The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 20, 2012
Filed:
Aug. 26, 2010
Taro Shibagaki, Tokyo, JP;
Satoru Nunokawa, Hino, JP;
Masaki Kato, Fuchu, JP;
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
According to one embodiment, a malfunction predicting unit includes a level reduction unit, a first buffer gate unit, a second buffer gate unit, a comparator unit and a processing unit. The level reduction unit reduces an input digital signal to generate a level-reduced signal. The first buffer gate unit generates a first output signal. The first output signal has first or second level if the digital signal is or is not higher than a preset threshold level, respectively. The second buffer gate unit generates a second output signal. The second output signal has the first or second level if the level-reduced signal is or is not higher than the preset threshold level, respectively. The comparator unit compares the first and second output signals to generate a comparison result. The processing unit determines whether a malfunction will soon occur, based on the comparison result.