Patents by Inventor Masao Kasuga

Masao Kasuga 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: 5914555
    Abstract: An ultrasonic motor in which a voltage is applied to a piezoelectric element by using a lead board. To fabricate the motor in a simplified manner, it is so constructed that a plurality of conductive patterns on the lead board are joined to a plurality of electrodes formed on the piezoelectric element by solder or the like, the piezoelectric element and the lead board are prevented from contacting each other by bending the conductive patterns to form a gap, then a voltage is applied to the lead board, thereby realizing the drive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 1996
    Date of Patent: June 22, 1999
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Tomoyuki Yoshino, Hironobu Itoh, Makoto Suzuki, Masao Kasuga
  • Patent number: 5780955
    Abstract: An ultrasonic motor device comprises a vibrating member, a moving member movably disposed on the vibrating member and driven by vibration of the vibrating member, and a pressure regulating member for urging the moving member into pressure contact with the vibrating member. A self-excited vibration circuit has a piezo-electric element having a first surface supporting at least one group of electrodes and a second surface supporting the vibrating member to be vibrationally driven by the piezo-electric element, an amplifying circuit for receiving a voltage generated on the second surface of the piezo-electric element and amplifying the received voltage to a predetermined voltage level, and a boosting circuit for boosting an output voltage of the amplifying circuit and applying the boosted output voltage to the group of electrodes of the piezo-electric element to vibrationally drive the vibrating member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 1996
    Date of Patent: July 14, 1998
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Akihiro Iino, Masao Kasuga, Makoto Suzuki, Kenji Suzuki, Tomosumi Saruwatari
  • Patent number: 5770912
    Abstract: An ultrasonic motor comprises a piezoelectric element having first and second surfaces, a plurality of electrode patterns disposed on the first surface of the piezoelectric element, first and second circuits for short-circuiting every other one of the electrode patterns to form two electrode pattern groups, a vibrating member disposed on the second surface of and electrically connected to the piezoelectric element, a moving member movably disposed on the vibrating member, a pressure-regulating member for urging the moving member into pressure contact with the vibrating member, and an oscillation drive circuit having at least two power amplifiers and a pre-amplifier. Each of the power amplifiers has an output terminal connected to one of the electrode pattern groups.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 1996
    Date of Patent: June 23, 1998
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Kenji Suzuki, Masao Kasuga, Makoto Suzuki, Akihiro Iino
  • Patent number: 5619089
    Abstract: An ultrasonic motor comprises a piezo-electric element and electrode patterns disposed on a surface of the piezo-electric element at nearly equal intervals in a multiple of four. A vibrating member is disposed on another surface of and electrically connected to the piezo-electric element. A moving member is movably disposed on the vibrating member. First projections which frictionally drive the moving member by expansion and contraction movement of the piezo-electric element are disposed on a surface of the vibrating member near every other one of the boundaries of the electrode patterns of the piezo-electric element. Second projections are provided at each intermediate position between the first projections near all of the boundaries of the electrode patterns other than the boundaries near which the first projections are provided for adjusting the vibrating conditions of the vibrating member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 1996
    Date of Patent: April 8, 1997
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Kenji Suzuki, Makoto Suzuki, Masao Kasuga, Minako Suzuki, Akihiro Iino
  • Patent number: 5592041
    Abstract: An ultrasonic motor comprises a piezoelectric element having first and second surfaces. Electric patterns are disposed on the first surface of the piezoelectric element at nearly equal intervals in a multiple of four, with each pair of two neighboring electrode pattern corresponding to a region of the piezoelectric element which has an alternately reversed direction of polarization. First and second circuit devices short-circuit every other one of the electrode patterns to form two electrode pattern groups. A vibrating member is disposed on the second surface of and electrically connected to the piezoelectric element. Projections are disposed on the surface of the vibrating member near every other one of the boundaries of the electrode patterns.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 7, 1997
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Masao Kasuga, Kenji Suzuki, Makoto Suzuki, Minako Suzuki
  • Patent number: 5494543
    Abstract: A vibrator for a piezoelectric motor is produced by forming an elastic material into a predetermined shape, forming a piezoelectric material on the shaped elastic material for polarization and for driving, forming an electrode for polarization on the piezoelectric material, forming an electrode for driving on the surface of the electrode for polarization or on the piezoelectric material after stripping the electrode for polarization, and etching the elastic material into a predetermined shape has an elastic body and to remove the elastic body from a base. Instead of forming the piezoelectric material on the shaped elastic material for polarization and for driving, an electrode both for polarization and for driving can be formed on one face of the shaped elastic material, and the piezoelectric material can be formed on that electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 1993
    Date of Patent: February 27, 1996
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Okano, Hironobu Ito, Masao Kasuga
  • Patent number: 5440192
    Abstract: A thin, small-diameter, and efficient ultrasonic motor using a component of flexible travelling waves comprises a base, a stator and a rotor. The stator has an elastic vibrating body and a ceramic piezoelectric vibrator provided on one side of the elastic vibrating body. A central portion of the stator is secured and freely supported by a central support shaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 1994
    Date of Patent: August 8, 1995
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventor: Masao Kasuga
  • Patent number: 5416374
    Abstract: An ultrasonic motor comprises a traveling wave generating circuit for generating a traveling wave signal effective to drive a moving member, and a standing wave generating circuit for generating at least one type of standing wave signal effective to stop movement of the moving member. A switching circuit is receptive of the traveling wave signal and the standing wave signal for selecting one of the traveling wave and the standing wave signals as an output signal. A piezoelectric vibrator drive circuit is receptive of the output signal of the switching circuit for producing a high-frequency voltage signal. At least one piezoelectric vibrator includes an electrode pattern and is adapted to be driven by the voltage signal to undergo expansion and compression. A vibrating member is fixed to the piezoelectric vibrator and vibrationally driven by the expansion and compression movement of the piezoelectric vibrator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 1993
    Date of Patent: May 16, 1995
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Tatsunori Inoue, Masao Kasuga, Makoto Suzuki, Kenji Suzuki, Fujio Ozawa, Ko Yamazaki, Shinichi Hayashizaki
  • Patent number: 5365139
    Abstract: An electronic apparatus which is equipped with an ultrasonic motor and which consumes only a small amount of electric power, is stable in performance, and is capable of accurately controlling the angular position is offered.A driving pulse storage circuit stores driving pulses corresponding to the environment of the components of the ultrasonic motor. A stopping pulse storage circuit stores stopping pulses corresponding to the environment of the components of the motor. An environment detection means detects the environment of the components. An output pulse-selecting circuit receives the output signal from a driving pulse-generating circuit and the output signal from a stopping pulse-generating circuit and produces output pulses corresponding to the output signal from a detection signal-generating circuit to a piezoelectric vibrator-driving circuit. The moving member and the output means are operated by ultrasonic vibration of the vibrating member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 1993
    Date of Patent: November 15, 1994
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Masao Kasuga, Tatsunori Inoue, Jun Hirotomi, Hiroshi Kitamura
  • Patent number: 5254899
    Abstract: A traveller having two ultrasonic motors, each of which movable member drives the driving wheel respectively. The ultrasonic motor comprises a vibrating member, a moving member and a pressure regulating member. The driving circuit sends signals to turn the ultrasonic motor, which turn the moving memeber to turn the driving wheel. With the driving wheel turning, the traveller travels freely in any direction. Each of two ultrasonic motors receives respective signals to travel freely in any direction as a effect.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 1992
    Date of Patent: October 19, 1993
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Makoto Suzuki, Nobuo Tsukada, Ichiro Horikoshi, Fujio Ozawa, Masao Kasuga
  • Patent number: 5091670
    Abstract: An ultrasonic motor utilizing flexural travelling wave components. A ball bearing is constituted by the inner ring, the balls, and an outer ring provided with a groove similar to the ball positioning groove of the inner ring, at a position where the ball are interposed. A rotor is provided inside the amplifying projections which are formed in the vibration member. A coil spring is provided in order to bring the rotor and the projections of the vibration member into pressure contact with each other. A spring pressing seat having a groove for receiving the other end of the coil spring is fixed to the support pin, with the coil spring and the support pin centered. The coil spring receiving groove of the inner ring and the coil spring are positioned so as not to share the same vertical plane with the ball. In this manner the thickness of the ultrasonic motor can be reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 1990
    Date of Patent: February 25, 1992
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Masayuki Kawata, Fujio Ozawa, Masao Kasuga, Minako Suzuki, Takako Shibayama
  • Patent number: 5079470
    Abstract: A standing-wave type ultrasonic motor utilizing flexible standing-wave components. Protuberances are provided nearly at every other intermediate positions of the loops and the nodes of flexible standing-waves generated in the vibration member by the piezo-electric element or the electro-strictive element, and a moving member is brought into pressed contact with the protuberances so as to be frictionally driven. A standing-wave type ultrasonic motor is driven in the forward direction and in the reverse direction while fulfilling the reduction in size, stabilization in performance and improvement in efficiency.Furthermore, an analog-type electronic timepiece is obtained using display means that is driven by the standing-wave type ultrasonic motor, featuring reduced size and thickness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 1990
    Date of Patent: January 7, 1992
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Masao Kasuga, Nobuo Tsukada, Hiroshi Kitamura
  • Patent number: 5056201
    Abstract: A travelling-wave motor utilizes a flexible travelling waves generated in a stator for driving a rotor. The stator has an elastic vibrating body and a ceramic piezoelectric vibrator provided on one side of the elastic vibrating body. The central portion of the vibrating body is locked and supported on a central axis provided on a ground way. An output extracting projection for driving inside of the outermost periphery of the vibrating body on the one of the vibrating body and the rotor to press and contact with each other. The vibrating body and the piezoelectric vibrator is excited radially in a primary vibration mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 1990
    Date of Patent: October 15, 1991
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Masao Kasuga, Takayuki Mori, Nobuo Tsukada
  • Patent number: 5006746
    Abstract: A travelling-wave motor utilizes a flexible travelling waves generated in a stator for driving a rotor. The stator has an elastic vibrating body and a ceramic piezoelectric vibrator provided on one side of the elastic vibrating body. The central portion of the vibrating body is locked and supported on a central axis provided on a ground way. An output extracting projection for driving inside of the outermost periphery of the vibrating body on the one of the vibrating body and the rotor to press and contact with each other. The vibrating body and the piezoelectric vibrator is excited radially in a primary vibration mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 1988
    Date of Patent: April 9, 1991
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Masao Kasuga, Takayuki Mori, Nobuo Tsukada
  • Patent number: 4737944
    Abstract: In a temperature gradient adjustor for a temperature-compensated electronic watch, the temperature gradient adjusting range can be widened without any drop in the temperature gradient adjusting resolution of a temperature sensitive oscillator by adding a roughly temperature gradient adjusting variable frequency divider for variably dividing the frequency of the output of a temperature sensitive oscillator and by operating the temperature gradient adjustor at a value which is prepared by adding a constant numerical value to temperature gradient adjusting numerical information.A constant voltage supplying to a temperature sensitive oscillator can be finely adjusted from external side so as to optimize a linearity of frequency versus temperature characteristic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 1987
    Date of Patent: April 12, 1988
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Yuichi Inoue, Hiroshi Odagiri, Hiroyuki Masaki, Shuji Ohtawa, Masao Kasuga
  • Patent number: 4542369
    Abstract: A digital-to-analog converting device comprises a signal processing circuit supplied with a discrete digital signal x.sub.n at a time nT, where n is a natural number and T is a sampling period, for converting the discrete digital signal x.sub.n into a digital signal y.sub.n satisfying an equation ##EQU1## where N is a natural number greater than i, a digital-to-analog converter for converting the output digital signal y.sub.n of the signal processing circuit into an analog signal having a continuous amplitude, and an analog lowpass filter supplied with the output analog signal of the digital-to-analog converter, for eliminating frequency components substantially equal to or higher than 1/2 a sampling frequency F.sub.s of the discrete input digital signal of the signal processing circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 1983
    Date of Patent: September 17, 1985
    Assignee: Victor Company of Japan, Ltd.
    Inventor: Masao Kasuga
  • Patent number: 4524422
    Abstract: A digital filter having a band-pass filter characteristic or a band-elimination characteristic is constructed by a designing procedure comprising a step in which a function H(z) is obtained from a Z-transform of a bi-quad transfer function H(s) in a Laplace transfer form comprising conjugate pairs of poles and zeros, and establishing a center frequency of the filter characteristic from the radius of a circle in the s-plane in which the poles and zeros of the bi-quad transfer function H(s) are on the same circle, a step in which a quality factor Q of the filter characteristic is established so as to satisfy the following two equations (I) and (II) in which .sigma..sub.1 is the real-axis projection part and .omega..sub.1 is the imaginary-axis projection part of the above two poles in the s-plane, and .sigma..sub.2 is the real-axis projection part and .omega..sub.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 1980
    Date of Patent: June 18, 1985
    Assignee: Victor Company of Japan, Limited
    Inventor: Masao Kasuga
  • Patent number: 4521867
    Abstract: Input discrete samples x.sub.n are applied to an adder through a first set of feedforward paths which successively delay and multiply the samples by selected coefficient values and are also applied to an adder-subtractor through a second set of feedforward paths which successively delay and shift the input samples by selected values. Output discrete samples y.sub.n are supplied from the adder-subtractor to the adder through a first set of feedback paths by successively delaying and scaling the samples by selected values of coefficient and are also applied to the adder-subtractor through a second set of feedback paths by successively delaying and shifting the samples by selected values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 1982
    Date of Patent: June 4, 1985
    Assignee: Victor Company of Japan, Limited
    Inventor: Masao Kasuga
  • Patent number: 4472785
    Abstract: A sampling frequency converter for converting a first signal sampled at a first sampling frequency f1 into a second signal sampled at a second sampling frequency f2 comprising an interpolation device supplied with the first signal, for inserting L-1 zeros (L is an integer) for every sampling time, a filter circuit for attenuating a frequency component over a frequency f/2 (f is a frequency) within an output signal of said interpolation device, where the filter circuit has a series circuit consisting of a finite impulse response digital filter and an infinite impulse response digital filter, and the frequency f is equal to the first sampling frequency f1 when f1<f2 and equal to the second sampling frequency f2 when f1>f2, and a decimation device for extracting every M-th (M is an integer) output signal of the filter circuit, to produce said second signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 1981
    Date of Patent: September 18, 1984
    Assignee: Victor Company of Japan, Ltd.
    Inventor: Masao Kasuga
  • Patent number: 4471381
    Abstract: A system for converting number of scanning lines converts a first number of scanning lines of a first digital video signal into a second number of scanning lines of a second digital video signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 1982
    Date of Patent: September 11, 1984
    Assignee: Victor Company of Japan, Limited
    Inventors: Masao Kasuga, Nobuaki Takahashi, Takeshi Shibamoto