Celebrity Inventors
Lawrence Welk, the bandleader who entertained millions of Americans over a generation of broadcasting his TV show, once received a patent: for a music-themed design of an ashtray.
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 |
| 8174811 | Overheat protection device and electrical system having same The present invention provides an overheat protection device which is capable of effectively preventing a secondary battery from overheating. In the overheat protection device (20), a variable resistive element(s) (11) of which resistance varies depend... | 05/08/2012 |
| 8159804 | System and method for limiting energy in an industrial control system Systems and methods for limiting heating to prevent explosions in a gaseous environment containing an industrial control system are described. A method may include controlling heating in an electrical circuit component in response to a circuit failure so as to avoid... | 04/17/2012 |
| 7944667 | Thermal security for hybrid vehicle recharging cable plugs device and method A system is provided for interrupting current in an electrical cable having an end plug. The system comprises a sensor coupled to the plug and having an output indicative of the temperature of the plug, and a current interrupting device coupled to the sensor for int... | 05/17/2011 |
| 7742270 | System and method for limiting energy in an industrial control system A system and method for limiting energy to an industrial control system is described. The method includes receiving a supply voltage, limiting the supply voltage so as to generate a limited voltage, and providing the limited voltage to a field transducer, the field ... | 06/22/2010 |
| 7715164 | Embedded type multifunctional integrated structure and method for manufacturing the same An embedded type multifunctional integrated structure and a method for manufacturing the same are disclosed. The present invention utilizes the concept of multi-layer design to integrated more than two passive components on a component structure that would be adhere... | 05/11/2010 |
| 7400482 | Circuit breaker and method for sensing current indirectly from bimetal voltage and determining bimetal temperature and corrected temperature dependent bimetal resistance A circuit breaker includes a bimetal electrically connected in series with separable contacts, and an operating mechanism structured to open and close the contacts. A temperature sensor distal from the bimetal includes an output having an ambient temperature signal.... | 07/15/2008 |
| 7369389 | Electronic trip unit for circuit breakers An electronic trip unit for a circuit breaker is disclosed. The electronic trip unit has a processing circuit, a real time clock chip, and a power source for powering the real time clock chip in the absence of current in the circuit breaker. The processing circuit i... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7369387 | Apparatus and method for temperature-dependent transient blocking An apparatus and method for temperature-dependent transient blocking employing a transient blocking unit (TBU) that uses at least one depletion mode n-channel device interconnected with at least one depletion mode p-channel device. The interconnection is performed s... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7362550 | Electric motor comprising a temperature monitoring device Disclosed is an electric motor comprising a temperature monitoring device which is provided with at least two temperature sensors that have different temperature characteristics and are connected to terminal clamps by means of electrical wires, whereby it is possibl... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7356050 | System for transmission of data on a bus A system for transmitting data between a transmitter and a receiver on a communication network connecting a number of components, especially in a motor vehicle, has a CAN transceiver which converts logic signals into bus data signals downstream of each transmitter. ... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7355504 | Electrical devices An electrical device which comprises first and second laminar electrodes and a laminar PTC resistive element sandwiched between them, the device comprising (a) a main portion which comprises a main part of the first electrode, a ma... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7336055 | Method for detecting abnormality of temperature sensors, and power supply apparatus A power supply apparatus includes an assembled battery including a plurality of cells, a plurality of temperature sensors sensing temperatures of the plurality of cells, respectively, a current sensor sensing a current flowing through the assembled battery, and a st... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7301742 | Method and apparatus for accessing and activating accessory functions of electronic circuit breakers An electronic trip unit for a circuit breaker includes a programmed microprocessor and a module plug in removable signal communication with the microprocessor. The module plug includes a program identifier. The microprocessor recognizes the program identifier and ac... | 11/27/2007 |
| 7282881 | Power fold mirror control circuit and method A circuit and method of reducing the occurrence of overheating of a power fold vehicle mirror. The circuit controls the operation of the power fold mirror such that when a portion of the circuit reaches or exceeds a predetermined temperature threshold, the vehicle m... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7273538 | Surface mountable laminated circuit protection device and method of making the same A surface mountable laminated circuit protection device comprises a first metal layer including a first unit and a second unit, a first insulating layer disposed on the first metal layer, and a second metal layer disposed on the first insulated layer. There is also ... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7272885 | Method of manufacturing surge arrestor The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing surge arrestors, the method including stacking varistors; and forming a coating of composite material on the stack. Between these steps, also included is placing a bead of flexible, adhesive, and dielectric ... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7268661 | Composite fuse element and methods of making same A composite fuse element includes a network or matrix of conductive material that is in contact and interspersed with arc suppressing materials at a particle level. In such a matrix, the conductive (e.g., metal) network and the arc suppressing material particles pro... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7259946 | Integrated electric motor and control system and method An electrically and thermally protected electrical machine is disclosed. The electrical and thermal protection is provided by one or more control components placed in a conduit box of the electrical machine to disrupt power transmission to the electrical machine upo... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7255476 | On chip temperature measuring and monitoring circuit and method A device temperature measurement circuit, an integrated circuit (IC) including a device temperature measurement circuit, a method of characterizing device temperature and a method of monitoring temperature. The circuit includes a constant current source and a clampi... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7253695 | Function generating circuit and temperature characteristic controlling method for function generating circuit In a function generating circuit which comprises a temperature sensor 1 for outputting an output current (Ilin) with a linear temperature characteristic or an output voltage (Vlin) with the linear temperature characteristic, a cubic function generating circui... | 08/07/2007 |
| 7253637 | Arc fault circuit interrupter system In order to determine whether arcing is present in an electrical circuit, a sensor signal corresponding to current in said electrical circuit is processed. The sensor signal is filtered to determine the presence of noise in a predetermined frequency range and produc... | 08/07/2007 |
| 7250794 | Voltage source converter A voltage source converter with a line-side diode rectifier, a load-side inverter with an electronic circuit, a power supply for the electronic circuit, and a slim DC link with a DC link capacitor is described. The slim DC link connects a DC output side of the line-... | 07/31/2007 |
| 7228508 | Fail-safe thermal sensor apparatus and method A fail-safe thermal sensor is implemented in an integrated circuit such as a microprocessor. The fail-safe thermal sensor monitors the temperature of the integrated circuit and halt logic halts operation of the integrated circuit in response to the fail-safe thermal... | 06/05/2007 |
| 7220629 | Method of manufacturing an integrated circuit with multilength power transistor elements A monolithic integrated circuit fabricated on a semiconductor die includes a control circuit and a first output transistor having segments substantially equal to a first length. A second output transistor has segments substantially equal to a second length. The firs... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7216064 | Method and apparatus for programmable thermal sensor for an integrated circuit A programmable thermal sensor is implemented in an integrated circuit such as a microprocessor. The programmable thermal sensor monitors the temperature of the integrated circuit, and generates an output to indicate that the temperature of the integrated circuit has... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7206178 | Electronic switching device A switching device includes a working circuit, to which an operating voltage can be or is applied to which has at least one electronic switching element. This switching element includes at least one control terminal for applying a switching signal and is switched of... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7205878 | Over-current protection device and manufacturing method thereof An over-current protection device comprises at least one PTC component, at least one thermal dissipation layer, at least one adhesive layer and at least two isolation layers, wherein the PTC component is formed by interposing a PTC material between two electrode lay... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7203049 | Over-current protection device The over-current protection device of the present invention uses the unbalanced properties of the thermal expansion coefficients between the outer and inner sides for an upper metallic conductive sheet and a lower metallic conductive sheet to generate a torque to de... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7196481 | Method and drive circuit for controlling LEDs A method and control circuit are disclosed for controlling light emitting diodes (“LEDs”). Based upon the LED's current versus intensity characteristic and temperature versus intensity characteristic, the rate of change of LED output intensity with respect to cu... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7196885 | Appliance leakage current interrupter and nightlight combination An appliance leakage current interrupter (ALCI) cord set for powering an appliance includes an ALCI plug having a housing, an ALCI circuit disposed within the housing and two partially exposed contact blades coupled to an input of the ALCI circuit. The contact blade... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7193833 | Electric switch An electric switch (1) comprising a capacity sensor circuit (2) provided with a signal input (3) arranged to be connected to an actuating line, and which is provided with a relay device (4) arranged to feed a current to a load line (7 | 03/20/2007 |
| 7187161 | Transient protection of sensors The present invention includes a system with a sensor to detect a change in one or more physical characteristics and provide a corresponding electrical sensor signal, a controller including a power source for the sensor, and transient suppression circuitry. This cir... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7183892 | Chip PTC thermistor and method for manufacturing the same Chip PTC thermistors that can easily be inspected the soldered portions after it is mounted on a printed circuit board and that can be used in a flow soldering process, and methods of making same. A chip PTC thermistor of the present invention includes: a first main... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7180719 | Integrated overvoltage and overcurrent device An electrical circuit protection device has an overcurrent protection portion and an overvoltage protection portion. The overcurrent protection portion has a surface. The overvoltage protection portion is disposed on the surface and thermally coupled to the overcurr... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7151656 | Arc fault circuit interrupter system A system for determining whether arcing is present in an electrical circuit in response to a sensor signal corresponding to current in the circuit includes a circuit for analyzing the sensor signal to determine the presence of broadband noise in a predetermined rang... | 12/19/2006 |
| 7146860 | Method for temperature compensation of a digital pressure meter A digital pressure meter is equipped with an operational (OP) amplifier circuit, and a thermistor circuit is connected with the OP amplifier circuit for causing change of an amplification ratio of the OP amplifier circuit with such that a temperature compensation fo... | 12/12/2006 |
| 7148785 | Circuit protection device A circuit protection device (31) suitable for surface mounting on a substrate (19). The device has a laminar PTC resistive element (3) which is composed of a conductive polymer composition and is positioned between first and second electrodes ( | 12/12/2006 |
| 7148698 | Fuse saving tester for fused circuit In one form, tester for an electrical system, such as for a vehicle, develops repetitively applied, short duration, control current pulses for reducing load current pulses through the electrical system. An operator connects a pair of input contacts across a fuse hol... | 12/12/2006 |
| 7145431 | Thermistor having symmetrical structure A thermistor is disclosed, which comprises a resistance element having upper and lower surfaces and showing a resistance varying characteristics according to the change of temperature; first and second conductive layers formed on the upper surface of the resistance ... | 12/05/2006 |
| 7145759 | Overcurrent protection circuit including auto-reset breaker and PTC resistor An overcurrent protection circuit for low-voltage, high-current electrical systems comprises a Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) resistor in series with an auto-reset thermal breaker. The breaker allows for intermittent current within an assumed product usage d... | 12/05/2006 |
