Patents by Inventor Kunio Tabata

Kunio Tabata 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: 20110043559
    Abstract: A load driving circuit includes first storage elements charged by a power supply and a series storage element group constituting unit that switches the connection state between the first storage elements to constitute a series storage element group in which the first storage elements are connected in series. A second storage element charging unit charges a second storage element using the series storage element group. Switching is performed between first and second connection states to apply voltage to the load. In the first connection state, the charged second storage element and the series storage element group are connected to the load while the second storage element and the series storage element group are connected in series. In the second connection state, the series storage element group is connected to the load while the series connection between the second storage element and the series storage element group is broken.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 17, 2010
    Publication date: February 24, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shinichi MIYAZAKI, Kunio TABATA, Atsushi OSHIMA, Hiroyuki YOSHINO, Noritaka IDE
  • Patent number: 7880539
    Abstract: A power amplifier includes: a modulator pulse-modulating a drive waveform signal serving as a reference of a drive signal applied to actuators and outputting a modulated signal; a digital power amplifier amplifying the power of the modulated signal and outputting an amplified digital signal; a low pass filter smoothing the amplified digital signal and outputting the drive signal; and an inverse filter circuit being disposed at a front stage of the modulator and capable of obtaining a desired waveform precision of the drive signal even when a frequency characteristic of a filter including the low pass filter and an electrostatic capacitor of the actuators varies depending on the number of driven actuators, wherein the inverse filter circuits include a plurality of inverse filters connected in series.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Kunio Tabata, Atsushi Oshima, Noritaka Ide, Shinichi Miyazaki, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Nobuaki Azami
  • Publication number: 20110018919
    Abstract: A capacitive load driving circuit that drives a capacitive load, includes: a power supply unit that generates different voltages; a plurality of charge storage elements that are charged with the different voltages generated by the power supply unit; and a load driving section that connects a charge storage element arbitrarily selected from the plurality of charge storage elements to the capacitive load to drive the capacitive load, and connects, when at least two of the charge storage elements are selected, the at least two charge storage elements to the capacitive load in a state where the at least two charge storage elements are connected in series.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 20, 2010
    Publication date: January 27, 2011
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Atsushi OSHIMA, Kunio TABATA, Shinichi MIYAZAKI, Hiroyuki YOSHINO, Noritaka IDE
  • Publication number: 20110018355
    Abstract: A capacitive load driving circuit that drives an electrical load having a capacitive component, includes: a first power supply generating a first voltage; a second power supply generating a second voltage different from the first voltage; a plurality of charge storage elements charged by the first power supply; a first connection unit that connects the plurality of charge storage elements to the electrical load by switching connections among the charge storage elements; and a second connection unit that connects the second power supply to the electrical load.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 26, 2010
    Publication date: January 27, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroyuki YOSHINO, Atsushi OSHIMA, Shinichi MIYAZAKI, Kunio TABATA, Noritaka IDE
  • Publication number: 20110011705
    Abstract: A belt transport device includes: a drive roller which is driven by a power source; a driven roller which is held in a rotatable manner; an endless belt which is wound on the drive roller and the driven roller; a band-like detecting section which is arranged on the endless belt in a circumferential direction of the endless belt; a sensor which detects the band-like detecting section; a displacement unit which displaces a relative positional relationship between the band-like detecting section and the sensor in a width direction of the endless belt.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 23, 2010
    Publication date: January 20, 2011
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Kunio TABATA, Toshiyuki SUZUKI, Atsushi OSHIMA
  • Publication number: 20100328379
    Abstract: A fluid ejection device includes: a modulator adapted to pulse-modulate a drive waveform signal forming a basis of a drive signal of an actuator to obtain a modulated signal; a digital power amplifier circuit adapted to power-amplify the modulated signal to obtain a power-amplified modulated signal; a low pass filter adapted to smooth the power-amplified modulated signal to obtain the drive signal; and a power amplification stopping section operating when holding a voltage of the actuator constant.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2010
    Publication date: December 30, 2010
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kunio TABATA, Atsushi OSHIMA, Noritaka IDE, Shinichi MIYAZAKI, Hiroyuki YOSHINO
  • Patent number: 7823720
    Abstract: A belt transport device includes: a drive roller which is driven by a power source; a driven roller which is held in a rotatable manner; an endless belt which is wound on the drive roller and the driven roller; a band-like detecting section which is arranged on the endless belt in a circumferential direction of the endless belt; a sensor which detects the band-like detecting section; a displacement unit which displaces a relative positional relationship between the band-like detecting section and the sensor in a width direction of the endless belt.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporaton
    Inventors: Kunio Tabata, Toshiyuki Suzuki, Atsushi Oshima
  • Publication number: 20100238210
    Abstract: A fluid ejection device including, a drive element capable of storing a charge depending on a voltage applied to the drive element, a first capacitor, a second capacitor, and a power recovery module that recovers power from the drive element by connecting the first capacitor and the second capacitor to the drive element in series, wherein the power recovery module switches the first capacitor out of the in-series connection to further recover power from the drive element.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 16, 2010
    Publication date: September 23, 2010
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Atsushi OSHIMA, Shinichi MIYAZAKI, Kunio TABATA, Nobuaki AZAMI, Hiroyuki YOSHINO, Noritaka IDE
  • Publication number: 20100220133
    Abstract: A head drive device of an inkjet printer having a nozzles and corresponding actuators that jet liquid drops. A drive section applies a drive signal to the actuators. The head drive device includes a drive waveform generating section that generates a drive waveform signal which is used as a reference of a signal to control drive of the actuators. A modulating section modulates a pulse of a drive waveform signal generated by the drive waveform generating section. A digital power amplifier amplifies power of a modulated signal subjected to the pulse modulation. A low pass filter smoothes a power-amplified modulated signal subjected to the power amplification by the digital power amplifier and supplies the signal as a drive signal to the actuators. A frequency characteristics adjusting section adjusts frequency characteristics of the low pass filter as a function of the number of the actuators.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 17, 2007
    Publication date: September 2, 2010
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Atsushi Oshima, Kunio Tabata, Osamu Shinkawa, Toshiyuki Suzuki, Tomoki Hatano
  • Patent number: 7758140
    Abstract: A printing apparatus uses a liquid jet apparatus including a plurality of nozzles provided to a liquid jet head, an actuator provided corresponding to each of the nozzles, and drive unit that applies a drive signal to the actuator, wherein the drive unit includes drive waveform signal generation unit that generates a drive waveform signal providing a basis of a signal for controlling the actuator, feedback correction unit for feedback-correcting the drive waveform signal generated by the drive waveform signal generation unit, modulator unit for pulse-modulating the corrected drive waveform signal feedback-corrected by the feedback correction unit, a digital power amplifier for power-amplifying the modulated signal, which is pulse-modulated by the modulator unit, and a low-pass filter for smoothing the power-amplified and modulated signal power-amplified by the digital power amplifier and supplying the actuator with the power-amplified and modulated signal as the drive signal, and the feedback correction unit
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Atsushi Oshima, Kunio Tabata
  • Patent number: 7746127
    Abstract: A driving device of a capacitive load includes a modulator that executes pulse modulation on a drive waveform signal. An inductor performs low-pass filtering on the modulated drive waveform signal and outputs the low-pass filtered signal as a drive signal towards a load capacitor as the capacitive load. A load selection control circuit selects a load capacitor and a dummy load capacitor to be connected to the inductor so that a sum of the capacitances of the selected load capacitor and dummy load capacitor is kept within a predetermined range. A feedback circuit executes a filtering process on the drive signal so that a frequency characteristic of a passing band of the drive signal becomes substantially flat. The resulting signal is provided to the modulator as a feedback signal. The modulator executes the pulse modulation on a difference value between the drive waveform signal and the feedback signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Shinichi Miyazaki, Atsushi Oshima, Noritaka Ide, Kunio Tabata, Hiroyuki Aizawa, Seiichi Taniguchi
  • Patent number: 7735950
    Abstract: A printing apparatus that conveys a printing medium placed on a surface of a conveyor belt, and performs printing to the printing medium by ejecting a liquid from a liquid ejection head, the apparatus includes: a magnetic recording layer that is formed to the conveyor belt as a continuous strip; a magnetic reproduction head that is disposed opposing the magnetic recording layer of the conveyor belt; and a control unit that detects recording details reproduced from the magnetic recording layer by the magnetic reproduction head.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Kunio Tabata, Toshiyuki Suzuki, Atsushi Oshima
  • Publication number: 20100127777
    Abstract: A power amplifier includes: a modulator pulse-modulating a drive waveform signal serving as a reference of a drive signal applied to an actuator and outputting a plurality of modulated signals; a digital power amplifier having a plurality of digital power amplifier stages each including a pair of push-pull switching elements, amplifying the power of the plurality of modulated signals, and outputting multi-value amplified digital signals; and a low pass filter smoothing the amplified digital signals and outputting the drive signal, wherein the modulator includes a control section switching one of a state where the same modulated signal is connected to two or more of the digital power amplifier stages and a state where different modulated signals are connected to different digital power amplifier stages to the other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 23, 2009
    Publication date: May 27, 2010
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroyuki YOSHINO, Atsushi OSHIMA, Noritaka IDE, Kunio TABATA, Nobuaki AZAMI, Shinichi MIYAZAKI
  • Publication number: 20100117732
    Abstract: A power amplifier includes: a modulator pulse-modulating a drive waveform signal serving as a reference of a drive signal applied to actuators and outputting a modulated signal; a digital power amplifier amplifying the power of the modulated signal and outputting an amplified digital signal; a low pass filter smoothing the amplified digital signal and outputting the drive signal; and an inverse filter circuit being disposed at a front stage of the modulator and capable of obtaining a desired waveform precision of the drive signal even when a frequency characteristic of a filter including the low pass filter and an electrostatic capacitor of the actuators varies depending on the number of driven actuators, wherein the inverse filter circuits include a plurality of inverse filters connected in series.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 10, 2009
    Publication date: May 13, 2010
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Kunio TABATA, Atsushi OSHIMA, Noritaka IDE, Shinichi MIYAZAKI, Hiroyuki YOSHINO, Nobuaki AZAMI
  • Publication number: 20100118078
    Abstract: A liquid jet apparatus includes a plurality of nozzles, an actuator provided for each nozzle and connected to the respective nozzle, and a drive unit that applies a drive signal to the actuator, wherein the drive unit includes: a drive waveform signal generation unit that generates a drive waveform signal for controlling the operation of the actuator, a modulator unit that pulse-modulates the drive waveform signal to produce a modulated signal, a digital power amplifier for power-amplifying the modulated signal to produce an amplified signal, a low-pass filter for smoothing the amplified signal and supplying the actuator with the drive signal, and a carrier frequency adjusting unit that adjusts a carrier frequency of the pulse modulation by the modulator unit in accordance with the number of actuators to be driven.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 19, 2010
    Publication date: May 13, 2010
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Atsushi OSHIMA, Kunio TABATA
  • Publication number: 20100111708
    Abstract: A fluid ejection system includes: a pulsation generation section which, including a fluid chamber, a diaphragm which changes a volume of the fluid chamber, and a piezoelectric element which drives the diaphragm, pulsatively ejects a fluid from a nozzle; and a control apparatus including a pressure generation section which supplies the fluid to the fluid chamber at a predetermined pressure, a drive waveform generation section which inputs a drive waveform into the piezoelectric element, and a load detection section which detects a load of the pressure generation section, wherein in the event that the load detection section has detected a load abnormality of the pressure generation section, a fluid discharge pressure amplitude of the pulsation generation section or a fluid supply pressure of the pressure generation section is made higher than at a normal drive time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 27, 2009
    Publication date: May 6, 2010
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takeshi SETO, Kazuo KAWASUMI, Kunio TABATA, Shinichi MIYAZAKI
  • Publication number: 20100103212
    Abstract: A fluid ejection device configured to eject fluid from an ejection port includes a driving element that pressurizes the fluid and causes it to be ejected from the ejection port by being driven according to a voltage applied thereto. A driving voltage waveform selecting unit selects a driving voltage waveform to be applied to the driving element from among a plurality of types of the stored driving voltage waveforms. Power sources set the voltage to be outputted. A power source voltage determining unit determines voltages to be set to the power sources on the basis of the selected driving voltage waveform. A driving voltage waveform applying unit applies the selected driving voltage waveform to the driving element by setting the determined voltages to the power sources and connecting the power sources to the driving element while switching the same.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2009
    Publication date: April 29, 2010
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kunio TABATA, Nobuaki AZAMI, Hiroyuki YOSHINO, Shinichi MIYAZAKI, Atsushi OSHIMA, Noritaka IDE
  • Publication number: 20100102882
    Abstract: An electric load driving circuit for driving an electric load having a capacity component includes a plurality of power sources generating different voltages, capacitors provided parallel to the plurality of power sources, a switch control unit that switches connections between the capacitors and the electric load and thereby switching a voltage applied to the electric load, discharge paths that enable discharging electric charge stored in the capacitor, and a discharge control unit that controls a quantity of electric charge discharged from the discharge paths.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2009
    Publication date: April 29, 2010
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroyuki YOSHINO, Nobuaki AZAMI, Shinichi MIYAZAKI, Kunio TABATA, Atsushi OSHIMA, Noritaka IDE
  • Publication number: 20100103213
    Abstract: A fluid ejection device that ejects fluid from an ejection port includes: a drive element that ejects fluid in accordance with a difference between voltages applied to a first terminal and a second terminal; a drive voltage waveform storing unit that stores a drive voltage waveform applied to the drive element; a plurality of power supplies each having a different voltage; and a drive voltage waveform applying unit that applies the drive voltage waveform to the drive element by switching among the plurality of power supplies connected to the first and second terminals of the drive element.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2009
    Publication date: April 29, 2010
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Noritaka IDE, Kunio TABATA, Shinichi MIYAZAKI, Atsushi OSHIMA, Hiroyuki YOSHINO, Nobuaki AZAMI
  • Publication number: 20100097114
    Abstract: A pulse width modulation circuit includes: a reference signal generator which generates a plurality of mutually differing reference signals; a comparator which compares the reference signals and an input signal with respect to magnitude, and outputs results of the comparison as a plurality of comparison signals with mutually differing phases; and a synthesizer which, using a logical operation, outputs the plurality of comparison signals output from the comparator as a pulse width modulated signal configured of one or more binary signals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 21, 2009
    Publication date: April 22, 2010
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shinichi MIYAZAKI, Hiroyuki YOSHINO, Nobuaki AZAMI, Atsushi OSHIMA, Noritaka IDE, Kunio TABATA