Patents by Inventor Yoichi ITAGAKI

Yoichi ITAGAKI 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: 20250095419
    Abstract: A controller for a vehicle equipped with a motor for running includes one or more processors and one or more recording media storing a program to be executed by the one or more processors. The program includes one or more instructions configured to cause the one or more processors to perform a sweep driving process including sweeping an excitation frequency of vibration applied to a vehicle body of the vehicle by the motor while driving the motor during an inspection of the vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 21, 2024
    Publication date: March 20, 2025
    Applicant: SUBARU CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yutaka MAEDA, Yoichi FURUYA, Hisao IMAIZUMI, Yuta SASAKI, Hiroyuki KOBAYASHI, Yukio KOJIMA, Masayuki KANEKO, Naotoshi YOSHIKAWA, Katsuya SHINNO, Takafumi ITAGAKI, Shota KAWAMURA, Kazuyuki KONDO
  • Publication number: 20250035882
    Abstract: A plate-shaped ultrasonic motor for use in an auto-focus driving part or an OIS driving part of a lens drive apparatus, includes: a plate-shaped resonant part disposed in parallel to an optical axis; a pair of plate-shaped piezoelectric elements laminated to the plate-shaped resonant part from both sides thereof in a plate-thickness direction; and a single electrode having a pair of plate-shaped terminal parts sandwiching the pair of piezoelectric element from both sides in the plate-thickness direction to distribute electric power to the pair of plate-shaped piezoelectric elements.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 14, 2024
    Publication date: January 30, 2025
    Applicants: Miniswys S.A., Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoichi ITAGAKI, Raphael HOESLI, Maxime ROTEN
  • Patent number: 12197033
    Abstract: A lens driving device includes: a movable part for accommodating a lens; and an ultrasonic motor having a resonance part configured to move the movable part by motion of the resonance part of the ultrasonic motor. The resonance part has a pair of arms, and is disposed such that only one of the arms is in contact with the movable part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2025
    Assignees: Miniswys S.A., MITSUMI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shun Suzuki, Yoichi Itagaki, Tomohiko Osaka, Masahiro Ishikawa, Daisuke Yamaguchi, Raphael Hoesli, Maxime Roten, Michael Brumann, Loann Baume
  • Publication number: 20240419053
    Abstract: A driving device includes a resonance unit that has a pair of arm portions and resonates with vibration of a piezoelectric element, and a moving portion that abuts the pair of arm portions and is moved relative to the resonance unit due to vibration of the resonance unit, wherein a portion of the resonance unit and a portion of the moving portion that abut each other are each made of ceramic, and each of the pair of arm portions has, as a portion that abuts the moving portion, a sphere made of ceramic.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2024
    Publication date: December 19, 2024
    Applicant: MITSUMI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yoichi ITAGAKI, Hiroyuki UJIIE, Shun TSUCHIYA, Fumiko WAKO
  • Patent number: 12158633
    Abstract: A lens driving device, a camera module, and a camera-mounted device are provided, which are capable of reducing the effect of external magnetism and of being reduced in size and profile thereof. The lens driving device includes an AF driving part configured to move, with respect to an AF fixing part, an AF movable part in a Z-direction extending along an optical axis, and an OIS driving part configured to move, with respect to an OIS fixing part, an OIS movable part in an X-direction and a Y direction each orthogonal to optical axis. The OIS driving part and the AF driving part are each composed of an ultrasonic motor. In a rectangle defined by two sides where the OIS driving part is disposed, the AF driving part is disposed along a side different from the two sides.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2024
    Assignees: Miniswys S.A., Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoichi Itagaki, Raphael Hoesli, Maxime Roten
  • Publication number: 20240118587
    Abstract: An optical element driving device includes a fixed body, a movable body, a driving part that converts vibration motion of a piezoelectric element into linear motion for driving the movable body, a drive control part that applies a drive signal to the driving part, a drive detection part that detects the drive state of the driving part, and a temperature measurement part that measures an ambient temperature. The drive control part determines whether or not a drive error of the driving part occurs from the information detected by the drive detection part. When the drive error occurs, drive control part compares an ambient temperature associated with the current drive frequency with the current ambient temperature measured by the temperature measurement part, corrects the drive frequency according to the comparison result, and stores the corrected drive frequency and the current ambient temperature in association with each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 4, 2023
    Publication date: April 11, 2024
    Applicant: Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Koki HIWATASHI, Yoichi ITAGAKI
  • Patent number: 11582390
    Abstract: The driving unit includes: a first contact portion and a second contact portion that move relatively to each other while making contact with each other during driving; in which the second contact portion includes a coating layer at a contact face with the first contact portion, and the first contact portion and the second contact portion generate heat along with relative movement to vaporize a worn-away part of the coating layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2023
    Assignee: MITSUMI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yoichi Itagaki, Taro Watanabe
  • Publication number: 20230024495
    Abstract: A driving-unit operation method includes: generating pulse blocks on the basis of driving pulses; and modifying a driving signal in accordance with a position error signal. In the modifying the driving signal, when the position error signal is in a first range, the shape of the driving pulses is modified so as to form a first driving-pulse shape, and the pulse-block duty cycle is set to a first pulse-block duty cycle value, whereas when the position error signal is in a second range, the shape of the driving pulses is modified so as to form a second driving-pulse shape, and the pulse-block duty cycle is set to a second pulse-block duty cycle value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 10, 2020
    Publication date: January 26, 2023
    Applicants: Miniswys S.A., MITSUMI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yoichi ITAGAKI, Masahiro ISHIKAWA, Daisuke YAMAGUCHI, Michael BRUMANN, Raphael HOESLI
  • Publication number: 20220308303
    Abstract: A lens drive device is provided with a first fixed part, a first movable part, a first supporting part, and a Z-direction drive unit which moves the first movable section in an optical axis direction (the Z-direction) relative to the first fixed part and is constituted by an ultrasonic motor that converts vibration motion into rotational motion. The lens drive device further has a rotating body which rotates around the optical axis in response to rotational motion of the Z-direction drive unit, and a mechanical element which converts the rotational motion of the rotating body into linear motion in the optical axis direction, the first movable part being moved in the optical axis direction by rotation of the rotating body.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2020
    Publication date: September 29, 2022
    Applicant: MITSUMI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shun SUZUKI, Yoichi ITAGAKI, Raphael HOESLI, Maxime ROTEN, Michael BRUMANN, Loann BAUME
  • Publication number: 20220236516
    Abstract: A lens driving device includes: a movable part for accommodating a lens; and an ultrasonic motor having a resonance part configured to move the movable part by motion of the resonance part of the ultrasonic motor. The resonance part has a pair of arms, and is disposed such that only one of the arms is in contact with the movable part.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 7, 2020
    Publication date: July 28, 2022
    Applicants: Miniswys S.A., MITSUMI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shun SUZUKI, Yoichi ITAGAKI, Tomohiko OSAKA, Masahiro ISHIKAWA, Daisuke YAMAGUCHI, Raphael HOESLI, Maxime ROTEN, Michael BRUMANN, Loann BAUME
  • Publication number: 20220103754
    Abstract: The driving unit includes: a first contact portion and a second contact portion that move relatively to each other while making contact with each other during driving; in which the second contact portion includes a coating layer at a contact face with the first contact portion, and the first contact portion and the second contact portion generate heat along with relative movement to vaporize a worn-away part of the coating layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2021
    Publication date: March 31, 2022
    Applicant: MITSUMI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yoichi ITAGAKI, Taro WATANABE
  • Publication number: 20210173175
    Abstract: A lens driving device, a camera module, and a camera-mounted device are provided, which are capable of reducing the effect of external magnetism and of being reduced in size and profile thereof. The lens driving device includes an AF driving part configured to move, with respect to an AF fixing part, an AF movable part in a Z-direction extending along an optical axis, and an OIS driving part configured to move, with respect to an OIS fixing part, an OIS movable part in an X-direction and a Y direction each orthogonal to optical axis. The OIS driving part and the AF driving part are each composed of an ultrasonic motor. In a rectangle defined by two sides where the OIS driving part is disposed, the AF driving part is disposed along a side different from the two sides.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 9, 2019
    Publication date: June 10, 2021
    Applicants: Miniswys S.A., Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoichi ITAGAKI, Raphael HOESLI, Maxime ROTEN