Patents by Inventor Kunio Sawaya

Kunio Sawaya 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: 9923281
    Abstract: A disclosed dual antenna system includes a receiving antenna which includes a first surface orthogonal to an incident wave, the first surface being a first antenna aperture, and a transmitting antenna which includes a second surface parallel to a reflection direction which is a transmission direction, the second surface being a second antenna aperture. A portion of a structure of the transmitting antenna is shared by the receiving antenna.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2018
    Assignees: NTT DOCOMO, INC., TOHOKU UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Tamami Maruyama, Yasuhiro Oda, Jianfeng Li, Qiaowei Yuan, Qiang Chen, Kunio Sawaya
  • Patent number: 9379666
    Abstract: In order to implement novel utilization methods, implementation of a low power consumption and high sensitivity RF receiving system is desired. A microwave frequency band stub resonance booster circuit characterized by boosting the amplitude of an RF signal in a passive operation by resonating in series a 0.2 pF to 0.01 pF micro-capacitor element with a ?g/2 open stub element to perform impedance conversion of the input RF signal is used. In addition, since a capacitor which has been conventionally inserted in order to repeat charging and discharging of the RF signal by using two diodes becomes useless by putting a DC resonant component of resonant-boosted output into an open state when voltage-doubling and rectifying the resonant-boosted RF signal, rectified output can be obtained and high-sensitivity reception and detection of the RF signal becomes possible without being affected by the capacitor which imparts comparatively large insertion loss.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2016
    Assignee: TOHOKU UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Hitoshi Kitayoshi, Kunio Sawaya
  • Publication number: 20150155636
    Abstract: A disclosed dual antenna system includes a receiving antenna which includes a first surface orthogonal to an incident wave, the first surface being a first antenna aperture, and a transmitting antenna which includes a second surface parallel to a reflection direction which is a transmission direction, the second surface being a second antenna aperture. A portion of a structure of the transmitting antenna is shared by the receiving antenna.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 15, 2013
    Publication date: June 4, 2015
    Applicants: NTT DOCOMO, INC., TOHOKU UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Tamami Maruyama, Yasuhiro Oda, Jianfeng Li, Qiaowei Yuan, Qiang Chen, Kunio Sawaya
  • Patent number: 8836583
    Abstract: A reflectarray, including: a substrate; and a plurality of patches formed on each of areas into which a principal surface of the substrate is divided, wherein the plurality of patches are formed by including a gap.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2014
    Assignees: NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Tohoku University
    Inventors: Tamami Maruyama, Tomoyuki Ohya, Tatsuo Furuno, Kunio Sawaya, Qiang Chen, Jianfeng Li, Shiwei Qu, Qiaowei Yuan
  • Publication number: 20130314216
    Abstract: In order to implement novel utilization methods, implementation of a low power consumption and high sensitivity RF receiving system is desired. A microwave frequency band stub resonance booster circuit characterized by boosting the amplitude of an RF signal in a passive operation by resonating in series a 0.2 pF to 0.01 pF micro-capacitor element with a ?g/2 open stub element to perform impedance conversion of the input RF signal is used. In addition, since a capacitor which has been conventionally inserted in order to repeat charging and discharging of the RF signal by using two diodes becomes useless by putting a DC resonant component of resonant-boosted output into an open state when voltage-doubling and rectifying the resonant-boosted RF signal, rectified output can be obtained and high-sensitivity reception and detection of the RF signal becomes possible without being affected by the capacitor which imparts comparatively large insertion loss.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2011
    Publication date: November 28, 2013
    Inventors: Hitoshi Kitayoshi, Kunio Sawaya
  • Patent number: 8493181
    Abstract: There is provided a sensor tag device capable of detecting event data by a sensor tag all the time even when no radio wave is received, saving power supply for a microprocessor, and enlarging the radio communication distance. The sensor tag device includes generation means 6 and 7 using one or more environmental changes, power supply voltage rise control means 8, and power supply synthesis means 9, and power is supplied to a microprocessor 12 and event data is stored in the microprocessor 12 when an event, i.e., an environmental change has occurred. A power receiving circuit having a transmission/reception antenna, a built-in power receiving circuit, and the microprocessor and capable of bi-directional communication by radio waves is combined with a stab resonance RF boost circuit and a ladder boost rectification circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2013
    Inventors: Hitoshi Kitayoshi, Kunio Sawaya
  • Patent number: 8390531
    Abstract: A reflect array (1) according to the present invention includes a plurality of array elements (10) forming an array configured to control a direction of a reflected wave (scattered wave) by controlling a phase of the reflected wave; and a ground plane (30). The ground plane (30) has a structure with a frequency selective function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2013
    Assignee: NTT DoCoMo, Inc.
    Inventors: Tamami Maruyama, Shinji Uebayashi, Tatsuo Furuno, Long Li, Qiang Chen, Qiaowei Yuan, Kunio Sawaya
  • Patent number: 8253640
    Abstract: A highly efficient thin slot antenna having a cavity and an RFID tag device are provided, in which such flexible properties can be provided to the antenna that the antenna can be worn on the curved surface of a human body, an object, or the like as well as the antenna can be relatively freely deformed, and changes in the characteristics caused by deformation and changes in the characteristics caused by a product to mount the antenna thereon. are extremely small. Conductive foil such as aluminum or foil vapor deposited with conductive metal such as aluminum is used to form a bag shape for configuring a bag-shaped product having a cavity (12). A relatively soft dielectric sheet (13) is provided inside the cavity (12), and a slot (14) is provided lengthwise on one side of the bag-shaped product at the center position in the width direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Inventors: Hitoshi Kitayoshi, Kunio Sawaya
  • Publication number: 20120168625
    Abstract: A millimeter wave imaging sensor includes a plurality of millimeter wave sensors disposed on one plane intersecting an incoming direction of millimeter waves emitted from a subject. Each of the plurality of millimeter wave sensors includes an antenna portion, a wave detection unit, a transmission path, and a shielding member. Adjacent millimeter wave sensors, among the plurality of millimeter wave sensors, are positioned according to outer peripheral shape of the shielding members of the adjacent millimeter wave sensors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2010
    Publication date: July 5, 2012
    Applicants: MASPRODENKOH KABUSHIKIKAISHA, TOHOKU UNIVERSITY, CHUO ELECTRONICS CO., LTD
    Inventors: Jun Uemura, Masamune Takeda, Kota Yamada, Junichi Takahashi, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Haruyuki Hirai, Hirotaka Niikura, Tomohiko Matsuzaki, Hiroyasu Sato, Kunio Sawaya, Koji Mizuno
  • Patent number: 8179263
    Abstract: The present invention aims to overcome the drawback with conventional RFID tag devices having a short communication range, and expand the communication range to several times or more that in the conventional scheme. The conventional scheme is based on equilibrium feeding/equilibrium modulation (a two-terminal circuit for antenna operation), whereas the present invention is based on disequilibrium feeding/equilibrium modulation (a three-terminal circuit for antenna operation). The conventional scheme is based on simple rectification of received RF signals, whereas the present invention employs a circuit based on a combination of a stub resonance-based, impedance transformation boosting scheme and a ladder boosting scheme. The conventional scheme is based on ASK or BPSK modulation, whereas the present invention is based on passive modulation, but can employ a QPSK modulation circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: Intelligent Cosmos Research Institute
    Inventors: Hitoshi Kitayoshi, Kunio Sawaya
  • Publication number: 20120075479
    Abstract: There is provided a millimeter wave imaging apparatus including: a lens antenna forming a subject image based on the millimeter waves from a subject; a line sensor including a plurality of millimeter wave sensors and capturing an image for one line of a predetermined width of the whole subject; a reflector having a reflecting surface reflecting millimeter waves; a reflection angle change device changing an angle of the reflecting surface; an image generation device generating an image of the whole subject from the respective subject images for one line; a millimeter wave radiation unit radiating a reference millimeter wave; a correction value setting device setting correction values with respect to the detected values by the millimeter wave sensors based on the millimeter wave from the millimeter wave radiation unit; and a detected value correction device correcting the detected values by the millimeter wave sensors with the correction values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2010
    Publication date: March 29, 2012
    Applicants: MASPRODENKOH KABUSHIKIKAISHA, TOHOKU UNIVERSITY, CHUO ELECTRONICS CO., LTD
    Inventors: Jun Uemura, Masamune Takeda, Kota Yamada, Junichi Takahashi, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Haruyuki Hirai, Hirotaka Niikura, Tomohiko Matsuzaki, Hiroyasu Sato, Kunio Sawaya, Koji Mizuno
  • Publication number: 20120050127
    Abstract: A reflectarray, including: a substrate; and a plurality of patches formed on each of areas into which a principal surface of the substrate is divided, wherein the plurality of patches are formed by including a gap.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 24, 2011
    Publication date: March 1, 2012
    Applicants: TOHOKU UNIVERSITY, NTT DOCOMO, INC.
    Inventors: Tamami MARUYAMA, Tomoyuki Ohya, Tatsuo Furuno, Kunio Sawaya, Qiang Chen, Jianfeng Li, Shiwei Qu, Qiaowei Yuan
  • Publication number: 20110260905
    Abstract: A millimeter wave imaging apparatus includes: an imaging device including a plurality of millimeter wave sensors that are arranged in a planar manner and receive millimeter waves radiated from a subject to detect signal levels thereof; a temperature sensor that detects a temperature of the imaging device; a storage device that stores, with respect to the each of the millimeter wave sensors, temperature characteristics data indicating a relationship between the temperature detected by the temperature sensor and the output from the millimeter wave sensor; and an image data generation device that obtains a deviation of an output from the each of the millimeter wave sensors from reference temperature characteristics based on the temperature detected by the temperature sensor and the temperature characteristics data stored by the storage device, corrects the output from the each of the millimeter wave sensors based on the deviation, and thereby generates the image data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2009
    Publication date: October 27, 2011
    Applicants: MASPRODENKOH KABUSHIKIKAISHA, TOHOKU UNIVERSITY, CHUO ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Jun Uemura, Masamune Takeda, Kota Yamada, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Haruyuki Hirai, Hirotaka Niikura, Tomohiko Matsuzaki, Hiroyasu Sato, Kunio Sawaya, Koji Mizuno
  • Publication number: 20110234783
    Abstract: A millimeter wave imaging apparatus includes: an imaging device provided with a millimeter wave sensor that receives millimeter waves radiated from a subject; an image data generation device that generates image data of the subject based on an output from the millimeter wave sensor constituting the imaging device; a storage device that stores inspection target object data indicating, with respect to each object to be an inspection target object, a shape of the object and a size of the object relative to the subject; a detection device that compares the inspection target object data stored by the storage device and the image data generated by the image data generation device, thereby to detect an inspection target object hidden in the subject; and an output device that outputs results of detection by the detection device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2009
    Publication date: September 29, 2011
    Applicants: MASPRODENKOH KABUSHIKIKAISHA, CHUO ELECTRONICS CO., LTD., TOHOKU UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Jun Uemura, Masamune Takeda, Junichi Takahashi, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Haruyuki Hirai, Hirotaka Niikura, Tomohiko Matsuzaki, Hiroyasu Sato, Kunio Sawaya, Koji Mizuno
  • Publication number: 20110163876
    Abstract: A millimeter wave imaging apparatus includes: an imaging device having a plurality of millimeter wave sensors that are arranged in a planar manner and receive millimeter waves radiated from a subject to detect signal levels thereof; an image data generation device that generates image data of the subject based on an output from each of the millimeter wave sensors constituting the imaging device; and a case that has a placement surface on which the subject can be placed and which permits transmission of the millimeter waves. The imaging device is arranged below the placement surface of the case, so that the millimeter waves, which are radiated from a bottom part of the subject placed on the placement surface of the case, are received by the plurality of millimeter wave sensors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2009
    Publication date: July 7, 2011
    Applicants: MASPRODENKOH KABUSHIKIKAISHA, CHUO ELECTRONICS CO., LTD., TOHOKU UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Jun Uemura, Masamune Takeda, Junichi Takahashi, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Haruyuki Hirai, Hirotaka Niikura, Tomohiko Matsuzaki, Hiroyasu Sato, Kunio Sawaya, Koji Mizuno
  • Publication number: 20100220036
    Abstract: A reflect array (1) according to the present invention includes a plurality of array elements (10) forming an array configured to control a direction of a reflected wave (scattered wave) by controlling a phase of the reflected wave; and a ground plane (30). The ground plane (30) has a structure with a frequency selective function.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2009
    Publication date: September 2, 2010
    Applicant: NTT DoCoMo, Inc.
    Inventors: Tamami MARUYAMA, Shinji UEBAYASHI, Tatsuo FURUNO, Long LI, Qiang CHEN, Qiaowei YUAN, Kunio SAWAYA
  • Publication number: 20100188306
    Abstract: Provided are a highly efficient thin slot antenna having a cavity, and a RFID tag device. The thin slot antenna can be attached to curved surfaces of a human body, things and the like, and furthermore, has relatively freely deformable flexible characteristics, and has an extremely small characteristic change due to deformation and that due to bodies to be attached to. A bag-like body having a cavity (12) is formed by using a conductor foil of aluminum or the like or a foil deposited with a conductive metal such as aluminum and by forming the foil in bag shape. A relatively soft dielectric sheet (13) is put in the cavity (12), and a slot (14) is arranged at the width direction center position on one surface of the bag-like body, in the longitudinal direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 3, 2007
    Publication date: July 29, 2010
    Inventors: Hitoshi Kitayoshi, Kunio Sawaya
  • Patent number: 7629936
    Abstract: There is provided a method for designing a corrugated Fermi antenna having a broad-band and circular directivity required for receiving an image by using a wave of millimeter order. As a first step, an inflection point of the Fermi-Dirac function as a taper function of the Fermi antenna is changed so as to set the beam width of plane H to a beam width having a target directivity. After the beam width of the plane H is set to the target value, the aperture width of the Fermi antenna is changed so as to set the beam width of the plane E to a beam width having a target directivity. Thus, by adjusting the beam width values of the planes H and E independently from each other and matching them with the target values, it is possible to design a Fermi-antenna having a broad-band and circular directivity in a short time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2009
    Inventors: Koji Mizuno, Kunio Sawaya, Hiroyasu Sato, Yoshihiko Wagatsuma
  • Publication number: 20090121837
    Abstract: There is provided a sensor tag device capable of detecting event data by a sensor tag all the time even when no radio wave is received, saving power supply for a microprocessor, and enlarging the radio communication distance. The sensor tag device includes generation means 6 and 7 using one or more environmental changes, power supply voltage rise control means 8, and power supply synthesis means 9, and power is supplied to a microprocessor 12 and event data is stored in the microprocessor 12 when an event, i.e., an environmental change has occurred. A power receiving circuit having a transmission/reception antenna, a built-in power receiving circuit, and the microprocessor and capable of bi-directional communication by radio waves is combined with a stab resonance RF boost circuit and a ladder boost rectification circuit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2006
    Publication date: May 14, 2009
    Inventors: Hitoshi Kitayoshi, Kunio Sawaya
  • Publication number: 20090033462
    Abstract: The present invention aims to overcome the drawback with conventional RFID tag devices having a short communication range, and expand the communication range to several times or more that in the conventional scheme. The conventional scheme is based on equilibrium feeding/equilibrium modulation (a two-terminal circuit for antenna operation), whereas the present invention is based on disequilibrium feeding/equilibrium modulation (a three-terminal circuit for antenna operation). The conventional scheme is based on simple rectification of received RF signals, whereas the present invention employs a circuit based on a combination of a stub resonance-based, impedance transformation boosting scheme and a ladder boosting scheme. The conventional scheme is based on ASK or BPSK modulation, whereas the present invention is based on passive modulation, but can employ a QPSK modulation circuit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 21, 2005
    Publication date: February 5, 2009
    Inventors: Hitoshi Kitayoshi, Kunio Sawaya