3841 results about "Capacitive coupling" patented technology

The present invention provides improved electrosurgical instruments and systems having electrocautery energy supply conductors that provide inhibited current leakage and methods of performing a robotically controlled minimally invasive surgical procedure while preventing unintended capacitive coupling. A surgical instrument generally comprises an elongate shaft having a proximal end and a distal end and defining an internal longitudinally extending passage. An electrocautery end effector is coupled to or disposed at the distal end of the shaft. An interface or tool base is coupled to or disposed at the proximal end of the shaft and removably connectable to the robotic surgical system. Typically, an independent electrical conductor extends from the interface to the end effector to transmit electrical energy to tissue engaged by the end effector. A sealed insulation tube extends within the passage and over the conductor. A separation is maintained between the sealed insulation tube and the conductor.

An electrosurgical instrument for use in cutting and / or coagulating tissue includes a dielectric material, the dielectric material being positioned in the current pathway between the tissue-treatment regions of first and second electrodes. This can be achieved by providing one or more electrode surfaces coated with a dielectric material having a reactive impedance of less than 3,000 ohms / sq. mm. at 450 kHz. The dielectric coating acts to couple the RF signal into the tissue primarily by capacitive coupling, providing a more even heating of the tissue and the elimination of “hot spot”. Examples of electrosurgical instruments employing such coated electrodes include forceps, scissors or scalpel blade instruments.

In some embodiments, a stylus for providing input to a capacitive touch screen, having a tip including or consisting of conductive felt, which provides a deformable conductive surface for contacting the touch screen. The tip is produced by felting base fibers (which are typically non-conductive) with conductive fibers. In other embodiments, a capacitive touch stylus having at least a first mode of operation and a second mode of operation, and including at least one conductive tip and switched circuitry (preferably, passive circuitry) including at least one switch biased in a default state indicative of the first mode of operation but switchable into a second state indicative of the second mode of operation in response to movement of the tip (typically, in response to exertion of not less than a threshold force on the tip). In some embodiments, a stylus having a conductive tip (e.g., a conductive, felted tip) and including switched circuitry (preferably, passive circuitry) having a first state which couples a capacitance to the tip, where the capacitance is sufficient to allow a capacitive touch screen device to recognize (as a touch) simple contact of the tip on the screen of the touch screen device, and a second state which decouples the capacitance from the tip, thereby preventing the touch screen device from recognizing (as a touch) simple contact of the tip on the screen.

The present invention provides a carbon based etch stop, such as a diamond like amorphous carbon, having a low dielectric constant and a method of forming a dual damascene structure. The low k etch stop is preferably deposited between two dielectric layers and patterned to define the underlying interlevel contacts / vias. The second or upper dielectric layer is formed over the etch stop and patterned to define the intralevel interconnects. The entire dual damascene structure is then etched in a single selective etch process which first etches the patterned interconnects, then etches the contact / vias past the patterned etch stop. The etch stop has a low dielectric constant relative to a conventional SiN etch stop, which minimizes the capacitive coupling between adjacent interconnect lines. The dual damascene structure is then filled with a suitable conductive material such as aluminum or copper and planarized using chemical mechanical polishing.

An antenna assembly includes a common reflector and multiple monopole type antenna elements positioned on a ground plane and fed with a switch assembly. The switch assembly is capable of feeding individual antennas as well as combining multiple antennas for improved radiation pattern coverage. Multiple antenna elements are placed around the common reflector to cover sectors of space around the antenna assembly to provide transmission and reception of radio frequency (RF) signals for mobile communication devices in a wireless network. The ground plane can be grounded or capacitively coupled to an existing circuit board or metal surface, allowing for reduced ground plane dimensions.

An apparatus comprises a fingerprint sensor having a set of capacitive elements configured for capacitively coupling to a user fingerprint. The fingerprint sensor may be disposed under a control button or display element of an electronic device, for example one or more of a control button and a display component. A responsive element is responsive to proximity of the user fingerprint, for example one or both of a first circuit responsive to motion of the control button, and a second circuit responsive to a coupling between the fingerprint and a surface of the display element. The fingerprint sensor is disposed closer to the fingerprint than the responsive element. The control button or display component may include an anisotropic dielectric material, for example sapphire.

Multi-gate NOR flash thin-film transistor (TFT) string arrays are organized as three dimensional stacks of active strips. Each active strip includes a shared source sublayer and a shared drain sublayer that is connected to substrate circuits. Data storage in the active strip is provided by charge-storage elements between the active strip and a multiplicity of control gates provided by adjacent local word-lines. The parasitic capacitance of each active strip is used to eliminate hard-wire ground connection to the shared source making it a semi-floating, or virtual source. Pre-charge voltages temporarily supplied from the substrate through a single port per active strip provide the appropriate voltages on the source and drain required during read, program, program-inhibit and erase operations. TFTs on multiple active strips can be pre-charged separately and then read, programmed or erased together in a massively parallel operation.

A capacitive touch sensitive position sensor is provided which has a substrate defining a touch sensitive platform. First and second resistive bus-bars arranged spaced apart on the substrate. A conductive sensing area is formed between the bus bars and is constructed with first and second conductive elements connected to the first and second resistive bus-bars respectively, and spaced apart from each other by non-conducting gaps, so that currents induced in the conductive sensing area flow towards the bus-bars, but are prevented from flowing in a direction parallel to the bus-bars. This design removes pin-cushion distortion and enhances linearization of the output signals. Because the sensing region is not galvanically coupled from one bus bar to the other, the voltage gradients remain uniform and undistorted. Capacitive coupling from one side to the other does not produce a distortion component provided that the capacitance is allowed to fully charge and discharge across all locations in the sensing region.

A roof-mounted passenger position sensor array of capacitive coupling passenger position sensors, to determine position and motion of a passenger by analysis of distances of the passenger to the various sensors of the array and analysis of the changes of distances with time.

A wireless IC device includes a wireless IC chip, a power supply circuit board upon which the wireless IC chip is mounted, and in which a power supply circuit is provided, the power supply circuit includes a resonant circuit having a predetermined resonant frequency, and a radiation pattern, which is adhered to the underside of the power supply circuit board, for radiating a transmission signal supplied from the power supply circuit, and for receiving a reception signal to supply this to the power supply circuit. The resonant circuit is an LC resonant circuit including an inductance device and capacitance devices. The power supply circuit board is a multilayer rigid board or a single-layer rigid board, and between the wireless IC chip and the radiation pattern is connected by DC connection, magnetic coupling, or capacitive coupling.

A non-volatile memory device and a method of manufacturing the non-volatile memory device are provided. At least one first semiconductor layer and at least one second semiconductor layer are disposed. At least one control gate electrode is disposed between the at least one first semiconductor layer and the at least one second semiconductor layer. At least one first layer selection line is capacitively coupled to the at least one first semiconductor layer. At least one second layer selection line is capacitively coupled to the at least one second semiconductor layer.

The present invention provides a touch input device for use in a vehicle such as an automobile. The touch input device includes a capacitive touch sensor that is disposed underneath a surface of the vehicle's interior that is accessible and touchable by an occupant of the vehicle. The touch sensor is configured so that a touch to a designated area of the surface activates the touch sensor by capacitive coupling between the touch implement and the touch sensor through the surface. The signals generated can be used to control or otherwise interact with displays and other electronic systems in the vehicle. The touch sensor can be constructed using a wide variety of substrate materials, including paper, cloth, plastic, and the object forming the touch surface. The touch surface can be provided by an airbag cover, and the touch sensor can be constructed to safely blow apart upon airbag deployment. Methods of making a touch input device for use in a vehicle are also provided.

A method for detection on a digitizer sensor, the method comprises simultaneously transmitting orthogonal signals having the same frequency on at least two conductors of a digitizer sensor; sampling a signal on at least one other conductor crossing the at least two conductors, wherein the signal is responsive to capacitive coupling at cross-junctions formed between the at least two conductors and at least one other conductor; decomposing the sampled signal into orthogonal components; and analyzing the orthogonal components to detect user interaction at each cross junction.

A matrix touch panel having upper and lower electrodes, the upper electrodes being composite electrodes made of a plurality of spaced micro-wires, and allowing, for example, an electric field from lower electrodes to pass between the micro-wires and thereby capacitively couple with a touching object, such as a finger.

A plasma processing apparatus includes a process container configured to accommodate a target substrate and to be vacuum-exhausted. A first electrode and a second electrode are disposed opposite each other within the process container. The first electrode includes an outer portion and an inner portion both facing the second electrode such that the outer portion surrounds the inner portion. An RF power supply is configured to apply an RF power to the outer portion of the first electrode. A DC power supply is configured to apply a DC voltage to the inner portion of the first electrode. A process gas supply unit is configured to supply a process gas into the process container, wherein plasma of the process gas is generated between the first electrode and the second electrode.

A semiconductor memory device having MIS transistors to constitute memory cells (MC), each of the MIS transistors including a semiconductor layer (12), a source region (15) formed in the semiconductor layer, a drain region (14) formed apart from the source region in the semiconductor layer, the semiconductor layer between the source region and the drain region serving as a channel body in a floating state, a main gate (13) provided between the source region and the drain region to form a channel in the channel body; and an auxiliary gate (20) provided separately from the main gate to control a potential of the channel body by capacitive coupling, the auxiliary gate being driven in synchronization with the main gate. The MIS transistor has a first data state in which the channel body is set at a first potential and a second data state in which the channel body is set at a second potential.

A flash NAND type EEPROM system with individual ones of an array of charge storage elements, such as floating gates, being capacitively coupled with at least two control gate lines. The control gate lines are preferably positioned between floating gates to be coupled with sidewalls of floating gates. The memory cell coupling ratio is desirably increased, as a result. Both control gate lines on opposite sides of a selected row of floating gates are usually raised to the same voltage while the second control gate lines coupled to unselected rows of floating gates immediately adjacent and on opposite sides of the selected row are kept low. The control gate lines can also be capacitively coupled with the substrate in order to selectively raise its voltage in the region of selected floating gates. The length of the floating gates and the thicknesses of the control gate lines can be made less than the minimum resolution element of the process by forming an etch mask of spacers.

A radio frequency (RF) coaxial resonator feeding a saltshaker-like gas distributing electrode assembly forms a capacitively coupled plasma source. This apparatus can generate plasma of high density over a wide pressure range and large process window. The system may be used as a remote radical-rich plasma source for materials surface processing.

A touch screen system includes a capacitive touch screen (1) including a plurality of row conductors (7-1,2 . . . n) and a column conductor (5-1). A plurality of cotemporaneous orthogonal excitation signals (S1(t), S2(t) . . . Sn(t)) are simultaneously driven onto the row conductors, respectively. The capacitively coupled signals on the column conductor may be influenced by a touch (10) on the capacitive touch screen. Receiver circuitry (50) includes a sense amplifier (21-1) coupled to generate an amplifier output signal (r1(t)) in response to signals capacitively coupled onto the column conductor. WHT-based circuitry (35) determines amounts of signal contribution capacitively coupled by each of the excitation signals, respectively, to the amplifier output signal.

An RFID device, such as an RFID tag or label, includes a combined reactive coupler electrically coupling a transponder chip to an antenna. The combined reactive coupler includes a magnetic coupler and a capacitive coupler. The magnetic coupler and the reactive coupler may have respective coupling elements on both the interposer and on an antenna substrate.

An implantable electronic medical device is compatible with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. The device has a housing with exterior walls, each formed by a dielectric substrate with electrically conductive layers on interior and exterior surfaces. A series of slots divide each layer into segments. Segmenting the layers provides high impedance to eddy currents produced by fields of the MRI scanner, while capacitive coupling of the segments provides radio frequency shielding for components inside the housing. Electrical leads extending from the housing have a pair of coaxially arranged conductors and traps that attenuate currents induced in the conductors by the fields of the MRI scanner.

Methods and apparatuses to design an Integrated Circuit (IC) with a shielding of wires. In at least one embodiment, a shielding mesh of at least two reference voltages (e.g., power and ground) is used to reduce both the capacitive coupling and the inductive coupling in routed signal wires in IC chips. In some embodiments, a type of shielding mesh (e.g., a shielding mesh with a window surrounded by a power ring, or a window with a parser set of shielding wires) is selected to make more routing area available in locally congested areas. In other embodiments, the shielding mesh is used to create or add bypass capacitance. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

A capacitive position sensor has a two-layer electrode structure. Drive electrodes extending in a first direction on a first plane on one side of a substrate. Sense electrodes extend in a second direction on a second plane on the other side of the substrate so that the sense electrodes cross the drive electrodes at a plurality of intersections which collectively form a position sensing array. The sense electrodes are provided with branches extending in the first direction part of the way towards each adjacent sense electrode so that end portions of the branches of adjacent sense electrodes co-extend with each other in the first direction separated by a distance sufficiently small that capacitive coupling to the drive electrode adjacent to the co-extending portion is reduced. Providing sense electrode branches allow a sensor to be made which has a greater extent in the first direction for a given number of sense channels, since the co-extending portions provide an interpolating effect. The number of sense electrode branches per drive electrode can be increased which allows a sensor to be made which has ever greater extent in the first direction without having to increase the number of sense channels.

A liquid crystal display device according to the present invention is constituted of a TFT substrate and an opposing substrate which are arranged so as to be opposite to each other with a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween. In addition, in the liquid crystal layer, formed is a polymer into which a polymer component added to liquid crystal is polymerized, and which determines directions in which liquid crystal molecules tilt when voltage is applied. In the TFT substrate, formed are a sub picture element electrode directly connected to a TFT and a sub picture element electrode connected to the TFT through capacitive coupling. In each of these sub picture element electrodes, formed are slits extending in directions respectively at angles of 45 degrees, 135 degrees, 225 degrees and 315 degrees to the X axis.