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...that the first rickshaw was invented in 1869 by an American Baptist minister, the Rev. E. Jonathan Scobie, to transport his invalid wife around the streets of Yokohama?
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7529017 | Circuit and method for snapdown prevention in voltage controlled MEMS devices A circuit and method are provided for preventing snapdown in a voltage controlled Micro-Electromechanical System device having a movable actuator with an actuator electrode coupled to a first potential, the actuator suspended over a cavity electrode coupled to a sec... | 05/05/2009 |
| 7527755 | Method for increasing bulk conductivity of a ferroelectric material such as lithium tantalate In one embodiment, a ferroelectric material is processed by placing the material in an environment including metal vapor and heating the material to a temperature below the Curie temperature of the material. This allows the bulk conductivity of the ferroelectric mat... | 05/05/2009 |
| 7502157 | Multi-layer spatial light modulator for amplitude and phase control One embodiment relates to a method of independently controlling amplitude and phase modulation by a spatial light modulator. Light is illuminated onto upper layer deflectable planar areas and lower layer deflectable planar areas over a substrate of the spatial light... | 03/10/2009 |
| 7466022 | Wafer-level seal for non-silicon-based devices One embodiment disclosed relates to a method for sealing an active area of a non-silicon-based device on a wafer. The method includes providing a sacrificial material over at least the active area of the non-silicon-based device, depositing a seal coating over the w... | 12/16/2008 |
| 7463403 | High impedance drive circuit for a micro-electromechanical system device A driver is provided for use with a MEMS device. Generally, the driver includes: (i) a high voltage circuit electrically coupled to a movable actuator of the MEMS to apply a HV pulse thereto; and (ii) a charge control circuit coupled to a base electrode formed in a ... | 12/09/2008 |
| 7405389 | Dense multi-axis array for motion sensing The present disclosure describes an optical displacement sensor having a dense multi-axis array of photosensitive elements. Generally, the sensor includes a two dimensional array of multiple photosensitive elements. In one embodiment, the array includes multiple lin... | 07/29/2008 |
| 7391973 | Two-stage gain equalizer An apparatus for selectively adjusting power levels of component signals of a wavelength division multiplexed signal. The apparatus comprises a first filter and a second filter. The first filter modulates the component signals according to a static attenuation profi... | 06/24/2008 |
| 7359106 | Diffractive light modulator having continuously deformable surface A light modulator and a method of manufacturing the same are provided having a continuously deformable optical surface. Generally, the modulator includes a substrate, a membrane disposed above and spaced apart from an upper surface of the substrate, the membrane hav... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7330038 | Interleaved MEMS-based probes for testing integrated circuits In one embodiment, a probe card includes a substrate and a plurality of probes. Each of the probes may have a supported portion and an unsupported portion that meet at a base. The unsupported portion may have a non-uniform (e.g. triangular) cross-section along a len... | 02/12/2008 |
| 7310180 | Dielectric spacer for enhanced squeeze-film damping of movable members of MEMS devices In one embodiment, a capacitive micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) device includes a dielectric spacer between a bottom electrode and a movable member. The movable member may serve as a top electrode. A gap separates the top electrode from the dielectric spacer... | 12/18/2007 |
| 7297912 | Circuit and method for reducing power consumption in an optical navigation system having redundant arrays A circuit and method are provided for reducing power consumption in an optical navigation system for use in an input device to sense displacement of the device relative to a surface. Generally, the system includes: (i) an optical sensor having at least first and sec... | 11/20/2007 |
| 7298460 | Method for determining motion using a velocity predictor A method is provided for determining motion of an optical sensor including a periodic photo-diode array relative to a surface. The method includes steps of (i) generating sets of quasi-sinusoidal signals responsive to motion along first and second directions; (ii) c... | 11/20/2007 |
| 7288424 | Integrated driver process flow An integrated device includes one or more device drivers and a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) structure monolithically coupled to the one or more device drivers. The one or more device drivers are configured to process received control signals and to transmi... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7286764 | Reconfigurable modulator-based optical add-and-drop multiplexer An optical add and drop multiplexer system comprising a first module for providing a first signal; a second module for providing a second signal; and a modulator for receiving a channel of the first signal at a first location, the first location configured to actuat... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7286155 | Optical engine using one-dimensional MEMS device In one embodiment disclosed, an optical engine includes a light modulator coupled to illumination optics and imaging optics. The light modulator may be located at about an object plane. The imaging optics may include a scanner and a spatial filter located at about a... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7285766 | Optical positioning device having shaped illumination One embodiment relates to an optical displacement sensor for sensing relative movement between a data input device and a surface by determining displacement of optical features in a succession of frames. The sensor includes an illuminator and a detector. The illumin... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7277110 | Laser-based thermal printer One embodiment described pertains to a thermal printer is provided having a spatial light modulator (SLM) to modulate light from a laser source to record information on a thermal-sensitive surface of a recording medium, and a heater adjacent to the medium to preheat... | 10/02/2007 |
| 7268341 | Optical position sensing device including interlaced groups of photosensitive elements One embodiment described relates to an optical displacement sensor for sensing movement of a data input device across a surface by detecting displacement of optical features in a succession of images of the surface. The sensor includes a detector having an array inc... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7250893 | Signal processing circuit and method for use with an optical navigation system A signal processing circuit and processing method are provided for measuring an analog signal from a photo-detector. Generally, the method includes steps of: (i) sampling and storing a characteristic of the signal at a first predetermined time following a reset of t... | 07/31/2007 |
| 7248345 | Signal processing method for use with an optical navigation system A signal processor and method are provided for detecting movement of a surface relative to an optical sensor having an array of photosensitive elements. Generally, the method involves: (i) sampling each of a number (M) of phase signals from the photosensitive elemen... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7248278 | Apparatus and method for laser printing using a spatial light modulator The disclosure relates to a printing system having a linear diffractive spatial light modulator (LDSLM) assembly that diffracts light from a laser source according to or under the influence of an applied electric field applied to the LDSLM assembly. In one embodimen... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7247832 | Signal processing circuit and method using analog voltage signal to pulse width modulation conversion A signal processor and processing method are provided for measuring current received from a photo-detector. Generally, the processor includes a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) to integrate a current received from a photo-detector in the optical navigation system to g... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7244631 | MEMS surface modification for passive control of charge accumulation In one embodiment, a method of treating a surface of a Micro-Electromechanical System (MEMS) device reduces or eliminates performance degradation due to charge migration and accumulation. Briefly, the method may include treating a dielectric surface of the MEMS devi... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7233443 | Arrangement for WDM multiplexing and demultiplexing An arrangement for dispersing light comprises a blazed diffraction grating and a mirror. The blazed diffraction grating comprises a grating plane and a multiplicity of blazed facets. Each blazed facet is oriented at a blaze angle to the grating plane. The mirror cou... | 06/19/2007 |
| 7227687 | Complex spatial light modulator One embodiment relates to a spatial light modulator (SLM) for modulating light incident thereon. The SLM includes a plurality of pixels, each pixel including a plurality of phase shift elements. The SLM also includes a transform filter adapted to control the imaging... | 06/05/2007 |
| 7218336 | Methods and apparatus for driving illuminators in printing applications A method of providing drive signals to an illuminator module having a plurality of channels in a printing application. Binary image data including image bits is provided from a data source to the illuminator module. Each image bit is converted to a multi-bit amplitu... | 05/15/2007 |
| 7215461 | MEMS devices with increased damping for suspended movable structures In one embodiment, a light modulator includes a substrate and a number of modulator elements disposed above and spaced apart from the substrate. Each modulator element has an optically active portion adapted to receive light incident thereon, and a support portion o... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7202988 | Diffractive light modulator In one embodiment disclosed, a light modulator can be configured to have a substantially flat optically active modulator element portion while deflected. The modulator can include a plurality of modulator elements arranged substantially in parallel, with each modula... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7183637 | Microelectronic mechanical system and methods The current invention provides for encapsulated release structures, intermediates thereof and methods for their fabrication. The multi-layer structure has a capping layer, that preferably comprises silicon oxide and/or silicon nitride, and which is formed over an et... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7177081 | High contrast grating light valve type device A grating light valve has with a plurality of spaced reflective ribbons are spatially arranged over a substrate with reflective surfaces. The grating light valve is configured to optimized the conditions for constructive and destructive interference with an incident... | 02/13/2007 |
| 7161518 | Method and apparatus for driving two-dimensional modulator arrays In one embodiment, a micro electromechanical system (MEMS) driver circuit receives a pulse-width modulated (PWM) signal and uses it to control a voltage at a MEMS cell. The driver circuit further includes a current source, a capacitor, and a reset circuit that can d... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7138620 | Two-dimensional motion sensor An optical sensor and method of using the same is provided for sensing relative movement between the sensor and a surface by detecting changes in optical features of light reflected from the surface. In one embodiment, the sensor includes a two dimensional array of ... | 11/21/2006 |
| 7123399 | Micro-support structures A MEM device in accordance with the invention comprises one or more movable micro-structures which are preferably ribbon structures or cantilever structures. The ribbon structures or cantilever structures are preferably coupled to a substrate structure through one o... | 10/17/2006 |
| 7106417 | Tiling of modulator arrays In one embodiment, a pixel arrangement may be configured for a maskless lithography application using at least two array tiles, where each array tile includes a two-dimensional array with substantially equally-spaced pixels. A preferred embodiment includes two 500×... | 09/12/2006 |
