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3M employee and church chorister Art Fry needed something to temporarily mark pages in his hymnal. He was in luck because his colleague, Spencer Silver, accidentally developed a glue that was too weak for other purposes. After initially discouraging consumer response, Post-it Notes became a hit in 1979.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8154225 | Control device for an ultrasonic piezoelectric actuator A control device for an ultrasonic piezoelectric actuator including a first stage supplied by a DC voltage source and including a mechanism forming a second DC voltage above that voltage delivered by the DC voltage source, and a second stage including a mechanism am... | 04/10/2012 |
| 8115424 | Method and device for controlling the rotation speed of a piezoelectric motor rotor The present invention relates to a method of controlling the speed of rotation of a piezoelectric motor comprising at least one step of determining the variation of the speed of rotation as a function of the frequency of the excitation voltages of the piezoelectric ... | 02/14/2012 |
| 7830103 | Method for driving ultrasonic motor A method for driving an ultrasonic motor having an actuator section includes: a step of starting the ultrasonic motor by applying an AC voltage with a first frequency to the actuator section; a voltage detection step of detecting a voltage generated at the actuator ... | 11/09/2010 |
| 7710052 | Method and apparatus for operation of a piezo-actuator A piezo-actuator is actuated in a first operating mode (B1) by pulsed supply of a first electrical variable for charging or discharging of the piezo-actuator taking into account at least one actuation parameter (P) for the piezo-actuator. The piezo-actuator i... | 05/04/2010 |
| 7701155 | Method for driving micro-oscillating element having comb-teeth electrodes A micro-oscillation element includes a movable main section, a first frame and a second frame, and a first connecting section that connects the movable main section and the first frame and defines a first axis of rotation for a first rotational operation of the mova... | 04/20/2010 |
| 7429838 | Control of a piezoelectric motor A method for controlling a piezoelectric motor, such that control signals of the motor are periodic non-sinusoidal voltage signals. ... | 09/30/2008 |
| 7368851 | Ultrasonic driving device with current limiting protection An ultrasonic driving device includes a protection module that receives a first drive signal from a signal generating module, detects an operating current of an output module, and provides the first drive signal to the output module when the detected operating curre... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7368846 | Microactuator with displacement sensing function and deformable mirror including the microactuator According to the present invention, a moving element Ai such as an electrostatically driven actuator is displaced by supplying a drive signal thereto. Meanwhile, a displacement sensing section 6 senses its displacement and a calibrating section 15 auto... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7365914 | Actuator An actuator comprises: an electro-mechanical conversion element; a driving frictional member that is mounted onto one side in an extension/contraction direction of the electro-mechanical conversion element; a driven member that is frictionally engaged with the drivi... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7355322 | Ultrasonic transducer, ultrasonic speaker and method of driving and controlling ultrasonic transducer An ultrasonic transducer including: a fixed electrode; a vibrating film placed opposite to a surface of the fixed electrode and having a conducting layer; a member that holds the fixed electrode and vibrating film; the fixed electrode including a driving-use fixed e... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7353708 | Ultrasonic generator system The system controls the frequency of an ultrasonic signal to be applied to a waveguide, such that the frequency corresponds to a preferred resonance mode of the waveguide and not to adjacent undesirable resonance modes. The system operates by carrying out a first sc... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7352108 | Piezoelectric driving device and a regulation method for a piezoelectric driving device A piezoelectric driving device and a regulation method for a piezoelectric driving device are proposed. Piezoelectric driving devices known so far show a characteristic with which the electric power applied to the motor drops when the load increases. This behavior, ... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7339343 | Method for correcting speed feedback in a motor A method for correcting speed feedback in a drive motor by calculating the averages of speed reference and speed measurement for both downward and upward constant-speed travel and then identifying the gain and zero factors and correcting the measured speed measureme... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7332847 | Electret actuator An electret actuator comprising a fixed substrate having driving electrodes of a plurality of phases arranged therein, a movable element arranged on the fixed substrate and made electret in similar polarity at predetermined pitches in portions which face the driving... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7321182 | Oscillatory-wave actuator and method for driving oscillatory-wave actuator An oscillatory-wave actuator is provided capable of simplifying the structure of a driving circuit. Push-up vibration is formed in an oscillating body including three piezoelectrics and an elastic body by applying an AC voltage to the first piezoelectric. The second... | 01/22/2008 |
| 7294950 | Electrostatic actuator, electrostatic actuator driving method electromechanical transducer, and electromechanical transducer driving method An electrostatic actuator includes a stator having an electrode substrate, a movable unit having a movable element and an electrode arranged opposite to the electrode substrate, a plurality of first operation modules each of which issues an operation command for rea... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7292954 | Acceptance testing of actuators using backlash and stiction measurements Aspects of the present invention are directed to systems, methods, and computer-readable media for measuring certain actuator system parameters of an actuator, e.g., an EMA in its working environment. Stiction and backlash are examples of such parameters, and these ... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7287425 | Ultrasonic fuel level monitoring device The invention describes a method of altering the transmitted frequency used in an ultrasonic ranging system for liquid level measurement in a fuel tank. The frequency agility of the system is an important component of performing liquid level measurement in an enclos... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7274173 | Power control circuit for charge storage element A DC voltage source, a switch, and an inductor are connected together in series. The inductor is also connected together with a switch, a piezoelectric element in series. Moreover, the switches are connected in parallel with capacitors. By the control circuit, a sta... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7253550 | Torsional electrostatic actuator Multiple drives are coupled together to cause rotation about a single axis by an arrangement in which two moveable electrode plates flank a fixed electrode plate such that the opposite direction rotations of the two moveable electrode plates are combined. To this en... | 08/07/2007 |
| 7245061 | Micro-beam friction liner and method of transferring energy A micro-beam friction liner adapted to increase performance and efficiency and reduce wear in a piezoelectric motor or actuator or other device using a traveling or standing wave to transfer energy in the form of torque and momentum. The micro-beam friction liner co... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7245100 | Multi-axis AC servo control system and method A multiple axis servo control implements a multi-tasking PWM control unit to provide PWM signals for multiple axes in a single unit. A time slice mechanism provides axis selection signals based on a system clock signal to permit control parameters of the selected ax... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7245059 | Method of exciting a piezoelectric crystal The invention describes the use of an electrical pulse that is a single square wave to excite a piezoelectric crystal. This pulse is applied alternately to either side of the crystal at twice the nominal resonant frequency of the crystal. This method provides a sign... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7241266 | Transducer for embedded bio-sensor using body energy as a power source Provided is a bio-sensor system which utilizes radio frequency identification technology and which includes a remote transponder in wireless communication with an implantable on-chip transponder. A power supply collects alternating current voltage pulses from an ele... | 07/10/2007 |
| 7234014 | Seamless user interactions for portable storage devices A portable storage device 10 includes a body 12, an actuator 16, and an indicator 18. When coupled to a host device 22, a user depressing the actuator 16 causes an interrupt message to be sent to the host device, which initi... | 06/19/2007 |
| 7218018 | Actuator An actuator includes a casing, a stationary member having a coil member and mounted in the casing and a movable member having a moving element and supported by the casing. The moving element has a shaft and is supported by the casing so as to be moved in an axial di... | 05/15/2007 |
| 7215060 | Electrostatic actuator, electrostatic actuator driving method, electromechanical transducer, waveform output device and electric element An electrostatic actuator includes a waveform output register which generates waveform data having a drive time and a drive pattern on the basis of an operation request from the outside and has queues 0 and 1 to 3 holding the waveform data, a wa... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7211973 | System and process for utilizing back electromotive force in disk drives A circuit system and process utilizes back electromotive force (BEMF) voltage to assist in safe power down of devices, such as the read/write head in from low factor disk drives or similar devices. The BEMF voltage from a motor device, such as a spindle motor utiliz... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7211924 | Electrostatic attraction driving apparatus A plurality of stator-side electrodes disposed in a stator is vertically disposed so as to face a plurality of mover-side electrodes disposed on a mover in a protruding manner. Wide areas facing each other can be secured between the electrodes on the stator and the ... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7208857 | Drive calibration method and system A method and system of calibrating a drive includes changing an electrode voltage between a first set of electrodes and a second set of electrodes in the drive divided by an electrode gap, determining a threshold voltage for the electrode voltage at which an electro... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7199502 | Voltage booster circuit for powering a piezoelectric actuator of an injector There is described a voltage booster circuit for powering a piezoelectric actuator of an injector, and having a first and a second input terminal supplied with an input voltage; a first and a second output terminal supplying an output voltage greater than the input ... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7190102 | Apparatus and method for charging and discharging a capacitor to a predetermined setpoint An apparatus using electrically-stimulated smart material requires a power source to stimulate the material. This power source has three main functions, (1) to apply a known voltage potential across the smart material, (2) to convert from the control voltage to a le... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7183739 | Synchronous control device There is provided a synchronous control device for driving the same control object with two servomotors. The synchronous control device detects the physical quantity that represents the difference between the forces on the two servomotors, and, on the basis of the d... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7183691 | Control apparatus for vibration type actuator and control method thereof There are provided a control apparatus for a vibration type actuator and a control method thereof, which are capable of efficiently driving the vibration type actuator regardless of changes in characteristic of the vibration type actuator, in load, and in characteri... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7172420 | Ultrasonic shaping instrument The invention concerns an ultrasonic shaping instrument comprising: a mount structure (10), a sonotrode (14) elastically mounted on the mount structure (10), a tool (16) fixed to the sonotrode (14) for carrying out shaping operatio... | 02/06/2007 |
| 7166951 | Electrostatic actuator and method of driving the same First and second stationary members are arranged to face each other, and a movable member is arranged between these first and second stationary members so as to be movable in a predetermined direction. An electrode groups including a plurality of stationary electrod... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7154208 | Control apparatus for vibration type actuator The present invention relates to apparatus achieving improvement in operation characteristics in the operation of stopping or reversing the direction of or decelerating movement of a vibrating wave actuator constructed to apply an alternating voltage to an electro-m... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7154210 | Driving device The driving device has a piezoelectric element 32, a supporting member 16 fixed to one end of the piezoelectric element 32, a driving shaft 18 fixed to the other end of the piezoelectric element 32, a movable member 20 that ... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7148648 | Controller for controlling actuator device installed on vehicle so as to maintain silence and comfort in vehicle A controller for controlling an actuator device which is installed on a vehicle and operated by a motor. The controller includes: a motor control portion operable to control the motor on the basis of a target value; and a target-value determining portion operable to... | 12/12/2006 |
| 7145300 | Multi-axis AC servo control system and method A multiple axis servo control implements a multi-tasking PWM control unit to provide PWM signals for multiple axes in a single unit. A time slice mechanism provides axis selection signals based on a system clock signal to permit control parameters of the selected ax... | 12/05/2006 |
