118results about How to "Improve sensitivity" patented technology

A solid-state imaging device is provided. The solid-state imaging device includes a plurality of arrayed pixels, an optical inner filter layer, and an inner-layer lens. Each of the plurality of arrayed pixels includes a photoelectric conversion portion and a pixel transistor. The optical inner filter layer is configured to block infrared light and faces a light-receiving surface of the photoelectric conversion portion of a desired pixel among the arrayed pixels. The inner-layer lens is formed below the optical inner filter layer.

The invention relates to a detector module (1) for a Positron Emission Tomograph (PET) and for Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) comprising a matrix (3) of scintillator crystals, said matrix having a first side and a second side opposite to said first side, each scintillator crystal having a first end (14) and a second end (15), said scintillator crystals (2) being oriented parallel to each other, whereby said first end (14) and said second end (15) of each of said scintillator crystals (2) coincide with said first side and said second side of said matrix (3), respectively; a first light sensitive detector (6) producing electrical signal proportional to the amount of light detected, being optically connected to said first side of said matrix (3), said first light sensitive detector (6) being position sensitive; and a second light sensitive detector (7) producing electrical signal proportional to the amount of light detected, said second light sensitive detector (7) being optically connected to said second side of said matrix (3), wherein said second light sensitive detector (7) is positioned sensitive. Using said detector module (1) a method to determine the 3D-coordinates of a point of interaction of a gamma quantum (γ1, γ2) with said detector module (1) is disclosed method. This allows to use signals from compton seattered γ's to enhance the sensitivity of a Positron Emission Tomograph scanner provided being composed of said detection modules (1) without parallax errors.

An electrostatic capacitance input device having a plurality of first electrodes extending in a first direction and a plurality of second electrodes extending in a second direction intersecting the first direction in an input area, including a plurality of first lines extending in parallel to each other from the plurality of first electrodes to a plurality of first terminals, and a plurality of second lines extending in parallel to each other from the plurality of second electrode to a plurality of second terminals, the first lines and the second lines being formed outside the input area, and an auxiliary line extending outside at least one of the lines at both ends in terms of the direction of arrangement of one or both of the plurality of first lines and the plurality of second lines, the auxiliary line generating a parasitic capacitance with respect to the at least one of the lines.

An IR source in the form of a micro-hotplate device including a CMOS metal layer made of at least one layer of embedded on a dielectric membrane supported by a silicon substrate. The device is formed in a CMOS process followed by a back etching step. The IR source also can be in the form of an array of small membranes—closely packed as a result of the use of the deep reactive ion etching technique and having better mechanical stability due to the small size of each membrane while maintaining the same total IR emission level. SOI technology can be used to allow high ambient temperature and allow the integration of a temperature sensor, preferably in the form of a diode or a bipolar transistor right below the IR source.

A method and apparatus for sensing a resistive state of a resistive memory element includes producing a first current related to a resistance of a memory cell. The first current is added to a second current during a first sensing time and subtracted from a third current during a second sensing time. The first, second and third currents are integrated over time using a capacitor, and a resulting voltage signal on the capacitor is timed using a clocked counter. A time average value of a digital output of the clocked counter is then related to the resistance of the memory cell, and hence to the resistive state of the resistive memory element.

An object is to obtain a touch panel with improved sensitivity and enhanced display quality. A touch panel according to the present invention includes a touch screen including a plurality of first sensing lines formed of mesh-like conductors and arranged in parallel on a substrate, an insulating film formed over the substrate and the first sensing lines, a plurality of second sensing lines formed of mesh-like conductors and arranged in parallel on the insulating film, first dummy patterns arranged in areas opposed to areas between adjacent first sensing lines through the insulating film, and having a form as part of the mesh forms of the first sensing lines such that the adjacent first sensing lines form an apparently continuous mesh form in plan view, and second dummy patterns arranged in areas opposed to areas between adjacent second sensing lines through the insulating film, and having a form as part of the mesh forms of the second sensing lines such that the adjacent second sensing lines form an apparently continuous mesh form in plan view.

The invention provides miniaturized lateral flow chromatographic and lateral flow chromatographic microarray devices (LFM). The miniaturization of lateral flow nucleic acid detection achieved by the present invention offers reduced reagent use, femtomole sensitivity, excellent linear dynamic range, and rapid detection. Moreover, the small feature sizes of capture oligonucleotides renders the potential information capacity of the platform comparable to more traditional spotted fluorescence microarrays as well as improving sensitivity. The LFM devices exemplified herein enable analytes to be detected within 10 seconds from the time of sample introduction to the LFM device. Sample volumes may be as low as about 10 microliters, significantly reducing assay costs and ameliorating reagent storage logistics. Additionally, the miniaturization of lateral flow opens the door to highly multiplexed assays, allowing many proteins or nucleic acids to be detected in a single assay.

Apparatus including an ion trap, a controller connected to the ion trap, wherein the controller includes a memory containing computer readable instructions which, when executed, cause the controller to send control signals to the ion trap so that the ion trap produce and maintain a trapping field in the ion trap, a waveform generator to change the trapping field so that ions of a predetermined mass in the trapping chamber are selectively moved; a secondary waveform generator to change the orbits of the ions; an energy source to excite ions to emit photons, an optical detector to detect the emitted photons, and a processor which can apply fast-Fourier transform analysis of the time-domain signal of the detected emitted photons to generate a frequency or mass spectrum related to mass-to-charge ratio of the ions.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for adjusting a signal includes receiving an input data signal and applying an offset compensation to the input data signal to generate an output signal. The method also includes, using a clock signal, sampling the output signal to generate a plurality of boundary values, each value comprising either a high value or a low value based on the sampling of the output signal. The method further includes, based at least on the high or low value of a boundary value, adjusting the offset compensation applied to the input data signal.

A touch screen display device includes a first touch electrode, a second touch electrode and a conductive pattern. The first touch electrode receives a touch driving signal. The second touch electrode is positioned so as to be spaced apart from the first touch electrode. The conductive pattern is positioned so as to overlap with the first touch electrode, and receives a boost signal for boosting the touch driving signal. Accordingly, the touch driving signal is boosted, thereby improving touch sensitivity.

Microcalorimeters having low addendum heat capacities and attojoule/Kscale resolutions are provided. These microcalorimeters make use of very small calorimeter bodies composed of materials with very low heat capacities. Also provided are polymer-based microcalorimeters with thermally isolated reagent chambers. These microcalorimeters use a multi-layered polymer membrane structure to provide improved thermal isolation of a reagent chamber.

Methods, apparatus, and systems to improve thermal sensitivity of resonant circuits. One aspect utilizes tracking near-resonance complex impedance for a quartz resonator based calorimeter sensor to derive ultra-sensitive temperature measurement from the sensor. Another aspect includes a quartz resonant or -based calorimetric sensor placed close to but not touching the analyte being measured to eliminate mass loading effect on the temperature measurement.

A condenser microphone includes a substrate having an opening in a back cavity, a diaphragm including a center portion and a plurality of arms extended in the radial direction from the center portion, a plate positioned opposite the diaphragm, and a support structure for supporting the periphery of the diaphragm and the periphery of the plate above the substrate while insulating the diaphragm and the plate both having conductive properties from each other. The support structure forms gaps between the substrate, the diaphragm, and the plate. Projections having insulating properties are formed in the center portion and the arms of the diaphragm so as to project towards the substrate and are separated from each other in the circumferential direction of the diaphragm. This prevents the diaphragm from being unexpectedly adhered and fixed to the substrate, thus improving the sensitivity of the condenser microphone.

A preferred embodiment comprises a method and system for generating an image of a subject or area comprising a processor; at least one incoherent light source which illuminates the subject or area; a first receiver for receiving light reflected from the subject or area operatively connected to the processor; a second receiver for receiving light from at least one incoherent light source operatively connected to the processor; the first receiver collecting the amount of light reflected from the subject and transmit a value at specific intervals of time; the second receiver comprising a second detector which detects and transmits spatial information regarding the incoherent light source independent of any data concerning the subject at specific intervals of time; wherein the processor correlates the value transmitted by the first receiver with the spatial information derived from the second receiver at correlating intervals of time to create an image of the subject or area. Alternatively, sound or quantum particles may replace the incoherent light source.

The GPS/GNSS receiver and method disclosed herein improves the GPS/GNSS receiver tracking sensitivity for detecting low signal-to-noise (SNR) GPS/GNSS signals through improved vector tracking, multibit correlation, improved extended range code-phase discrimination, and discrimination and navigation filter measurement via Probabilistic Data Association, individually or in combination. The solution is achieved without any external data aiding, such as from an inertial measurement unit, other wireless infrastructure source, or communication of GPS/GNSS satellite vehicle (SV) subframe data to the GPS/GNSS receiver over a data link.

A solid-state imaging device includes: multiple micro lenses, which are disposed in each of a first direction and a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, focus the incident light into the light-receiving surface; with the multiple micro lenses of which the planar shape is a shape including a portion divided by a side extending in the first direction and a side extending in the second direction being disposed arrayed mutually adjacent to each of the first direction and the second direction; and with the multiple micro lenses being formed so that the depth of a groove between micro lenses arrayed in a third direction is deeper than the depth of a groove between micro lenses arrayed in the first direction, and also the curvature of the lens surface in the third direction is higher than the curvature of the lens surface in the first direction.

Devices, methods, and articles of manufacture related to an invasive device for inserting an inductor coil proximate to a specimen for detecting magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) resonant signals from the specimen; a conductor for conducting a signal from the inductor coil wherein the conductor has an effective electrical length set to be an odd multiple of λ/4 where λ is the wavelength of a known frequency of an electromagnetic signal presented to the conductor.

The invention provides apparatus and methods for controlling ion current in an ion transmission device. An apparatus of the present invention comprises an ion source, an ion transmission device, and a controller. The ion source and the ion transmission device are in ion communication therebetween, and the controller is in signal communication with both the ion source and the ion transmission device. The ion current of the ion transmission device may be controlled by coordinating at least one of the operating parameter values of the ion source with at least one of the operating parameter values of the ion transmission device. Such coordination may result in, for example, improved ion current in the ion transmission device. Also embraced by the present invention are mass spectrometer embodiments that include or use the apparatus or methods of the present invention for controlling ion current.

A failure determination threshold value H_SH used for making a failure determination for a control apparatus, for example, a lock-up clutch (26) by failure determining means (116) is corrected by failure determination threshold value correcting means (114) based on a continuation quantity q_NG, for example, a duration t_NG, of an operation state in which a predetermined failure precondition for the control apparatus mounted on a vehicle is satisfied. Therefore, a failure determination is performed by the failure determining means (116) using the failure determination threshold value H_SH obtained in consideration of individual differences such as variations between vehicles. As a result, it is possible to prevent an erroneous determination regarding a failure, and to improve sensitivity of a failure determination.

The invention provides a water-tolerant blocking polyvinyl alcohol coating for coating and a preparation method thereof; the coating is prepared from the following raw materials in percentage by weight: 5-7% of polyving akohol, 0.01-0.05% of nanometer montmorillonite, 0.5-1% amino resin, 0.01-0.3% of catalytic agent, 0.01-0.1% of defoaming agent and 91-94% of deionized water; by adding the nanometer montmorillonite in the polyvinyl alcohol coating, after the modified coating is coated, the nanometer montmorillonite is dispersed in a polyving akohol coating in a layered structure so as to block gases such as oxygen and the like from flowing and diffusing so as to further increase the oxygen blocking performance of a polyving akohol coating membrane; and the coating is stable, has good coating adaptability, is simple in process and is suitable for industrial production.

A physical quantity detection element includes: a substrate; first and second fixed electrode portions on the substrate; a movable body on the upper portion of the substrate; and a beam on the movable body, the movable body includes a first movable body on a first side of the beam, and a second movable body on a second side of the beam, the first movable body includes a first movable electrode portion facing the first fixed electrode portion and a first mass portion disposed in an opposite direction of the beam from the first movable electrode portion, the second movable body includes a second movable electrode portion facing the second fixed electrode portion, a mass of the first movable body is greater than a mass of the second movable body, and a mass of the first mass portion is greater than a mass of the first movable electrode portion.

A solid state imaging device improving and stabilizing imaging characteristic by optimizing a location of a positive hole accumulation layer to an electrode at the periphery of a light receiving portion, and having light receiving portions formed on a substrate and electrodes formed on the substrate at the periphery of the light receiving portion, each electrode including at least a first electrode to which a positive voltage is applied and a second electrode to which only 0 volt or a negative polarity voltage is applied, each light receiving portion having a signal charge accumulation region formed on the substrate and a positive hole accumulation region formed in a surface layer portion of the signal charge accumulation region, each positive hole accumulation region arranged at a distance from the first electrode and arranged so as to overlap the second electrode, and method of producing the same and a camera.

Improved beam-interruption type pest detection devices adaptable to mounting on known pest traps utilizing a focused reflective optical sensor providing reduced clogging risk, increased sensitivity, increased sensing consistency and reduced energy consumption, and which can be electronically networked providing improved pest detection, analysis, and management.

An optical device includes: a substrate having a dielectric layer and a plurality of metal particles; and an organic molecular layer formed by self-assembly on at least either the surface of the dielectric layer or the surfaces of the metal particles. In the organic molecular layer, a first organic molecule and a second organic molecule are alternately arranged in a first direction, and the chain length of an organic group of the first organic molecule and the chain length of an organic group of the second organic molecule are different from each other.

An ultrasonic sensor is provided with a substrate unit where a thin-walled portion is arranged and a piezoelectric oscillator which is formed at the substrate unit. The piezoelectric oscillator includes two electrodes and a piezoelectric film positioned between the two electrodes. The thin-walled portion and the piezoelectric oscillator construct a membrane structure which will resonate at a predetermined frequency.

A memory cell with one MOS transistor formed in a floating body region isolated on its lower surface by a junction. A region of the same conductivity type as the floating body region but more heavily doped than said region is arranged under the drain region of the MOS transistor.

An obstacle detection system has multiple ultrasonic sonars. When a threshold value used for determining an existence of an obstacle is compared with a receiving signal having been amplified at a predetermined gain, the sonar having a receiving mode is provided with the gain which is higher than that of the sonar having a sending/receiving mode. Thus, the sensitivity of the sonar having the receiving mode can be improved so that a continuous sound field of the sonar is broadened. Accordingly, the distance of the border of the continuous sound field of the obstacle detection system from the vehicle can become substantially even.

A receiving circuit of a direct conversion system is provided which includes a differential amplifier circuit which amplifies a received signal, a mixer which combines the amplified received signal and an oscillation signal having a predetermined frequency to thereby perform frequency conversion, and a high gain amplifier circuit in which a plurality of programmable gain amplifiers and a plurality of filters which eliminate noise of the received signal and an unnecessary wave, are connected in a multistage and which is configured such that an amplification factor is varied according to the level of the received signal. In the receiving circuit, the low noise amplifier is brought to a non-operating state to thereby allow execution of a DC offset cancel operation of the corresponding programmable gain amplifier on the pre-stage side of the high gain amplifier circuit. Thereafter, the low noise amplifier is brought to an operating state to thereby allow execution of a DC offset cancel operation of the final-stage programmable gain amplifier.

Apparatus and methods for providing an improved Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI)-based spectrometer are disclosed herein. The improved FPI-based spectrometer may comprise one or more of a variety of improvements to allow improved sensitivity while retaining high spectral resolution, to limit the susceptibility to stray light, and to limit the degradation in performance due to temporal instabilities in the light source.

Provided are a gas sensor using a plurality of zinc oxide nano-structures on which metal islands are formed, and a method of fabricating the same. The gas sensor comprises zinc oxide nano-structures formed on a substrate, a plurality of metal islands coated on a surface of each zinc oxide nano-structure and separated from one another, a first electrode electrically connected to one end of each zinc oxide nano-structure through the substrate, a second electrode electrically connected to the other end of each zinc oxide nano-structure, and a current variation-measuring unit electrically connected to each of the first electrode and the second electrode so as to measure a variation in the amount of current flowing between the first electrode and the second electrode. In order to form the plurality of metal islands separated from one another on the surface of each zinc oxide nano-structure using a wet process, metal components of a metal material are coated on the surface of each zinc oxide nano-structure using the solution in which the metal material is solved.