Patents by Inventor Ryuichi Hirano

Ryuichi Hirano 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: 9019600
    Abstract: A microscope system includes a microscope body having a base portion forming a foundation, an arm portion extending substantially parallel to a bottom surface of the base portion, and a frame portion connecting ends of the base portion and the arm portion, having substantially a C shape in side view and holding an illumination optical system ejecting illumination light from a light source to a specimen. A light source unit is connected with the microscope body and radiates illumination light to the illumination optical system. A focusing unit supports a stage for placing the specimen and at least holding an objective lens focusing the specimen by collecting observation light from the specimen on the stage. The microscope body and the focusing unit do not contact each other in a state where an optical axis of the objective lens coincides with an optical axis of the illumination light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2015
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Ryuichi Hirano, Hideki Obuchi
  • Patent number: 8856039
    Abstract: A system is disclosed that integrates secondary content, such as articles retrieved from a collaborative encyclopedia or other content site, into an electronic catalog system or site that hosts an interactive electronic catalog. In some embodiments, the system operates by retrieving secondary content articles from an external system or site, and by supplementing these articles with interactive display elements for accessing related catalog content and/or functions. For example, if an article mentions a particular catalog item or group of catalog items, it may be supplemented with a selectable display element for viewing catalog content associated with the referenced item or item group. The supplemented articles are made available to users via pages of the electronic catalog system or site.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Kamlesh T. Talreja, Mark Chien, Ryuichi Hirano, Sean M. Scott, Qiang Zhao
  • Patent number: 8815010
    Abstract: A method for producing a low-dislocation InP single crystal suitably used for an optical device such as a semiconductor laser, and the low-dislocation InP single crystal wafer are provided. In a liquid-encapsulated Czochralski method in which a semiconductor raw material and an encapsulant are contained in a raw material melt containing part comprising a cylindrical crucible having a bottom, the raw material containing part is heated to melt the raw material, and a seed crystal is brought into contact with a surface of a melt of the raw material in a state of being covered with the encapsulant to grow a crystal while the seed crystal is raised; a crystal shoulder part is grown from the seed crystal by setting a temperature gradient in a crystal growth direction to 25° C./cm or less and setting a temperature-fall amount to 0.25° C./hr or more. Thus, an iron-doped or undoped InP single crystal wafer in which an area having a dislocation density of 500/cm2 or less occupies 70% or more is realized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: Nippon Mining & Metals Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akira Noda, Ryuichi Hirano
  • Patent number: 8615448
    Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments relating to generating profile-based item suggestions from a stylist when purchasing items through an electronic commerce system. A network page is rendered in a client computing device comprising an input field to input descriptions of items the user wishes to purchase and a stylist profile selection mechanism to select a suggested stylist profile. The user inputs descriptions of items and selects the suggested stylist profile. An item suggestions request comprising the item descriptions and the selected stylist profile is sent from the client computing device to a server computing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2013
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jennifer R. O'Twomney, Maren Marie Costa, Aaron M. Donsbach, Marina A. Pai, Sean M. Scott, Devraj Varadhan, Anoop Balakrishnan, Ryuichi Hirano
  • Patent number: 8513775
    Abstract: Provided is a CdTe-based semiconductor substrate for epitaxial growth, which is capable of growing good-quality epitaxial crystals without urging a substrate user to implement etching treatment before the epitaxial growth. A CdTe-based semiconductor substrate, in which tracks of linear polishing damage with a depth of 1 nm or more are not observed within a viewing range of 10 ?m×10 ?m when a surface of the substrate is observed by an atomic force microscope, and orange peel defects are not observed when the surface of the substrate is visually observed under a fluorescent lamp, can grow the good-quality epitaxial crystals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2013
    Assignee: JX Nippon Mining & Metals Corporation
    Inventors: Kenji Suzuki, Hideyuki Taniguchi, Hideki Kurita, Ryuichi Hirano
  • Patent number: 8192982
    Abstract: A tissue culture microscope apparatus includes a culture unit that includes a chamber in which a specimen is put, and maintains the chamber at a predetermined temperature to culture the specimen; an observation unit that forms an observation image of the specimen put in the chamber; and a liquid supply unit that stores a liquid in a protrusion portion penetrating into a wall of the chamber and protruding to an inside of the chamber, matches a temperature of the liquid with the temperature of the chamber, and injects the liquid from the protrusion portion to the specimen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Kazuhiro Hasegawa, Akitsugu Kagayama, Atsuhiro Tsuchiya, Ryuichi Hirano, Kenichi Koyama, Hideaki Endo
  • Patent number: 8120649
    Abstract: A microscope system having a selectively mountable optical element, comprises: a first noncontact type storage medium, being equipped in the optical element, for enabling a noncontact readout of information externally; and a first readout unit for reading information non-contactingly from the first noncontact type storage medium, wherein the first noncontact type storage medium stores information related to the optical element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2012
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Yuichiro Hashimoto, Hideyuki Kawanabe, Ryuichi Hirano, Tetsuya Shirota
  • Publication number: 20110233729
    Abstract: Provided is a CdTe-based semiconductor substrate for epitaxial growth, which is capable of growing good-quality epitaxial crystals without urging a substrate user to implement etching treatment before the epitaxial growth. A CdTe-based semiconductor substrate, in which tracks of linear polishing damage with a depth of 1 nm or more are not observed within a viewing range of 10 ?m×10 ?m when a surface of the substrate is observed by an atomic force microscope, and orange peel defects are not observed when the surface of the substrate is visually observed under a fluorescent lamp, can grow the good-quality epitaxial crystals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2010
    Publication date: September 29, 2011
    Inventors: Kenji Suzuki, Hideyuki Taniguchi, Hideki Kurta, Ryuichi Hirano
  • Patent number: 7910355
    Abstract: A culture observation apparatus, which is used for observing a cultured cell while culturing the cell, includes a culture device that cultures the cultured cell, and a microscope used for observing the cultured cell. The culture device includes a first space that is controlled to an environment suitable for culture of the cell, and a second space that is controlled to a lower humidity condition in comparison with the first space. The microscope includes an objective optical unit including an objective lens; the objective optical unit having at least one portion located in the second space, and another portion extending into the first space through an opening formed in a partition wall that separates the first space and the second space, with a gap between the objective optical unit and the partition wall being sealed by a sealing member, and the objective lens includes a plurality of lens groups, with mutual spaces among the lens groups vented to the second space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2011
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Atsuhiro Tsuchiya, Ryuichi Hirano, Hideaki Endo, Kenichi Koyama, Kazuhiro Hasegawa, Akitsugu Kagayama, Katsuyoshi Yamaguchi
  • Patent number: 7883998
    Abstract: It is to provide a vapor phase growth method in which an epitaxial layer consisting of a compound semiconductor such as InAlAs, can be grown, with superior reproducibility, on a semiconductor substrate such as Fe-doped InP. In vapor phase growth method for growing an epitaxial layer on a semiconductor substrate, a resistivity of the semiconductor substrate at a room temperature is previously measured, a set temperature of the substrate is controlled depending on the resistivity at the room temperature such that a surface temperature of the substrate is a desired temperature regardless of the resistivity of the semiconductor substrate, and the epitaxial layer is grown.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 8, 2011
    Assignee: Nippon Mining & Metals Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masashi Nakamura, Suguru Oota, Ryuichi Hirano
  • Patent number: 7875957
    Abstract: Provided is a semiconductor substrate for epitaxial growth which does not require any etching treatment as a pretreatment in the stage of performing an epitaxial growth of HgCdTe film. A CdTe system compound semiconductor substrate for the epitaxial growth of the HgCdTe film is housed in an inactive gas atmosphere, in a predetermined period of time (for example, 10 hours) after mirror finish treatment thereof, to thereby regulate the proportion of Te oxide of the total amount of Te on the substrate surface which is obtained by XPS measurement so as to be not more than 30%.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2011
    Assignee: Nippon Mining & Metals Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kenji Suzuki, Ryuichi Hirano, Hideki Kurita
  • Patent number: 7852397
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus has an image sensor recording image information; a dustproof glass for keeping hermeticity of the periphery of the image sensor, placed in front of the image sensor; an optical filter removably placed in front of the dustproof glass; and a camera mount placed in front of the optical filter. The image pickup apparatus further has a parfocal adjusting device in which a focal position where the optical filter is demounted can be adjusted so as to be nearly equal to the focal position where the optical filter is mounted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2010
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Mochizuki, Ryuichi Hirano, Atsushi Yonetani
  • Patent number: 7816126
    Abstract: A culture observation apparatus, which is used for observing a cultured cell while culturing the cell, includes a culture device that forms a culture space which is controlled to be an environment suitable for culturing the cultured cell; a sample tray that holds a container housing the cultured cell and a culture medium; a microscope that serves for observing the cultured cell; a tray holding mechanism that holds the sample tray in the culture space in a detachable manner with good reproducibility; and a shifting mechanism that relatively shifts the sample tray held by the tray holding mechanism and a light axis of the microscope along a plane that is orthogonal to the light axis, wherein the sample tray has a heater used for heating the sample tray, and is electrically connectable to an energy supplying unit that supplies energy to the sample tray.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2010
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Akitsugu Kagayama, Ryuichi Hirano, Atsuhiro Tsuchiya, Kenichi Koyama, Kazuhiro Hasegawa, Katsuyoshi Yamaguchi, Hideaki Endo
  • Publication number: 20100190322
    Abstract: A substrate for epitaxial growth, which is capable of improving a surface state of an epitaxial layer at microroughness level. In a substrate for epitaxial growth, when haze is defined as a value calculated by dividing intensity of scattered light obtained when light is incident from a predetermined light source onto a surface of a substrate, by intensity of the incident light from the light source, the haze is not more than 2 ppm all over an effectively used area of the substrate and an off-angle with respect to a plane direction is 0.05 to 0.10°.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 5, 2010
    Publication date: July 29, 2010
    Inventors: Kenji SUZUKI, Ryuichi HIRANO, Masashi NAKAMURA
  • Patent number: 7745854
    Abstract: It is to provide a substrate for growing a semiconductor, which is effective for suppressing an occurrence of surface defects different in type from hillock defects in case of epitaxially growing a compound semiconductor layer, particularly an Al-based compound semiconductor layer. In a substrate for growing a compound semiconductor, in which a crystal surface inclined at a predetermined off angle with respect to a (100) plane is a principal plane, an angle made by a direction of a vector obtained by projecting a normal vector of the principal plane on the (100) plane and one direction of a [0-11] direction, a [01-1] direction, a [011] direction and a [0-1-1] direction is set to be less than 35°, and the compound semiconductor layer is epitaxially grown on the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2010
    Assignee: Nippon Mining & Metals Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hideki Kurita, Ryuichi Hirano
  • Publication number: 20090269271
    Abstract: Provided is a semiconductor substrate for epitaxial growth which does not require any etching treatment as a pretreatment in the stage of performing an epitaxial growth of HgCdTe film. A CdTe system compound semiconductor substrate for the epitaxial growth of the HgCdTe film is housed in an inactive gas atmosphere, in a predetermined period of time (for example, 10 hours) after mirror finish treatment thereof, to thereby regulate the proportion of Te oxide of the total amount of Te on the substrate surface which is obtained by XPS measurement so as to be not more than 30%.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 17, 2007
    Publication date: October 29, 2009
    Inventors: Kenji Suzuki, Ryuichi Hirano, Hideki Kurita
  • Patent number: 7595188
    Abstract: An observation apparatus includes a sample tray that holds a container housing a cultured cell and a culture medium and covered with a lid; an observation unit that serves for observation of the cultured cell; and a shifting unit that relatively shifts the sample tray and a light axis of the observation unit along a plane that is orthogonal to the light axis of the observation unit, wherein the sample tray includes a container holding unit that holds the container by utilizing an elastic force, and at least one of the lid and one portion of the lid is made detachable, with the container being held in the sample tray by the container holding unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2009
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Kazuhiro Hasegawa, Akitsugu Kagayama, Hideaki Endo, Ryuichi Hirano, Atsuhiro Tsuchiya, Kenichi Koyama, Katsuyoshi Yamaguchi
  • Patent number: 7544343
    Abstract: It is to define the resistivity and the contained amount of impurities of a CdTe system compound semiconductor single crystal and to provide a CdTe system compound semiconductor single crystal which is useful as a substrate for optical devices such as an infrared sensor and the like. In a CdTe system compound semiconductor single crystal for an optical device, a Group 1 (1A) element is included in a range of 5×1014 to 6×1015 cm?3 in the crystal, a total amount of a Group 13 (3B) element and a Group 17 (7B) element included in the crystal is less than 2×1015 cm?3 and less than a total amount of the Group 1 (1A) element, and resistivity of the crystal is in a range of 10 to 104 ?cm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2009
    Assignee: Nippon Mining & Metals Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Atsutoshi Arakawa, Ryuichi Hirano
  • Patent number: 7510082
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a wafer storage container which contains a semiconductor wafer one by one and provides a technology to effectively reduce adhesion of particles on semiconductor wafer surfaces during the storage of the wafer. A wafer storage container which contains a wafer one by one, includes: a wafer containing member including a domed-shape recess which abuts on a circumferential edge of the wafer and is capable of holding the wafer; and a cover member which is engaged with the wafer containing member and is capable of sealing the wafer containing member; and a wafer rear surface protection member which is formed into a shape substantially same as an opening of the domed-shape recess and comes into contact with an entire rear surface of the wafer placed so that a front surface is directed the domed-shape recess.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2009
    Assignee: Nippon Mining & Metals Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masayuki Kimura, Ryuichi Hirano, Hideki Kurita
  • Publication number: 20090025629
    Abstract: It is to provide a substrate for growing a semiconductor, which is effective for suppressing an occurrence of surface defects different in type from hillock defects in case of epitaxially growing a compound semiconductor layer, particularly an Al-based compound semiconductor layer. In a substrate for growing a compound semiconductor, in which a crystal surface inclined at a predetermined off angle with respect to a (100) plane is a principal plane, an angle made by a direction of a vector obtained by projecting a normal vector of the principal plane on the (100) plane and one direction of a [0-11] direction, a [01-1] direction, a [011] direction and a [0-1-1] direction is set to be less than 35°, and the compound semiconductor layer is epitaxially grown on the substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 2, 2007
    Publication date: January 29, 2009
    Inventors: Hideki Kurita, Ryuichi Hirano