Patents by Inventor Kinya Ozawa

Kinya Ozawa 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: 20100194803
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a liquid ejecting head having a pressure generating chamber which communicates with a nozzle opening for discharging a liquid and a pressure generating unit which generates a pressure variation within the pressure generating chamber; and a driving unit that supplies the pressure generating unit with a driving signal having an inflation element in which the pressure generating chamber is inflated, a contraction element in which the pressure generating chamber is contracted to discharge a liquid from the nozzle opening, and a re-inflation element in which the pressure generating chamber is inflated during the contraction element, wherein the re-inflation element is initiated in a state that two different phases of vibration of the meniscus within the nozzle opening are not opposite to each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 3, 2010
    Publication date: August 5, 2010
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kinya Ozawa
  • Publication number: 20100188451
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes: a liquid ejecting head which includes nozzles, pressure generating chambers communicating with the nozzles, and pressure generating elements causing a pressure change in a liquid of the pressure generating chambers and which ejects the liquid from the nozzles in response to an operation of the pressure generating elements; and a driving signal generating unit which drives the pressure generating elements to repeatedly generate a driving signal containing an ejection driving pulse used to eject the liquid from the nozzles.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2010
    Publication date: July 29, 2010
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kinya Ozawa, Junhua Zhang
  • Publication number: 20100182363
    Abstract: A liquid discharging apparatus includes: a liquid discharging head which has a pressure generation chamber that is communicated with a nozzle orifice, and a pressure generation element that generates pressure variation in liquid in the pressure generation chamber, and which can discharge liquid from the nozzle orifice by the operation of the pressure generation element; and a driving signal generation section which generates a series of driving signals that includes a driving pulse which drives the pressure generation element, wherein the driving pulse which the driving signal generation section generates includes an expansion element which expands the pressure generation chamber, thereby drawing in the meniscus, a contraction element which varies voltage so as to contract the expanded pressure generation chamber, a re-expansion element which re-expands the pressure generation chamber after the contraction by the contraction element, thereby drawing in the meniscus, and a re-contraction element which varies v
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 21, 2010
    Publication date: July 22, 2010
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kinya Ozawa
  • Publication number: 20100171778
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes: a liquid ejecting head which includes a pressure generating chamber communicating with a nozzle opening and a pressure generating element causing variation in a pressure of a liquid in the pressure generating chamber and which ejects the liquid from the nozzle opening by an operation of the pressure generating element; and a driving signal generating unit which generates a series of driving signals containing a driving pulse used to drive the pressure generating element. The driving pulse generated by the driving signal generating unit contains a plurality of expansion components expanding the pressure generating chamber and drawing a meniscus and an ejection component varying a voltage so as to contract the expanded pressure generating chamber and ejecting a liquid droplet. The expansion component includes a first expansion component and a second expansion component drawing the meniscus at a voltage variation ratio different from that of the first expansion component.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2009
    Publication date: July 8, 2010
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kinya Ozawa
  • Publication number: 20100141698
    Abstract: A liquid discharging apparatus includes: a pressure chamber that is in communication with a nozzle; an element that operates to cause a pressure change in liquid retained in the pressure chamber; and a discharging pulse generating unit that generates a discharging pulse for operating the element to discharge the liquid from the nozzle, wherein the discharging pulse generating unit generates an anterior discharging pulse and a posterior discharging pulse in such a manner that a time period A from the end of the anterior discharging pulse to the start of the posterior discharging pulse satisfies the following formula (1).
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 3, 2009
    Publication date: June 10, 2010
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoshiyuki Suzuki, Kinya Ozawa, Junhua Zhang
  • Publication number: 20100118089
    Abstract: A droplet discharging head includes a first through hole having an outlet for discharging of a liquid material and a second through hole having an inlet for injection of the liquid material, the second through hole having a protrusion on surface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2010
    Publication date: May 13, 2010
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kinya OZAWA, Shinri SAKAI
  • Publication number: 20100110128
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes: a pressure chamber that communicates with a liquid supply section and a nozzle; an element that changes a pressure of liquid within the pressure chamber; and an ejection pulse generation section that generates an ejection pulse for operating the element in order to eject the liquid from the nozzle. In the apparatus, the viscosity of the liquid is not less than 8 millipascal seconds. The nozzle has a first portion in which a liquid ejection side thereof has a smaller opening area than a pressure chamber side thereof, and a second portion which communicates with an ejection side end portion of the first portion. In addition, the ejection pulse has a depressurizing portion for depressurizing the liquid in order to attract a meniscus positioned on the second portion to the first portion, and a pressurizing portion for pressurizing the liquid in order to eject the liquid before the meniscus attracted to the first portion returns to the second portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 3, 2009
    Publication date: May 6, 2010
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kinya Ozawa
  • Patent number: 7677697
    Abstract: A droplet discharging head includes a first through hole having an outlet for discharging of a liquid material and a second through hole having an inlet for injection of the liquid material, the second through hole having a protrusion on surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Kinya Ozawa, Shinri Sakai
  • Patent number: 7671941
    Abstract: The invention provides a liquid crystal display capable of obtaining light and high-contrast display having a wide viewing angle in a transflective liquid crystal display. A liquid crystal display of the present invention employs a vertical alignment mode using a liquid crystal layer that is vertically aligned in the initial alignment state. A transparent display area is disposed to surround the periphery of a reflective display area in one dot, and an insulating film is provided in the area that corresponds to the reflective display area in the center of the dot. The insulating film makes the thickness of the liquid crystal layer in the reflective display area to be smaller than the thickness of the liquid crystal layer in the transparent display area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Kinya Ozawa, Nobutaka Urano, Tsuyoshi Maeda
  • Patent number: 7639327
    Abstract: A transflective liquid crystal display that includes a liquid crystal layer interposed between a pair of substrates facing each other and a transparent display area for transparent display and a reflecting display area for reflecting display within a single pixel area, wherein the liquid crystal layer is composed of a quasi-isotropic liquid crystal material that is optically isotropic when non-selected electric field is applied and is optically anisotropic when selected electric field is applied, the flexibility of which changing according to the electric field intensity, and the electric field intensity is supposed to be set smaller in the reflecting display area than in the transparent display area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2009
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Kinya Ozawa
  • Patent number: 7619705
    Abstract: An upper polarizing plate is provided on the outer surface of an upper substrate, and a lower polarizing plate is provided on the outer surface of a lower substrate. Also, a retardation layer having a phase shift of a quarter wavelength, and a protective layer are provided in turn only on reflective display regions of the inner surface of the lower substrate so that with no voltage applied, the phase shifts of a liquid crystal layer in transmissive display regions and the reflective display regions are set to a half wavelength and a quarter wavelength, respectively. Therefore, the present invention provides a transflective liquid crystal display device having enhanced display brightness in a transmission mode and excellent visibility.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2009
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Kinya Ozawa, Masakatsu Higa, Chiyoaki Iijima
  • Patent number: 7609352
    Abstract: The invention provides a reflection type liquid crystal device, and a projection type display and electronic equipment in which display defects caused by disclination are reduced, minimized or prevented from being produced for a highly fine liquid crystal display with a space between pixels made to be narrow to make it possible to provide a high-contrast and bright display. A liquid crystal device includes a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between a first substrate and a second substrate, and a first electrode and a second electrode formed on a face of the above-described second substrate on a side of the above-described liquid crystal layer. The above-described first electrode and the above-described second electrode are formed so that an electric field substantially parallel to the surface of the substrate with respect to the above-described liquid crystal layer can be applied thereto.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2009
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Maeda, Kinya Ozawa, Osamu Okumura, Eiji Okamoto, Hirotaka Kawata, Toshiharu Matsushima, Takumi Seki, Kimitaka Kamijo
  • Patent number: 7605890
    Abstract: A liquid crystal device 1 includes a transparent first substrate 10 having first transparent electrodes 11 on the surface thereof, a transparent second substrate 20 having second transparent electrodes 21, and a liquid crystal layer 50. Pixel regions 3 have a light-reflecting layer 4 defining reflective display regions 31 and transmissive display regions 32. A thickness-adjusting layer 6 having opening 61 defining the transmissive display regions 32 is formed on the light-reflecting layer 4. The thickness-adjusting layer 6 forms slopes 60 at the boundaries between the reflective display regions 31 and the transmissive display regions 32. The top edges 65 of the slopes are aligned with the edges 45 of the light-reflecting layer 4.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2009
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Kinya Ozawa, Nobutaka Urano
  • Publication number: 20090244128
    Abstract: Provided is a liquid ejecting method, including: ejecting a liquid from a liquid ejecting head, wherein the viscosity of the liquid is in a range from 6 mPa·s to 20 mPa·s, wherein the liquid ejecting head includes: nozzles which eject the liquid; a pressure chamber which applies a pressure variation to the liquid in order to eject the liquid from the nozzles; and a supply unit which communicates with the pressure chamber and supplies the liquid to the pressure chamber, and wherein the opening area of the nozzles on the side in which the liquid is ejected is or less of the opening area of the opening of the supply unit on the pressure chamber side.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 25, 2009
    Publication date: October 1, 2009
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Kinya OZAWA, Junhua ZHANG
  • Publication number: 20090244187
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a liquid ejecting head including pressure generation chambers communicating with nozzle openings for ejecting a liquid and pressure generation units which cause pressure variations in the pressure generation chambers. A driving unit supplies, to the pressure generation units, a driving signal including an expansion element for expanding the pressure generation chambers. A contraction element contracts the pressure generation chambers and a re-expansion element expands the pressure generation chambers before the liquid is ejected from the nozzle openings by the contraction element. The re-expansion element includes a primary expansion element at the contraction element side that expands the pressure generation chambers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 25, 2009
    Publication date: October 1, 2009
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Kinya OZAWA
  • Publication number: 20090244200
    Abstract: A liquid discharging method includes applying pressure to liquid and discharging the liquid from a liquid discharging head. The viscosity of the liquid ranges from 8 to 20 millipascal seconds. The liquid discharging head includes a nozzle that discharges the liquid, a pressure chamber that causes a pressure change in the liquid so as to discharge the liquid from the nozzle, and a liquid supplying section that is in communication with, and supplies the liquid to, the pressure chamber. The pattern of the pressure change in the liquid varies to selectively control the amount of the liquid discharged from the nozzle between a predetermined amount and another smaller amount. The diameter of the nozzle ranges from 15 ?m to 40 ?m. The flow-channel length of the nozzle is set at a value that is smaller than the flow-channel length of the liquid supplying section multiplied by 0.2.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 16, 2009
    Publication date: October 1, 2009
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kinya OZAWA
  • Patent number: 7589809
    Abstract: The invention provides a thin reflective plate having cholesteric liquid crystal that can prevent or reduce a decrease of reflection efficiency. A reflective plate includes a cholesteric liquid crystal layer, and the cholesteric liquid crystal layer includes a plurality of regions in which the helical axes of the cholesteric liquid crystal are aligned in different directions in the plane of a substrate, and therefore, the regions can reflect color light components having different wavelengths. Consequently, the cholesteric liquid crystal layer can reflect light formed of light components of different colors (for example, white light) as a whole. When the reflective plate is applied to a reflective liquid crystal display device or the like, it is possible to appropriately reflect white light for display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2009
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Maeda, Kimitaka Kamijo, Kinya Ozawa, Hitoshi Tsuchiya
  • Patent number: 7474367
    Abstract: An upper polarizing plate is provided on the outer surface of an upper substrate, and a lower polarizing plate is provided on the outer surface of a lower substrate. Also, a retardation layer having a phase shift of a quarter wavelength, and a protective layer are provided in turn only on reflective display regions of the inner surface of the lower substrate so that with no voltage applied, the phase shifts of a liquid crystal layer in transmissive display regions and the reflective display regions are set to a half wavelength and a quarter wavelength, respectively. Therefore, the present invention provides a transflective liquid crystal display device having enhanced display brightness in a transmission mode and excellent visibility.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2009
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Kinya Ozawa, Masakatsu Higa, Chiyoaki Iijima
  • Patent number: 7471366
    Abstract: A liquid crystal device includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a plurality of pixel electrodes, an alignment layer, a liquid crystal, and an opposite electrode. The plurality of pixel electrodes are disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, and include a first pixel electrode and a second pixel electrode that face each other. The alignment layer is disposed between the plurality of pixel electrodes and the second substrate. The liquid crystal is disposed between the alignment layer and the second substrate, and the liquid crystal is aligned by the first alignment layer. The opposite electrode is disposed between the liquid crystal and the second substrate. A selective electric voltage is applied between the opposite electrode and at least one of the plurality of pixel electrodes to change an orientation state of the liquid crystal from a spray orientation to a bend orientation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2008
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Kinya Ozawa
  • Publication number: 20080316403
    Abstract: A transflective liquid crystal display that includes a liquid crystal layer interposed between a pair of substrates facing each other and a transparent display area for transparent display and a reflecting display area for reflecting display within a single pixel area, wherein the liquid crystal layer is composed of a quasi-isotropic liquid crystal material that is optically isotropic when non-selected electric field is applied and is optically anisotropic when selected electric field is applied, the flexibility of which changing according to the electric field intensity, and the electric field intensity is supposed to be set smaller in the reflecting display area than in the transparent display area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 17, 2008
    Publication date: December 25, 2008
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kinya Ozawa