ink (2) or the ink (2) whose viscosity is changed, to be ejected from the nozzle (4) and (ii) causes the ink catching portion to attract the ejected substance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 20, 2004
    Publication date: August 23, 2007
    Applicant: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hidetsugu Kawai, Shigeru Nishio, Haruhiko Deguchi, Shigeaki Kakiwaki, Kazuhiro Murata
  • Publication number: 20070146399
    Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus includes: a liquid ejection head (26) having a nozzle (21) with an inner diameter of 15 ?m or less to eject droplets of charged solution onto a substrate; an ejection voltage supply (25) to apply an ejection voltage to a solution inside the nozzle; a convex meniscus generator (40) to form a state in which the solution inside the nozzle rises from the nozzle in a convex shape; and an operation controller (50) to control application of a drive voltage to drive the convex meniscus generator and application of an ejection voltage by the ejection voltage supply so that the drive voltage to the convex meniscus generator is applied in timing overlapped with the application of a pulse voltage as the ejection voltage by the ejection voltage supply.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 29, 2004
    Publication date: June 28, 2007
    Applicants: Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc., Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
    Inventors: Kazunori Yamamoto, Yasuo Nishi, Hironobu Iwashita, Shigeru Nishio, Kazuhiro Murata
  • Publication number: 20070101934
    Abstract: Voltage applying means applies a pulse voltage between a nozzle and a substrate, the nozzle having a diameter ranging from 0.01 ?m to 25 ?m, an upper limit voltage (10) of the pulse voltage being equal to or greater than a discharge-inducing minimum voltage (30), that is a voltage required to start discharge of fluid. A lower limit first voltage (20a) is provided immediately before a rise of the pulse voltage, the lower limit first voltage (20a) having a same polarity as that of the upper limit voltage (10), an absolute value of the lower limit first voltage (20a) being set smaller than the discharge-inducing minimum voltage (30). A lower limit second voltage (20b) is provided immediately after a rise of the pulse voltage, the lower limit second voltage (20b) having an opposite polarity as that of the upper limit voltage (10), an absolute value of the lower limit second voltage (20b) being set smaller than the discharge-inducing minimum voltage (30).
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 6, 2004
    Publication date: May 10, 2007
    Applicants: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc., National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
    Inventors: Shigeru Nishio, Hironobu Iwashita, Kazunori Yamamoto, Kazuhiro Murata
  • Publication number: 20070097162
    Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus includes: a liquid ejection head (56) having a nozzle (51) for ejecting a droplet of charged solution from the tip portion; an ejection electrode (58) provided on the liquid ejection head, to which a voltage is applied for generating an electric field to eject the droplet; a voltage applying unit (35) for applying the voltage to the ejection electrode; a substrate K including insulative material for receiving the ejected droplet; and an ejection atmosphere adjusting unit (70) for keeping an atmosphere subject to ejection from the liquid ejection head, to a dew point of 9 degrees centigrade or more and less than a water saturation temperature.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 29, 2004
    Publication date: May 3, 2007
    Applicants: KONICA MINOLTA HOLDINGS, INC., SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOLGY
    Inventors: Hironobu Iwashita, Kazunori Yamamoto, Shigeru Nishio, Kazuhiro Murata
  • Publication number: 20070098883
    Abstract: The present invention provides a dispersion usable for forming an electroconductive layer having an extremely fine pattern and a high thickness/minimum width ratio in the cross-section, and which has a high fluidity enabling application of inkjet to draw a fine pattern at high accuracy and contains only metal nanoparticles as a conductive medium. According to the present invention, a metal nanoparticle dispersion suitable to multiple layered coating by jetting in the form of fine droplets is prepared by dispersing metal nanoparticles having an average particle size of 1 to 100 nm in a dispersion solvent having a boiling point of 80° C. or higher in such a manner that the volume percentage of the dispersion solvent is selected in the range of 55 to 80% by volume and the fluid viscosity (20° C.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2004
    Publication date: May 3, 2007
    Inventors: Daisuke Itoh, Akihito Izumitani, Noriaki Hata, Yorishige Matsuba, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Patent number: 7195682
    Abstract: An apparatus and method determine a size of a bonding film for bonding a bonding target having a size which varies due to temperature variation, at an environmental temperature which is different from a temperature during use. The method includes measuring an actual size of the bonding portion of the circuit electrode at the first temperature, comparing the actual size of the bonding portion with a designed size of the bonding portion at the first temperature, and determining a cutting size of the bonding material based on a comparison result and mounting the bonding material over the bonding portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2007
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihiro Yamamoto, Sakae Kobayashi, Shinzou Eguchi, Kazuhiro Murata, Kouichi Yoshida
  • Publication number: 20070064358
    Abstract: A plurality of arrangements for detecting an overload of energy supplied to an output part enables selecting latch-off or auto-recovery overload protection by the operation of a switching device. When the drain current peak of the switching device exceeds a predetermined level denoting an overload, the FB pin voltage also rises to latch off, and when the drain current peak then reaches a maximum level, the CC pin voltage drops to a predetermined level and limits the oscillation period of the switching device because output power cannot be increased even if the load increases further. Latch-off overload protection can be applied when the drain current peak exceeding a predetermined level is detected, and auto-recovery overload protection can be applied when the CC pin voltage is detected to drop to a predetermined level.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2006
    Publication date: March 22, 2007
    Inventors: Kazuhiro Murata, Tetsuji Yamashita, Yoshihiro Mori
  • Publication number: 20060286301
    Abstract: A method of preparing substrates, including the steps of depositing metal particulates into a pillar form at a prescribed position of a substrate (1) by the use of a fine inkjet method, and then sintering the resultant to form a metal pillar (2).
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2004
    Publication date: December 21, 2006
    Applicants: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE, HARIMA CHEMICALS, INC.
    Inventors: Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama, Daisuke Itoh, Akihito Izumitani, Noriaki Hata, Yosishige Matsuba
  • Publication number: 20060262163
    Abstract: An electrostatic suction type fluid discharge device supplies a drive voltage from a power source between a nozzle and an insulating substrate, so as to supply an electric charge to a discharge material supplied into the nozzle. As a result, the discharge material is discharged from the nozzle hole onto the insulating substrate. The diameter of the hole of the nozzle falls within the range between ?0.01 ?m and ?25 ?m, the power source outputs, as the drive voltage, a bipolar pulse voltage that alternates between positive and negative and has a frequency of not less than 1 Hz.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 5, 2004
    Publication date: November 23, 2006
    Applicants: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc., National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
    Inventors: Shigeru Nishio, Hironobu Iwashita, Kazunori Yamamoto, Kazuhiro Murata
  • Publication number: 20060250823
    Abstract: A power supply regulation circuit is provided which can achieve a preferable constant current drooping characteristic without the need for a constant current control circuit on the secondary side. During a constant current operation, a switching element (1) is turned on so as to keep constant the on duty of secondary current passing through a secondary winding (110B) of a transformer (110), so that a constant current drooping characteristic is achieved. Further, at this moment, a current limit dictating the maximum value of drain current (ID) passing through the switching element (1) is changed between first and second levels during the on time of the switching element such that the drain current (ID) has a constant peak value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2006
    Publication date: November 9, 2006
    Applicant: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuhiro Murata, Yoshihiro Mori
  • Publication number: 20060198959
    Abstract: A method of producing a three-dimensional structure contains the steps of: arranging a substrate close to a tip of a needle-shaped fluid-ejection body having a fine diameter supplied with a solution, ejecting a fluid droplet having an ultra-fine diameter toward a surface of the substrate by applying a voltage having a prescribed waveform to the needle-shaped fluid-ejection body, making the droplet fly and land on the substrate, and solidifying the droplet after the fluid droplet is landed on the substrate; further a three-dimensional structure has a fine diameter comprises droplets having an ultra-fine particle diameter, wherein the structure is grown by solidifying the droplets and stacking the solidified droplets.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 29, 2004
    Publication date: September 7, 2006
    Inventors: Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20060170753
    Abstract: An electrostatic attraction fluid jet device of the present invention is so arranged that a nozzle (4) is formed so as to correspond to a meniscus equivalent to a tip portion in the form of a taylor cone formed in a process of an electrostatic attraction of ink (2) as a conventional fluid. A diameter of an ink-ejecting hole (4b) of the nozzle (4) is set to be substantially the same as a diameter of the tip portion, which is about to be ejected, of the meniscus (14) of ink. Moreover, the diameter of the ink-ejecting hole (4b) of the nozzle (4) is set to be equal to or less than a droplet diameter of the ink (2) which has just been ejected. Therefore, it is possible to provide an electrostatic attraction fluid jet device which can realize a recording device which has high resolution, is safe and is highly versatile.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2003
    Publication date: August 3, 2006
    Inventors: Kaoru Higuchi, Yasuo Nishi, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20060125363
    Abstract: A method is for producing an active matrix organic EL display element by an inkjet method to eject droplets (12) of a liquid via an ejection hole of a nozzle so as to form an organic EL layer. The liquid contains an organic EL layer material. An electrostatic attraction type inkjet apparatus (15) is used whose ejection hole (1b) has a diameter smaller than a diameter of the droplets (12). The droplets are ejected from the nozzle of the electrostatic attraction type inkjet apparatus (15) in such a manner that each of the droplets is 1 pl or less in amount. With this arrangement, the landed droplet dries quickly, and movement of the landed droplet is restricted. This makes it possible to form an organic EL layer accurately with low cost.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 24, 2003
    Publication date: June 15, 2006
    Inventors: Toshio Tahira, Yasuo Nishi, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Patent number: 7037812
    Abstract: A manufacturing method of a circuit substrate, in which an electronic circuit is formed on a surface of a base member by a solution jetting device. The manufacturing method comprises: jetting liquid drops of a solution which is supplied into a nozzle having a discharge port with an inner diameter of 0.1 ?m to 100 ?m and includes a plurality of fine particles to form an electronic circuit by melting and sticking to one another and a dispersant for dispersing the fine particles, from the discharge port toward the surface of the base member by applying a voltage of an arbitrary waveform to the solution to charge the solution; and exposing the jetted liquid drops received on the surface of the base member to light or heat to make the fine particles melt and stick to one another.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2006
    Assignees: Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc., National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
    Inventors: Yuusuke Kawahara, Tetsuya Yoshida, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20060049272
    Abstract: A liquid jetting apparatus (20) to jet a droplet of a charged liquid solution onto a base material, having: a nozzle (21) in which an edge portion thereof is arranged to face the base material K having a receiving surface to receive the jetted droplet, and an inside diameter of the edge portion from which the droplet is jetted is not more than 30 [?m]; a liquid solution supplying section (29) to supply the liquid solution into the nozzle (21); a jetting voltage applying section (25) to apply a jetting voltage to the liquid solution in the nozzle (21); and a convex meniscus forming section (40) to form a state where the liquid solution in the nozzle (21) protrudes from the nozzle edge portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2003
    Publication date: March 9, 2006
    Inventors: Yasuo Nishi, Kaoru Higuchi, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20060043212
    Abstract: A liquid jetting apparatus (50) to jet a droplet of a charged liquid solution onto a base material, having: a nozzle (51) in which an edge portion thereof is arranged to face the base material K having a receiving surface to receive the jetted droplet, and an inside diameter of the edge portion from which the droplet is jetted is not more than 30 [?m]; and a liquid solution supplying section (35) to supply the liquid solution into the nozzle (51), wherein a jetting electrode (58) of the jetting voltage applying section (35) is provided on a back end portion side of the nozzle, and an inside passage length of the nozzle is set to at least not less than ten times of the inside diameter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2003
    Publication date: March 2, 2006
    Inventors: Yasuo Nishi, Kaoru Higuchi, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20060017782
    Abstract: First, through a coating step, a photolithography step and an etching step, a plurality of electrodes 142, 142, . . . are formed on a base plate 141. Next, a resist layer 143b is formed on the base plate 141 so as to cover all of the electrodes 142, 142, . . . , and by exposing and developing the resist layer 143b, a nozzle 103 having a super minute diameter is formed to stand with respect to the base plate 141 so as to make the resist layer 143b correspond to each electrode 142, and an in-nozzle passage is formed in each nozzle 103.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2003
    Publication date: January 26, 2006
    Inventors: Yasuo Nishi, Kaoru Higuchi, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama