Quotables
"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology."
Carl Sagan
PatentStorm News
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7418878 | Universal sensor controller for a thermal anemometer A fluid property measurement system uses an analog-to-digital converter combined with a multiplexer to measure voltages at one or more points of a measurement circuit and an algorithm within a microcontroller to calculate a fluid property. The measurement circuit ha... | 09/02/2008 |
| 7284424 | Thermal air flow rate measuring apparatus and its flowmeter and internal combustion engine and thermal air flow rate measuring method using it A thermal air flow rate measuring apparatus of great precision wherein sensitivity is enhanced by sensors having different output characteristics and an operating device employing a digitized signal. The sensitivity and temperature can be corrected easily depending ... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7261004 | Flow transducer and method A transducer is disclosed for sensing flow of a fluid. The transducer includes means for applying a heat pulse to the fluid and at least one temperature sensor. The temperature sensor is adapted to detect a decaying response to the heat pulse to provide an indicatio... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7205781 | Mass air flow circuit having pulse width modulation feedback control A circuit for measuring the mass air flow rate through a duct is disclosed. The circuit includes a bridge circuit, a first amplifier, an oscillator, a comparator and a switch. The bridge circuit has a plurality of resistors arranged to output first and second bridge... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7191645 | Dynamic mixed gas flowmeter A compensated flowmeter having a probe adapted to project into flowing media within a conduit. The probe includes a thermal dispersion sensor, and a compensating gas properties sensor contained within a no-flow chamber of the probe. The thermal flow sensor has activ... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7140263 | Anemometer circuit An anemometer circuit comprises a sensor having a resistance which varies with temperature, immersed within a moving medium, the mass flow rate of which is to be determined. A control loop causes a current to flow through the sensor resistance, and varies the curren... | 11/28/2006 |
| 7089804 | Method for thermal flow measurement with non constant heating pulses The invention relates to a process and a device for thermal measuring the flow rate (v) of a fluid (3). In conventional thermal sensors the heating power P is supplied in the form of rectangular pulses. According to the invention, the sensor means (1 | 08/15/2006 |
| 7072776 | Method of regulating resistance in a discontinuous time hot-wire anemometer A system and method are provided to regulate resistance in a discontinuous time hot-wire anemometer. The solution removes supply voltage dependency on the mass airflow output signal. Operating the hot-wire anemometer using discontinuous time regulation offers lower ... | 07/04/2006 |
| 7069157 | Heat sensitive flow meter and fuel controller Provided is a heat sensitive flow meter for measuring a flow rate of a fluid passing through a flow passage provided in an internal combustion engine, including: a filter (7) (constituted of a fixed resister (3) and a capacitor (4)) for inputtin... | 06/27/2006 |
| 7055366 | Flow sensor calibration methods and apparatus Apparatus and methods of calibrating a microfluidic flow sensor, in which the flow of a fluid through a flow sensor is stopped and a first value is read from the flow sensor, then the fluid is pumped through the flow sensor sequentially at first and second selected ... | 06/06/2006 |
| 7051599 | Thermal transient anemometer having sensing cell assembly A thermal transient anemometer provides mass flow rate or volume flow rate over smaller discrete regions of a larger flow field, i.e., the distribution of such rates over a predefined, larger area. The thermal transient anemometer comprises two components: a frame w... | 05/30/2006 |
| 7043979 | Respiratory humidification system A housing for a sensor to prevent condensate from collecting in the sensor. The housing includes a deflector to channel condensate forming in the housing away from the sensor. A notch is provided at the base of the sensor to ensure any condensate forming on the sens... | 05/16/2006 |
| 7046528 | Load-dependent variable frequency voltage regulator A pulse width modulation voltage regulator comprises a pulse width modulation circuit and a control circuit. The control circuit is operable to reduce a pulse modulation frequency of the pulse width modulation circuit when a load current increases and to increase th... | 05/16/2006 |
| 7036368 | Heating resistor type air flow rate measuring apparatus A heating resistor type air flow rate measuring apparatus is provided with a couple of heating resistors placed at the positions where those resistors may each interfere thermally with respect to an air flow, and a couple of driving circuits for driving those heatin... | 05/02/2006 |
| 7016790 | In-line hot-wire sensor for slurry monitoring An in-line hot-wire sensor for monitoring the mixing and the flow rate of slurry is disclosed. The hot-wire sensor may include a number of resistors organized into a Wheatstone bridge, as well as a frequency-domain transform mechanism. The resistors include a hot-wi... | 03/21/2006 |
| 7007549 | AC type flowmeter and method of mapping flow rate data for the same The present invention relates to a flowmeter suitable for a micro flow sensor. The flowmeter of the present invention comprises a resistive heater to be inserted into a fluid, AC power with a first frequency supplied to the resistive heater to periodically heat the ... | 03/07/2006 |
| 6905242 | Sensor temperature control in a thermal anemometer A thermal anemometer that separates sensor heating from sensor temperature measurement through a switched sampling technique. This approach demonstrates several advantages over the more typical circuitry employing a bridge, which simultaneously heats the sensor and ... | 06/14/2005 |
| 6810345 | Gas flow meter A gas flow meter having a gas flow detection circuit for detecting a current flowing through a resistor installed in a gas passage and a voltage generated across the resistor and outputting a voltage signal representing a gas flow passing through the gas passage; a ... | 10/26/2004 |
| 6732581 | Low thermal capacity device for high precision pocket-size spirometry and other applications The spirometer has a low thermal capacity. A circuit supplies power to the spirometer in pulses to heat the spirometer to body temperature. The circuit senses the temperature of the spirometer between intervals. The circuit can also be used in a calorimeter to measu... | 05/11/2004 |
| 6550324 | Method and sensor for measuring a mass flow A heating element (4) is arranged between two temperature sensors (5, 6) in order to measure the mass flow of a liquid or a gas. The mass flow is determined from the temperature difference of the temperature sensors (5, 6). The heating element (4) is oper... | 04/22/2003 |
| 6539791 | Method and apparatus for measuring flow based on heat transfer from a flowing medium A calorimetric flow measuring device is characterized by a single thermistor for measuring flow. The thermistor is connected within a bridge circuit which compensates for the temperature of the medium whose flow is being measured and a pulsing heater is p... | 04/01/2003 |
| 6530286 | Method and apparatus for measuring fluid flow The present invention relates to methods and apparatus useful for detecting and measuring flow of a fluid along a flow path. In a method according to the invention, the temperature of a flowing fluid is altered at a selected location for a selected durati... | 03/11/2003 |
| 6453739 | Time domain measurement and control system for a hot wire air flow sensor A time domain measurement and control system for a hot wire air flow sensor is disclosed in which the air flow sensor is of the type having a resistive heating element with an input end and an output end. The control system includes a fixed frequency vari... | 09/24/2002 |
| 6386050 | Non-invasive fluid flow sensing based on injected heat tracers and indirect temperature monitoring A system and method for measuring flow rate within a fluid-bearing passageway include introducing heat fluctuations into the flow and then non-invasively monitoring the effects of the heat fluctuations propagating to or from one or more interrogation regi... | 05/14/2002 |
| 6334359 | Thermal-type flowmeter for detecting flow rate of fluid A thermal-type flowmeter for detecting a flow rate of a fluid such as intake air flow rate in an internal combustion engine includes a voltage converting circuit for converting a flow-rate indicating voltage signal outputted from a flow-rate detecting sen... | 01/01/2002 |
| 6289746 | Thermal pulsed micro flow sensor A thermal pulsed micro flow sensor includes thermal sensors positioned in a fluid channel at downstream positions relative to a heater. Flow rate is measured by determining the time that it takes a thermal pulse to pass between two of the sensors. Since t... | 09/18/2001 |
| 6272918 | Thermal flow meter and fuel controller Disclosed is a thermal flow meter which is relatively inexpensive and operates with high accuracy and reliability, and a fuel controller using the thermal flow meter adapted for internal combustion engines. The thermal flow meter comprises a sensor unit f... | 08/14/2001 |
| 6271669 | Sensor circuit that converts detected change value from analog to digital value A digital-to-analog converter 41, capable of setting a voltage V41 of an offset value using information JS. At the time of an offset correction operation, the voltage V41 of the offset signal is sequentially varied to automatically set it to a value that ... | 08/07/2001 |
| 6035726 | Hot-wire mass flowmeter A mass flowmeter including a resistive wire adapted to be placed across the path of a fluid whose flow rate is to be measured, a controller unit for applying electrical energy to the wire, and a processor unit for deducing the mass flow rate of the fluid ... | 03/14/2000 |
| 6023968 | Real-time two-dimensional resistance and pulsatility mapping A method and apparatus for determining resistance and pulsatility indices of a flow of material, such as the flow of blood in the human body. This may be implemented, for example, in a color flow module in an ultrasonic imaging system for display of the p... | 02/15/2000 |
| 5764539 | Non-invasive system and method for a fluid flow monitoring system A non-invasive system and method is provided for a fluid delivery system of the type including a fluid delivery pump delivering fluid in pulses through a fluid delivery tube. The non-invasive monitoring system and method includes a sensor which is brought... | 06/09/1998 |
| 5708585 | Combustible gas measurement A pulsed measurement technique for calorimetric sensors provides a short current pulse through catalyzed and inert sensor elements to minimize self heating while providing for sensor resistance measurement, so that a determination of the level of catalyti... | 01/13/1998 |
| 5654507 | Pulse width modulated constant temperature anemometer A constant temperature anemometer utilizes a fine wire or thin film sensor or probe and a pulse width modulated driver in a digital control loop to adjustably drive the probe to maintain its temperature at a nominally constant value and provide a digital ... | 08/05/1997 |
| 5582628 | Unit and system for sensing fluid velocity A thermal anemometer having a large number of thermally isolated fins is placed in a fluid flow. The flow velocity is computed from the temperature of the fin tips and the fluid temperature along with knowledge of the amount of power supplied to the fins.... | 12/10/1996 |
| 5567865 | Method for determining the size of airborne water droplets To determine the size of airborne water droplets having a diameter from approximately 1 to 100 μm, if such water droplets move at a velocity of 50 to 150 m/s relative to a measuring probe and strike it, in the probe body, whose front face toward the flow has ... | 10/22/1996 |
| 5544079 | Smart mass gas flow sensor A smart mass gas flow sensor is having a housing with a bore through which a gas flows in which a sensor in the housing generates an analog signal proportional to the mass gas flow through the housing bore. A digital processor digitally processes the anal... | 08/06/1996 |
| 5493906 | Automatic offset control for constant temperature anemometer An electrical control circuit for a constant temperature anemometer includes a first operational amplifier coupled to receive inputs from two intermediate terminals of the Wheatstone bridge, and to generate an output voltage in response to a difference in... | 02/27/1996 |
| 5493100 | Thermistor flow sensor and related method A fluid flow rate measuring apparatus having a thermistor exposed to a flow of fluid and a driver circuit operable in an initial constant-voltage mode, in which it applies a substantially constant voltage across the thermistor, and a subsequent constant-c... | 02/20/1996 |
| 5301126 | Method of processing a signal from a thermal type flow sensor A method of processing signal for a thermal type flow sensor having a temperature dependence resistance employing platinum and the like and a holding member made of alumina for holding it so as to compensate for response delay when fluid flow is changed, ... | 04/05/1994 |
| 5226319 | Hot wire air flow meter A hot wire air flow meter for producing a pulse output includes the combination of a hot wire element, for detecting air flow, a cold wire element, for detecting air temperature and an electronic circuit for controlling the current flowing through the hot... | 07/13/1993 |
