Patents by Inventor Kenichi Kubo

Kenichi Kubo 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: 7043155
    Abstract: A control apparatus is disclosed, which can check an operation history of an optical apparatus and can allow a user to perform optical apparatus maintenance appropriately timed according to the operation history. The control apparatus includes a history generating section which generates history information concerning an operation history of an optical apparatus having an optical adjustment unit and an information output section which outputs at least one of the history information generated by the history generating section and information generated based on the history information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2006
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kenichi Kubo
  • Publication number: 20050260846
    Abstract: A substrate processing method is disclosed that, when forming a copper film on a miniaturized pattern with a copper diffusion prevention film being formed thereon, allows cleaning the copper diffusion prevention film on a substrate by using a supercritical medium, and allows the copper film to be formed by using the supercritical medium while preventing void occurrence and ensuring good adhesiveness with the miniaturized pattern. The substrate processing method includes a first step of supplying a first processing medium including a supercritical medium on a substrate and cleaning a film including a metal on a surface of the substrate; and a second step of supplying a second processing medium including the supercritical medium on the substrate, and forming a copper film.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 27, 2005
    Publication date: November 24, 2005
    Inventors: Eiichi Kondoh, Vincent Vezin, Kenichi Kubo, Yoshinori Kureishi, Tomohiro Ohta
  • Patent number: 6966936
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to ensure the stable operation of a vacuum pump for discharging an unused source gas and reaction byproduct gases from a low-pressure processing chamber, to recover the reaction byproducts efficiently for the effective utilization of resources and reduction of running costs. A low-pressure CVD system has a processing vessel (10) for carrying out a low-pressure CVD process for forming a copper film, a source gas supply unit (12) for supplying an organic copper compound as a source gas, such as Cu(I)hfacTMVS, into the processing vessel (10), and an evacuating system (14) for evacuating the processing vessel (10). The evacuating system (14) includes a vacuum pump (26), a high-temperature trapping device (28) disposed above the vacuum pump (26) with respect to the flowing direction of a gas, and a low-temperature trapping device (30) disposed below the vacuum pump with respect to the flowing direction of a gas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2002
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2005
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Hideaki Yamasaki, Yumiko Kawano, Kenichi Kubo, Susumu Arima
  • Publication number: 20050158477
    Abstract: A deposition apparatus for supplying a process medium including a medium in a supercritical state and a precursor to a processed substrate so that the processed substrate is deposited on, includes a process vessel, a support stand which is provided in the process vessel, is configured to support the processed substrate, and include a heating part, a medium supply part which is connected to the process vessel via a medium supply path and supplies the process medium to the process vessel, and a medium reflux path configured to reflux the process medium supplied to the process vessel to the medium supply part. The medium supply part includes a first temperature control part configured to control a temperature of the process medium.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2004
    Publication date: July 21, 2005
    Applicants: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED, EIICHI KONDOH
    Inventors: Vincent Vezin, Kenichi Kubo, Takayuki Komiya, Eiichi Kondoh
  • Publication number: 20050151549
    Abstract: A probe method of this invention includes a step of reducing an electrode of a wafer by using a forming gas, and a step of bringing the electrode and a probe pin into contact with each other in a dry atmosphere. The probe method further includes, prior to a reducing process of an electrode of the object to be tested, placing the object to be tested in an inert gas atmosphere and heating the object to be tested. The reducing process is performed by bringing a reducing gas into contact with the electrode of the object to be tested under atmospheric pressure.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 2, 2005
    Publication date: July 14, 2005
    Inventors: Katsuya Okumura, Shigekazu Komatsu, Yuichi Abe, Kunihiro Furuya, Vincent Vezin, Kenichi Kubo
  • Patent number: 6822686
    Abstract: A lens control apparatus for controlling the position of a focusing lens includes a rotary operation member, a detector, having a rotary encoder coupled with the rotary operation member, which detects the amount of rotation per unit time of the rotary operation member by counting the number of pulses per unit time outputted from the rotary encoder, and a conversion circuit for converting a detection output of the detector into a signal indicative of the position of the focusing lens. Further, the lens control apparatus is provided with a control characteristic changing circuit for changing a control characteristic of the lens.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2004
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kenichi Kubo, Akira Hiraoka
  • Publication number: 20040204911
    Abstract: A control apparatus is disclosed, which can check an operation history of an optical apparatus and can allow a user to perform optical apparatus maintenance appropriately timed according to the operation history. The control apparatus includes a history generating section which generates history information concerning an operation history of an optical apparatus having an optical adjustment unit and an information output section which outputs at least one of the history information generated by the history generating section and information generated based on the history information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 17, 2004
    Publication date: October 14, 2004
    Inventor: Kenichi Kubo
  • Patent number: 6787457
    Abstract: A portion, positioned at an opening portion of a resist, of an anti-reflection film is etched using an etching gas containing a substituted hydrocarbon with a halogen. At the time of etching of the anti-reflection film, a carbon component of the substituted hydrocarbon with a halogen is formed as a carbonaceous deposit on side walls, less irradiated with ions, of the opening portion of the resist, and on side walls of an opening portion, formed by etching, of the anti-reflection film. The deposit acts as a side wall blocking film, to suppress lateral extension of the opening portion of the resist and the opening portion of the anti-reflection film by etching, thus allowing anisotropic etching of the anti-reflection film. With this etching method, it is possible to etch the anti-reflection film with a resist taken as a mask while suppressing a variation in pattern dimension.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2002
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2004
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Shusaku Yanagawa, Masatsugu Ikeda, Kenichi Kubo, Youichi Goto
  • Patent number: 6548112
    Abstract: A CVD reactor is provided with a precursor delivery system that is integrally connected to the reactor chamber. Liquid precursor such as a copper or other metal-organic precursor is atomized at the entry of a high flow-conductance vaporizer, preferably with the assistance of an inert sweep gas. Liquid precursor is maintained, when in an unstable liquid state, at or below room temperature. In the vaporizer, heat is introduced to uniformly heat the atomized precursor. The vaporized precursor is passed into a diffuser which diffuses the vapor, either directly or through a showerhead, into the reaction chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2003
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Joseph T. Hillman, Tugrul Yasar, Kenichi Kubo, Vincent Vezin, Hideaki Yamasaki, Yasuhiko Kojima, Yumiko Kawano, Hideki Yoshikawa
  • Publication number: 20030037730
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to ensure the stable operation of a vacuum pump for discharging an unused source gas and reaction byproduct gases from a low-pressure processing chamber, to recover the reaction byproducts efficiently for the effective utilization of resources and reduction of running costs. A low-pressure CVD system has a processing vessel (10) for carrying out a low-pressure CVD process for forming a copper film, a source gas supply unit (12) for supplying an organic copper compound as a source gas, such as Cu(I)hfacTMVS, into the processing vessel (10), and an evacuating system (14) for evacuating the processing vessel (10). The evacuating system (14) includes a vacuum pump (26), a high-temperature trapping device (28) disposed above the vacuum pump (26) with respect to the flowing direction of a gas, and a low-temperature trapping device (30) disposed below the vacuum pump with respect to the flowing direction of a gas.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 23, 2002
    Publication date: February 27, 2003
    Applicant: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Hideaki Yamasaki, Yumiko Kawano, Kenichi Kubo, Susumu Arima
  • Publication number: 20020142486
    Abstract: A portion, positioned at an opening portion of a resist, of an anti-reflection film is etched using an etching gas containing a substituted hydrocarbon with a halogen. At the time of etching of the anti-reflection film, a carbon component of the substituted hydrocarbon with a halogen is formed as a carbonaceous deposit on side walls , less irradiated with ions, of the opening portion of the resist, and on side walls of an opening portion, formed by etching, of the anti-reflection film. The deposit acts as a side wall blocking film, to suppress lateral extension of the opening portion of the resist and the opening portion of the anti-reflection film by etching, thus allowing anisotropic etching of the anti-reflection film. With this etching method, it is possible to etch the anti-reflection film with a resist taken as a mask while suppressing a variation in pattern dimension.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2002
    Publication date: October 3, 2002
    Inventors: Shusaku Yanagawa, Masatsugu Ikeda, Kenichi Kubo, Youichi Goto
  • Patent number: 6370332
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a zoom lens having a controller which controls driving of a zoom portion, based on input of zoom control information, and which controls driving of the zoom portion while calculating a target drive state (zoom position) of the zoom portion in order to effect correction for variation in an angle of view with driving of a focus portion. In the present invention the lens of this type is constructed to determine whether the input of the zoom control information is information about the target drive state of the zoom portion (for example, whether the zoom control information is information about the zoom drive state of the zoom portion or information about driving speed of the zoom portion).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2002
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kenichi Kubo
  • Patent number: 6337952
    Abstract: This invention relates to a TV lens apparatus having the angle of view maintaining function of maintaining the angle of view constant. In the present invention, in a state in which the lens has been operated by the angle of view maintaining function when the zoom lens is endowed with the function of regulating the movement range of the zoom lens to a predetermined range, even if the movement range of the zoom lens is regulated, the zoom lens is driven beyond the regulated range to thereby take matching between the angle of view maintaining function and the lens movement range regulating function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2002
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kenichi Kubo
  • Patent number: 6268967
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a zoom lens apparatus used with a television camera and provides an apparatus constructed in such structure that, on the occasion of limiting an angle of view, a zoom state set and manipulated by a photographer is converted to information about an angle of view, the angle of view is compared with a limit angle of view, and the angle of view is prevented from exceeding the limit angle of view.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2001
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kenichi Kubo
  • Patent number: 5915360
    Abstract: In a spill control apparatus for a fuel injection system in which a sleeve is externally fitted to a rotor, and the position of the sleeve relative to the rotor is used to adjust the communication timing between a port on the rotor and a port on the sleeve, the port formed at the rotor is constituted of a first indented portion formed over a specific angle of rotation and a second indented portion formed to achieve specific spill characteristics. The second indented portion is formed continuous to the front end of the first indented portion in the direction of rotation and the contour of the second indented portion is continuous to the contour of the first indented portion which is constituted of oblique sides which extend toward the front relative to the direction of rotation. The length of the rotor port in the axial direction may be set smaller than the length of the port formed on the sleeve in the axial direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 1998
    Date of Patent: June 29, 1999
    Assignee: Zexel Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroshi Ishiwata, Jun Matsubara, Kenichi Kubo, Noriyuki Abe, Katsuhiro Shimokoshikimachi
  • Patent number: 5889733
    Abstract: In a timer device having a timer sleeve at a housing with a timer piston slidably provided at the timer sleeve, a high pressure chamber is constituted by securing to the housing a high pressure side cover member constituted as an integrated part of the timer sleeve. The high pressure chamber and a passage at the housing communicating with a chamber are connected to each other by a passage formed in high pressure side cover member. A check valve for absorbing shock waves generated within the high pressure chamber is provided in the passage in the high pressure side cover member. The passage can be designed and manufactured with ease, and at the same time, the timer piston and the check valve can be separately designed and manufactured. Furthermore, stable operation of the check valve is achieved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 1998
    Date of Patent: March 30, 1999
    Assignee: Zexel Corporation
    Inventors: Kenichi Kubo, Tatsuo Nakajima
  • Patent number: 5857444
    Abstract: A rotor that rotates in synchronization with an engine is provided inside a housing and a cam ring is provided outside and around the rotor so that plungers are caused to move reciprocally in the direction of the radius by the cam ring as the rotor rotates. At both sides of the cam ring, support members (barrel 8, bearing support member 6) constituted of the same material as that of the cam ring are secured to the housing and to both sides of the cam ring, and these support members alone hold the cam ring from both sides rotatably. A connecting rod connecting the cam ring and the timer mechanism is formed as an integrated part of the cam ring. The clearance between the cam ring and the members holding it can be set small so that the vibration of the cam ring is reduced to minimize the impact noise made by the cam ring and wear of the cam ring. In addition, the connection strength between the cam ring and timer mechanism is increased.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 1997
    Date of Patent: January 12, 1999
    Assignee: Zexel Corporation
    Inventors: Kenichi Kubo, Kazuaki Narikiyo, Jun Matsubara
  • Patent number: 5806493
    Abstract: In an inner-cam system fuel injection pump, two balance ports that are offset symmetrically relative to a distribution port in a circumferential direction to form a Y-shape are formed at a rotor. The opening ends of the balance ports and the opening end of the distribution port are positioned on the same plane that is perpendicular to the axis of the rotor. The offset angle .theta. by which the balance ports are offset in the circumferential direction relative to the axis of the distribution port, the opening area S.sub.1 of the distribution port and the opening area S.sub.2 of each of the balance ports are set to satisfy a relationship expressed as S.sub.1 =.vertline.2.multidot.S.sub.2 .multidot.cos .theta..vertline.. The phase intervals of the fuel delivery passages and the phase interval of the two balance ports are set equal to each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 1997
    Date of Patent: September 15, 1998
    Assignee: Zexel Corporation
    Inventors: Kenichi Kubo, Mitsunori Urano, Toru Yokota, Jun Matsubara
  • Patent number: 5746584
    Abstract: In an inner cam type injection pump, the side surface of the protruding portion of each of the plungers facing the compression space is formed in a projecting shape in the area where the plunger changes from the base end side into the front end. Specific forms of the projection include a structure constituted with slanted surfaces over a plurality of stages with different inclinations relative to the axis of the plunger, an arc form and a structure provided with a overhanging portion formed on the side surface of the protruding portion, which does not overhang the base end, projecting out from the side surface. This will prevent collision at the shoulder portion of the plunger and, consequently, prevent the deformation at the shoulder portion and ensures that plungers will not have sliding failures or become seized. Even when plungers collide, the sliding of the plungers will not be affected, ensuring that plungers do not have sliding failures or become seized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 1996
    Date of Patent: May 5, 1998
    Assignee: Zexel Corporation
    Inventors: Hisashi Nakamura, Kenichi Kubo, Jun Matsubara, Kazuaki Narikiyo, Hajime Machida, Noriyuki Abe, Tsunayoshi Motoyoshi, Atsushi Ueda
  • Patent number: 5641274
    Abstract: A low pressure side fuel path extending from a fuel inflow port to a feed pump, and a chamber, which can communicate with an inflow/outflow port, are formed by partitioning inside a housing. A cam ring, shoes and rollers are provided in the low pressure side fuel path to induce low pressure, low temperature fuel into the area surrounding the rollers. A space that communicates with the low pressure side fuel path without constriction is formed on the upstream side on the back surfaces of the shoes. A phase of the cam ring and the control sleeve is fixed with the adapter provided on the boundary of the low pressure side fuel path and the chamber. An intake passage communicating with the intake port may be formed in the adapter to shorten the intake path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 1995
    Date of Patent: June 24, 1997
    Assignee: Zexel Corporation
    Inventors: Kenichi Kubo, Tsumayoshi Motoyoshi, Jun Matsubara