ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,352,856, issued on July 8, was assigned to DENSO Corp. (Kariya, Japan).
"Ultrasonic sensor" was invented by Kensuke Kobayashi (Nisshin, Japan), Masayoshi Satake (Nisshin, Japan) and Dai Kondou (Kariya, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An ultrasonic sensor includes an adhesion sensor detecting adhesion of a foreign substance to a first surface of a bottom of a microphone housing. The adhesion sensor includes: a plurality of variable capacitances defined between a plurality of sensor electrodes disposed on the first surface of the bottom, each of the variable capacitances having a capacitance value which changes in response to adhesion ...