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The present invention relates to a variable venturi carburetor which is feedback-controlled with the air of an exhaust gas sensor.
FIG. 1 shows a construction of the conventional feedback type carburetor. In this carburetor, the signal from an exhaust gas sensor 4 is sent to a control circuit 7 where it is compared with the target air-fuel ratio. The control circuit 7 then supplies a control signal based on the comparison to an actuator 6 to control the amount of air bleed to be supplied to the main fuel system or the idling system of the carburetor 5 so as to maintain the air-fuel ratio of the mixture at an optimum value. The conventional carburetor has the main fuel system and the idling system and there is a substantial time lag after the two fuel systems have been switched over until a desired amount of fuel is supplied to the intake manifold. The conventional carburetor also has the following drawbacks: when the fuel begins to be supplied from the main fuel system, the vacuum pressure level at the main nozzle 5-3 is not sufficiently high so that the fuel is injected irregularly and non-uniformly and therefore the air-fuel ratio of the mixture fluctuates greatly; and the amount of air bleed for both fuel systems must be controlled simultaneously. In other conventional carburetors (not shown), the negative pressure derived from the intake manifold is regulated at a constant vacuum level and is further controlled at a desired level by the solenoid valve whose open-close time ratio (duty ratio) has a linear relationship with the controlled vacuum level and which is determined on the basis of the signal from the exhaust gas sensor. The controlled vacuum pressure is then admitted to a vacuum diaphragm chamber of an air-bleed control means to control the amount of air bleed and thereby control the richness of the mixture to be drawn into the engine. This type of carburetor requires a regulator means to regulate the negative pressure derived from the intake manifold at a constant level. The former type of carburetor has the problems of slow feedback response when the two fuel systems are switched over, and of uneven supply of fuel when the fuel begins to be delivered from the main fuel system. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of book marks and note-taking.
2. Background of the Invention
Prior solutions to the marking of selected pages, in a book, a report, or the like have included traditional bookmarks, paperclips, pieces of scrap paper, a separate pad of Post-it® Notes, etc. Each of these solutions has drawbacks.
Using bookmarks to mark multiple places in a book or report is not feasible since the user generally has only one bookmark. Using paperclips can damage the page. The use of scrape paper is messy and does not look professional. Pads of Post-it® Notes are not always handy, convenient or of the desired size.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,526,906 to Bidanset pertains to a page marking device. The marking device is part of a book. The book has a tab assembly carrier. The carrier has a plurality of removable tabs disposed on the carrier. Printed indicia are located on the tabs. The tabs are secured to the carrier by a non-aggressive adhesive, allowing the tabs to be removed from the carrier relocated and/or removed again as required by the user of the device. Printed indicia may also be located on or beneath said carrier.
In contrast, the device shown by the Remmy patent, U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,816, shows a marking apparatus and method for books; double sided tabs have adhesive so that the tabs may be adhered to pages of books, with a number-bearing portion of the tab extending from the page. Adhesive occupies one-half of one side of the tab, and numbers are written in opposite directions on opposite sides of the tab so that the tab may be affixed to a left or right page of a book to clearly mark the page and the point on the page to which it refers. Learning key cards have numbers corresponding to the tabs. Brief notes are written on the lines, and the cards are attached to the front leaf of a book. The tabs are attached directly to the learning key, or they are attached on the inside of a cover or opposite leaf of the book. An envelope or jacket-type holder is adhesive-backed for fastening to an inside of the book, and the tabs are mounted on a release coating on the outside of the envelope-pocket. Learning key cards, each with individual numbers corresponding to the tabs, are inserted in the pocket so that an entire card is available for notes in reference to the corresponding tab.
While the above mentioned patents are a good start, none of them address combining a book mark with a convenient source of note-taking. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide for an apparatus that is enabled for marking selected pages while also serving as a source for recording information about those selected pages. | {
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Concretions can develop in certain parts of the body, such as in the kidneys, pancreas, ureter and gallbladder. It is common for biological concretions to be referred to as calculi or stones, especially when they are composed of mineral salts. For example, concretions formed in the biliary system are called gallstones. Those that form in the bladder are as also known as vesical calculi or bladder stones, and cystoliths. Calculi occurring in the kidney are often called kidney stones. Calculi can also occur in the ureter and are usually the result of the passage of stones originating in the kidney. Calculi are also present, for example, in salivary ducts or glands.
Lithotripsy is a popular, minimally invasive medical procedure that uses energy in various forms such as acoustic shock waves, pneumatic pulsation, electrical hydraulic shock waves, or laser beams to break up biological concretions. The force of the energy, when applied either extracorporeally or intracorporeally, usually in focused and continuous or successive bursts, comminutes a concretion into smaller fragments that may be extracted from the body or allowed to pass from the body.
There are several complications, however, which can result from lithotripsy. One problem with this procedure is that when concretions are fragmented, the fragments can become widely distributed. For example, when kidney stones are fragmented, the fragments can become widely distributed throughout the ureter and kidney. Therefore, during the procedure, it is desirable to confine the kidney stone and the resulting fragments within a constrained space. Various mechanical anti-migration backstops have been developed and involve the placement of these devices behind the kidney stone. Another approach, described in U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2005/0143678 involves the introduction of a temporary plug behind the stone, preventing the stone and its fragments from migrating further up the urethra or kidney. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an oscillation circuit, and, in particular, to an oscillation circuit in which oscillation is performed as a result of two capacitors being alternately charged and discharged through transistors.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a circuit diagram of an example of an oscillation circuit in the related art.
The oscillation circuit 1 in the related art includes a power source 2 which supplies a driving voltage VD, a driving current generating circuit 3 which generates driving currents in accordance with the driving voltage VD supplied by the power source 2, capacitors C1, C2 which are charged by the driving currents generated by the driving current generating circuit 3, a discharging NPN transistor Q1 which discharges charge of the capacitor C1 in accordance with a charged voltage of the capacitor C2, a discharging NPN transistor Q2 which discharges charge of the capacitor C2 in accordance with a charged voltage of the capacitor C1, a diode component D1 which maintains the charged voltage of the capacitor C1 at a predetermined level and a diode component D2 which maintains the charged voltage of the capacitor C2 at a predetermined level. Thus, the oscillation circuit 1 forms a oscillation circuit using a multivibrator.
The driving current generating circuit 3 forms a current-mirror circuit, and includes PNP transistors Q3, Q4, Q5, Q6, Q7 and a constant-current source 4. The emitter of the transistor Q3 is connected to the positive voltage side of the power source 2, and the collector and the base of the transistor Q3 are connected with one another. The emitter of the transistor Q4 is connected to the positive voltage side of the power source 2, the base of the transistor Q4 is connected to the base and collector of the transistor Q3, and the collector of the transistor Q4 supplies a driving current. The emitter of the transistor Q5 is connected to the positive voltage side of the power source 2, the base of the transistor Q5 is connected to the base and collector of the transistor Q3, and the collector of the transistor Q5 supplies a driving current. The emitter of the transistor Q6 is connected to the positive voltage side of the power source 2, the base of the transistor Q6 is connected to the base and collector of the transistor Q3, and the collector of the transistor Q6 supplies a driving current. The emitter of the transistor Q7 is connected to the positive voltage side of the power source 2, the base of the transistor Q7 is connected to the base and collector of the transistor Q3, and the collector of the transistor Q7 supplies a driving current. The constant-current source 4 is connected to the collector and base of the transistor Q3, and draws predetermined currents from the collector and base of the transistor Q3, and the bases of the transistors Q4, Q5, Q6 and Q7.
The collector of the transistor Q4 of the driving current generating circuit 3 is connected to one end of the oscillation capacitor C1. The discharging transistor Q1 which discharges the capacitor C1 and the diode component D1 which maintains the voltage of the one end of the capacitor C1 at the predetermined level are connected between the connection point of the one end of the capacitor C1 and the collector of the transistor Q4, and the ground.
The collector of the discharging NPN transistor Q1 is connected to the connection point of the one end of the capacitor C1 and the collector of the transistor Q4, the emitter of the transistor Q1 is grounded, and the base of the transistor Q1 is connected to one end of the oscillation capacitor C2. Switching of the transistor Q1 is performed in accordance with the charged voltage of the capacitor C2 and thus the transistor Q1 controls charging and discharging of the capacitor C1. The diode component D1 is an NPN transistor Q8, and the base and the collector of the transistor Q8 are connected with one another, that is, diode component connection is performed. The base and collector of the transistor Q8 are connected to the connection point of the one end of the capacitor C1 and the collector of the transistor Q4, and the emitter of the transistor Q8 is grounded. The diode component D1 maintains the one end of the capacitor C1 at the forward voltage VF of the diode component D1 when the capacitor C1 is charged.
The collector of the transistor Q5 of the driving current generating circuit 3 is connected to the other end of the capacitor C1, and supplies a charging current to the other end of the capacitor C1.
The collector of the transistor Q6 of the driving current generating circuit 3 is connected to the one end of the capacitor C2, and supplies a charging current to the one end of the capacitor C2.
The collector of the transistor Q7 of the driving current generating circuit 3 is connected to the other end of the oscillation capacitor C2. The discharging transistor Q2 which discharges the capacitor C2 and the diode component D2 which maintains the voltage of the other end of the capacitor C2 at the predetermined level are connected between the connection point of the other end of the capacitor C2 and the collector of the transistor Q7, and the ground.
The collector of the discharging NPN transistor Q2 is connected to the connection point of the other end of the capacitor C2 and the collector of the transistor Q7, the emitter of the transistor Q2 is grounded, and the base of the transistor Q2 is connected to the other end of the capacitor C1. The diode component D2 is an NPN transistor Q9, and the base and the collector of the transistor Q9 are connected with one another, that is, diode component connection is performed. The base and collector of the transistor Q9 are connected to the connection point of the other end of the capacitor C2 and the collector of the transistor Q7, and the emitter of the transistor Q9 is grounded. The diode component D2 maintains the other end of the capacitor C2 at the forward voltage VF of the diode component D2 when the capacitor C2 is charged.
Operations of the oscillation circuit 1 will now be described. FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C and 2D show operation waveforms of the above-described oscillation circuit 1. FIG. 2A shows the collector voltage of the discharging transistor Q1, FIG. 2B shows the collector voltage of the discharging transistor Q2, FIG. 2C shows the base voltage of the discharging transistor Q1, and FIG. 2D shows the base voltage of the discharging transistor Q2.
With reference to FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C and 2D, at the time t1, the discharging transistor Q1 turns off and thereby the collector voltage of the transistor Q1 is changed to and maintained at a high level. Further, at the same time, the discharging transistor Q2 turns on and thereby the collector voltage of the transistor Q2 is changed to a low level. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 2C, the voltage of the one end of the oscillation capacitor C2 falls and charging is started.
At the time t2, the capacitor C2 has been charged via the one end of the capacitor C2 by the charging current supplied by the transistor Q6 of the driving current generating circuit 3. Then, when the voltage of the one end of the capacitor C2 becomes the turn-on voltage of the discharging transistor Q1, the transistor Q1 turns on and thereby the collector voltage of the transistor Q1 is changed to a low level as shown in FIG. 2A.
When the collector voltage of the discharging transistor Q1 is changed to the low level, the voltage of the other end of the oscillation capacitor C1 falls, and, as shown in FIG. 2D, the base voltage of the discharging transistor Q2 falls. As a result, the transistor Q2 turns off. The oscillation transistor C1 is charged since the base voltage of the transistor Q2 falls at the time t2. Then, when the voltage of the other end of the capacitor C1 becomes the forward voltage VF of the diode component D2 at the time t3, the transistor Q2 turns on. When the transistor Q2 turns on, as shown in FIG. 2B, the collector voltage of the transistor Q2 is changed to the low level. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 2C, the base voltage of the transistor Q1 falls, and the transistor Q1 turns off. Charging of the capacitor C2 is started again.
The operations between the times t1 and t2, and the operations between the times t2 and t3 are repeated. Thereby, the oscillation signals shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B are obtained from output terminals TOUT1 and TOUT2, respectively.
In the oscillation circuit 1 in the related art, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, oscillation is performed as a result of switching of the discharging transistors Q1 and Q2 being performed alternately. When the transistors Q1 and Q2 turn on simultaneously due to noise or the like, the oscillation stops and it is necessary to disconnect the power source 2 to restart the oscillation. | {
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Rice hull ash has been used widely, in steel mills, as an insulating cover on tundishes and ladles containing molten steel. The rice hull ash is a good insulator because it is inexpensive, it flows over and covers the steel surface well, and it does not get crusty or lumpy during use. As a commodity, rice hull ash is produced by Agrilectric in Lake Charles, La., as the end product of the combustion of rice hulls in a boiler which feeds a power plant.
The major problem with rice hull ash is that, because of its low bulk density (15 to 20 lb/ft.sup.3) and small particle size, some of the ash becomes airborne when it comes in contact with hot metal. The resulting dust is believed not to be a health hazard, but it is annoying to operating personnel.
Previous attempts to improve the properties of rice hull ash for molten steel insulation have met with limited success. Although it is known to produce rice hull ash briquettes with 1) sodium silicate, 2) starch, 3) cement dust/starch and 4) lime/molasses binders, these briquettes do not break down (i.e., spontaneously subdivide into smaller pieces), spread or insulate well when transferred to the surface of molten steel. It is also known to produce rice hull ash pellets with an industrial molasses binder, and such pellets do break down, spread and insulate well on the molten steel surface. However, pellets containing molasses binder smoke excessively when exposed to liquid steel temperatures. Applicants are also aware of other rice hull ash pelletizing attempts which have failed, which failure is probably also attributable to the composition of the binder. These unacceptable binders include lime, lime/lignosol admixtures, starch, starch/lignin admixtures, and wood pulp. (For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,575 to Daussan et al. discloses pelletizing rice hull ash with wood pulp or with admixtures containing a starchy binder and clay. Unfortunately, these and all other organic binders smoke excessively during use, yielding an unsatisfactory insulation material.)
Accordingly, a need remains for a pelletized rice hull ash product which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art. | {
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The present invention relates to an aperture control mechanism for a single lens reflex camera of lens interchangeable type in which the aperture control is achieved within a predetermined operable range (R) of a diaphragm control member and particularly to such aperture control mechanism utilizing a microcomputer for digital control so as to improve precision, resolution and reproductivity of the aperture control.
The aperture control mechanisms of the prior art have been of the so-called regular interval position control type in which the diaphragm control member has its stroke set in regular intervals with respect to adjacent aperture values of each objective. With the mechanism of such regular interval position control type, however, the stroke (ST) per 1 EV of the diaphragm control member is determined without any variation, based on the operable range (R) of the diaphragm control member and the range of the apex representing values (.DELTA.A.sub.v) corresponding to the aperture adjustable range of a particular objective belonging to a group of interchangeable lenses (hereinafter referred to simply as "aperture adjustable range"). For example, an objective for which the maximum aperture is F1.4 and the minimum aperture is F22, has its aperture adjustable range (.DELTA.A.sub.v) of 8 EV and said stroke (ST) per 1 EV of ST=R/8. In general, so far as the aperture control mechanism is concerned, the larger the stroke (ST) per 1 EV is, the higher the resolution and the precision achieved and the smaller the influence of the other factors such as mechanical play becomes. Usually, photographic cameras of lens interchangeable type utilize an interchangeable lens group typically including an objective having a maximum aperture of F2.8 and a minimum aperture of F22 and an objective having a maximum aperture of F4 and a minimum aperture of F32. The aperture adjustable range (.DELTA.A.sub.v) of such interchangeable objective is 6 EV and for regular interval position control will limit the operable range of the diaphragm control member to 6R/8. Thus, the remainder of 2R/8 will be a useless portion having no effect upon the aperture control, so far as the interchangeable objective having its aperture adjustable range of 6 EV is used.
It is necessary for a correct aperture control to stop down the objective accurately to an aperture value required by the actual condition of an objective to be photographed. However, the usual mechanical control is necessarily accompanied with a time lag from the moment at which the signal is received to the moment at which the mechanism is actually activated in accordance with this signal. Concerning the aperture control member included in the aperture control mechanism according to the prior art, if the signal with which the operation of stopping down is arrested is applied to said diaphragm control member just at the moment at which the diaphragm has been stopped down to the desired aperture value, the diaphragm would be actually stopped down to a position beyond the desired aperture value. To avoid such excessive stopping down, it has been found that said time lag must be compensated by a suitable measure, for example, by slightly earlier generation of the stop signal. | {
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1. Field of the invention
The invention relates to a method for controlling a power source comprising a first converter for converting an input voltage to an intermediate circuit voltage, an intermediate circuit capacitor and a second converter for converting the intermediate circuit voltage to an output voltage, whereby a process is controlled at the output of the second converter and in particular the output voltage and/or output current is controlled with the aid of the second converter.
The invention further relates to a process controller for a power source, which power source comprises a first converter for converting an input voltage to an intermediate circuit voltage, an intermediate circuit capacitor and a second converter for converting the intermediate circuit voltage to an output voltage. The controller comprises an input for the output voltage and/or output current, an output for activating the second converter and means for running a control algorithm, and the output voltage and/or output current is provided as a controlled variable and the second converter is provided as an actuator of a closed loop.
Finally, the invention relates to a power source, comprising a first converter for converting an input voltage to an intermediate circuit voltage, an intermediate circuit capacitor and a second converter for converting the intermediate circuit voltage to an output voltage and a controller of said type, the input of which for the output voltage and/or output current is connected to the output of the welding power source and the output of which is connected to the second converter for activating the second converter.
2. Description of the Related Art
Methods of controlling a power source of the type outlined above are known in principle. They are used to convert an input alternating voltage to an intermediate circuit voltage. Alternatively, another option is to convert an input direct voltage to an intermediate circuit voltage if the input direct voltage is not at the desired level. This intermediate circuit voltage is kept at a more or less constant level by means of an intermediate circuit capacitor. As a result, this intermediate circuit voltage is converted to an output voltage. The output voltage and/or output current are controlled by means of the second converter. For example, a pulse-shaped output current at constant voltage can be provided, such as needed for impulse welding, for example. Such methods are also used for charging batteries.
In this context, US 2010/225289 A1 discloses a two-stage voltage supply with a measuring circuit at its output and a controller connected to it, which activates the two switching stages of the voltage supply.
EP 0 866 284 A2 discloses an air conditioning system also having a two-stage voltage supply for the compressor. In an arrangement similar to that of US 2010/225289 A1, said voltage supply comprises a measuring circuit at its output and a controller connected to it, which activates the two switching stages of the voltage supply.
US 2011/309054 A1 also discloses a two-stage welding power source with a measuring circuit at the output and a process controller connected to it, which activates the first of the two switching stages.
US 2008/284388 A1 and JP 10 341572 A disclose other two-stage voltage supplies. These respectively comprise a measuring circuit at the output and on the intermediate circuit, which are connected to a controller, which activates the two switching stages of the voltage supply. | {
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A technique regarding organizing a convoy of vehicles, in which a train of vehicles keep a certain inter-vehicle distance and follow a lead vehicle, is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-278536 (JP '536). The technique of JP '536 provides for wireless communication between terminals disposed in each of the vehicles of the convoy (i.e., vehicle-to-vehicle communication). That is, when traveling as a convoy, or as a group of vehicles, each of the vehicles of the convoy, except for the last vehicle, transmits position information of the vehicle and other information to a following vehicle at regular intervals, since each vehicle may possibly serve as a lead vehicle (i.e., a pace vehicle) in the convoy. The information received by the following vehicle is utilized for the travel of the following vehicle itself, for organizing the convoy.
However, the technique of JP '536 is problematic in terms of suffering from congestion of transmitted information. In other words, the technique may cause congestion of transmitted information from each of the convoy vehicles, because each of the convoy vehicles transmits, at regular intervals through vehicle-to-vehicle communication, information such as a vehicle position and the like, and each of the transmitted information occupies a certain bandwidth, which increases the possibility of congestion of the transmitted information, especially when many vehicles are organized as one convoy.
If a longer transmission cycle (i.e., a longer transmission interval) is used in the vehicle-to-vehicle communication, it may prevent an increase of the bandwidth of each of the transmitted information, thereby making it less possible to cause congestion. However, under such circumstance, if the convoy vehicle needs to receive the transmitted information very frequently, the longer transmission cycle of the vehicle-to-vehicle communication may cause a problem in such information-demanding vehicle. | {
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It is known to aerate a mix for the preparation of an ice cream through the use of an aerating means comprising a rotating element that fits into the barrel of a continuous ice cream freezer. This aerating means is commonly referred to as a dasher. On rotation the dasher transfers mechanical energy into the mix in order to achieve aeration and generate a fat network by aggregating some of the fat droplets. This aggregation is necessary for product stability.
For many industrial continuous freezers there are a variety of dasher types available. These can be differentiated from each other by the volume displaced within the freezer barrel which can be assessed by simply filling the freezer barrel with a liquid, such as water, and measuring the volume of liquid displaced when the dasher is fitted therein. A dasher described as a series 80 indicates that this rotating element occupies 80% of the available internal volume of the freezer barrel so that only 20% of the space is available to be occupied by the mix to be aerated. By contrast a series 15 dasher, also known in the art, demonstrates a displacement volume of only 15% of the internal barrel volume, the remaining 85% being available to be occupied by a mix to be aerated.
In conventional ice cream processing it is generally accepted that higher displacement dashers such as the series 80 give rise to high quality ice cream being highly churned (Ice Cream 5th Edition, W. S. Arbuckle et al., page 183) thus showing optimal levels of fat de-stabilisation, while at the same time product dryness, good meltdown resistance and product hardness. These displacement dashers are therefore the standard form of aerating means used in ice cream manufacture.
The ice cream formulations prepared by conventional aeration comprise a fat phase with a relatively high melting point. This means that little if any liquid fat is present at the processing temperature.
The applicants have identified a need to extend the range of fats that can be applied to ice cream manufacture. In particular there is a need for the development of novel ice cream compositions having formulations that can comprise a fat component with a low melting point, thus imparting a higher level of liquid fat in the fat phase, at the processing temperature. At the same time formulations must maintain the high degree of stable aeration and low levels of destabilised fat and overrun loss, characteristic of conventional ice creams. The ability to use increasingly varied fats would also allow the manufacture of ice cream at reduced cost.
Unexpectedly it has been found that the full range of conventional techniques described above for processing ice cream are not suitable for this group of novel ice cream formulations. The use of high displacement aerating means has been found by the applicants to lead to the development of a product exhibiting over destabilisation of fat and overrun loss, phase separation, leading to a clearly unsatisfactory product.
The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is therefore derived from the finding that novel ice cream formulations comprising a fat phase with relatively high levels of liquid fat at the processing temperature cannot be processed to a high quality ice cream by conventional routes.
It has been surprisingly been found that a solution to this problem resides in the use of equipment which had never been used for this type of formulation before. There is no suggestion in the prior art that this type of equipment has any positive influence on the destabilisation of fat, phase separation or overrun loss during the processing of a composition. The present invention therefore seeks to provide a stable composition with at least 90% overrun, wherein said composition comprises a fat phase which has a high ratio of liquid fat to solid fat. | {
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Blenders are used to prepare food items by performing a chopping and/or mixing operation on food stuff. A blender can include a container for receiving food for blending and a blade assembly having blades that can be rotated to perform the blending operation on the food received in the container. The blade assembly can be removably coupled to the container such that the blades are located within the interior of the container and a drive shaft of the blade assembly extends through an aperture in the container. The blender can further include a base that the container may rest on that comprises a motor for rotating the drive shaft of the blade assembly. When an aperture is provided in a container of a blender for a drive shaft of a blade assembly to extend therethrough, it is possible that food or liquid within the container can leak through the aperture. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a line marker, particularly to one able to easily draw a line with a paint spray can.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Commonly, lime powder and paint are used as line marking materials drawn on the ground. The line drawn with lime powder is apt to become blurred after a short period of time, possible to cause an accident if it is an important sign. Paint, a durable material with a property of good adhesion, is of course a good option for line marking, especially done by spraying. But, in order to keep on spraying the paint, a user's finger has to press on the spraying nozzle continuously, not only making the finger feel uncomfortable, but also unable to obtain an evenly drawn line. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spout installation method and a spout installation apparatus for installing a spout to a pouch.
2. Description of Related Art
The following description sets forth the inventors' knowledge of related art and problems therein and should not be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art.
For example, as shown in FIG. 7A, in a pouch container SP1 with a spout to which a spout S1 serving as a tap or a pouring mouth is installed to the upper edge portion UE of the pouch P1 having a side gusset portion formed by a flexible sheet made of, e.g., a synthetic resin film, a pouch P1 having a non-heat-sealed upper edge portion UE is preliminarily manufactured, and then, after inserting a spout S1 into the opened upper edge portion UE of the pouch P1 as shown in FIG. 7B, the spout S1 is installed to the pouch P1 by heat sealing the upper edge portion UE. Such spout installation work is performed by, for example, a spout installation apparatus 50 as shown in FIG. 8. The shaded portion in FIGS. 7A and 7B denotes a heat sealed region of the pouch P1.
As shown in FIG. 8, the aforementioned spout installation apparatus 50 is provided with a spout supply unit 51 for sequentially supplying a spout S1 by conveying it, a pouch supply unit 52 for sequentially supplying a pouch P1 with a non-heat-sealed upper edge portion UE, a rotary type spout installation portion 53 provided with a plurality of spout installation heads, and a discharge unit 54 for sequentially discharging a pouch container SP1 with a spout formed by the spout installation portion 53. The spout installation unit 53 is configured to insert the spout S1 supplied from the spout supply unit 51 to the upper edge portion UE of the pouch P1 supplied from the pouch supply unit 52 and then heat seal the upper edge portion UE of the pouch P1 to thereby form the pouch container SP1 with a spout. The pouch supply unit 52 is configured to deliver the pouch P1 in a standing state such that the non-heat-sealed upper edge portion UE of the pouch P1 faces upward.
Each spout installation head of the spout installation unit 53 is provided with a spout clamper for holding a portion of a spout S1 between the upper and lower flange portions with a pair of holding arms, a pouch holder for sucking and holding both the front and rear surfaces of the pouch P1 with a pair of sucking and holding arms disposed at a lower side of the spout clamper, and a heat sealer having a pair of seal bars disposed between the spout clamper and the pouch holder. Thus, while conveying the spout S1 held by the spout clamper and the pouch P1 sucked and held by the pouch holder at the lower side of the spout S1 on the same conveyance line, the upper edge portion UE of the pouch P1 is opened by opening the pair of sucking and holding arms sucking and holding both the front and rear surfaces of the pouch P1, and then the sucking and holding arms are raised to insert the spout S1 into the opened upper edge portion UE of the pouch P1, and the upper edge portion UE is heat sealed by the heat sealer. (see, e.g., Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-311851, and Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Publication No. H06-48401)
As such a pouch container with a spout, other than the aforementioned pouch container with a spout installed to the upper edge portion of the pouch, for example, there is a pouch container in which a spout S is installed to the angled side edge portion (spout installation edge portion) SE as shown in FIG. 9A. In the aforementioned spout installation apparatus 50, however, it is not considered to obliquely install a spout S to a non-heat-sealed spout installation portion SE of a pouch P. Therefore, a spout S cannot be installed to the angled side edge portion SE of the pouch P. The shaded portion in FIGS. 9A and 9B denotes a heat sealed region of the pouch P1.
On the other hand, Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Publication No. H06-48401 discloses an automatic filling-packing system in which a spout is installed to an angled side edge portion of a pouch in a standing state. This automatic filling-packing system is configured to intermittently perform various processing, such as, (a) supplying a pouch with a non-heat-sealed upper edge portion, (b) cutting the upper end corner portion of the pouch, (c) inserting a spout into the angled side edge portion formed by the cutting, (d) heat sealing the angled side edge portion in which the spout is inserted, (e) forming a filling opening for filling contents, (f) filling of contents, (g) heat sealing the filling opening, and (h) discharging a pouch container with a spout filled with contents, respectively, at each station. Therefore, there is a problem that this system is not suitable for high-speed processing.
The description herein of advantages and disadvantages of various features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed in other publications is in no way intended to limit the present invention. For example, certain features of the preferred embodiments of the invention may be capable of overcoming certain disadvantages and/or providing certain advantages, such as, e.g., disadvantages and/or advantages discussed herein, while retaining some or all of the features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed therein. | {
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The present invention relates to diesel engines, and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for assuring that a diesel engine is used only with a fuel designed specifically for operation in the engine. Diesel engines are well known in the art and multi-cylinder diesel engines have long been used in powering large machinery such as locomotives and over-the-road trucks. Smaller multi-cylinder diesel engines have also been adapted for use in certain automobiles. Currently, even smaller single cylinder diesel engines have been developed for use in relatively low power applications. All of these diesel engines routinely produce high levels of hydrocarbon emissions and are therefore not particularly environmentally friendly. Applicant has found that the hydrocarbon and other emissions from such diesel engines can be significantly reduced by utilization of a bio-diesel fuel in the engines. In particular, applicant has found that the use of a fuel manufactured from used vegetable oil can be used in these engines and will cause the engines to fall well within the emissions guideline of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The problem that the EPA has with such engines is that the fuel source must be controlled in such a manner as to prevent conventional hydrocarbon-base diesel fuel from being used in such engine. If a user of such engine substitutes ordinary hydrocarbon-base diesel fuel into the engines, the emissions from the engine will likely exceed the EPA requirements and thus result in an engine which produces environmentally harmful pollutants.
An example of a single cylinder diesel engine is a Model 186F available from ETQ Power Products of Baldwin Park, Calif. The Model 186F diesel engine is rated at 10 horsepower but has been known to produce significant hydrocarbon emissions when operating on conventional hydrocarbon-base diesel fuel. This same engine has been tested with bio-diesel fuel manufactured from used vegetable oil and found to produce emissions that are well below conventional EPA guidelines when using this alternative fuel. Accordingly, EPA may approve use of this engine in the U.S. if the engine can be limited to operation on bio-diesel fuel.
Applicant has found that one method of preventing substitution of hydrocarbon based diesel fuel into a diesel engine is to provide a fuel tank for use on such engines that is not refillable by the user of the engine. For example, the fuel tank is not provided with a refill cap of the conventional type. In applicant's invention, the fuel tank is removable from the engine and must be returned to a dealer in such fuel tanks for replacement. Only the dealer has the equipment necessary to refill the tank and to restore it to its normal operating condition. For this purpose, the fuel tank must be readily removable from the diesel engine and easily attachable to the engine in order to allow the consumer to replace the tank as necessary. Further, the attachments to the engine should be designed in such a manner that they cannot be bypassed so as to allow a user to connect a different type of tank to the engine. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Osteoporosis results in bone fractures in about 50% of postmenopausal women and is a leading cause of disability in an aging population. Current therapies include an adequate calcium and vitamin D intake as well as specific treatment with compounds such as estrogens, calcitonin and the bisphosphonates.sup.(1). However, each of these treatments has either troubling side effects or limited efficacy. Women fear the small increase in breast cancer due to estrogens despite the dramatic reduction in myocardial infarctions and reduction in bone resorption. Calcitonin has a limited effect and is a protein and therefore needs to be injected or inhaled which is inconvenient. The new bisphosphonates such as alendronate have had encouraging results with an increase in bone density and decrease in fractures with few side effects. Current research for new compounds has concentrated on the systemic administration of bone anabolic compounds such as parathyroid hormone (PTH) or fragments of PTH or locally acting cytokines or bone growth factors such as bone morphogenic proteins. The appeal of PTH is that there are specific PTH receptors in bone.sup.(2) and it is well established in both experimental animal.sup.(3) and patient studies that intermittent doses of injected PTH is the most effective agent known to increase bone formation and bone strength.sup.(4-6). This effect is additive to that of estrogens. The problem with the administration of PTH is that it is a peptide and must therefore be given by injection. Women with osteoporosis have intact but inadequately functioning parathyroids and an alternative approach is to stimulate their own parathyroids to synthesize and secrete more PTH. It has been evidenced in experimental animals that this is eminently practicable and this is the basis of this present patent application.
Postmenopausal osteoporotic women do not have the appropriate increase in nocturnal serum PTH levels. In osteoporotic women, careful and repeated measurements of serum PTH, and analysis by time series prediction of plasma hormone concentration has shown that there are differences in the predictability of parathyroid hormone secretion between postmenopausal osteoporotic patients and postmenopausal non-osteoporotic controls.sup.(7). | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates generally to an improved slot closure for the stator of a dynamoelectric machine, and in particular it relates to an improved slot closure having a transverse spring which forms the closure.
In larger dynamoelectric machines there are slots formed in a stator core which comprises a laminated stack of iron sheets. The slots have winding conductors installed in them and the conductors must be held firmly in place against mechanical, thermal and electromagnetic forces which tend to cause movement. The slots are usually formed with a form of groove or notch, sometimes in the shape of a dove-tail, adjacent the mouth of the slot and a member having a mating configuration is pressed into the slot with the mating edges extending into the groove to close the slot mouth or slot opening. Shims are frequently used between the slot closing member and the conductors as a height adjustment to bring the slot contents up to a desired height.
One of the earlier slot closures is described in Canadian Pat. No. 679,228--Jaun et al issued Feb. 4, 1964. In this patent a slot bridging member of soft iron is inserted into the slot opening with the edges of the slot bridging member extending into notches on either side of the slot opening, and then the slot bridging member is distorted or deformed to cause the edges to press more firmly into the notches and hold the slot bridging member more firmly in place. This slot bridging member of soft iron was intended primarily to regularize the flux pattern and it appears that the retaining of the conductors was not a major consideration.
At the present time, conductors used in larger dynamoelectric machines usually have a jacket formed of a thermosetting resinous material impregnating a porous material, and this is cured to a hard state, forming an insulating jacket around the conductor. In addition there may be portions of the jacket coated with a partially conducting elastomer to reduce the possibility of voids developing between the conductors and the slot walls. The elimination or reduction of voids tends to eliminate or reduce corona problems. Conductor arrangements of this type are described in Canadian Pat. No. 1,016,586--Lonseth et al, issued Aug. 30, 1977 to Canadian General Electric Company Limited.
When conductor arrangements as described in the aforementioned Lonseth et al patent are used, they are firmly wedged into their slots to restrain them against movement. However, with time, the possibility of decreased restraining forces has been a problem. Repeated thermal cycling may result in some "bedding in" at the high contact points and some creep or flowing of the materials within the slot. These factors may result in a gradual decrease in height of the slot contents, and if the slot closure system is rigid then the force placed on the slot contents by the slot closure will decrease as the height of the slot contents decreases. The machines presently used may carry considerable current in the conductors and the electromagnetic forces can be quite large and of a vibrational nature, for example, at two times operating frequency. It is very important that the restraining forces should not decrease below a certain level. If the restraining forces decrease enough to permit any vibration, the continuous vibrational forces will eventually cuase a major problem.
In order that the restraining forces be maintained, it is known to introduce some form of spring between the slot closure member and the coductors. These springs have been made in various forms and kinds. When a spring is used between a slot closure member and the conductors, there is usually some arrangement to compress or deform the spring so that the spring will in fact exert a force against the closure member on one side and the conductor on the other side.
One prior art arrangement is described in Canadian Pat. No. 980,398--Brown et al., issued Dec. 23, 1975, where two wedge members having complementary tapers are placed in the slot in an overlapping position so that as the wedge members are pressed or advanced towards one another, their overall thickness increases. A spring member in the form of an extended rectangle is also placed in the slot adjacent the wedges. This spring member has transversely extending ripples or deformations to provide a spring action. The two wedge members are pressed together to compress the spring and this exerts the desired force between the slot closure member and the conductors.
Another prior art arrangement is described in Swiss Pat. No. 580,351--Lottanti et al, dated Sept. 30, 1976. This patent shows a slot closure member whose edges engage opposing dove-tail notches in the slot walls. The slot closure member has a longitudinally extending, transversely curved, inner surface. A spring support member has an oppositely curved outer surface. A flat strip of spring material is placed between the mating curved surfaces (not extending into the notches) and is deformed into a similarly curved configuration to provide a force between the slot closure member and the conductors. This arrangement provides for spring forces extending substantially continuously along the length of the slot.
Another arrangement which provides a substantially continuous spring force along the length of the slot, i.e., a line loaded spring, is described in Canadian Pat. No. 1,095,108--Ferguson, issued Feb. 3, 1981, and assigned to Canadian General Electric Company Limited. In this arrangement a transversely curved, longitudinally extending spring member is compressed or flattened by cooperating wedges to provide a spring force between the slot closure member and the conductors.
In the prior art slot closure arrangements which use a spring member, a preferred material for the spring member is often a composite such as a cured epoxy resin with strands of glass fibers embedded therein. Composite materials such as these tend to lose certain of their mechanical properties at elevated temperatures, that is, when they are deflected or deformed and subjected to an elevated temperature they tend to take a permanent set. The tendency increases with temperature. Therefore, it is desirable to keep the temperature of a spring member of composite material as low as possible.
To summarize, dynamoelectric machines of current design may have conductors carrying large currents, and in addition to providing adequate retaining force which would accommodate any shrinkage, it is desirable that the operating temperature of the spring member be as low as possible. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for forming a heat resistant resin film used in semiconductor integrated circuit devices, and more particularly to a process for forming a heat resistant resin film which can be used as an intermediate insulating layer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
These days, a multi-layer interconnection technique is essential to increase the packing density of an integrated circuit device. In the multi-layer technique, multi-leveled conductive layers are electrically insulated from one another by insulating layers. The insulating layer is necessarily subjected to a relatively high temperature of about 500.degree. C. for at least 10-20 minutes during a heating process. Therefore, it is required that the insulating layer material has its superior heat-resistant property and is chemically stable during a heating process. Well-known polyimide resins and chemically-produced silicon dioxide have been used as such insulating materials. For example, a polyimide resin is described in detail in Japanese Patent Publication No. 44871/1976.
In order to form a polyimide resin film, a polyamic acid solution is coated on the surface of a silicon substrate. The polyamic acid is a polyimide resin precursor and has the following molecular structure. ##STR1## When the polyamic acid is heated at a temperature of approximately 200.degree. C. to vaporize the solvent therein, it turns through dehydration into a polyimide resin film having the following ring closure structure. ##STR2## However, such polyimide resin film gradually decreases in weight and thickness when heated in an oxygen atmosphere at a temperature of 420.degree.-470.degree. C. At 530.degree. C., this resin film decomposes by being baked within about 10 minutes as shown as the line 1A in FIG. 1. Therefore, the polyimide resin film shows poor heat resistant properties.
In addition, the polyimide resin has a relatively large ion mobility, so that it is not proper as a passivation material for suppressing the leak current in a silicon substrate.
On the other hand, a chemically produced silicon dioxide is described in detail in Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 20825/1977 and 16488/1977. An organosilicic compound, for example, is obtained by dissolving a silicon acetate as a principal constituent into ethyl alcohol. When the silicon acetate solution obtained is coated on the surface of a silicon substrate, and heated at a temperature of approximately 400.degree. C. in an oxygen atmosphere, the organosilicic compound turns into a chemical SiO.sub.2 film. Such SiO.sub.2 film features a high heat resistant temperature of about 1000.degree. C. and can be used as a mask against impurities. However, it is difficult to form a thick film of 1-2 .mu.m from an organosilicic compound, because it shrinks by heat treatment and cracks.
As described above, both a polyimide resin and a chemically produced SiO.sub.2 are not enough as intermediate insulating materials for electrically insulating laminated conductive layers in semiconductive ICs. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic light-emitting device, and more particularly, to an organic light-emitting device with low driving voltage and excellent light-emitting efficiency.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional display devices are being replaced with portable thin flat-panel display devices. Electroluminescent light-emitting display devices are self-luminous flat-panel display devices, and have advantages such as wide viewing angles, excellent contrast, and fast response speed. Thus, electroluminescent light-emitting display devices are being highlighted as next-generation display devices. Furthermore, organic light-emitting display devices, which include light-emitting layers made out of organic materials, have higher brightness, lower driving voltage, and quicker response speed as compared to inorganic light-emitting display devices. Also, organic light-emitting display devices can be polychromic.
An organic light-emitting display device includes an organic light-emitting device. An organic light-emitting device includes an anode, a cathode, and an intermediate layer arranged between the anode and the cathode. The intermediate layer includes an organic light-emitting layer and another organic material layer. A voltage difference is applied across the organic light-emitting layer via the anode or cathode causing the organic light-emitting layer to emit visible light.
Here, the organic material layer in the intermediate layer generally includes a plurality of layers. The plurality of organic material layers provide for easy transportation and implantation of electric charges into the organic light-emitting layer.
However, it is not easy to combine a plurality of organic material layers for high light-emitting efficiency, optimized charge balance, and long lifetime. In other words, there are limits to the extent to which the properties of an organic light-emitting device can be optimized by mutually combining a plurality of organic material layers due to the types and characteristics of the organic material layers. The electron transport layer can include only three layers. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to a method of introducing a symbiotic fungus into a plant. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of introducing an endophyte whose final metabolic product is a chanoclavine to a plant.
Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 05-317092 has disclosed a method of artificially introducing an endophyte to perennial rye grass. In the method, a test is first performed to confirm whether the endophyte is living in a plant tissue such as callus derived from perennial rye grass. After the callus is confirmed to contain no endophyte, the endophyte is introduced into the callus and the plant tissue is reproduced.
A symbiotic fungus, i.e. the endophyte, is a filamentous fungus living in a plant tissue. It is know that a plant infected by such a filamentous fungus has improved resistance to pests and diseases, better growth rate, and resistance to environmental stresses such as heat and dryness, as compared with a plant with no infection. Thus, it is possible to improve plant characteristics through artificial infection of the endophyte.
A symbiotic fungus capable of infecting and living in a plant successively biosynthesizes metabolic products as shown in FIG. 1. An end product of the biosynthesis is an ergopeptine such as ergovaline or ergotamine.
It is known that a grass symbiotically infected by the endophyte shows toxicity due to the presence of ergoto alkaloids. The toxicity is considered to be a problem in husbandry as it affects livestock. In the case of pasture, for example, grasses infected with the endophyte such as perennial rye grass and tall fescue are very commonly distributed, and cases of poisoning have been reported due to the ergoto alkaloids.
Rye grass slugger was first reported in New Zealand in 1906, and has occurred mainly in two countries in Oceania, i.e. New Zealand and Australia. The rye grass slugger occurs when the endophyte infects perennial rye grass withered in a severe dry condition from summer to autumn, and livestock such as sheep eat the grass.
In the rye grass slugger, when livestock eat the grass, the livestock show various symptoms, i.e. stiffen limbs and shaking neck, shoulder and flank. In other words, a kind of spasm occurs, and if the symptom continues, the animals become weaker. In the worst case, they are no longer able to move and may starve to death. It has now become clear that the substance responsible for the rye grass slugger is Lolitrum B, a Lolitrum alkaloid.
Fescue toxicosis mainly occurred in the southeast of the U.S. Cows consumed tall fescue, and suffered serious weight loss, and did not eat sufficient fodder. Their milk production declined, and their birth rate also fell. The cows had eaten grasses infected by endophytes, and ergovaline, i.e. an ergoto alkaloid, was specifically detected in the endophyte-infected grasses. It thus became clear that the ergovaline causes fescue toxicosis.
As described above, when a plant, especially pasture, is infected by the endophyte, resistance to pests and disease, a growth rate and resistance to environmental factors such as heat and dryness are improved. However, the biosynthesized substances of the endophyte are poisonous to livestock, and give rise to the problems of the rye grass slugger, fescue toxicosis, etc.
In view of the problems described above, an object of the invention is to provide a plant into which the symbiotic fungus is artificially introduced, and a method of artificially introducing the symbiotic fungus into a plant. According to the present invention, the plant does not show toxicity against livestock and has strong resistance to pest.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention:
This invention pertains to systems for deploying and retrieving submersible objects, such as diving bells or the like, from and to floating vessels. More particularly, it pertains to such systems useful to safely perform such operations in rough water where the floating vessel experiences appreciable pitch, heave and roll motions.
2. Review of the Prior Art and the Problems Thereof:
Subsea pipelaying operations require, in the case of long pipelines, that connections be made periodically between sections of pipeline. These connections are made, preferably by welding, on the sea floor. Subsea pipeline welds can be made by divers working directly on the sea floor if water depths are not too great, but even in modest water depths such welds or other activities may take extended time to accomplish. It is not uncommon for subsea pipelaying to involve three days of diving operations for each day of actual pipelaying operation.
The time required to make welded connections between the adjacent ends of subsea pipeline sections can be reduced, and the depth at which such operations are done increased, by the use of subsea habitats installed on the sea floor where the work is to be done. The adjacent ends of the pipeline sections extend into the interior of the habitat where the necessary work can be done at substantially one atmosphere. U.S. Pat. No. 3,641,777 describes various subsea habitats useful in making subsea pipeline welded connections. Workers are moved between a surface pipelaying or other work vessel and the habitat by diving bells and the like.
It is well known that the dynamic effects of surface wave action in an ocean, for example, decrease proceeding downwardly from the ocean surface until, at a depth related to the surface wave length, no dynamic effects are encountered. Above this depth, the orbital motions of water particles increase exponentially to a maximum at the water surface; see FIG. 9.D at page 161, Hydrodynamics in Ship Design, Vol. I, by Harold E. Saunders, Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, 1957. Thus, storms raging over the ocean surface may have no effect on the ocean floor if the water depth is sufficiently great, and pipeline connection activities can be performed safely at the ocean floor even though the vessels above the work location may be experiencing substantial heaving, pitching and rolling motions due to wave action at the surface. Such vessel motions have heretofore restricted the movement of bells and the like between surface vessels and subsea work habitats. These restrictions arise due to the difficulties presented in safely coupling and decoupling bells and the like to the surface vessels while the vessels move in response to wave action. Therefore, diving operations, even by the use of bells and subsea work habitats, in support of subsea pipelaying operations are restricted to periods of relatively calm surface conditions. In some areas, such as the North Sea, such relatively calm surface conditions may be few and far between each other.
it has therefore been proposed to make the connection or disconnection between a surface pipelaying vessel and the like and a diving bell at a sufficient depth below the vessel that the hazardous dynamic effects of surface wave action are avoided or sufficiently reduced to present no unacceptable hazard. Such proposals are illustrated by the systems described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,507,241 and 3,641,961. In both of these systems a structure extends downwardly from a floating vessel to a depth where surface wave action is minimal or not present, and the connection between the vessel and a bell (U.S. Pat. No. 3,641,961) or a submersible vehicle (U.S. Pat. No. 3,507,241) is made or unmade. The intent is to make or unmake the connection under conditions where the bell or vehicle is not subjected to displacements by surface wave action. In these systems, however, the structures carried by the floating vessels are effectively rigid to the floating vessels and therefore move with the floating vessels. Another system having below-vessel object deployment and retrieval structures stiffly connected to the vessel is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,640. Thus, while the bells, submersible vehicles or other objects are undisturbed by wave action at the desired connection depths, th structures to which they are to be connected, or from which they are to be released, are not similarly undisturbed. Therefore, these prior arrangements, while enabling submersible object deployment and recovery in other than very calm conditions, are not safely useful in rougher and more adverse surface conditions.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,823,965 describes an arrangement for providing a water-free vertical path between a submerged location and a surface vessel through which a man may move, as by climbing a ladder. In this arrangement, a vertical tubular caisson is provided between the surface vessel and the submerged location. Axially open pumps in the caisson generate a vortex in the water in the caisson, and the ladder extends vertically in the water-free vortex center along the length of the caisson. The upper end of the caisson is described to be gimballed to the surface vessel so that the caisson may be vertical even though the surface vessel may pitch and roll.
In the context of deployment and retrieval of submersible objects, such as diving bells and submersible vehicles, from and to floating vessels, such as pipelaying ships, it is seen that a need exists for improved systems which enable deployment and retrieval operations to be carried out safely under rougher and more adverse surface conditions than has heretofore been possible. The present invention is addressed to this need. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Cats are curious animals and love to bat at things. A number of toys have been produced to entertain cats such as soft balls attached to a string which is connected to a rod that can be held by the owner or mounted to say a window sill. However if the owner has to hold the rod and cause the ball to dance, they soon become bored with the game or have other things they need to do. If the rod is mounted and the ball is static, the cat quickly becomes bored and does not play with the toy. A number of solutions have been proposed to solve this problem where the ball or toy is moved by some sort of motor. Unfortunately, these are expensive to produce, take up a lot of room both in shipping and in the customer's home, and are prone to breaking.
Thus there exists a need for a simple, inexpensive, space efficient cat toy that keeps cats and other pets engaged. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In the field of forensic science, there is a need for a way to detect various evidence that may be used in a criminal prosecution, including blood, saliva, other body fluids, hair, flesh, bone fragments, teeth, human skin damage such as bruises, bite marks or cuts, shoe prints, fingerprints, footprints, tire prints, gunpowder residue, bullets and portions thereof, explosive devices, explosive materials, parts of explosives, chemical weapons, chemical agents, biological weapons, paint, grease or oil, glass fragments, metal rubbings, fibers, dust patterns, various trace evidence, alteration of documents (forgery, different inks), narcotics, herbal evidence, and components, residues and traces thereof.
In the past, forensic personnel used high intensity conventional light sources, such as halogen bulbs, or ion gas laser light sources in order to illuminate areas of a crime scene and attempt to detect evidence since some evidence such as fingerprints do not fluorescence brightly alone. Contrast between such evidence being sought and the background against which it was found was sometimes achieved by using fluorescent dusting powder, dye, or other marker material, and light having a wavelength that substantially coincides with a known excitation wavelength of the marker. The characteristic of the marker is that, upon illumination with light at one of its excitation wavelengths, it will fluoresce, or emit light. Such fluorescence is typically at a longer wavelength as compared to the excitation wavelength. Examination of evidence was also enhanced through the use of color filtering glasses or barrier filters, whose color filtering characteristics are tuned to maximize the image to be detected. The forensic lights in the past had numerous drawbacks including bulky size, need for access to an AC power supply, and high cost. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Nucleoside analogs as a class have a well-established regulatory history, with more than 10 currently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) for treating human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), or hepatitis C virus (HCV). The challenge in developing antiviral therapies is to inhibit viral replication without injuring the host cell. In HIV, a key target for drug development is reverse transcriptase (HIV-RT), a unique viral polymerase. This enzyme is active early in the viral replication cycle and converts the virus' genetic information from RNA into DNA, a process necessary for continued viral replication. Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI) mimic natural nucleosides. In the triphosphate form, each NRTI competes with one of the four naturally occurring 2′-deoxynucleoside 5′-triphosphate (dNTP), namely, dCTP, dTTP, dATP, or dGTP for binding and DNA chain elongation near the active site of HIV-1 RT.
Reverse transcription is an essential event in the HIV-1 replication cycle and a major target for the development of antiretroviral drugs (see Parniak M A, Sluis-Cremer N. Inhibitors of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. Adv. Pharmacol. 2000, 49, 67-109; Painter G R, Almond M R, Mao S, Liotta D C. Biochemical and mechanistic basis for the activity of nucleoside analogue inhibitors of HIV reverse transcriptase. Curr. Top. Med. Chem. 2004, 4, 1035-44; Sharma P L, Nurpeisov V, Hernandez-Santiago B, Beltran T, Schinazi R F. Nucleoside inhibitors of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reverse transcriptase. Curr. Top. Med. Chem. 2004, 4 895-919). Two distinct groups of compounds have been identified that inhibit HIV-1 RT. These are the nucleoside or nucleotide RT inhibitors (NRTI) and the non-nucleoside RT inhibitors (NNRTI).
NRTI are analogs of deoxyribonucleosides that lack a 3′-OH group on the ribose sugar. They were the first drugs used to treat HIV-1 infection and they remain integral components of nearly all antiretroviral regimens.
In 1985, it was reported that the synthetic nucleoside 3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine (zidovudine, AZT), one representative NRTI, inhibited the replication of HIV. Since then, several other NRTI, including but not limited to 2′,3′-dideoxyinosine (didanosine, ddI), 2′,3′-dideoxycytidine (zalcitabine, ddC), 2′,3′-dideoxy-2′,3′-didehydrothymidine (stavudine, d4T), (−)-2′,3′-dideoxy-3′-thiacytidine (lamivudine, 3TC), (−)-2′,3′-dideoxy-5-fluoro-3′-thiacytidine (emtricitabine, FTC), (1S,4R)-4-[2-amino-6-(cyclopropyl-amino)-9H-purin-9-yl]-2-cyclopentene-1-methanol succinate (abacavir, ABC), (R)-9-(2-phosphonylmethoxypropyl)adenine (PMPA, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) (TDF), and (−)-carbocyclic 2′,3′-didehydro-2′,3′-dideoxyguanosine (carbovir) and its prodrug abacavir, have proven effective against HIV. After phosphorylation to the 5′-triphosphate by cellular kinases, these NRTI are incorporated into a growing strand of viral DNA causing chain termination, because they lack a 3′-hydroxyl group.
In general, to exhibit antiviral activity, NRTI must be metabolically converted by host-cell kinases to their corresponding triphosphate forms (NRTI-TP). The NRTI-TP inhibit HIV-1 RT DNA synthesis by acting as chain-terminators of DNA synthesis (see Goody R S, Muller B, Restle T. Factors contributing to the inhibition of HIV reverse transcriptase by chain terminating nucleotides in vitro and in vivo. FEBS Lett. 1991, 291, 1-5). Although combination therapies that contain one or more NRTI have profoundly reduced morbidity and mortality associated with AIDS, the approved NRTI can have significant limitations. These include acute and chronic toxicity, pharmacokinetic interactions with other antiretrovirals, and the selection of drug-resistant variants of HIV-1 that exhibit cross-resistance to other NRTI.
HIV-1 drug resistance within an individual arises from the genetic variability of the virus population and selection of resistant variants with therapy (see Chen R, Quinones-Mateu M E, Mansky L M. Drug resistance, virus fitness and HIV-1 mutagenesis. Curr. Pharm. Des. 2004, 10, 4065-70). HIV-1 genetic variability is due to the inability of HIV-1 RT to proofread nucleotide sequences during replication. This variability is increased by the high rate of HIV-1 replication, the accumulation of proviral variants during the course of HIV-1 infection, and genetic recombination when viruses of different sequence infect the same cell. As a result, innumerable genetically distinct variants (termed quasi-species) evolve within an individual in the years following initial infection. The development of drug resistance depends on the extent to which virus replication continues during drug therapy, the ease of acquisition of a particular mutation (or set of mutations), and the effect of drug resistance mutations on drug susceptibility and viral fitness. In general, NRTI therapy selects for viruses that have mutations in RT. Depending on the NRTI resistance mutation(s) selected, the mutant viruses typically exhibit decreased susceptibility to some or, in certain instances, all NRTI. From a clinical perspective, the development of drug resistant HIV-1 limits future treatment options by effectively decreasing the number of available drugs that retain potency against the resistant virus. This often requires more complicated drug regimens that involve intense dosing schedules and a greater risk of severe side effects due to drug toxicity. These factors often contribute to incomplete adherence to the drug regimen. Thus, the development of novel NRTI with excellent activity and safety profiles and limited or no cross-resistance with currently-available drugs is critical for effective therapy of HIV-1 infection.
The development of nucleoside analogs active against drug-resistant HIV-1 requires detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in resistance to this class of compounds. Accordingly, a brief overview of the mutations and molecular mechanisms of HIV-1 resistance to NRTI is provided. Two kinetically distinct molecular mechanisms of HIV-1 resistance to NRTI have been proposed (see Sluis-Cremer N, Arion D, Parniak M A. Molecular mechanisms of HIV-1 resistance to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs). Cell Mol. Life Sci. 2000; 57, 1408-22). One mechanism involves selective decreases in NRTI-TP versus normal dNTP incorporation during viral DNA synthesis. This resistance mechanism has been termed discrimination. The second mechanism involves selective removal of the chain-terminating NRTI-monophosphate (NRTI-MP) from the prematurely terminated DNA chain (see Arion D, Kaushik N, McCormick S, Borkow G, Parniak M A. Phenotypic mechanism of HIV-1 resistance to 3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine (AZT): increased polymerization processivity and enhanced sensitivity to pyrophosphate of the mutant viral reverse transcriptase. Biochemistry. 1998, 37, 15908-17; Meyer P R, Matsuura S E, Mian A M, So A G, Scott W A. A mechanism of AZT resistance: an increase in nucleotide-dependent primer unblocking by mutant HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. Mol. Cell. 1999, 4, 35-43). This mechanism has been termed excision.
The discrimination mechanism involves the acquisition of one or more resistance mutations in RT that improve the enzyme's ability to discriminate between the natural dNTP substrate and the NRTI-TP. In this regard, resistance is typically associated with a decreased catalytic efficiency of NRTI-TP incorporation. NRTI-TP (and dNTP) catalytic efficiency is driven by two kinetic parameters, (i) the affinity of the nucleotide for the RT polymerase active site (Kd) and (ii) the maximum rate of nucleotide incorporation (kpol), both of which can be determined using pre-steady-state kinetic analyses (see Kati W M, Johnson K A, Jerva L F, Anderson K S. Mechanism and fidelity of HIV reverse transcriptase. J. Biol. Chem. 1992, 26: 25988-97).
For the excision mechanism of NRTI resistance, the mutant HIV-1 RT does not discriminate between the natural dNTP substrate and the NRTI-TP at the nucleotide incorporation step (see Kerr S G, Anderson K S. Pre-steady-state kinetic characterization of wild type and 3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine (AZT) resistant human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reverse transcriptase: implication of RNA directed DNA polymerization in the mechanism of AZT resistance. Biochemistry. 1997, 36, 14064-70). Instead, RT containing “excision” mutations shows an increased capacity to unblock NRTI-MP terminated primers in the presence of physiological concentrations of ATP (typically within the range of 0.8-4 mM) or pyrophosphate (PPi) (see Arion D, Kaushik N, McCormick S, Borkow G, Parniak M A. Phenotypic mechanism of HIV-1 resistance to 3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine (AZT): increased polymerization processivity and enhanced sensitivity to pyrophosphate of the mutant viral reverse transcriptase. Biochemistry. 1998, 37, 15908-17; Meyer P R, Matsuura S E, Mian A M, So A G, Scott W A. A mechanism of AZT resistance: an increase in nucleotide-dependent primer unblocking by mutant HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. Mol. Cell. 1999, 4, 35-43). NRTI resistance mutations associated with the excision mechanism include thymidine analog mutations (TAMS) and T69S insertion mutations.
Another virus that causes a serious human health problem is the hepatitis B virus (HBV). HBV is second only to tobacco as a cause of human cancer. The mechanism by which HBV induces cancer is unknown. It is postulated that it may directly trigger tumor development, or indirectly trigger tumor development through chronic inflammation, cirrhosis, and cell regeneration associated with the infection.
After a 2- to 6-month incubation period, during which the host is typically unaware of the infection, HBV infection can lead to acute hepatitis and liver damage, resulting in abdominal pain, jaundice and elevated blood levels of certain enzymes. HBV can cause fulminant hepatitis, a rapidly progressive, often fatal form of the disease in which large sections of the liver are destroyed.
Patients typically recover from the acute phase of HBV infection. In some patients, however, the virus continues replication for an extended or indefinite period, causing a chronic infection. Chronic infections can lead to chronic persistent hepatitis. Patients infected with chronic persistent HBV are most common in developing countries. By mid-1991, there were approximately 225 million chronic carriers of HBV in Asia alone and worldwide almost 300 million carriers. Chronic persistent hepatitis can cause fatigue, cirrhosis of the liver, and hepatocellular carcinoma, a primary liver cancer.
In industrialized countries, the high-risk group for HBV infection includes those in contact with HBV carriers or their blood samples. The epidemiology of HBV is very similar to that of HIV/AIDS, which is a reason why HBV infection is common among patients infected with HIV or suffering from AIDS. However, HBV is more contagious than HIV.
3TC (lamivudine), interferon alpha-2b, peginterferon alpha-2a, hepsera (adefovir dipivoxil), baraclude (entecavir), and Tyzeka (Telbivudine) are currently FDA-approved drugs for treating HBV infection. However, some of the drugs have severe side effects, and viral resistance develops rapidly in patients treated with these drugs.
It has been discovered that, upon incubation in cell culture, or administration in vivo, that a wide variety of 6-substituted-3′-azido-2′,3′-dideoxy purine nucleosides are converted to the corresponding 6-hydroxy-3′-azido-2′,3′-dideoxy purine nucleosides. These compounds act as prodrugs for G or I analogs, much as is the case for the prodrug Abacavir and its in vivo conversion to the corresponding G analog Carbovir ((−)-carbocyclic 2′,3′-didehydro-2′,3′-dideoxyguanosine). This conversion seriously limits the variety of 6-substituted-3′-azido-2′,3′-dideoxy purine nucleotides triphosphates which can be formed in vivo as potential antiviral agents.
In light of the fact that acquired immune deficiency syndrome, AIDS-related complex, and hepatitis B virus have reached epidemic levels worldwide, and have tragic effects on the infected patient, there remains a strong need to provide new effective pharmaceutical agents to treat these diseases, with agents that have low toxicity to the host.
It would be advantageous to provide new antiviral agents, compositions including these agents, and methods of treatment using these agents, particularly to treat drug resistant mutant viruses. The present invention provides such agents, compositions and methods. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Endoscopes are routinely used in medical procedures to allow internal visualization. Many of these endoscopes have an integral suction lumen, which may be used, among other things, to aspirate bodily fluids and/or foreign bodies. It is normal clinical practice to clean and sterilize these generally very expensive scopes between patients. The cleaning process is costly due to degradation of the scope during cleaning and the requirement for additional scopes to ensure availability while others are being reprocessed.
The use of a disposable sheath to protect the scope from contamination during use is well known. However, placing this sheath over the scope disables the ability of the user to utilize the scope's integral suction lumen. It is possible to design the sheath so that it incorporates one or more additional lumens through which suction can be drawn. There is currently at least one disposable sheath product on the market that provides such alternate suction capability. It is desirable that a sheath-specific suction lumen (or lumens) afford a cross-sectional area as large as possible (e.g., at least as large as the one integral to the scope). If multiple suction lumens are provided, it is also desirable that the cross-sectional area of any one of these be reasonably large so as to minimize the potential for occlusion.
Many endoscopes incorporate an articulating distal section that is controlled proximally by the user. It is important that a sheath does not appreciably impair the ability of the scope during articulation. Examples of endoscopes and endoscope sheaths are described in PCT Publication No. WO 2010/111461, U.S. Pat. No. 7,056,284, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,120,354, the entireties of which are hereby incorporated by reference. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are expressed on a variety of immune cells, including macrophages and dendritic cells (DCs). TLRs recognise molecular motifs on pathogens called pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). To date, 13 TLRs have been identified in man, these include TLRs 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6, which are confined to the cell surface, and TLRs 3, 7, 8 and 9, which are expressed in endosomes. Different TLRs recognise different pathogen-derived ligands, for example: TLR2 (bacterial lipoproteins), TLR3 (double-stranded RNA/poly (I:C)), TLR4 (lipopolysaccharides), TLR5 (flagellin), TLR7 (single-stranded RNA), and TLR9 (CpG-containing DNA). Ligation of TLRs on antigen-presenting cells, such as DCs, leads to production of proinflammatory cytokines, DC maturation, and priming of the adaptive immune system. TLR7 and TLR9 are expressed by plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) and ligand recognition leads to the secretion of interferon-α (INF-α). Preclinical studies investigating the effects of activation of TLRs, using bacterial or viral components, dosed as monotherapy and/or combined with anti-tumor agents, have shown tumour growth inhibition in a variety of murine tumour models.
Several small molecule TLR7 agonists have been described, including the imidazoquinoline, imiquimod, which has been used to treat a number of dermatological conditions, e.g., genital warts, molluscum contagiosum, and melanoma. In the case of melanoma, topically applied imiquimod (ALDARA™, Graceway Pharmaceuticals, Bristol, Tenn.) demonstrated therapeutic responses in cutaneous metastatic melanoma and lentigo maligna and has been approved for the treatment of superficial basal cell carcinoma (BCC). Preclinical and clinical studies indicate that imiquimod is likely to function through the induction of type 1 IFN and IFN-inducible genes, which in turn can have direct effects on tumour cell growth and/or harness components of the adaptive immune system. 852A is another imidazoquinoline, which, unlike imiquimod, is suitable for systemic administration. Currently, 852A is in phase II clinical trials in a number of cancer indications, including melanoma. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Typical process flows that are performed to form FinFET devices involve forming a plurality of features in a substrate to define the areas where shallow trench isolation (STI) regions will be formed and to define the initial structure of the fins. The features have a target depth that is sufficient for the fin height and deep enough to allow formation of an effective STI region. After the features are formed, a layer of insulating material, such as silicon dioxide, is formed so as to overfill the features. Thereafter, a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process is then performed to planarize the upper surface of the insulating material with the top of the fins (or the top of a patterned hard mask). Thereafter, an etch-back process is performed to recess the layer of insulating material between the fins and expose the upper portions of the fins, which corresponds to the final fin height of the fins.
One challenge of fabricating, or etching, the insulating material between the fins is micro-loading between regions of dense features and regions of isolated features. Micro-loading manifests itself as differences in feature profile and etch depth between regions of high feature density and regions of low feature density. For example, regions of low feature density may etch to a depth that is different than an etch depth corresponding to the regions of high feature density. For example, in some cases regions having isolated features may be etched faster (i.e. forward micro-loading) or slower (i.e. reverse micro-loading) than regions having high feature density.
Accordingly, the inventors have provided improved methods of controlling fin recess loading. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates to a connector for mounting an electronic component such as a relay and a timer or serving as a terminal table itself, as well as a method of connecting lead lines for such an electrical connector.
Electrical connectors for mounting an electronic component such as a relay are usually provided with a plurality of terminals which are mutually connected with lead lines. After one end part of each lead line is affixed to a terminal and pressed into the connector, the other end part of the lead line is soldered to another terminal affixed to the connector. Some connectors are structured with terminals formed with a series of plate materials such that lead lines are dispensed with. Japanese Patent Publications Tokkai 9-163555 and 8-223741, for example, disclose connectors adapted to connect lead lines with terminals by compression, that is, by using compression terminals and pressing lead lines into them such that their cover layers are torn and removed.
Methods of using lead lines to connect between terminals are troublesome because a cumbersome soldering work is required whenever a lead line is to be connected and their work efficiency is accordingly low. Another problem with these methods is that the lead line is subjected to a tensile force at the time of the soldering work such that a load force is applied to the compressed section and hence that the condition of the connection is adversely affected.
If the connector is formed with a series of planar materials, as explained above, each planar material must be designed in a different shape such that they can be disposed inside the connector in a mutually non-contacting manner. Since these planar materials are produced by press working or stamping, many expensive molds must be provided and this affects the cost of production adversely.
When compression terminals are used in a connector, furthermore, they must be positioned within a limited small space inside the connector for inserting lead lines thereinto. Workability of such an operation is very poor. Since the lead lines cannot be bent too gently within the narrow space inside the connector, it is difficult to keep them in a sufficiently dependably connected condition with respect to the compression terminal. In fact, compression terminals have not generally been used for the connection within a small space such as inside an electrical connector.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an electrical connector of a simple structure adapted to connect lead lines to terminals by compression so as to obtain a dependably connected condition.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method of connecting lead lines for such a connector.
An electrical connector embodying this invention may be characterized as comprising lead lines each having a core line and a cover layer therearound, connection terminals each having a clamped part and being affixed to one end of a corresponding one of these lead lines at the clamped part, compression terminals each having the other end of a corresponding one of the lead lines pressed thereinto so as to remove the cover layer and to electrically connect with the core line at the other end, and a main body containing the lead lines, the connection terminals and the compression terminals, the main body having guide members for contacting the cover layers of the lead lines and reducing loads onto the clamped parts as the lead lines are pressed into the compression terminals. With a connector thus structured, the terminals can be electrically connected merely by affixing connection terminals each attached to a lead line and compression terminals to the main body of the connector and pressing each of the lead lines into a corresponding one of the compression terminals. As the lead lines are thus pressed into the compression terminals, the cover layers of the lead lines come to contact the guide members such that the load force acting on the clamped part of each connection terminal can be reduced. Thus, the condition of connections is not adversely affected and the electrical connection can be established although the available space inside the connector is limited. Indentations may be preferably provided to these guide members at upper edge parts for positioning the lead lines in a mutually aligned manner. In this manner, a plurality of lead lines can be pressed into the compression terminals and hence workability can be improved.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, each of the compression terminals has an entry position defined therethrough at which the corresponding lead line is pressed thereinto, the compression terminals are set to the main body such that some of the compression terminals are upper terminals each having the entry position on a higher step and the others of the compression terminals are lower terminals each having the entry position on a lower step different from the upper step, some of these guide members are first guide members each corresponding to one of the upper terminals and the others are second guide members each corresponding to one of the lower terminals, each of the first guide members contacts at an upper edge part a corresponding one of the lead lines pressed into a corresponding one of the upper terminals. This serves to reduce the load force on the associated one of the connection terminal, and each of the lead lines pressed into a corresponding one of the lower terminals is guided between a corresponding one of mutually adjacent pairs of the first guide members. In this manner, the narrow interior space of the main body can be efficiently utilized even if there are many lead lines and terminals.
It is further preferable to produce each of the compression terminals by pressing an electrically conductive planar material so as to have an attachment part with a slit that serves to have one end of a lead line pressed therethrough and an insertion part for being pressed into the main body. The cover layer is thereby removed and the core line becomes electrically connected with the compression terminal. The planar material preferably has a thickness greater than the width of the slit such that the compression terminal and the core line contact each other over a specified sufficiently large contact area therebetween. It is preferable still further that the compression terminals be made of a material with electrical conductivity greater than 40% IACS and percentage of stress relaxation less than 5%.
A method according to this invention of electrically connecting a plurality of lead lines each to a pair of terminals affixed to a main body of such an electrical connector as described above may be characterized as comprising the steps of affixing one of end parts of each of the lead lines to a clamped part of a connection terminal, affixing these connection and compression terminals to the main body, and pressing each of the other end parts of the lead lines into corresponding one of the compression terminals simultaneously by contacting guide members to the cover layers of the lead lines so as to reduce loads on the clamped part and remove a portion of the cover layer and directly contact the core line with the compression terminal. These lead lines may be pressed into the connection terminals simultaneously together by pressing the compression terminals from both sides while the lead lines are in guided condition, being supported by guiding members. Thus, the work efficiency can be significantly improved. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention generally relates to a photosensitive member or photoreceptor for use in an image forming apparatus of an electrophotographic system such as a copying machine, a printer, etc., and more particularly, to a photoreceptor to be electrically charged through contact by a contact type charging device and an image forming apparatus employing such photoreceptor.
Commonly, in an electrophotographic process, for example, in a copying machine, printer or the like, it has been a normal practice to electrically charge the surface of a photoreceptor which is an electrostatic latent image holding member, by a charging device, and the charged region is subjected to exposure to image light to form an electrostatic latent image thereon, which is then developed into a visible image to be transferred onto a transfer material such as a copy paper sheet or the like.
As the charging device as referred to above, besides the non-contact type charging devices represented by corona charging devices such as corotron, scorotron chargers, etc., there have been known contact type charging devices which effect charging by causing charging members to directly contact the photoreceptor surface as in brush charging devices of stationary or rotary type, and charging devices employing charging rollers. Among these charging devices, attention has been directed to the contact type charging device, since it is very small in the deterioration on the photoreceptor surface or in the generation of ozone which affect adversely to human bodies as compared with the corona charging device.
During the manufacturing process of the electrophotographic photoreceptor, pin holes or pin hole-shaped flaws or layer lacking portions are often generated in the photosensitive layer thereof. Spray coating method, dipping coating method, and blade coating method have been commonly used to form an organic photoconductor (OPC). In these methods, photosensitive liquid is obtained by dispersing or dissolving photosensitive substance such as charge-generating substance and charge-transporting substance in a binder resin. According to spray coating method, the photosensitive liquid is sprayed onto a base member such as an aluminum drum or a resin film. According to dipping coating method, the aluminum drum or the resin film is dipped in the photosensitive liquid. According to the blade coating method, the liquid is painted on the aluminum drum or the resin film with a doctor blade. The problem of these methods is that bubbles which are formed in the liquid and may cause the generation of pin holes are liable to be formed in the photoconductor. In addition, since the organic photoconductor manufactured by these methods includes a comparatively soft binder resin as its main composition, the photoreceptor is liable to be damaged in replacing the photoreceptor or in removing jammed copy paper from a printer or a copying apparatus by a user or servicing personnel, and such damaged portion may form a pin hole or photosensitive layer lacking portion.
In charging the photoreceptor by the non-contact type charger, a short circuit rarely occurs between the base portion of the photoreceptor and the charging member even in the presence of such photosensitive layer lacking portion. But when the photoreceptor is charged by the contact type charger, the charging member to which a high voltage is applied contacts the surface of the photoreceptor, with the result that a short circuit occurs between the charging member and the base portion of the photoreceptor through the defective portion of the photosensitive layer. Such a short circuit is liable to be generated particularly by a brush charger. The occurrence of the short circuit causes the charging member or a high voltage-applying power source to be damaged and in addition, the entire surface of the photoreceptor in contact with the charging member to be uncharged because the charging member has the ground electric potential. As a result, a black stripe-like image noise is generated in reversal development, while a white stripe-like image noise is produced in normal development.
The following proposals have been made to solve the above-described problem caused by the short circuit: The proposal disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Tokkaisho No. 61-148468 is such that a thin film insulating layer having a volume resistivity larger than 10.sup.12 .OMEGA. cm is formed on a conductive base portion of the photoreceptor, and thereafter, a photosensitive layer is formed on said insulating layer. Another proposal described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Tokkaihei No. 2-67575 is such that a barrier layer is provided between the base portion of the photoreceptor and the photosensitive layer.
The researches made by the present inventors have revealed that even though the insulating thin film or the barrier layer is formed between the base portion of the photoreceptor and the photosensitive layer, the charging member, for example, the charging brush in particular may be brought into contact with the insulating thin film or the barrier layer through a defective portion such as a pin hole of the photosensitive layer. Therefore, the insulating thin film or the barrier layer is destroyed because the soft base portion of the photoreceptor is incapable of supporting them, and consequently, a short circuit takes place after all. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Silicones have been widely used in various applications because of well known properties such as slip, mold release, oxygen permeability, water repellency, and electrical insulating. Insofar as extrusion and molding processes are concerned, however, the silicones have several drawbacks. One deficiency is low mechanical strength; another is the difficulty of forming the silicone into film; still another is poor moldability. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to contact lenses and has particular reference to apparatus and method for casting the lenses to finished size, shape and desired edge configuration in a single operation.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In the manufacture of "soft" contact lenses, e.g. of cast silicon resin, edge finishing ordinarily consumes a very high percentage of the total labor required to make and inspect each lens. Edge finishing includes all operations involved in sizing a lens to desired diameter, contouring the edge to a comfortable shape and polishing or otherwise smoothing its surfaces. Prior art finishing equipment can be expected to cost more than half the total equipment cost (molds excepted) and occupy as much or more than half of the total manufacturing floor space with as much as three-quarters of the quantity yield losses for an entire lens manufacturing operation being attributed to the group of edge finishing steps. Additionally, the quality of contour and finish of the best of prior art edge finished lenses is usually considered only fair.
The disclosures of U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,990,664; 3,087,284; 3,160,039; 3,162,985; 3,369,329; 3,423,886; 3,458,959; 3,528,326; 3,835,590 and 3,948,007 are exemplary of lens edge finishing procedures and apparatuses.
Centrifugal casting technique, e.g. as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,408,429; 3,660,545 and 3,496,254 have been used with the objective, among others, of avoiding lens material shrinkage problems in the forming of thin edged lenses. The spin cast lens edge, however, becomes the edge of the posterior or concave surface of the lens. This surface is formed as a result of centrifugal forces, surface tension of the polymerizing lens material and other factors such as mold size and shape, volume, viscosity and volatility of the polymerizing mixture, condition of the mold surface, etc. The resulting surface accordingly becomes not only approximately parabolic in shape but very difficult to control and reproduce. There being no truly spherical optical zone and optimum optical quality is lacking. Also, post-polymerization edge finishing is usually required.
While lens edges requiring a minimum of finishing have been formed in systems which produce desirable lens surface profiles, e.g. as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,761,208; 3,915,609 and 4,017,238, parting lines between mold halves form the edges in locations which are subject to causing patient discomfort. For example, in the three-piece mold of U.S. Pat. No. 3,761,208 (FIGS. 1-6), two parting lines result at opposite sides of the cast lens edge. One would rest against the cornea and the other be engaged by the eyelid in use of the lens. These parting lines are very difficult and unduly costly to blend to the extent necessary for overcoming patient discomfort, especially in quantity production. On the other hand, the two-piece mold of U.S. Pat. No. 3,761,208 (FIG. 7) would inherently produce an edge flange requiring removal, e.g. by one or another of the aforesaid edge finishing procedures. It would be difficult for production quantities to obtain precise alignment of the mold halves in FIG. 7 of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,761,208 so as to not produce a step at the parting line.
In the embodiments of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,915,609 and 4,017,238, the sharp edge contact between a circular margin of one mold half and a spherically curved peripheral portion of the other mold half can minimize, if not eliminate, the need for most edge finishing operations. However, the mold parting lines may cause the cast lens edges to be located at positions and to extents tending to cause patient discomfort.
The foregoing comments illustrate the need in the present art for elimination of conventional costly and relatively ineffectual edge finishing operations and especially the need for improved lens edge design as well as apparatus and method all for accomplishing enhanced contact lens wearing comfort.
It is, accordingly, a principal object of the invention to provide a cast contact lens of improved edge design as well as apparatus and method of making the same.
A more specific object is to provide a contact lens which may be cast between separable mold halves having a single continuous mold parting line about the periphery of the lens casting cavity in a position relative to the cast lens edge which will lie between the eyelid and cornea and not rub on either when the lens is worn.
A corrollary objective is that of preventing occurrences of mold parting line blemishing or marking of cast contact lens edges at positions subject to engaging either the cornea or eyelid when the lenses are worn and further providing for modification of lens edge profile as needed to meet these particular requirements in various lens fitting situations.
The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components such as air conditioning systems. Large scale data centers can include hundreds of servers and can require as much energy as a small town to power the data center computer equipment and cooling equipment.
As such, energy usage consumed by data centers is a major cost consideration. Energy costs in data centers arise from computing, networking activities, and power transformations that use energy and, as a byproduct, generate heat. However, a majority of energy costs is associated with the removal of heat from the data center. Active heat management equipment (i.e., air conditioning systems) is substantially less than 100% efficient, which means heat monitoring and management equipment adds to the data center heat removal problems because they generate heat through their own operation.
In a conventional data center environment, desired temperatures are maintained using heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC). Typically, the ambient temperature is monitored by a thermostat, which turns the heat or air conditioning on and off to maintain the temperature set by the thermostat. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates to a security device and more particularly to a security device for windows.
Many attempts have been made to provide security devices which will limit or prevent unauthorized movement of windows so as to prevent unauthorized entry therethrough. Examples of such prior art devices are U.S. Pat. Nos. 429,167, 1,601,524, 1,838,713, 2,114,910, 2,714,033, 2,844,843, 3,136,290 and 3,512,821.
While the devices of the prior patents do prevent movement of windows or the like, the prior art devices are extremely complicated, difficult to install, and difficult to adjust. Further, the prior art devices do not have the ability to be conveniently used.
Therefore, it is a principle object of the invention to provide an improved security device for windows.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved security device for windows including means for permitting the easy adjustment thereof to permit the window to be opened in predetermined amounts.
A still further object of the invention is to provide an improved security device for windows which is easily installed.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved security device for windows which is economical.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a security device for windows having an aesthetic appearance.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a security device for windows which prevents unauthorized opening of the window.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a security device for windows which is durable in use.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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For robots exceeding a certain minimum size, a risk can exist for persons cooperating with these robots, if no additional protection mechanisms are foreseen. During co-operation within a working range of a free robot arm, persons could be injured or killed due to the speed of moving parts in case of a collision, such as with the free end of the robot arm. Therefore care can be taken care to prevent personnel from entering into the working envelope of the robot if the robot is active. This may be achieved by mechanical or virtual walls which prevent persons from entering the working area. Some robot systems include a turnable table such that an operating person on one side of a fence can load the turnable table with pieces and the robot's working area is provided on the other side of the fence.
Small robots which are inherently safe might not be capable of injuring a person in any state of their robot operation. The concept of an “inherently safe robot” is related to a robot which is inherently or intrinsically safe due to its design whereas the power and/or the force effected onto a person or fixed obstacles in case of a collision is limited by a appropriate design (e.g., useful constructive measures); see ISO 10218, part 1, 2006, par. 5.10.5. According to this concept, the force onto a person in case of a collision shall not exceed 150 N respectively, and the dynamic power onto a person shall not exceed 80 W. These conditions cannot be met or fulfilled over certain mechanical thresholds for masses and/or dimensions of a robot. Therefore heavy industrial robots with a rated power of several 100 W and over are not seen as small robots so that the disclosure may be viewed as less applicable for those robots.
The JP 09 254 079 is related to detection of a collision of a robot arm with a person or object using a speed sensing detector and by controlling brakes of a robot according to those signals. In case of a collision, the robot will be slowed down until a stationary position is reached where the robot stops. Afterwards the brakes will be released with a severity of the collision being of high importance. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of Invention
The present invention is directed to a device for comminution of solids. More particularly, the present invention relates to a conically-shaped impact mill.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Devices for providing comminution of particulate solids are well known in the art. Amongst the many different milling devices known in the art grinding mills, ball mills, rod mills, impact mills and jet mills are most often employed. Of these, only jet mills do not rely on the interaction between the particulate solid and another surface to effectuate particle disintegration.
Jet mills effectuate comminution by utilization of a working fluid which is accelerated to high speed using fluid pressure and accelerated venturi nozzles. The particles collide with a target, such as a deflecting surface, or with other moving particles in the chamber, resulting in size reduction. Operating speeds of jet milled particles are generally in the 150 and 300 meters per second range. Jet mills, although effective, cannot control the extent of comminution. This oftentimes results in the production of an excess percentage of undersized particles.
Impact mills, on the other hand, rely on centrifugal force, wherein particle comminution is effected by impact between the circularly accelerated particles, which are constrained to a peripheral space, and a stationary outer circumferential wall. Again, although control of particle size distribution is improved and can be manipulated compared to jet mills, the particle size range of the comminuted product of an impact mill is fixed by the dimensions of the device and other operating parameters.
A major advance in impact mill design is provided by a design of the type disclosed in German Patent Publication 2353907. That impact mill includes a base portion which carries a rotor, mounted in a bearing housing having an upwardly aligned cylindrical wall portion coaxial with the rotational axis, and a mill casing which surrounds the rotor, defining a conical grinding path. The mill of this design includes a downwardly aligned cylindrical collar which may be displaced axially in the cylindrical wall portion and may be adjusted axially to set the grinding gap between the rotor and the grinding path.
An example of such a design is set forth in European Patent 0 787 528. The invention of that patent resides in the capability of dismantling the mill casing from the base portion in a simple manner.
Although impact mills having conical shapes, permitting a downwardly aligned cylindrical collar to be displaced axially so that the grinding gap may be adjusted, represents a major advance in the art, still those designs can be improved by further design improvements that have not heretofore been addressed.
Impact mills, when utilized in the communition of elastic particles, such as rubber, are usually operated at cryogenic temperatures, utilizing cryogenic fluids, in order to make feasible effective comminution of the otherwise elastic particles. Commonly, cryogenic fluids, such as liquid nitrogen, are utilized to make brittle such elastic solid particles. In view of the fact that the cryogenic temperatures attained by the frozen particles are much lower than the ambient surrounding temperature of the mill, this temperature gradient results in a rapid temperature rise of the particles. As a result, it is apparent that maximum comminution in an impact mill, or any other mill, should begin immediately after particles freezing. However, impact mills, including the conically shaped design discussed supra, initially require the particles to move outwardly toward the periphery before comminution begins. During that period the temperature of the particles is increased, reducing comminution effectiveness.
Another problem associated with comminution mills in general and conical mills of the type described above in particular is the inability to alter the physical configuration of the impact mill to adjust for specific particle size requirements of the various materials.
Three expedients are generally utilized to change the particle size of an elastic solid whose initial size is fixed.
The first expedient employed in changing particle size is changing the feedstock temperature by contact with a cryogenic fluid, e.g. liquid nitrogen, to freeze the elastic solid particles to a crystalline state. The coldest temperature achievable by the particles is limited to the temperature of the cryogenic fluid. A means of controlling particle temperature is to adjust the quantity of cryogenic fluid delivered to the elastic solid particles.
A second expedient of changing product particle size is to alter the peripheral velocity of the rotor. This is usually difficult or impractical given the physical limits of the impact mill design.
A third expedient of altering particle size is to change the grinding gap between the impact elements. Generally, this step requires a revised rotor configuration.
An associated problem, related to alteration of rotor configuration in order to effect changes in desired product particle size, is ease of replacement of worn or damaged portions of the impact mill. As in the case of replacement of parts of any mechanical device, problems are magnified in proportion to the size and complexity of the part being replaced.
Yet another problem associated with impact mills resides in power transmission to effectuate rotation of the rotor. Present designs employ multiple belt or gear power transmission means which are oftentimes accompanied by unacceptable noise levels. A corollary of this problem is that if power transmission speeds are reduced to abate excessive noise, rotor speed is reduced so that comminution results are unacceptable. It is thus apparent that a method of improved power transmission, unaccompanied by unacceptable loud noise, is essential to improved operation of impact mills. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Wooden pallets or skids have long been used as platforms for the shipping and storage of a wide range of goods. A great variety of pallets are in common use; a typical pallet comprises spaced parallel horizontal top and bottom decks attached to at least two longitudinally extending, transversely spaced apart stringers interposed between the decks. Loaded pallet units are conveyed by means of fork lifts having tongs that are inserted at spaced locations between the top and bottom decks of the pallet. Although pallets are designed to withstand shock and heavy loads, because of damage due to rough handling they have limited lives and typically are discarded after only several times of reuse. Because of such turnover, hundreds of millions of wooden pallets are manufactured each year consuming a significant amount of timber. The highly automated process of manufacturing wooden pallets itself generates a large amount of scrap lumber which must be somehow disposed of whether by burning, grinding or otherwise. In any event, such scrap represents an annual waste of many forest acres thus presenting an environmental issue and adding further to the price of increasingly expensive timber. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power output apparatus and a vehicle including such a power output apparatus. Particularly, the present invention relates to a power output apparatus that can generate alternating voltage and output the same to an external alternating current load, and a vehicle including such a power output apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,186 discloses a motor drive and recharge system that can generate alternating current power and output the same to an external source. The motor drive and recharge system includes a battery, two motors, two inverters connected to the two motors, respectively, and an input/output port connected between the neutral points of the two motors. This motor drive and recharge system can generate alternating voltage across the neutral points of the two motors to output the generated alternating voltage from the input/output port.
In such a motor drive and recharge system, there may be a case where both the alternating current power to be provided to an external alternating current load and the power for driving the motor are requested at the same time. Particularly in the case where alternating current power is output to an external alternating current load while power-running the motor, excessive current may flow to the inverter to damage it. U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,186 provides no means for appropriately obviating such current concentration in these circumstances. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates to a pet food suitable for mainly breeding pets such as dogs and cats, more particularly, pet food having a good taste, a function for keeping intestines of the pets in order, and an effect for deodorizing unpleasant odors of feces and urine discharged by the pets.
Recently, there has an been an increasing craze for breeding pets, and the number of pets bred inside houses has been increasing. For pets bred outside as well as pets bred indoors, unpleasant odors from the feces and urine discharged by the pets have been an issue.
Therefore, various methods for deodorizing the unpleasant odors from the discharged feces and urine have been developed. For example, there have been proposed various methods, such as
(1) feeding a food containing various materials which have an effect for deodorizing discharged wastes;
(2) feeding water containing materials having a deodorizing effect;
(3) directly spraying a deodorant into a pet waste container; or
(4) spraying a deodorant, such as perfume and fragrance, inside a house.
However, any of these methods does not have satisfactory effect for deodorizing wastes discharged by the pets. Especially, in the method of (1), since a moisture content in the discharged wastes tends to be high, it takes time and labor for an owner to dispose of the discharged wastes. The method of (3) requires a pet owner's work for spraying the deodorant.
As explained above, there has been no satisfactory method for deodorizing pets' wastes without requiring pet owners' labor. If, by daily intake of food, intestinal flora of pets is changed to keep intestines of the pets in order and to eliminate an unpleasant odor from the wastes discharged by the pets, it is possible to breed the pets in a more clean atmosphere which is a great boon to owners of the pets as companions.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the problems accompanying in the related art and to provide a pet food having a good taste, a function for keeping intestines in order and an effect for eliminating unpleasant odors from the wastes discharged by the pets.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a pet food as stated above, wherein the pet food can be easily and economically manufactured.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Environmental sensors may be used to measure temperature, humidity, etc. and report the results to a data collection device. It is possible to attach a radio device to a sensor so that the results can be reported wirelessly. However, both the sensor and the radio may require power source, such as a battery. This can increase both the manufacturing cost of the sensor and the lifetime maintenance cost of the sensor, so that the sensor becomes economically unfeasible for many applications. In addition, most radio circuits, by themselves may cost enough to make the sensor device economically infeasible, thus forcing users to rely on hardwired connections, which are in turn infeasible for applications requiring mobility. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Oxidation resistant cross-linked polymeric material, such as ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), is desired in medical devices because it significantly increases the wear resistance of the devices. The preferred method of crosslinking is by exposing the UHMWPE to ionizing radiation. However, ionizing radiation, in addition to crosslinking, also will generate residual free radicals, which are the precursors of oxidation-induced embrittlement. Melting after irradiation is used to eliminate the crystals and allow the residual free radicals to recombine with each other. The irradiation with subsequent melting is used to reduce the potential for oxidation secondary to the residual free radicals. However, post-irradiation melting reduces the crystallinity of UHMWPE, which, in turn, decreases the yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, modulus, and fatigue strength of UHMWPE. For certain applications that require high fatigue resistance, such highly crosslinked UHMWPE (that is irradiated and melted) may not be suitable; because, fatigue failure in the long term may compromise the performance of the medical device. Therefore, there is a need to either eliminate the residual free radicals or the oxidative effect of residual free radicals without melting. Such a method would preserve the crystallinity of the irradiated UHMWPE and also preserve the mechanical properties and fatigue resistance.
It is generally known that mixing of polyethylene powder with an antioxidant prior to consolidation may improve the oxidation resistance of the polyethylene material. Antioxidants, such as vitamin E and β-carotene, have been mixed with UHMWPE powder or particles by several investigators (see, Mori et al. p. 1017, Hand-out at the 47th Annual Meeting, Orthopaedic Res Soc, Feb. 25-28, 2001, San Francisco, Calif.; McKellop et al. WO 01/80778; Schaffner et al. EP 0 995 450; Hahn D. U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,904; Lidgren et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,448,315), in attempts to improve wear resistance. Mori et al. also described that irradiation does not decrease the oxidation resistance of antioxidant-doped polyethylene. The investigators (see, McKellop et al. WO 01/80778; Schaffner et al. EP 0 995 450; Hahn D. U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,904; Lidgren et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,448,315) described mixing polyethylene powder with antioxidants, followed by consolidating the antioxidant-powder mix to obtain oxidation resistant polyethylene. Mixing of the resin powder, flakes, or particles with vitamin E and consolidation thereafter result in changes in color of polymeric material to yellow (see for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,448,315). In addition, the addition of the antioxidant to the UHMWPE prior to irradiation can inhibit crosslinking of the UHMWPE during irradiation. However, crosslinking is needed to increase the wear resistance of the polymer. Therefore, it would be preferable to have a medical implant, or any polymeric component thereof, doped with an antioxidant in its consolidated solid form, such as feed-stock, machined components, or molded components. However, this was not possible with prior art practices. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a hat or cap, and more particularly to a cap configured for catching a ball.
2. Description of the Related Art
Baseball caps are worn by spectators at baseball games to shield the user from the sun and show support for a favorite team. Some of these spectators also bring baseball gloves to a game with the hope of catching a baseball hit into the stands. However, baseball gloves are bulky and cumbersome to wear when not in use, and once removed may not be easy to locate and assume in time to catch a quickly approaching ball. Thus, a baseball cap adapted for catching a ball would be useful for such a spectator, where the cap remains easily accessible during the game on the wearer's head.
Baseball caps for catching a ball are known in the art with various locations or entry points for a wearer's catching hand. However, the caps currently in the art do not allow for convenient and optimal hand entry or positioning for assuming the cap on a wearer's hand to catch a ball. Thus, an improved baseball cap configured for catching a ball is needed in the art. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Present practices in the storage of spent solvents activated carbon, heavy metals, and other hazardous waste, requiring pickup and disposal through industrial waste haulers, has resulted in serious political and environmental problems for both the chemical and electronic industry. Ground water contamination and occupational health problems have been steadily increasing. In addition, under the Federal RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) there are long term legal risks to the hazardous waste generator resulting from the ultimate fate of these materials, which is referred to as the "cradle-to-grave" responsibility of the generator. Only the largest producing companies can afford the costs of the large incineration furnaces capable of combusting these organic waste to EPA-acceptable levels. There exists a present need for new technology that is better matched to the scale of the problem and the capital available.
In addition to the foregoing, there have been developed many systems and/or reactors designed to "eliminate" waste from the world. Such systems normally operate upon the "garbage" of the world and some are even directed to the destruction of "garbage" having therein some chemical substances that could be detrimental to human health. Most "waste disposal systems" are directed to the incineration or other disposal of general waste products.
High temperature waste reactors are very large and expensive and incorporate limitations as to materials operated upon such as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,933,434 to Matovich and following patents of the same inventor. Other waste reactors are limited to a particular physical form of waste material, see for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,499,833. Cyclone incinerators, as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,855,951 are useful for burning trash or the like but do not provide for sufficiently complete combustion for use with hazardous waste. The present invention provides a relatively simple system that operates at a higher temperature for substantially complete decomposition of hazardous waste and may be economically installed at the site of waste production. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an endoscopic resecting system which removes tissue from the abdomen during a general, urological, or gynecological surgical procedure and from the uterus during a hysteroscopic surgical procedure and more particularly to an endoscopic resecting system for permitting visualization into the abdominal cavity or the uterus during tissue resection thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Normal method for surgical removal of pathological tissue from the abdominal cavity is to make a large skin incision over the site within the abdominal cavity where the pathological tissue is located, and dissect into the body through connective tissue, muscle, or other tissues and structures to access the immediate area of the pathology. Then the pathological tissue is actually resected, perhaps including some surrounding healthy tissue, to assure that the entire area of pathology is removed. Finally, connective tissue, muscle, etc. previously dissected through is repaired, sutured together, and the original skin incision is closed. Or a laparoscopic procedure is used in which a medical telescope is inserted into the abdominal cavity along with resecting tools to perform the actual tissue resection.
The laparoscopic technique for removal of pathological substances has significant drawbacks.
Although the laparoscopic device can remove tissue from the abdominal cavity, function of the actual tissue resecting products are inefficient in that either not all of the abnormal tissue is effectively removed, or time to perform the removal is extensive as the hand operated instruments excise only a small volume of tissue each time they bite off a piece of the tissue, and must be constantly removed from the body to clean resected tissue from jaw of the instrument so that it can continue to excise pieces of the pathological material. In addition, larger resecting instruments, although more efficient, are potentially more dangerous in that they can inadvertently also remove normal anatomical structures such as bowel. Also, if any bleeding occurs during resection with hand tools, the procedure must be stopped to control the bleeding, which adds to overall time of surgery.
With most surgical operations of this type, trauma for the patient in the form of post-operative pain and inability to have a normal lifestyle, is caused more by the tissue resection through skin, connective tissue, muscle, etc. to access the pathology than the actual removal of the pathology. In addition, direct medical cost for the post-operative hospital stay, a major component of overall health care cost, is caused more by time to recover from the surgical wounds to access the pathology than from the actual removal of the diseased tissue. Similarly, economic cost of workman's compensation, if a work related injury is involved, for time off from work during recovery to normal, is directly related to the massiveness of the surgical, dissecting wounds. Economic opportunity cost of time off from work, unemployment, or underemployment during recovery from major, open surgery is directly related to extent of the surgical dissection to access pathology, and is significant.
For laparoscopic procedures, general anesthesia is currently used. Some patients complain more about the affects of the anesthesia than the pain associated with removing the pathological tissue.
Prior are for performing certain general, urological, or gynecological surgical procedures within the abdomen are various surgical instruments whose function require that the abdominal cavity be completely exposed by opening it via an incision that extends from just below the diaphragm to the lower abdomen.
Prior art are various surgical devices which have been used, mainly to remove pathological tissue from within body cavities such as the gastrointestinal system, urinary system, orthopaedic joints, etc. These are either single products, or a series of loosely related devices which are used during the operation but which are not coordinated to produce an optimal effect. These devices include medical optical telescopes to view within the body when used in conjunction with light carriers such as a fiber optic bundle, energy form generators and energy form transporters which use electrical, mechanical, laser, etc. energy to cut, burn, or evaporate pathological tissue, suction devices which aspirate the cut pathological tissue from the body, and tubes used to transport these devices into the body cavity.
Additional related prior art is fiber optic light illuminators that are used for medical, endoscopic surgical procedures. Many of these light sources do not provide the light intensity to properly illuminate the abdominal cavity and produce clear images with the medical video camera system that is used in conjunction with the endoscopes.
Additional related prior art is a peristaltic pump used to instill fluid, usually normal saline, into a body cavity to expand its volume, and provide a clear liquid medium to view the body cavity using a generic type of endoscope. This instilled fluid may be removed from the body cavity either through the endoscope or through a separate outflow conduit, usually by applying active suction to the conduit and conecting PVC tubing, the suction being generated by some aspirating external pump. Precise control of rate of inflow is not achieved with prior art instilling pumps, and coordination of volume of inflow to volume of aspiration, through electronic controls is not characteristic of these forms of prior art.
Related prior art is an RF energy electrode introduced separately into the abdominal cavity to control bleeding.
Related prior art are gas insufflators used to expand the abdomen. Although pressure and flow rate from the insufflators can be set and controlled by these machines, measurement of pressure is at the machine, through tubing, and is not measured directly within the abdominal cavity. In addition, no means is provided to instill a treatment drug in the gas which is insufflated, with prior art devices.
Related prior art are machines which function independently including light source illuminators, gas insufflators, and peristaltic pumps, used for surgical procedures other than indicated in this patent application.
Therefore, these devices do not work as efficiently together, extend operating time which increases cost of medical care. Energy form generators and transporters being separate machines, their total cost is greater and they require more effort by personnel to set up and maintain, which also increases cost of medical care.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,132,227, entitled Urological Endoscope Particularly Resectoscope, issued to Wolfgang Ibe on Jan. 2, 1979, teaches a hollow cylinder sheath, a viewing device, an illuminating device, a resecting device and an outflow tube. The hollow cylinder sheath has a proximal end and a distal end. The viewing device is an endoscopic arrangement of optical elements. The illuminating device is a cooperating arrangement of fiber optics which is optically coupled to a light source. The viewing device and the illuminating device are located in the sheath extending from the distal end back to the proximal end. The outflow tube is slidable onto the sheath to surround the sheath and form together with the sheath an intermediate return-flow space between the outer wall of the sheath and the inner wall of the outflow tube, with the outflow tube when in position slid over the sheath tightly surrounding the distal end portion of the sheath. The resecting device is an electrode loop which is electrically coupled to an electromagnetic energy source. Clear rinsing water is introduced into the proximal end of the sheath. Turbid water is removed from the proximal end of the intermediate space. The outflow tube is provided with apertures at the distal end thereof for the flow of clear rinsing water out of the distal end of the sheath and around the end of the endoscope and then through the apertures into the intermediate space. U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,621, entitled Endoscopic Apparatus, issued to Robert C. Wheeler on Aug. 26, 1986, teaches an insertion tube, an electrosurgical generator and an electrode loop which is electrically coupled to the electrosurgical generator.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,051, entitled Cassete For Surgical Irrigation And Aspiration And Sterile Package Therefor, issued to Steppe et. al. on Dec. 15, 1987, teaches a cartridge within which is placed an irrigating and irrigating control means, an aspirating and an aspirating control means, and a vacuum and vacuum control means.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,309, entitled Endoscope for Removal of Tissue, issued to Hans-Ernst Sachse on Jul. 12, 1988, teaches an endoscope which resects tissue inside body cavities and which includes a hollow outer tube, a rotating shaft and a flushing duct. The shaft carries a grinding or milling head which allows precise removal of scar tissue or other fairly firm tissue under endoscopic control without leaving irregular or thermally damaged wound sites. The endoscope also includes a tube for a lens system and cold light guide and an eyepiece.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,062, entitled Rotating Fiberoptic Laser Catheter Assembly with Eccentric Lumen, issued to Lisa D. Wells on Jul. 4, 1989, teaches a catheter assembly which includes a catheter and an optical fiber. The catheter defines a first eccentric lumen which encompasses the center of the catheter and a second lumen. The optical fiber runs through the first eccentric lumen and has a distal end which is eccentric to and encompasses the center of the catheter. U.S. Pat. No. 4,865,018, entitled Control Apparatus for Endoscopes, issued to Masahide Kanno, Katasuyaki Saito and Akihiko Miyazaki on Sept. 12, 1989, teaches a control apparatus which controls a plurality of functions of an endoscope. U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,716, entitled Liquid Supplying Device for Endoscope, issued to Kunio Kinoshita on Nov. 5, 1985, teaches a liquid supplying device which includes a housing with a connecting portion to which a connector of an endoscope is connected. The liquid supplying device also includes a lamp, an air pump, and a liquid supply tank.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,019, entitled Multichannel Endoscope, issued to Michael Bass on Mar. 27, 1979 teaches a flexible endoscope with a suction tube that protrudes from the distal end, a laser channel, a fluid delivery channel, and a channel which could accomodate a medical tool. U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,713, issued to Yasunori Hiraoka on Dec. 2, 1986 teaches a device with a trough for collecting and removing debris created when using a resectoscope, including an electode used in conjunction with the trough for coagulating blood. Holes in the trough accomodate an irrigating fluid. The device uses mechanical energy, a slide mechanism to actually remove the debris.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,618,611, entitled Vacuum Rotary Dissector, issued to Julius C. Urban on Nov. 9, 1971, teaches a vacuum rotary dissector which includes a support, an outer tubular member, an inner tubular member and a motor. The outer tubular member extends from the support and has a closed generally hemispherical distal end and a first laterally directed opening adjacent to its distal end extending axially along the outer tubular member and partially along the closed generally hemispherical distal end. The inner tubular member is rotatably mounted in the outer tubular member and has a complementary generally hemisperical distal end frictionally bearing on an inner complementary surface of the closed generally hemispherical distal end of the outer tubular member. The inner tubular member has a second laterally directed opening coextensive with the first laterally directed opening defining generally axially extending cutting edges coincident with the inner surface of the outer tubular member. The motor continuously rotates the inner tubular member relatively to the support and the outer tubular member.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,710, entitled Surgical Instrument and Method of Making Same, issued to Larry K. Kleinberg and Donald S. Evans on Jul. 8, 1986, teaches an arthroscopy shaver which includes a pair of co-axially assembled tubes. The tubes have their distal walls in bearing relationship and with registrable openings extending through such distal and annular walls correspondingly joined to their respective distal walls. U.S. Pat. No. 4,203,444, entitled Surgical Instrument Suitable for Closed Surgery Such as of the Knee, issued to Leonard J. Bonnell, Edward H. McHugh, Douglas D. Sjostrom and Lanny L. Johnson on May 20, 1980, also teaches an arthroscopy shaver. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Fiber optic systems are used to reliably send large amounts of data over both short and long haul routes and often employ parallel communications modules comprising a 1×N array of optoelectronic devices (OEs), either photoemitters, such LEDs or laser diodes, or photodetectors such as PIN photodiodes, integrated detector/preamplifiers (IDPs), or avalanche photo-diodes (APDs).
There are two conventional types of parallel optical module. The most common type employs a single optical subassembly (OSA) that incorporates multiple OEs (photoemitters or photodetectors) that are matched in number to the number of fibers in the connector. This approach has the disadvantage that if a single channel in the OSA is found to be defective during assembly or testing, the entire OSA must be discarded, reducing yield. This approach has the further disadvantage that similar products that use different numbers of channels, including single channel products, must each use a different OSA.
A second type of conventional parallel optical module is built out of a plurality of single channel OSAs, each of which has its own fiber pigtail or connector. The individual fibers are individually routed within the module to a parallel optical connector assembly where they are terminated in a manner than allows for ready connection to an external fiber optic ribbon. This approach has the disadvantage that the individual handling of the fibers is time consuming and expensive and sometimes requires that the optical fibers have additional length that undesirably increases the length and width of this second type of parallel optical module. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Integrated circuit ("IC") cards are becoming increasingly used for many different purposes in the world today. An IC card (also called a smart card) typically is the size of a conventional credit card which contains a computer chip including a microprocessor, read-only-memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only-memory (EEPROM), an Input/Output (I/O) mechanism and other circuitry to support the microprocessor in its operations. An IC card may contain a single application or may contain multiple independent applications in its memory. MULTOST.TM. is a multiple application operating system which runs on IC cards, among other platforms, and allows multiple applications to be executed on the card itself. This allows a card user to run many programs stored in the card (for example, credit/debit, electronic money/purse and/or loyalty applications) irrespective of the type of terminal (i.e., ATM, telephone and/or POS) in which the card is inserted for use.
A conventional single application IC card, such as a telephone card or an electronic cash card, is loaded with a single application when it is manufactured and before it is given to a card user. That application, however, cannot be modified or changed after the card is issued even if the modification is desired by the card user or card issuer. Moreover, if a card user wanted a variety of application functions to be performed by IC cards issued to him or her, such as both an electronic purse and a credit/debit function, the card user would be required to carry multiple physical cards on his or her person, which would be quite cumbersome and inconvenient. If an application developer or card user desired two different applications to interact or exchange data with each other, such as a purse application interacting with a frequent flyer loyalty application, the card user would be forced to swap multiple cards in and out of the card-receiving terminal, making the transaction difficult, lengthy and inconvenient.
Therefore, it is beneficial to store multiple applications on the same IC card. For example, a card user may have both a purse application and a credit/debit application on the same card so that the user could select which type of payment (by electronic cash or credit card) to use to make a purchase. Multiple applications could be provided to an IC card if sufficient memory exists and an operating system capable of supporting multiple applications is present on the card. Although multiple applications could be preselected and placed in the memory of the card during its production stage, it would also be beneficial to have the ability to load and delete applications for the card post-production as needed.
The increased flexibility and power of storing multiple applications on a single card create new challenges to be overcome concerning the integrity and security of the information (including application code and associated data) exchanged between the individual card and the application provider as well as within the entire system when loading and deleting applications. It would be beneficial to have the capability in the IC card system to exchange data among cards, card issuers, system operators and application providers securely and to load and delete applications securely at any time from a local terminal or remotely over a telephone line, Internet or intranet connection or other data conduit. Because these data transmission lines are not typically secure lines, a number of security and entity authentication techniques must be implemented to make sure that applications being sent over the transmission lines are not tampered with and are only loaded on the intended cards.
As mentioned, it is important--particularly where there is a continuing wide availability of new applications to the cardholder--that the system has the capability of adding applications onto the IC card subsequent to issuance. This is necessary to protect the longevity of the IC cards; otherwise, once an application becomes outdated, the card would be useless. It would be beneficial to allow the addition of applications from a remote location as well as from a direct connection to an application provider's terminal. For example, it would be beneficial for a card user to be able to plug his or her IC card into a home computer and download an application over the Internet. This type of remote loading of applications raises a number of security risks when transmitting the application code and related data over an unsecured communications line such as the Internet.
An entity which transmits an application or data to an IC card requires that only the intended IC card should receive the transmitted data. Third parties should not be able to intercept and view the data. Additionally, a transmitting entity will require verification that the IC card which has requested information is actually part of the overall IC card system and not simply posing as being part of the system. These concerns are raised by both remote application loading as well as local terminal application loading.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a secure transfer technique and specifically to provide a secure IC-card system that allows for the secure transfer of data including smart card applications which may be loaded onto IC cards. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
In certain sporting activities that are played on either grassy surfaces, surfaces with artificial turf, or on bare ground, participants typically wear footwear having cleats projecting from the bottom of the footwear in order to provide stability and traction. Such sports include, but are not limited to, baseball, softball, football, soccer, golf, rugby, and track and field, among others. In some cases, footwear has been customized and developed for a particular sport, for example, footwear having short sharp spikes or cleats are used for many track and field events due to the events being held primarily on bare ground or on tracks composed of hard-packed but soft surfaces, such as clay or cinders and the like. Sports that are played on similar surface types, for example, football and soccer, may have footwear that is customized to an extent for the particular sport; however, footwear for such sports played on similar surfaces can be interchangeable. Footwear developed for baseball and softball must provide the athlete with stability and traction on more than one surface, as these sports combine grassy or artificial turf playing surfaces with infields or base paths composed of dirt or clay. As such, the typical baseball or softball cleat is a relatively short, relatively wide cleat resembling the blade of a spade that is used as a tool for digging in dirt or grass. Typically, such cleats are formed from metal or a hard plastic and project radially approximately ½ inch from the sole of the shoe.
Similar versions of such cleats have, by comparison, relatively short cleats that are used by athletes playing on artificial turf surfaces. The artificial turf typically provides a uniform texture, making longer cleats unnecessary for traction. In addition, longer cleats may be prone to catch on an artificial surface, possibly resulting in injury to the athlete. Whether the cleats are short or longer, present baseball or softball-type cleats may be provided as a one to three-sided cleat; the cleats normally being spaced from each other around the perimeter of the sole of the shoe. The cleats may or may not be interchangeable as wear and tear occurs and, if interchangeable, will be provided with a screw-type or other fastener in which the cleat itself has a portion formed with threads to engage corresponding holes in the sole of the shoe or a screw may be inserted through the cleat and into the sole of the shoe to fasten the cleat to the sole. Very little innovation has taken place in baseball or softball type cleats over the years. Innovation has primarily taken the form of the utilization of softer materials for use by children participating in the sports or the shortening of cleats for use on artificial turf surfaces. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
An electric-generating capacity which a solar cell can generate is determined depending on an irradiance level of a light and, for example, the electric-generating capacity when there is no irradiation of the light is zero. On the other hand, an electric power corresponding to an operation state of an electronic apparatus is required for a power source for driving the electronic apparatus irrespective of the irradiance level of the light. Therefore, it is obvious that the power source for stably driving the electronic apparatus cannot be composed of only the solar cell.
A hybrid power source system in which a solar cell and a secondary cell are combined with each other, and the secondary cell is used as an electric power buffer is known as a system in which a power source for stably driving an electronic apparatus is configured by using a solar cell. In this system, when the electric-generating capacity of the solar cell exceeds the electric power with which the electronic apparatus is driven, the secondary cell is charged in such a way that the excessive electric power which the solar cell generates is stored in the secondary cell. On the other hand, when the electric-generating capacity of the solar cell falls below the electric power with which the electronic apparatus is driven, the secondary cell is discharged so that the electronic apparatus is driven by the solar cell and the secondary cell.
The configuring of the hybrid power source system results in that there is no necessity for the solar cell to respond to a maximum power consumption of the electronic apparatus, and thus it is only necessary for the solar cell to supply the power consumption of the electronic apparatus on the average. As a result, it is possible to miniaturize the size of the solar cell. The hybrid power source system of the solar cell and the secondary cell can realize both of the stable supply of the electric power, and miniaturization of the solar cell, and thus is a system which is very effective for an electronic apparatus for which the miniaturization and the portableness promotion are aimed.
On the other hand, in a portable electronic apparatus such as a personal computer or a mobile phone, the power consumption has a tendency to be increased along with the high performance promotion and multi-function promotion thereof. Thus, a fuel cell is expected as a next-generation power source, for the portable electronic apparatus, which can cope with this tendency. In the fuel cell, a fuel is supplied to a negative electrode (anode) side, so that the fuel is oxidized, and air or oxygen is supplied to a positive electrode (cathode) side, so that oxygen is reduced. Thus, an oxidation-reduction reaction between the fuel and oxygen is caused in terms of the entire fuel cell. At this time, a chemical energy which the fuel has is efficiently converted into an electrical energy which is in turn taken out. The fuel cell has a feature that the fuel cell can be continuously used as a power source by supplying thereto the fuel unless the fuel cell breaks down.
Although various kinds of fuel cells have been proposed, a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) using a hydrogen ion-conducting polymer film as an electrolyte is suitable as a portable power source because the electrolyte is a solid and is in no danger of flying-apart, the polymer electrolyte fuel cell can be operated at a lower temperature than that in any other type fuel cell, for example, at temperatures of about 30° C. to about 130° C., a start time thereof is short, and so forth.
Various kinds of combustible materials such as hydrogen and methanol can be used as the fuel of the fuel cell. However, a gas fuel such as hydrogen is unsuitable for the miniaturization and lightweight because the gas fuel requires a high-pressure container or hydrogen storing alloy for storage. On the other hand, although a liquid fuel such as methanol has an advantage that the liquid fuel is easy to store, a fuel cell utilizing a system for taking out hydrogen from the liquid fuel by using a reformer is unsuitable for the miniaturization because a construction thereof becomes complicated. Contrary to those, a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) in which methanol is directly supplied to an anode to be caused to make a reaction without reforming methanol has a feature that the fuel is easy to store, a construction thereof is simple, and the miniaturization is easy. Conventionally, the DMFC has been combined with the PEFC in many cases to be studied as one kind of PEFC, and thus is most highly expected as a power source for portable electronic apparatuses.
However, since an output density of the DMFC is relatively small, when the electric power with which the portable electronic apparatus is driven is tried to be generated by the fuel cell by itself, it is feared that the size of the fuel cell becomes too large. Therefore, even in the fuel cell such as the DMFC, it is effective to compose a hybrid power source system together with the secondary cell having the large output density, such as a lithium-ion cell.
Then, a hybrid power source system is proposed in Patent Document 1 which will be described later in which a fuel cell and a secondary cell are connected in parallel with a load, and at least one of the fuel cell and the secondary cell supplies an electric power to the load. FIG. 4 is a graph for explaining an operation of the power source system described above based on current-voltage characteristics of a fuel cell and a secondary cell. It is noted that voltages of the fuel cell and the secondary cell shown in FIG. 4 are not voltages of single cells, but are voltages of cell stacks in each of which plural cells are connected in series. In addition, since in a current Ir of the secondary cell, a discharge direction is taken as being positive (Ir>0), when the charging is carried out, the current Ir is negative (Ir<0).
As shown in FIG. 4, the current-voltage curve of the fuel cell has a sigmoid-like shape, and thus a generated voltage is relatively, largely reduced as a generated current is increased. The reason for this is because in the fuel cell, activation polarization, resistance polarization, and diffusion polarization remarkably appear in order with an increasing generated current. On the other hand, although the current-voltage curve of the secondary cell such as the lithium-ion cell is high in linearity, and thus a discharge voltage is gradually reduced due to the resistance polarization or the like when a discharge current is increased, a gradient of the current-voltage curve is relatively small, and thus an internal resistance is small. Similarly, during charging, although a charging voltage gradually rises when a charging current is increased, a gradient thereof is small. An open voltage Vr0 of the secondary cell is changed depending on a charging state representing how much the secondary cell is charged.
In this power source system, when there is no external load, all of the electric power generated by the fuel cell is used for charging of the secondary cell. When let Vc be the voltage at this time, let Ifc be the magnitude of the generated current of the fuel cell at this time, and let −Irc be the magnitude of the charging current of the secondary cell at this time, since the following relationship is fulfilled,Ifc=−Irc the voltage Vc is determined as a voltage (>Vr0) fulfilling this relationship in FIG. 4. When the external load is not zero, but is small, a part of the electric power generated by the fuel cell is used for driving of the load, and a surplus electric power is used for charging of the secondary cell. The voltage at this time is smaller than Vc, and is larger than Vr0.
When the load is larger and the voltage is smaller than Vr0, the discharging of the secondary cell is caused, and thus the load is driven by the fuel cell and the secondary cell. In this case, in order that each of the cells may effectively function, as shown in FIG. 4, the current-voltage curves of the two cells need to cross with each other in a suitable area. If this situation is met, when the load is relatively small, and a voltage V1 with which the load is driven is larger than a voltage Vx at an intersection point X, the currents supplied from the fuel cell and the secondary cell, as shown in FIG. 4, are determined as If1 and Ir1, respectively. Since If1>Ir1, the electric power is mainly supplied from the fuel cell. On the other hand, when the load is large and a drive voltage V2 is smaller than Vx, the currents supplied from the fuel cell and the secondary cell, as shown in FIG. 4, are determined as If2 and Ir2, respectively. Since If2<Ir2, in this case, the electric power supplied from the secondary cell exceeds the electric power supplied from the fuel cell.
It is understood that while the load is increased, so that the drive voltage is decreased from V1 to V2 through Vx, the generated current from the fuel cell is merely increased from If1 to If2, whereas the discharge current from the secondary cell is largely increased from Ir1 to Ir2, a most part of the power consumption increased for this period of time is supplied from the secondary cell. In addition, when an increase in the power consumption is borne by only the fuel cell, as can be seen from FIG. 4, the generated voltage of the fuel cell is reduced so as to be smaller than a minimum voltage with which the load can be driven. As described above, when the power source is composed of only the fuel cell, the fuel cell needs to grow in size in such a way that the generated voltage equal to or larger than the minimum drive voltage can be maintained. In addition, when the secondary cell which is excellent in the output density is connected in parallel with the fuel cell, thereby configuring the hybrid power source, the fuel cell can be miniaturized and the entire power source system can be miniaturized in turn.
However, in the power source system described above, the current-voltage curves of the fuel cell and the secondary cell need to cross with each other in a suitable area. In addition thereto, the system characteristics are perfectly determined by these current-voltage characteristics. In a simple system in which either the solar cell or the fuel cell, and the secondary cell are merely connected in parallel with each other like this example, since the characteristics of the solar cell or the fuel cell, and the characteristics of the secondary cell are mutually restricted, and the characteristics when the secondary cell is charged, and the characteristics when the secondary cell is discharged are mutually restricted, there is a limit to an improvement in the energy efficiency, the stability, and the convenience. For example, the energy efficiency is dominated by the characteristics of each of the cells and the charging state of the secondary cell, and the stability is largely influenced by the secular change or the like of the characteristics of each of the cells. In addition, it is impossible to use the various kinds of charging systems such as the high-efficiency charging and the fast charging appropriately.
In addition, in the hybrid power source system, the prevention of the overcharging of the secondary cell is a very important problem. For example, when the lithium-ion cell is used as the secondary cell, the overcharging causes dangerousness such as smoke generation and firing, and explosion as the case may be. Since the solar cell generates the electric power when the light is irradiated to the solar cell, there is required some sort of mechanism for usually detecting the charging state of the secondary cell, and stopping the charging when the full charging is reached. In addition, since the electric power generation is carried out even in a passive type fuel cell not having means for controlling the supply of the fuel on a steady basis, the same mechanism is required.
Then, a portable power source apparatus with a battery charger including a DC/DC converter, a current controlling circuit, and an overcurrent preventing circuit is proposed in Patent Document 2 which will be described later. FIG. 5(a) is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a power source apparatus 100.
As shown in FIG. 5(a), in the power source apparatus 100, a solar cell 101 for generating an electric power by receiving a solar light is connected to an electric double layer capacitor 103 through a backflow preventing diode 102, and the electric power which the solar cell 101 generates is temporarily stored in the capacitor 103. After the electric power stored in the capacitor 103 is converted into a suitable voltage by a DC/DC converter 105, the resulting voltage is supplied to each of a load 104 and a secondary cell 106.
In addition, in the power source apparatus 100, as a feature thereof, a current controlling circuit 107 is provided between the DC/DC converter 105, and the secondary cell 106 and the load 104, and an overcurrent preventing circuit 108 is provided between the current controlling circuit 107 and the secondary cell 106.
FIG. 5(b) is a schematic diagram of the current controlling circuit 107 exemplified in Patent Document 2. The current controlling circuit 107 is configured similarly to a control circuit of a general series regulator. That is to say, division resistors 111 and 112 divide an output voltage to give a reference voltage Vref1. A constant voltage diode 113 generates a standard voltage. A control transistor 114 and a load resistor 115 thereof amplify a difference between the standard voltage (strictly, a sum of the standard voltage, and a base-to-emitter voltage of the control transistor 114 and the reference voltage Vref1, and controls an operation of a power transistor 116 depending on small and large of the difference. The power transistor 116 is inserted in series in the load 104, and a conductive property thereof is controlled by the control transistor 114 in such a way that an output voltage thereof becomes constant. A concrete configuration of the overcurrent preventing circuit 108 is not shown in Patent Document 2.
In the power source apparatus 100, when the electric power generated by the solar cell 101 exceeds the electric power with which the load 104 is driven, the secondary cell 106 is charged with the electric power for a surplus. When the secondary cell 106 reaches a full charging state, the charging for the secondary cell 106 is stopped by the overcurrent preventing circuit 108. Therefore, the secondary cell 106 is prevented from being overcharged. At this time, since the surplus electric power is accumulated in the electric double layer capacitor 103, a voltage of the capacitor 103 rises. As a result, since the voltage applied to the load 104 is controlled to a predetermined voltage by the current controlling circuit 107 even when the output voltage from the DC/DC converter 105 rises, an excessive voltage is prevented from being applied to the load 104.
In this case, since the surplus electric power which the solar cell 101 generates has nowhere to go, there is feared a rise in the voltage of the capacitor 103 due to the accumulation of the surplus electric power. It is described in Patent Document 2 that the rise in the voltage of the capacitor 103 is suppressed because the surplus electric power is consumed by the control transistor 114 and the load resistor 115 thereof.
On the other hand, seven kinds of apparatuses are shown in Patent Document 3 which will be described later, as a power source apparatus with which under any weather, an electric power obtained from a solar cell can be utilized at a maximum. FIG. 6 is schematic diagrams showing configurations of the two kinds of power source apparatuses, each having a relation with the present invention, of them.
In a power source apparatus 200 shown in FIG. 6(a), a solar cell module 201 is connected to each of a load 203 and a secondary cell 204 through a backflow preventing diode 202. In this case, as a feature of the power source apparatus 200, the power source apparatus 200 is configured in such a way that a sum of a voltage for a forward voltage drop of the backflow preventing diode 202, and a voltage of the secondary cell 204 becomes approximately equal to an optimal operating voltage of the solar cell module 201. In the power source apparatus 200, when the electric power generated by the solar cell module 201 exceeds an electric power with which the load 203 is driven, the secondary cell 204 is charged with an electric power for a surplus. However, since the power source apparatus 200 is configured in the manner as described above, the electric power obtained from the solar cell module 201 can be utilized at a maximum.
In addition, as another feature of the power source apparatus 200, a shunt regulator 207 is connected in parallel with each of the load 203 and the secondary cell 204. The shunt regulator 207 is controlled in accordance with a reference voltage Vref1 obtained by dividing an output voltage by division resistors 205 and 206. Also, the shunt regulator 207 is set in such a way that a maximum value of the output voltage is suppressed to a predetermined voltage smaller than an overcharging voltage which causes overcharging of the secondary cell 204.
In the power source apparatus 200, since, while the secondary cell 204 does not reach a full charging state, and thus the secondary cell 204 is normally charged with the surplus electric power, the output voltage is held at a voltage smaller than the overcharging voltage by the charging, a voltage limitation by the shunt regulator 207 is not carried out. On the other hand, since the surplus electric power is not consumed by the charging, but is accumulated when the secondary cell 204 reaches the full charging state, the output voltage begins to be increased at once and is attempting to exceed the overcharging voltage of the secondary cell 204. At this time, a voltage limiting operation by the shunt regulator 207 is immediately exhibited, and the surplus electric power is shunted through the shunt regulator 207 and is then transformed into heat by a resistance component within the shunt regulator 207 to be abandoned. As a result, since the output voltage is held at the predetermined voltage smaller than the overcharging voltage of the secondary cell 204, the secondary cell 204 is prevented from being overcharged.
In a power source apparatus 300 shown in FIG. 6(b), after an electric power which a solar cell module 201 generates is converted into a suitable voltage by a DC/DC converter 301, the resulting voltage is supplied to each of a load 203 and a secondary cell 204. As a feature of the power source apparatus 300, the power source apparatus 300 is configured in such a way that division resistors 302 and 303 for giving a reference voltage Vref2 by dividing an output voltage from the solar cell module 201 are provided on an input side of the DC/DC converter 301, a difference between the reference voltage Vref2 and a built-in standard voltage is amplified by an error amplifier 304, and an operation of the DC/DC converter is controlled based on a magnitude of the amplified difference, whereby the output voltage from the solar cell module 201 is held at an optimal operating voltage thereof.
In addition, division resistors 205 and 206 for giving a reference voltage Vref1 by dividing an output voltage, and a comparator 305 for detecting the overcharging of the secondary cell 204 by comparing the reference voltage Vref1 and the standard voltage are provided on an output side of the DC/DC converter 301. Also, an AND circuit for stopping an operation of the converter when the overcharging is detected by the comparator 305 is provided within the DC/DC converter. Therefore, the output voltage from the DC/DC converter 301 is held at the predetermined voltage smaller than the voltage which causes the overcharging of the secondary cell 204, and thus the secondary cell 204 is prevented from being overcharged. | {
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Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and system for providing a developer interface, and more particularly, to a method and system for providing a developer interface according to an execution of components registered using a communication bus. | {
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Spam has been a serious problem for email administrators and users for many years, growing from one in sixteen emails in 2002 to approximately three out of four emails in 2007. In fact, after five years of dealing with spam and throwing significant resources at the problem, over half of messaging decision-makers in mid-sized and large organizations may still view spam as a very serious problem according to a recent survey. Spam has evolved from a minor nuisance that made up a small subset of all internet email to a scourge that may now make up the majority of email sent around the world.
The fundamental challenge in solving the spam problem is that spammers are becoming more sophisticated in their approach to defeating conventional spam-blocking technologies. Savvy spammers continually figure out how to circumvent traditional spam-filtering technologies. As a result, even if a user has a spam filter, the user may spend a significant amount of time sifting through spam each day to find important emails.
Spam may be particularly annoying when the user has been away from their computer for a time. When the user returns to check email on the computer, the user may have to deal with all the spam that arrived during their absence. In addition to causing the user to waste time, spam buildup may make it more likely that the user overlooks an important email. What is needed, therefore, is a more effective approach to dealing with spam. | {
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The present disclosure relates to a battery unit. Specifically, the disclosure relates to a battery unit that includes a plurality of battery blocks.
In recent years, there has been a rapid expansion in the usage of secondary batteries such as a lithium ion battery as a storage battery for a vehicle, a solar battery, or a power storage battery combined with a new energy system such as wind power generation. In such a storage battery, generally, a battery block is formed by connecting a plurality of, for example, four unit batteries (called an electrical cell or a cell and appropriately referred to as a battery in the following description) to each other in parallel and/or in series. A plurality of battery blocks is accommodated in an external casing.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-289429 discloses a structure in which a battery accommodation box as an external casing is divided by a division plate so as to form a plurality of battery accommodation spaces and a battery block is accommodated in each battery accommodation space. | {
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The electronic circuits in contemporary hearing aids are usually powered by batteries, e.g. rechargeable batteries of the lithium-ion or lithium-polymer variety, or non-rechargeable zinc-air batteries. A typical hearing aid circuit operates at a voltage of about one volt and draws a current of between 1 mA and 10 mA. A hearing aid user would want to change the batteries in his or her hearing aids as rarely as possible, e.g. one to three times a week. In order to prolong battery life, hearing aid designers therefore strive to reduce current consumption as much as possible when devising new hearing aids. The supply voltage in a hearing aid has to be maintained within narrow limits in order to ensure stable and proper operation of the hearing aid signal processing circuit, while the current consumption is kept at a minimum.
Prior art hearing aids are powered by a switching or linear voltage regulator providing a stable and accurate voltage to the electronic circuit in the hearing aid. In hearing aids comprising radio receivers, linear voltage regulators are generally preferred for power supplies over switching voltage regulators because they emit much less high-frequency electromagnetic noise. In this context, a linear voltage regulator is considered as an electronic circuit comprising a voltage reference, an operational amplifier, an amplifying element such as a transistor, and a voltage divider circuit. The voltage regulator is powered by a voltage source such as a battery, and a biasing voltage generator is providing a proper operating point for the operational amplifier.
Proper and stable operation of the signal processing circuit in a contemporary, digital hearing aid is highly dependent on a stable and reliable power supply. A deviation of more than 5% from the nominal supply voltage may easily present a problem to e.g. the digital-to-analog converters present in the hearing aid, since the conversion of an input voltage to a digital number may go astray if e.g. the internal voltage reference of the analog-to-digital converter or the input voltage deviates as a result of an unstable supply voltage. An unstable supply voltage may also introduce noise and distortion into the analog parts of the signal processor due to changes in the operating points of the amplifying semiconductor elements. Even worse, it may cause the program execution of the digital signal processor to crash or fail. In order for the power supply to be stable within 2-5% of the nominal supply voltage, a very stable voltage reference circuit must be provided.
Dual voltage regulator circuits are known from the prior art, e.g. from the article “Dual-voltage regulator meets USB-power needs”, by Wayne Rewinkel of National Semiconductor, published in EDN online magazine, August 2004. The dual voltage regulator disclosed by Rewinkel does not provide an output voltage to a common output node, and does not teach a handover procedure between the two regulators. | {
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The problem of regulating the suds, or foaming, in aqueous systems which tend to foam excessively when they are moved or heated, has already led to numerous suggested solutions. The control of foaming over the entire washing range of a detergent or cleanser is necessary, particularly in aqueous washing and cleaning liquors, as they are used in the modern washing treatment in washing machines, particularly drum-type washing machines, because both excessive foaming and the complete absence of suds can lead to undesired results. An excellent anti-foaming agent was found in soaps based substantially upon C.sub.20 and C.sub.22 fatty acids, as they are available from rape oil and fish oils as natural sources. However, for various reasons a reliable supply of these raw materials can not be ensured. Also, the required relatively high concentration in which these fatty acids must be used, which is on the order of from 2 to 3.5 percent by weight, based on the total weight of the finished detergent, is a disadvantage.
Known silicone foam inhibitors which consists of liquid polysiloxanes with alkyl or aryl substituents and finely-divided collodial silica, effect desired suds control with very small amounts of the inhibitor, substantially below 1 percent by weight, and are in this respect superior to foam-inhibiting soaps. However, the high costs of the silicone foam inhibitors and also the great number of parameters which must be observed in suds control, have led to further efforts in this field to make new silicone-free foam inhibitors available. Liquid and solid hydrocarbons or chlorinated hydrocarbons, wax-like fatty acid esters, long-chain fatty alcohols containing up to 50 carbon atoms, fatty ketones, aliphatic disulfides or sulfoxides, and the like, partly also in combination with hydrophobic, finely-divided silicon dioxide, have been suggested as foam-inhibiting active substances. For example, a special ternary foam inhibitor consisting of a liquid hydrocarbon, a solid hydrocarbon, or a fatty acid ester, as well as a hydrophobic silicon dioxide, has become known recently from the European Patent Application No. 0 000 216. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Cerebral palsied children have abnormal muscle tone which prevents their use of conventional recreational and body building devices.
It has been found that spasticity in a child can be reduced through reflex-inhibiting posture which can be provided by positioning the body in a particular manner which enables the child to exert body muscles without the influence of abnormal spastic patterns. Abnormal spastic patterns prohibit the normal use and development of muscle tone.
There are no known riding devices that are suitable for this purpose. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In this field, enamel-based coatings are already known, but these do not guarantee proper anti-adherence, and need high vitrification temperatures (above 540° C.). Sol-gel coatings, especially those obtained by polymerisation of silanes, are also known. But they do not deposit significant thickness and generally become faience for thicknesses of the order of 10 microns. Also, their cohesion is achieved only if high enough temperatures are applied over long periods, for example temperatures above 400° C., for at least thirty minutes. On the contrary, this type of coating allows a range of use in temperatures greater than those of PTFE-based coatings, up to 600° C., as opposed to 300° C. maximum for PTFE-based coatings. But this happens to the detriment of anti-adherence.
The disadvantage of such coatings is that they lose their hydrophobic properties after aggression likely to degrade the surface of the coating, and especially chemical aggression such as that caused by dishwasher detergents, or aggression of mechanical type such as that caused by excessive rubbing of the coating by means of an abrasive buffer, or even exposure of the order of a few minutes at extreme temperature.
To rectify these problems, the applicant has developed an anti-stick coating obtained via sol-gel polymerisation of a composition based on at least one metallic alcoxide and a colloidal metallic oxide. The applicant has discovered surprisingly that when a very small quantity of silicon oil is added to such a composition, the coating formed by sol-gel from this composition not only resists high temperature, but is also capable of supporting contact of a few minutes with the flame of a Bünsen burner (the temperature of which is above 600° C.), and then rapidly regaining its hydrophobic character.
It is known to the person skilled in the art to use silicon oil for making sol-gel coatings from a composition based on alcoxysilane and colloidal silica.
US patent application US 2006/0147829 describes a process for making superhydrophobic coatings for self-cleaning surfaces, having a contact angle with water greater than 130°. This process comprises a preparation step of nanoparticles (especially silica nanoparticles) preferably of a size varying from 1 nm to 100 nm, and a processing step of these particles with a hydrophobic agent and an additive, the hydrophobic agent preferably being based on silicon, and the additive being selected from mineral and organic bases. These nanoparticles can be prepared by a humid synthesis process, and in particular by sol-gel method, from precursors comprising water, solvent, especially an alcohol, and a metallic alcoxide such as for example tetramethoxysilane (TMOS) or tetraethoxysilane (TEOS). After forming of the nanoparticles, they are mixed directly with the hydrophobic agent and the additive, and left to react at a temperature of between 0 and 100° C. The resulting material is applied to a substrate (especially glass, plastic, metal, ceramic, or polymer or composite) according to any technique for producing a coating from a liquid (by centrifuge, soaking, or by coating by brush or roller). Then, after being applied to the substrate the coating is dried at a temperature between ambient temperature and 200° C. The resulting coating has a hydrophobic surface forming a contact angle with water of over 130°, or even over 150°.
However, there is no mention in US 2006/0147829 of the antiadhesive character of the resulting coating, nor of its capacity to resist high temperatures and its aptitude for revealing a hydrophobic character after aggression of the surface of the coating. Also, US 2006/0147829 does not indicate that the sol-gel coating is in the form of a continuous film having a thickness of at least 10 μm. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Some email client applications allow users to define and set rules for managing their inbox. For example, rules can be set so that certain email messages are moved to a particular folder, deleted, flagged, or redirected, based on set criteria. Other example rules include sending an automatic reply to the sender, and sending window or sound notifications to the user when messages arrive that match the set criteria. These rules are useful tools for managing email inboxes, especially when a user is on vacation or on leave.
When a user goes on an extended leave of absence, the user can define and activate rules to help manage his/her inbox while the user is away. However, if the leave is unexpected, the user may not have these rules activated prior to commencing the leave. Email messages to the user's inbox would thus not be managed while the user is away. For example, message senders may not be notified of the user's absence if no Out of Office message rule has been activated; the user's allotted storage on the email server database may become full before the user returns, preventing further messages from reaching the user; and messages with virus content will sit in the email server database until opened or deleted. When the user returns and accessed his/her inbox, the user would be required to spend a considerable amount of time reviewing and organizing messages. The failure to activate the user rules for his/her email inbox thus results in stress on the email servers and the user upon his/her return. | {
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The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly, to a flash memory device having reliable initialization data and a method of providing the same.
Semiconductor memory devices are largely classified into volatile semiconductor memory devices and non-volatile semiconductor memory devices. The volatile semiconductor memory devices are characterized by fast reading and writing speeds, but stored contents disappear when no external power is applied. On the other hand, the non-volatile semiconductor memory devices retain stored contents even when no power is applied. Therefore, the non-volatile semiconductor memory devices are used to store vital contents, which must remain regardless of power supply. Examples of the non-volatile semiconductor memory devices include a mask read-only memory (MROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), and an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM).
Since erase and write operations are relatively complicated in MROM, PROM and EPROM, typical users may not be able to update memory contents. In comparison, erase and write operations can be performed electrically in EEPROM, which is therefore used extensively for system programming or auxiliary memory devices, which require continuous updating. A flash EEPROM, in particular, has a higher degree of integration as compared to a typical EEPROM, and is therefore used in high-capacity auxiliary memory devices. With respect to flash EEPROMs, a NAND-type flash EEPROM (hereinafter referred to as a NAND flash memory) has a higher degree of integration, as compared to other types of flash EEPROM.
A typical memory device is an integrated circuit that stores information and reads the stored information, when necessary. A flash memory device includes multiple rewritable memory cells, each of which stores one-bit data or multi-bit data. The flash memory device can improve functionality through its high degree of integration, high capacity storage and an increase of chip size. As a result, circuit line widths decrease proportionately, and manufacturing steps and associated complexity tend to increase, causing a reduction in a yield of chips.
In response to such limitations, a semiconductor memory device may include a redundancy memory cell to replace defective memory cells. Additionally, the semiconductor memory device may include various means to switch an address of a defective cell to that of a redundancy memory cell. When detecting defective memory cells during a test, for example, an address of a defective cell may be changed to that of a redundancy cell through a series of processes for cutting a fuse in a fuse box. Accordingly, even if there is a defective cell in one chip, it can be replaced with non-defective cell(s), thereby increasing yield. However, there are technologies for storing an address of a defective cell on a non-volatile memory not on a fuse program, and reading the cell while powering-up, in order to perform a repair operation.
Exemplary redundancy circuits are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,118,712, entitled “REDUNDANCY FUSE BOXES AND REDUNDANCY REPAIR STRUCTURES FOR SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES” (issued Sep. 12, 2000), and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,850,450, entitled “FUSE BOX INCLUDING MAKE-LINK AND REDUNDANT ADDRESS DECODER HAVING THE SAME, AND METHOD FOR REPAIRING DEFECTIVE MEMORY CELL” (issued Feb. 1, 2005), the respective subject matter of which are incorporated herein by reference.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a typical flash memory device switching a row or column address of a defective cell into row redundancy or column redundancy. When a power-up detector 160 detects power input, a repair address stored in a memory cell is read and provided to a repair controller 150. The repair controller 150 stores the repair address on a register. The repair controller 150 compares an address input during a normal program or read operation with the repair address. When the input address is the same as the repair addresses, the repair controller 150 controls a column selector 140 or a row decoder 120 to switch the input address to the row redundancy or the column redundancy.
As described above, in a typical flash memory device, the reading and storing of a repair address are performed during a power-up operation interval right after power is applied. During the power-up operation interval, because the power supply of the flash memory device is not yet stabilized, operations of logic circuits determining or maintaining logic 0 or logic 1 are unstable. However, the flash memory device 100 reads a repair address from a cell array 110 during this time. The flash memory device needs a high voltage during a read operation, and if the high voltage is not sufficient, reliability of the read data is reduced. A page buffer 130, having multiple latch circuits, detects and latches data of a cell array when there is an unstable voltage supply state. Latch operations of logic 1 or logic 0 are not reliable during an unstable state. Furthermore, a progressive defect may exist in the cell array 110, regardless of power level. Due to the above limitations, the repair address read during the power-up operation interval may include an error, which deteriorates the operational reliability of the flash memory device.
According to the above incorporated references, there is no technology that provides a reliable repair address read during an unstable voltage supply state. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The search for minerals beneath the earth's surface often requires physical “samples” of the rock to be taken. Drill rigs are used to drill holes and retrieve the drilled material from the hole. This material is called a “drill sample”. The reverse circulation (RC) method of drilling is commonly used to drill and retrieve the sample, because it is relatively fast and produces good quality samples. RC uses large volumes of high pressure air to power the downhole drilling tool; the exhaust air then conveys the sample to the surface through inner tubes located within the drill rods. The sample then continues through a large hose to the drill sampling system.
Most drill sampling systems consist of a cyclone to slow down and separate the cuttings from the airstream, a drop box to collect the sample, and a sample splitter. A sample splitter is a device that is designed to consistently and accurately divide a bulk quantity of material into smaller portions that are truly representative of the bulk. In the case of drill sampling, it is usual to “split” the bulk material from a drilled interval into one or two small “laboratory samples” and the remainder as “waste”. The small samples are generally known as the ‘assay’ and ‘duplicate’ samples. These samples are usually required to be a consistent percentage (normally between 5 and 10%) of the bulk material and both of the same size.
There are various types of splitter used, but there is a tendency now toward “cone” splitters as being more accurate in this application. The cone splitter consists of a cone oriented with the point up. This would be enclosed in a body with an inlet or funnel at the top which is centrally located over, and just above, the point of the cone. Under the lower edge of the cone are one or more radial “cutters” or chutes. The bulk material to be split falls through the inlet, over the point of the cone, and then flows in an even spread down the slope of the cone. The cutters or chutes under the lower edge of the cone will catch a portion of the bulk material and direct it away to be collected as the assay and/or duplicate. The remainder or ‘waste’ is usually directed into a bulk bag or wheelbarrow.
For a cone splitter to split correctly the sample must be distributed evenly around the circumference of the base of the cone where the cutters/chutes are. The cutters/chutes must also be of a correct segment shape and have knife ‘cutting’ edges. It follows that for an even distribution at the bottom of the cone, there must be an even or uniform distribution over the point of the cone. The cone must also be level and evenly formed. So for a cone splitter to work correctly, the bulk material must be distributed uniformly onto the point of the cone. To spread evenly over the cone the cuttings must be dropped through a circular inlet, positioned centrally over the point of the cone.
Ideally this inlet should be as small as possible to produce a slow and consistent flow and to funnel the cuttings over the cone (like an hour glass). When drilling dry material, the cuttings are slowed by the cyclone and collected in the drop box. Usually the complete interval is collected before being dropped as one onto the splitter. This fills the inlet, and the cuttings generally flow quite consistently onto the cone, producing an even spread and hence an accurate split.
An inlet that is too small will tend to block because of varying particle size and moisture content of the cuttings. Time taken to process each sample also becomes too long. These factors have dictated that the minimum practical inlet size for dry cuttings is approximately 120 mm. If water is encountered in the drilling process, or if water needs to be injected into the drilling air, the sample then becomes wet. When wet drilling, there often are huge rapid variations in the flow rate of cuttings into the cyclone. This is due to changing water flow rates in the formation, and also the dynamics of using compressed air to power downhole hammers and lift the cuttings. Flow can vary from little or nothing for the majority of the drilled interval, to a large rush of cuttings at the end of the interval when the hammer is ‘lifted off bottom’. Even with average water flows, the volume of sample and water can often exceed the capacity of the drop box. For this reason the drop box door usually has to remain open, allowing the cuttings to flow directly from the cyclone, through the drop box, and into the splitter.
This changing flow rate produces uncontrolled streams into the splitter that often favour or bias one side of the cone. This bias can produce large variations in sample size and accuracy. For example, if all the flow is down one side of the cone, directly above a cutter, then there will be a vastly oversize sample from that cutter, whilst the other cutter may well produce an undersize sample. Wet sample will flow through a much smaller hole, but again variations in flow rates and changes from dry/wet/dry sampling make it impractical to reduce inlet size.
Rotating type cone splitters have been developed to try and counteract this bias. These either rotate the cone and cutters and redirect the sample through a convoluted system of funnels and chutes to the collection bags, or they rotate the entire collection system under the cone. Rotary cone splitters assume that there is a biased flow over the cone, and attempt to pass the cutters through that flow wherever that flow may be around the base of the cone. Doing this many times per sample interval should produce a reasonably representative sample, but in practice this does not always happen.
Accepted sampling practice dictates cutter speed through the sample stream to be no more than 500 mm/sec, which translates to only about 20-25 rpm for current size cone splitters. Current rotary type cone splitters or rotary distributors on the market rotate at about than 50-60 rpm, which is beyond accepted speeds and introduces delimitation errors with the sample.
In wet drilling of a softer formation it often occurs that almost the entire sample comes into the system within a few seconds as the hammer is ‘lifted off bottom’ at the end of the interval. This is a normal result during drilling and little can be done to modify it. As there is currently no way of throttling the flow of wet sample and distributing it over the cone, it often occurs that the entire sample can pass over the cone within a few seconds. This flow is also often heavily biased to one or more areas of the cone. Even at the higher than recommended rotating speeds, the rotating cutters or collectors are only passing any given part of the cone at a rate of no more than once per second each, so they may only take a few small increments of the entire sample.
A drilled sample generally comes into the splitter in the order or sequence that it is drilled, and hence falls over the splitter in the same sequence that it occurs in situ. If the formation being drilled is very stratified, then it is probable that much of the interval will effectively not be sampled, as there will only be a few increments taken. So it is accepted that the flow of wet sample over a cone is often biased and therefore produces inconsistent and biased samples. Corrections need to be made to produce a more representative sample.
Prior art attempts to address this problem have done so in several ways:
1. Rotate the collection points beneath a stationary cone; or
2. Rotate the cone and sample cutters, and direct the sample to fixed collection funnels.
3. Channel the sample to the cutters through a rotating chute or funnel (as with the Progradex “Andis” sampler).
From a theoretical sampling point of view, rotating cutters, whilst not perfect are a fairly accurate way to take a representative sample, but this also assumes a relatively homogeneous sample stream and a relatively steady and slow flow rate. Neither of these occurs reliably in practice. All the above methods take an increment of sample each revolution, but as described above, there can often be only a few increments taken throughout each interval. This is due to physical limitations on the rotation speed of the funnel, the cone or the cutters and sample extraction errors incurred with higher cutter speed. At higher rotational speeds, centrifugal forces also begin to have a major detrimental effect on the flow and distribution of the sample.
Until now there has been little or no control over the way the cuttings are distributed as they enter the splitter. The present invention was developed with a view to providing a drill sample distributor for more uniformly distributing the particles of a drill sample at the inlet of a cone splitter. This means that a stationary cone can be used and there are none of the inherent constraints and limitations of prior rotary cone splitters or distributors. However it will be appreciated that the particle distributor may have other applications where particles are required to be distributed more uniformly.
References to prior art documents in this specification are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not to be taken as an admission that such prior art is part of the common general knowledge in Australia or elsewhere. | {
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Conventional high efficiency feed horns are very useful as elements in phased array antenna and also as feed elements in a multi-beam reflector, in satellite communication systems. A multiple beam reflector has several feed elements that are used for receiving and transmitting multiple beams. Feed horn size is restricted because of the number of feed elements and required beam spacing. A phased array antenna with high efficiency feed horn elements requires 20% less elements, for a desired gain requirement, than that of corrugated feed horns or potter horns that usually have aperture efficiencies of about 70%. The reduction in feed horn elements reduces manufacturing costs, size, and weight of the phased array antenna.
A low efficiency feed horn yields less amplitude taper to a reflector edge for a given feed horn aperture size, which causes high side lobes and spill over loss. High side lobes are not desirable as they cause signal interference between beams. A conventional high efficiency feed horn minimizes spillover loss and interference problems due to its improved edge taper.
Corrugated horns have a disadvantage of a rim, which reduces usable aperture in cases where horn size is limited as with multi-beam antenna. The traditional corrugated horns are therefore not suitable for multi-beam antenna. Antenna packaging is a large driver in designing of multi-spot beam antennas.
Although the high efficiency horns are useful for many applications, they suffer from a limited bandwidth problem. The bandwidth of such feed horns is generally less than 10%. Therefore, separate transmit and receive antennas are required which take up more space and increase costs. Two different phased arrays are used in a phased array antenna, one for a transmitting band and one for a receiving band.
Since feed horn bandwidth decreases as aperture size increases, traditional reflector antennas must limit the horn size. This forces the main reflector aperture to be large in order to minimize spillover loss. Also, large focal lengths are needed to improve scanning performance, which further drives the reflector size to be large.
The above-described problems associated with traditional feed horns result in a trade-off between generally three alternatives; using two single band feed horns, using a dual band feed horn that is large in size relative to single band feed horns, or using a smaller sized dual band feed horn that suffers from interference problems and large spillover loss, which results in poor efficiency.
Additionally, all of the above mentioned feed horns also propagate both transverse electric (TE) modes and transverse magnetic (TM) modes. The propagation of both TE and TM modes further reduces the efficiency of a feed horn.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an improved feed horn design that supports dual bands, is smaller in size relative to conventional dual band feed horns, and operates at efficiency levels at least as high as that of conventional high efficiency feed horns with good cross-polarization level. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image sensor, and more specifically, to a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor and manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an image sensor, as a kind of semiconductor device, transforms optical images into electrical signals. Image sensors can be generally classified into charge coupled devices (CCDs) and CMOS image sensors.
A CCD comprises a plurality of photo diodes arranged in the form of matrix to transforms optical signals into electrical signals, a plurality of vertical charge coupled devices (VCCDs) formed between the photo diodes to transmit charges generated in each photo diode in a vertical direction, a plurality of horizontal charge coupled devices (HCCDs) for transmitting charges transmitted from each VCCDs in a horizontal direction, and a sense amplifier for sensing charges transmitted in the horizontal direction to output electrical signals.
It has been generally known that CCDs have complicated operational mechanisms and high power consumption. In addition, its manufacturing method is relatively complicated, because multiple photolithographic steps are required in its fabrication. Especially, it is difficult to integrate a CCD with other devices such as control circuits, signal processing circuits, analog/digital converters. etc., in a single chip. Such disadvantages of CCD hinder miniaturization of products.
In order to overcome the above described disadvantages of CCDs, CMOS image sensors have been recently developed as the oncoming generation of image sensor. A CMOS image sensor generally comprises MOS transistors formed in a semiconductor substrate by CMOS fabrication technologies. In a CMOS image sensor, the MOS transistors are formed relative to the number of unit pixels, along with peripheral circuits such as control circuits, signal processing circuits, and the like. CMOS image sensors employ a switching mode that MOS transistors successively detect the output of each pixel.
More specifically, CMOS image sensors comprise a photo diode and a number of MOS transistors in each pixel, thereby successively detecting electrical signals of each pixel in a switching mode to express a given image.
The CMOS image sensor has advantages such as low power consumption and relatively simple fabrication process. In addition, CMOS image sensors can be integrated with control circuits, signal processing circuits, analog/digital converter, etc.. because CMOS manufacturing technologies are used, which enables miniaturization of products.
CMOS image sensors have been widely used in a variety of applications such as digital still cameras, digital video cameras, cellular phones, and the like.
Meanwhile, CMOS image sensors can also be classified into 3T, 4T, 5T types, etc., according to the number of transistors per unit pixel. The 3T type of CMOS image sensor comprises one photo diode and three transistors per unit pixel, and the 4T type comprises one photo diode and four transistors per Unit pixel. Here, a layout of unit pixel in a 4T type of CMOS image sensor is configured as follows.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of a conventional 4T type of CMOS image sensor. FIG. 2 is a layout of unit pixel in the conventional 4T type of CMOS image sensor.
As shown in FIG. 1, each unit pixel 100 of the conventional CMOS image sensor comprises a photo diode 10 functioning as a photoelectric transformer, and four transistors including a transfer transistor 20, a reset transistor 30, a driver transistor 40, and a select transistor 50. In addition, the output terminal (referred to as “OUT”) of the each unit pixel 100 is electrically connected to a load transistor 60.
In FIG. 1, the reference symbol “FD” represents a floating diffusion region, “Tx” represents a gate voltage of the transfer transistor 20, “Rx” represents a gate voltage of the reset transistor 30, “Dx” represents a gate voltage of the driver transistor 40, and finally “Sx” represents a gate voltage of the select transistor 50.
As shown in FIG. 2, in the conventional CMOS image sensor, an active region is defined in a portion of each unit pixel, and an isolation layer is formed in the remaining portion of each unit pixel except for the active region. One photo diode PD is formed in a large portion of the defined active region, and gate electrodes 23, 33, 43, and 53 of four transistors are respectively formed to overlap with other portion(s) of the active region.
The gate electrode 23 constitutes part of the transfer transistor 20. The gate electrode 33 constitutes part of the reset transistor 30. The gate electrode 43 constitutes part of the driver transistor 40. And, the gate electrode 53 constitutes part of the select transistor 50.
Here, dopant ions are implanted in the active region where each transistor is formed, except for the portion of active region below each gate electrodes 23, 33, 43, and 53, to form source and drain regions of each transistor.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a CMOS image sensor manufactured according a conventional method.
As shown in FIG. 3, a P− type epitaxial layer 101 is formed on a P++ type semiconductor substrate 100 in which an active region (including a photo diode region and a transistor region) and an isolation region are defined. In addition, a field oxide layer 102 is formed in the isolation region of the substrate 100 for isolation of green, red, and blue light absorption regions. Moreover, an N− type diffusion region 103 is formed in the photo diode region of the substrate 100.
In addition, gate electrodes 105 are formed on the transistor region of the substrate 100, and gate insulating layers 104 are interposed between the substrate 100 and the gate electrodes 105. Insulating sidewalls 106 are formed on sides of each gate electrode 105. Moreover, a diffusion blocking layer 108 is formed over the entire surface of the substrate 100, covering the gate electrodes 105. An interlevel dielectric layer 109 is formed on the diffusion blocking layer 108. And, various metallization layers or wirings 110 are formed and spaced on the interlevel dielectric layer 109.
In addition, a first planarization layer 111 is formed over the entire surface of the substrate 100, covering the metallization wirings 110. Furthermore, red (R), green (Cs), and blue (B) color filter layers 112 are formed on the first planarization layer 111, respectively corresponding to each N− type diffusion region 103.
Then, a second planarization layer 113 is formed over the entire surface of the substrate 100, covering the color filter layers 112. Plural microlenses 114 are formed on the second planarization layer 113, respectively corresponding to each color filter layer 112. Here, the reference numeral “107” represents source/drain diffusion regions of each transistor.
FIG. 4a is a graph illustrating changes of absorption coefficient and penetration depth according to the wavelength of incident light, and FIG. 4b is a graph illustrating a percentage of the penetration depth to the wavelength of light incident to a photo diode region in a conventional CMOS image sensor.
As shown in FIG. 4a, red light penetrates up to 10 μm, deeper than light of other colors. In general, in the case of a RGB system, it is difficult to reproduce all colors of light in uniform proportions (i.e., 1:1:1). As a result, in color-reproduction, a CMOS image sensor rarely has an ideal proportion of 1:1:1, so that color-reproducibility characteristics are less than ideal.
In addition, as shown in FIG. 4b, the penetration region of red light having a wavelength of about 700 nm reaches up to 4000 Ř15000 Å below a surface of a semiconductor substrate, while the penetration region of blue or green light mainly reaches to 4000 Å or less. In other words, when comparing the amounts of penetrated light detected by the conventional CMOS image sensor, red light represents 60% or more of the penetrated/detected light, green light represents about 20%˜40% of the penetrated/detected light, and blue light represents about 20% or less of the penetrated/detected light.
Especially, in the above-described conventional CMOS image sensor, a diffusion blocking layer 108 of a nitride material is formed before forming the interlevel dielectric layer 109, and the nitride layer can reduce the dynamic range of the photo diode region as the CMOS image sensor is scaled down (e.g., as the size/area of tile photo diode region decreases). Accordingly, it is more difficult to reproduce all colors in an ideal proportion, because of the relatively low transmittance of other color lights, especially, blue color light. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to digital cameras employed with a computer using an interface for transferring digital images captured by the digital cameras and particularly to employing a digital camera with a computer without the use of a card reader.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, the use of digital cameras has become more prevalent as a consumer product. Whereas previously, digital cameras were used almost exclusively by professional photographers and perceived by the public-at-large as exotic devices, nowadays, digital cameras are used by amateur photographers and seen in many households.
The rising popularity of the digital cameras is due to a number of factors. First, the quality of pictures taken by low price cameras has improved considerably. Second, printers with higher resolution and greater quality have been introduced to the market at increasingly more affordable prices.
However, there has not been a comparative success in the area of connectivity between the digital camera and a computer (personal computer (PC) or Macintosh). Pictures taken by a digital camera, being in digital format, must be transported in some manner from the removable storage media of the camera to the storage media of the computer. Inside of the computer, the pictures may be viewed, edited and ultimately transferred to a printer for printing. Therefore, the need arises to establish communication between the digital camera and the computer without the use of a card reader device or extra circuitry within the digital camera, in the form of a USB port built into the storage media, in order to transport data therebetween while reducing costs associated with establishing such communication.
Inside of the computer, the pictures may be viewed, edited and ultimately sent to a printer for re-production. Thus, there needs to be a transport mechanism, which can establish communication with both the digital camera and the computer in order to transport data therebetween.
At present, there are several different methods of connecting the digital camera to a computer. FIG. 1 illustrates one such mode of connectivity wherein a digital camera 12 is shown to be connected to a desktop computer 19 through a transmission cable 18. Also shown in FIG. 1 are a Personal Computer/Compact FLASH (PC/CF) card 16 as well as a serial or universal serial bus (USB) port 14. Transmission cable 18 connects the serial or the USB port 14 of the digital camera to the serial or USB port of the computer 19.
The pictures taken by the digital camera 12 are stored into the PC/CF card 16 and subsequently transmitted from the serial or the USB port 14 of the camera 12, through the serial or the USB port of the computer 19 and the transmission cable 18, to the computer 19. The main limitation of the type of connection shown in FIG. 1 is that the camera has to stay on while data is being transferred. Thus, not only the camera cannot be used while data is being transferred but the battery of the camera is being drained during the entire transmission process. Another limitation of the method of data transmission shown in FIG. 1 is the additional cost of the digital camera due to the circuitry and software associated with the implementation of the serial or USB port 14. The additional cost may make the camera 12 more expensive than that which is within the reach of the average consumer.
An alternative method of transferring the digital data from a digital camera storage media to a computer is shown in FIG. 2(a). Therein is shown a PC/CF card 28, a card reader 20, a transmission cable 25 and a computer 29. The card reader 20 comprises a housing 24 for the PC/CF card 28 as well as the USB controller circuitry 26 and the USB port 27. The transmission cable 25 connects the USB port 27 of the card reader 20 to the USB port 22 of the computer 29.
The card reader 20 provides a bridge between the computer 29 and the PC/CF card 28. The latter is inserted into the digital camera (not shown in FIG. 2(a)) and stores digital images, enabling it to transfer data between the computer 29 and the camera. The PC/CF card 28 establishes connection with the card reader housing 24 through the PC/CF interface 23. The card reader 20 communicates with the computer 29 through the USB controller circuitry 26.
There are disadvantages associated with employing the card reader 20 in FIG. 2(a) such as the substantial cost associated therewith. In addition, since the card reader 20 acts like a bridge between the USB bus 22 on the one hand and the PC/CF bus 23 on the other hand, it does not utilize either of the busses fully. Neither can the card reader 20 optimize the interface between the computer 29 and the PC/CF card 28 because of its lack of direct communication with the internal circuitry of the storage media of either of the two devices. Finally, the card reader 20 has the disadvantage of duplicating logic in circuitry 26 since it must have a PC/CF interface as well as a USB interface in order to establish communication between the PC/CF card 28 and computer 29. The PC/CF card 28 also includes the PC/CF interface 23, as shown in FIG. 2(a).
Another limitation of the prior art systems employing card readers is illustrated in FIG. 2(b) wherein a computer screen is depicted with icon 31 indicating that a removable disk F is connected to the computer. However, icon 31 is displayed as soon as the card reader is connected to the computer regardless of whether there is any PC/CF card in the card reader or not. Therefore, it is misleading to the user as to whether or not the PC/CF card is actually connected to the computer by that which is displayed by the icon 31.
Thus, the need arises for coupling a digital camera's storage media to a PC by avoiding the need for an intermediary interface, such as a card reader, thereby reducing costs, avoiding duplicate circuitry and allowing for a direct connection between a PC/CF card and the PC and thereby allowing for efficient utilization of the interface busses used for connecting the PC/CF card to the PC. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to cartridge or disc operated computer and entertainment systems, and more particularly, to systems of such type that have deterrent devices for preventing unauthorized use thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many computer game and entertainment systems, such as the presently popular system sold under the name NINTENDO, are operated for countless hours by children, to the extent that their time for studies and household chores can be adversely affected. While parents may impose limitations on the period of use of such entertainment systems, these limitations can be easily forgotten or ignored. Likewise, parents frequently desire to prevent operation of videocassette players, particularly during their absence, so as to avoid the use of videocassettes which may be unsuitable for children's viewing, or again, simply to prevent the unlimited use of the entertainment system. While various types of deterrent devices have been proposed for preventing unauthorized use of such entertainment systems, these prior devices typically have been relatively complicated and difficult to use, or must be incorporated into the original design of the entertainment system so as not to be easily applicable to existing systems.
In addition, users of such computer game and entertainment systems, and particularly children, frequently inadvertently leave the access door to the system in an open position during periods of non-use. With the access door left open, dust and other foreign matter may accumulate about the cartridge or disc receiving opening of the system, which may lead to possible contamination and malfunctioning of the operating mechanisms of the system.
3. Objects and Summary of the Invention
It is an object of the present invention to provide the cartridge or disc operated entertainment system with relatively simple and inexpensive deterrent means for preventing unauthorized use of the system.
Another object is to provide a deterrent device that is particularly adapted for preventing unauthorized use of NINTENDO entertainment systems.
A further object is to provide a cartridge or disc operated entertainment system with shielding means for protecting the disc or cartridge receiving access opening of the system from dust or other foreign matter in the event the access door to the system is left open for extended periods of time.
Still another object is to provide a deterrent device and shielding means as characterized above which are adaptable for use with existing entertainment systems.
Yet another object is to provide a deterrent device of the foregoing type that is operable for preventing unauthorized use of the entertainment system and for locking the access door thereof in a closed position for protecting the access opening of the system from dust and foreign matter during periods of non-use.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings, in which: | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a flash device, and more particularly, to a flash device capable of determining empty pages.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, flash memories have been made to have the characteristics of data non-volatility, low power consumption, a compact size, and a non-mechanical structure. Hence, flash memories have been applied in various electronic devices, especially portable electronic devices.
A flash memory comprises a plurality of blocks, and each block comprises a plurality of pages for data storage. When the flash memory receives a write command from a controller, the flash memory writes data to pages of the blocks thereof according to the received write command. When the flash memory receives a read command from the controller, the flash memory reads data from pages of the blocks thereof according to the received read command, and then sends read-out data back to the controller.
In a flash memory, a searching page operation is usually used to find the last one valid page during a flash translation layer initialization process. Therefore, how to quick and accurately determine whether the last one valid page is an empty one, will affect the initialization time. If a determination cannot be made, the flash device will re-read the flash memory. Thus, the initialization time is increased.
Therefore, an operation method of a flash memory is desirable, to quickly determine whether a page is an empty page. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In general, display devices which can be applied to mobile communication terminals called smartphones or tablet computers can be operated by bringing a means for inputting data, such as a stylus or fingers, into contact with a display surface which displays an image. These display devices include in-cell display devices in which a touch detection function is partially or entirely incorporated into a display panel, and on-cell display devices in which a sensor having a touch detection function is provided on the display surface of a display panel.
As the above in-cell display device having a touch detection function, the following structure is known. Sensor electrodes formed of a transparent conductive film such as indium tin oxide (ITO) or indium zinc oxide (IZO) are provided in matrix in the display area which displays an image. A detection circuit is provided so as to correspond to each sensor electrode. Further, the sensor electrodes are connected to the detection circuits by thin metal lines.
However, the conventional display devices having a touch detection function require the same number of detection circuits as the number of sensor electrodes. Thus, it is difficult to respond to increase in the number of sensor electrodes caused by improvement of detection performance or by increase in the size of the display panel. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device having a thin film transistor formed using a crystalline semiconductor film of high crystallinity. The present invention also relates to a crystallizing method for manufacturing thereof.
2. Related Art
Recently, a research has been advanced concerning a sophisticated semiconductor device using a thin film transistor. Particularly in the semiconductor device requiring rapidity and high functionality, it is necessary to obtain the thin film transistor (hereinafter also referred to as TFT) having high mobility.
In order to enhance the crystallinity of the semiconductor film, the crystallization is performed to form a crystalline semiconductor film in such a way that a metal element for promoting the crystallization typified by nickel element (Ni) is added, formed, or coated to the semiconductor film, and then a heat treatment is performed thereto (for example, refer to patent document 1).
When the metal element for promoting the crystallization typified by Ni is used in a such crystallizing step, it is possible to obtain the crystalline semiconductor film having a large grain size and to obtain the crystalline semiconductor film in which the grain boundaries are likely to unite, thereby having fewer defects in the grain.
In addition, as the different crystallizing method from the heat treatment, a crystallizing method by a laser irradiation has been studied. The crystallization by the laser irradiation is conventionally performed in such a way that an ultraviolet beam is irradiated in a pulse oscillation to an amorphous or poly-crystalline silicon layer to form a silicon thin film including a group of silicon single crystal grains (refer to patent document 2, for example). In the laser crystallization according to the patent document 2, the travel distance of a rectangular ultraviolet beam between the position where it ends to be irradiated and the position where it begins to be irradiated next is set to 40 μm or less and the proportion of the travel distance with respect to the width of the ultraviolet beam measured along the moving direction is set in the range of 0.1 to 5%. The patent document 2 discloses that the silicon single crystal grain to be obtained has the preferred orientation approximately <100> to the surface of the base substance.
It is reported that when the polarized laser light is used in the crystallization, a ridge is formed in the direction perpendicular to the direction of polarization by optimizing the condition at the laser irradiation (refer to non-patent document 1). The non-patent document 1 describes that the interval between the ridges depends on the wavelength and the irradiation angle of the laser light, which is expressed with λ/(1±sin θ) in p-polarized laser light where λ is the wavelength of the laser light and θ is the irradiation angle of the laser light.
The non-patent document 1 discloses in FIG. 2A that the first irradiation of the linear pulsed laser forms a linear ridge. Moreover, the non-patent document 1 discloses in FIG. 2B that the second irradiation of the linear pulsed laser light at an angle 90° with respect to the direction of the first laser irradiation forms a grid pattern of the ridge.
The non-patent document 1 reports an experiment where an amorphous silicon film formed over a glass substrate is irradiated with a pulsed Nd: YAG laser in a film-forming chamber of ultra high vacuum in which the temperature is set to be the same as that of the substrate, which is 350° C.
[Patent Document 1]
Unexamined Patent Publication H7-161634 bulletin
[Patent Document 2]
Unexamined Patent Publication H10-41234 bulletin
[Non-Patent Literature 1]
“AM-LCD 2000”, p. 265-268 written by Y. Nakata, A. Shimoyama, and S. Horita,
In the crystallizing method according to patent document 1, many aggregations of pillar crystals (each aggregation is also referred to as a domain) having a large size from 200 to 300 μm are formed. The crystals in one domain have the same crystal orientation. However, the orientation is different in the adjacent domains, and they have a boundary therebetween. When a TFT is manufactured by forming a channel-forming region within one domain, high electrical characteristic can be obtained.
However, the domain is formed at random and it is difficult to form the channel-forming region within one domain. Therefore, it becomes difficult to form all the channel-forming regions which are arranged in a pixel portion and a driver circuit portion respectively within one domain.
As a result, although there is an advantage of high mobility when such a crystalline semiconductor film is used as an active layer of TFT (an island-shaped semiconductor film including a channel-forming region and an impurity region), there is a risk of a small difference, which is the variation, in the characteristic between respective TFTs due to the absence or presence of the boundary between the adjacent domains (the domains having the different orientation) in the channel-forming region or due to the difference of the size of the domain to be formed.
The variation in the electrical characteristic of TFT arranged in the pixel portion or the driver circuit portion causes the variation in the current and the voltage applied to each pixel electrode, which becomes the display unevenness that is visible for the observer.
At present, this variation is acceptable and it does not lead to any problems. In the future, however, when the pixel size is miniaturized further and the more precise image is demanded, this variation is considered to become a serious problem. In the future, as the width of the gate wiring becomes narrower, the size of the channel-forming region (channel width) becomes smaller. Therefore, there is a risk that a TFT having a boundary between the domains in the channel-forming region is formed. The characteristic of such a TFT (mobility, S-value, on-current, off-current, and the like) varies compared with that of TFT having a channel-forming region with no boundaries, and therefore this variation is considered to cause the display unevenness.
According to crystallizing method disclosed in the patent document 2, the travel distance of a rectangular ultraviolet beam between the position where it ends to be irradiated and the position where it begins to be irradiated next is set to 40 μm or less, and the proportion of the travel distance with respect to the width of the ultraviolet beam measured along the moving direction is set in the range of 0.1 to 5%. In the embodiment 1 of the patent document 2, any point in the amorphous silicon layer is irradiated with the pulsed ultraviolet laser 100 times.
Since the laser is irradiated to the silicon layer many times, for example 100 times, in such a crystallizing method, the processing takes much time.
In particular, when the crystalline semiconductor film formed by controlling the orientation with the use of a metal such as Ni is irradiated with the laser many times, it is impossible to maintain its orientation. In other words, when the laser light is irradiated many times as shown in the conditions described in the patent document 2 after forming the crystalline semiconductor film with the orientation controlled using the metal element as shown in the patent document 1, it is impossible to maintain the crystalline semiconductor film with the orientation controlled.
In addition, as shown in the non-patent document 1, the ridge forms a grid pattern only when the second laser irradiation is performed at an angle 90° with respect to the direction of the first laser irradiation under the conditions where the Nd: YAG laser is irradiated in a vacuum film-forming chamber with the substrate temperature set to 350° C. Therefore, in such a method, the laser irradiation takes much time. This means it takes much time to manufacture a semiconductor device or a thin film transistor, and therefore this method is unsuitable for mass production. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The invention relates in general to coordinate measurement machines (CMMs) and in particular to method and system for providing an executable program to a controller for use in coordinate measuring system.
The manufacturing/industrial marketplace took on a new face during the 1980""s with the introduction of computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). While CAD allowed engineers to produce 3-D images in the front end of the design process, which shortened the production cycle and led to tremendous gains in productivity, CAM software and equipment increased the efficiency and quality of machined single parts. In essence, these new technologies revolutionized the marketplace by increasing productivity, improving quality and reducing costs.
Despite these technological advances in design and manufacturing, something important was missing from the production cycle: a highly accurate, efficient, and convenient measurement methodology for ensuring that the products and componentsxe2x80x94both on and off the production linexe2x80x94met the original CAD specifications. The design process, with the help of CAD, had become innovative and sophisticated; so too, had the machining process through CAM. Yet measuring the assemblies made of these parts against the CAD model, for the most part, has continued to remain unwieldy, expensive and unreliable. Traditionally, the measurement and quality inspection function in the manufacturing process has been time-consuming and limited in size, scope, and effectiveness for a number of reasons. Manual measurement tools, such as calipers and scales may be slow, imprecise, and always one-dimensional. Analog test fixtures are costly and inflexible. Standard, non-portable coordinate measurement machines (CMM), while providing a high degree of precision, are generally located in quality control labs or inspection departments at a distance from the manufacturing floor. Parts must be removed one at a time and transported to the lab for inspection. As a result, these CMMs measure only small, readily-moved subassemblies and componentsxe2x80x94which often translates into significant xe2x80x9cdown timexe2x80x9d for the production line. In essence, traditional measurement techniquesxe2x80x94also known as metrologyxe2x80x94have lagged far behind in the technological advance of the production process.
The CAD/CAM and metrology markets, as well as a worldwide emphasis on quality in all aspects of the manufacturing process, are driving the need for an extension of the CAD/CAM techniques which is referred to as computer-aided manufacturing measurement. Computer-aided manufacturing measurement is CAD-based total quality assurance technology. This last phase of the CAD revolution has remained incomplete because of the significant technical demands for adaptive measurement hardware and usable CAD-based measurement software for the difficult manufacturing environment. Computer-aided manufacturing measurement takes conventional metrology from a single-parts-only, high-level precision testing methodologyxe2x80x94behind the door of the quality control labxe2x80x94to a whole products, intermediate-level precision measurement system at every step of the manufacturing processxe2x80x94at any location on the factory floor. Measurements of part dimensions and/or characteristics may be made on the production floor to determine compliance with specifications and ensure quality.
FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of a conventional, portable CMM 10 comprised of a manually operated multi-jointed arm 12 and a support base or post 14, a serial box 16 and a host computer 18. It will be appreciated that arm 12 electronically communicates with serial box 16 which, in turn, electronically communicates with host computer 18. Additional detail of the conventional three-dimensional measuring system can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,582, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
An improvement to the three dimensional coordinate measuring system of FIG. 1 is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,748, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. This patent discloses a system in which a controller is mounted to the arm and runs an executable program which directs the user through a process such as an inspection procedure. In such a system, a host computer may be used to generate the executable program. The controller mounted to the arm is used to run the executable program but cannot be used to create executable programs or modify executable programs. By way of analogy to video gaming systems, the host computer serves as the platform for writing or modifying a video game and the arm mounted controller serves as the platform for playing a video game. The controller (e.g., player) cannot modify the executable program. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,748, this results in a lower cost three dimensional coordinate measurement system by eliminating the need for a host computer for each articulated arm. There is a need, however, for a method and system for delivering executable programs to users of coordinate measurement systems. Such a method and system would render the coordinate measurement system more versatile and readily adaptable to computer-aided manufacturing measurement.
An exemplary embodiment of the invention is a method of providing an executable program from an executable program provider to a customer for use in a controller of a three dimensional coordinate measurement system. The method includes receiving a request to create an executable program from a customer and obtaining information related to the executable program. The executable program is developed which guides an operator through a number of measurement steps to be performed with the three dimensional coordinate measuring system. The executable program is delivered to the customer.
The above-discussed and other features and advantages of the present invention will be appreciated and understood by those skilled in the art from the following detailed description and drawings. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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High efficiency double heterostructure bipolar transistor devices are frequently made with the junctions clad by thin graded quaternary regions. In this structure the junctions are buried for improved device reliability. In the manufacture of these devices, the multilayer stack is first grown, then electrical contacts to the buried base and collector are made by forming mesas to give physical access to the base and collector layers. The contact to the base emitter junction is formed by diffusion of the contact metal through the thin graded quaternary layer between the base and emitter layers. Because the diffusion process is subject to so many variables, low resistance contacts to the base are difficult to form without punch through to the collector layer. Efforts to avoid punch through to the collector may result in too shallow diffusion of the metal contact material, with a resultant high resistance or non-ohmic contact. Therefore control of the diffusion depth of the metal contact layer is critical. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness, affecting at least 300,000 Canadians, and over 67,000,000 people worldwide. Retinal Ganglion cell (RGC) death is a major cause of visual impairment in optic neuropathies including glaucoma, AMD (Age Related Macular Degeneration), diabetic retinopathy, uveoretinitis and vitreo-retinopathy. Glaucoma is a disease in which the optic nerve and retinal ganglion cells are injured leading to peripheral vision loss and eventually blindness. Glaucoma is commonly characterized by an increase in intraocular pressure and is treated by ocular hypotensive drugs such as latanoprost. Despite the advent and therapeutic use of these drugs, vision loss as a result of RGC apoptosis and optic nerve atrophy continues, resulting in blindness.
Central nervous system (CNS) injury results in permanent functional loss due to the inability of adult CNS neurons to regenerate axons, and their susceptibility to programmed cell death (apoptosis). The unifying hallmark of visual diseases such as glaucoma and optic neuropathies is the death of Retinal Ganglion Cells (RGCs) of the eye. RGCs are CNS neurons that transmit visual information from the retina to the brain via the optic nerve. The optic nerve can be accessed within the orbit of the eye and completely cut (axotomized), transecting the axons of the entire RGC population. Optic nerve transection (FIG. 1) is a reproducible model of apoptotic neuronal cell death in the adult CNS (Bahr 2000; Koeberle and Bahr 2004; Magharious, D'Onofrio et al. 2011; Magharious, D'Onofrio et al. 2011). The optic nerve transection model is particularly attractive because the vitreous chamber of the eye acts as a capsule for drug delivery to the retina, permitting experimental manipulations. The diffusion of chemicals through the posterior chamber fluid ensures that they act upon the entire RGC population. Moreover, RGCs can be selectively transfected by applying short interfering RNAs (siRNAs), plasmids, or viral vectors to the cut end of the optic nerve (Garcia Valenzuela and Sharma 1998; Kugler, Klocker et al. 1999; Lingor, Koeberle et al. 2005; Koeberle and Schlichter 2010; Koeberle, Wang et al. 2010). This permits selective therapeutic targeting of RGCs without confounding effects on bystander neurons or surrounding glia. An additional benefit is the accuracy with which cell survival can be quantified after injury. The retina is a flat tissue and RGCs are located in the innermost layer, the ganglion cell layer. The survival of injured RGCs can be tracked by applying a fluorescent tracer (3% Fluorogold) to the cut end of the optic nerve at the time of axotomy, or by injecting the tracer into the superior colliculus (RGC target) one week prior to axotomy. Tracers applied by these methods are retrogradely transported back to the RGC cell bodies, labeling all of the RGCs in the retina. RGC survival is then quantified by fixing the eye, removing the retina, and flat-mounting the tissue (FIG. 2). In this preparation, the ganglion cell layer, which is a monolayer (one cell in thickness), is imaged in order to calculate the number of cells per unit area (cells/mm2) (FIG. 2). Optic nerve transection causes the apoptotic death of 90% of injured RGCs within 14 days postaxotomy (Villegas-Perez, Vidal-Sanz et al. 1988; Villegas-Perez, Vidal-Sanz et al. 1993; Berkelaar, Clarke et al. 1994; Peinado-Ramon, Salvador et al. 1996). RGC apoptosis has a characteristic time-course whereby cell death is delayed 3-4 days postaxotomy, after which the cells rapidly degenerate (FIG. 2). This provides a time window for experimental manipulations directed at developing therapeutics for CNS insults.
Stroke (ischemia) of the CNS can be studied via ophthalmic artery ligation. Ligature of the ophthalmic vessels (FIG. 3), without damaging the optic nerve, causes 50% RGC death within 14 days (Lafuente, Villegas-Perez et al. 2002). RGCs die by the process of apoptosis following axotomy, ischemia, and during the course of glaucoma (Berkelaar, Clarke et al. 1994; Quigley, Nickells et al. 1995; Bahr 2000; Lafuente, Villegas-Perez et al. 2002; Koeberle and Bahr 2004), hence these animal models provide a testing ground for therapeutics that can be directly applied in a clinical situation in order to prevent RGC death. Furthermore, the therapeutics developed via studies in these models are applicable to the treatment of insults in other regions of the CNS such as the brain or spinal cord, that include traumatic CNS injury, stroke, concussion, neurodegenerative diseases, and brain damage caused by tumours or surgical procedures. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tyre, preferably a winter tyre, which is provided with a tread band whose blocks are advantageously provided with sipes which are so designed as to improve the performance levels of the tyre on dry and wet surfaces without impairing the grip characteristics on snow-covered or icy surfaces.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a typical structural configuration thereof, a winter tyre comprises a tread band on which there are defined a plurality of grooves which have a circumferential and/or transverse extent and which define a corresponding plurality of blocks, on each of which, in turn, a plurality of sipes are formed. Typically, the sipes extend inside the block in a radial plane of reference which is substantially perpendicular to the tread surface of the tyre and their presence is one of the most evident characteristics which also distinguish at first sight a winter tyre from conventional summer tyres.
The function of the sipes is to provide additional gripping edges on the snow-covered surface and to retain therein a given quantity of snow which, as known, has greater friction with respect to the snow present on the road surface than that provided by the tread band itself.
However, the presence of the sipes in the blocks of the tread band consistently reduces the performance levels of the tyre if the road surface is not covered with snow, and is dry or wet.
It is considered that this decrease in the performance levels may be attributed to the fact that the various portions of the block separated by the sipes, which may benefit from relative freedom of mutual movement, particularly in the radial direction, are not able to provide sufficient resistance to the tangential loads (or “shear stress”) imparted to the tread band during acceleration phases, phases in bends or braking phases, with resultant deformation of the block and reduction of the contact surface with respect to the road surface.
In that sense, it is known that, under dry road surface conditions, the tyre configuration which has the best performance levels is the one which provides a tread band having a surface which is completely smooth so as to provide a greater contact surface with the ground and a greater rigidity when subjected to tangential loads, which are typical of phases involving acceleration, braking or travel round bends.
However, the provision of grooves in the tread band is found to be indispensable in the presence of a road surface which is wet because it allows rapid discharge of the water which may be present on the road surface, thereby preventing dangerous phenomena of aquaplaning with resultant lifting of the tyre.
A tyre which is suitable for travel under all conditions of a road surface mentioned above is therefore called for in order to balance the opposing requirements involving configuration so that the provision on the tread band of grooves and, on the blocks defined thereby, of sipes, is optimized in accordance with the required demands during use.
This need is further particularly apparent in those countries where the winters are characterized by sporadic or even occasional falls of snow. In that case, the use of winter tyres is advised with respect to summer tyres because the composition of polymer materials from which the tread band is constructed is more suitable for the harsh winter temperatures but a large part of the travel time is spent on roads which are not covered with snow but are instead simply dry or wet.
It should be specified that, in the present context, the term “sipe” is intended to refer to a recess which is formed in a portion of the tread band and which has a width of from 0.1 to 1.5 millimeters and a depth of between 1 and 15 millimeters whilst the term “groove” is intended to refer to a recess which is formed in a portion of the tread band and which has a width greater than 1.5 millimeters and a depth greater than 5 millimeters.
Furthermore, considering a sipe extending from the tread surface towards the interior of the tread band in a “plane of reference” which is incident with respect to the tread surface, the term “longitudinal direction” defines a direction of that plane substantially parallel with the tread surface and the term “transverse direction” defines a direction of that plane substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal direction. If the plane of reference extends in a direction substantially perpendicular to the tread surface, the transverse direction coincides with a radial direction of the tyre.
Furthermore, within the scope of the present description and the claims which are appended, the term “sipe of complex shape” is intended to refer to a sipe which extends in a plane of reference which is incident with respect to the tread surface and which defines, on the facing surfaces of the block portions, at least one protuberance which is formed on one of said surfaces and a corresponding recess which is formed in the other of said surfaces such that the respective projections of the two block portions which are separated by the sipe, in a transverse direction of the plane of reference, are, in the region of the protuberance and the corresponding recess, at least partially superimposed.
In that manner, a relative movement of the two block portions in a direction parallel with the plane of reference is prevented by interference between the two block portions in the region of the protuberance and recess.
Conversely, the term “sipe of simple shape” is intended to refer to a sipe whose extent in a plane of reference which is incident to the tread surface does not have any zones in which there is superimposition between the respective projections of the two block portions which are separated by the sipe in a transverse direction of the plane of reference.
Furthermore, it is intended to be understood that the distance between surfaces of respective block portions facing each other in the region of a sipe remains “substantially constant” over the extent of the sipe when the distance between said surfaces is within a range of more or less 50% of a mean value of the distance calculated over the entire extent of the sipe.
In the present description and in the subsequent claims, the inclinations of the connecting surfaces between a vertex of a protuberance or a recess and the plane of reference are further defined taking into consideration the triangle formed in a plane of section perpendicular to the plane of reference, parallel with the transverse direction and extending through the vertex of the protuberance or recess, and defined by the vertex of the protuberance or the recess and the intersection points between the curves defined by the intersection of the connecting surfaces with the plane of reference and the above-mentioned plane of section. In particular, considering the side belonging to the plane of reference to be the base of the triangle, the inclination of each connecting surface is defined with the respective angle relative to the base of the triangle that is formed in the region of the intersection points set out above, respectively.
In that manner, the inclination of the connecting surface is measured in a plane of section perpendicular to the plane of reference parallel with the transverse direction and extending through the vertex and, in the case of curved connecting surfaces, a mean inclination of the connecting surface is in fact considered.
In the present description and in the subsequent claims, it is further intended to be understood that a connecting surface is “substantially planar” when it is planar over at least 50% of the surface thereof.
In the present description and in the subsequent claims, the term “profile of a recess or a protuberance in a longitudinal or transverse direction” is further intended to refer to the orthogonal projection of the recess or the protuberance in a plane perpendicular to the plane of reference and parallel with the longitudinal or transverse direction, respectively.
Finally, a protuberance is defined as being “completely internal with respect to the block” when its connecting surfaces with respect to the plane of reference are not intersected by the external surfaces of the block. This definition applies in a generally similar manner to a recess or a succession of protuberances or recesses which are “completely internal with respect to the block”.
International Patent Application No. WO 2009/077807 in the name of the same Applicant discloses a winter tyre whose blocks are affected by sipes, in which there are provided, on the surfaces of the block portions facing each other, protuberances and recesses with a curved, semi-conical profile which extends in a substantially longitudinal direction from the axial ends of the sipe towards a central region thereof. The profile of those protuberances in the radial direction is substantially semicircular with a section decreasing towards the central region of the sipe. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to cellulose esters and/or ionic liquids. One aspect of the invention concerns processes for producing cellulose esters in ionic liquids.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cellulose is a β-1,4-linked polymer of anhydroglucose. Cellulose is typically a high molecular weight, polydisperse polymer that is insoluble in water and virtually all common organic solvents. The use of unmodified cellulose in wood or cotton products, such as in the housing or fabric industries, is well known. Unmodified cellulose is also utilized in a variety of other applications usually as a film (e.g., cellophane), as a fiber (e.g., viscose rayon), or as a powder (e.g., microcrystalline cellulose) used in pharmaceutical applications. Modified cellulose, including cellulose esters, are also utilized in a wide variety of commercial applications. Cellulose esters can generally be prepared by first converting cellulose to a cellulose triester, then hydrolyzing the cellulose triester in an acidic aqueous media to the desired degree of substitution (“DS”), which is the average number of ester substituents per anhydroglucose monomer. Hydrolysis of cellulose triesters containing a single type of acyl substituent under these conditions can yield a random copolymer that can consist of up to 8 different monomers depending upon the final DS.
Ionic liquids (“ILs”) are liquids containing substantially only anions and cations. Room temperature ionic liquids (“RTILs”) are ionic liquids that are in liquid form at standard temperature and pressure. The cations associated with ILs are structurally diverse, but generally contain one or more nitrogens that are part of a ring structure and can be converted to a quaternary ammonium. Examples of these cations include pyridinum, pyridazinium, pyrimidinium, pyrazinium, imidazolium, pyrazolium, oxazolium, triazolium, thiazolium, piperidinium, pyrrolidinium, quinolinium, and isoquinolinium. The anions associated with ILs can also be structurally diverse and can have a significant impact on the solubility of the ILs in different media. For example, ILs containing hydrophobic anions such as hexafluorophosphates or triflimides have very low solubilities in water while ILs containing hydrophilic anions such chloride or acetate are completely miscible in water.
The names of ionic liquids can generally be abbreviated. Alkyl cations are often named by the letters of the alkyl substituents and the cation, which are given within a set of brackets, followed by the abbreviation for the anion. Although not expressively written, it should be understood that the cation has a positive charge and the anion has a negative charge. For example, [BMIm]OAc indicates 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate, [AMIm]Cl indicates 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, and [EMIm]OF indicates 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium formate.
Ionic liquids can be costly; thus, their use as solvents in many processes may not be feasible. Despite this, methods and apparatus for reforming and/or recycling ionic liquids have heretofore been insufficient. Furthermore, many processes for producing ionic liquids involve the use of halide and/or sulfur intermediates, or the use of metal oxide catalysts. Such processes can produce ionic liquids having high levels of residual metals, sulfur, and/or halides. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a micro-lens array, and more particularly, to a method of precisely manufacturing a micro-lens array including a micro-lens having a high numerical aperture.
2. Description of the Related Art
A micro-lens may be manufactured by a method of forming a single micro-lens using a machining process, a method of forming a micro-lens array through a photolithography process using photoresist, etc.
Among conventional methods of manufacturing a micro-lens, a machining process directly grinds or cuts glass or plastic material. Injection molding or press molding is used to mass-produce an object lens. The injection molding or press molding is a method of manufacturing a lens from a melt or semi-molten plastic or glass using a die made by a machining process, such as a cutting or abrasive process. FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a method of manufacturing a conventional single micro-lens using such a machining process.
A conventional method of manufacturing a glass single lens using a press molding will now be described with reference to FIG. 1. Upper and lower dies 11 and 13, which are made of super-hard metal, etc., are very precisely ground in a shape corresponding to a surface of a lens. A ball or gob-shaped glass preform is inserted between the upper and lower dies 11 and 13 and is pressed and heated at a temperature of 500° C. to 600° C., thereby forming a lens.
The method using an ultraprecise die has an advantage in that it can achieve a very precise curved surface process. However, as the size of the lens is made smaller, it is difficult to manufacture a die for a lens having a high numerical aperture, that is, a die for an aspheric surface having a large radius of curvature. This is because there is a limit to the radius of curvature of a processing tool. Also, such a glass molding method has a disadvantage in that productivity is low because it takes a long time to uniformly heat a preform material through its interior.
In the case where a lens is manufactured using a plastic material, a cavity die is molded by cutting a metal very precisely, and a melt plastic is injection molded to produce a lens. In plastic injection molding, the molding temperature is 300° C. or less, which is lower than the glass molding temperature. Also, the plastic injection molding can use a die having a plurality of cavities, so that manufacturing time is shorter and productivity is higher than that of glass molding. Further, the plastic lens is lightweight and processability is excellent. The plastic lens can be manufactured at a low cost. Therefore, the plastic lens has been widely used as a pickup lens for CD and DVD applications.
However, the plastic material has a low refractive index of about 1.5, such that light refraction is insufficient. Thus, two lenses must be used to manufacture a lens for a Blue-Ray Disc having a numerical aperture of 0.85. Considerable time and effort are required to assemble and precisely adjust the position of the two lenses, thereby increasing manufacturing cost much more than in the case of a single lens. Also, the plastic is susceptible to heat, and its optical characteristics (for example, refractive index, thermal expansion, etc.) can change greatly depending on a change in temperature. Specifically, the plastic absorbs blue wavelength light, thus causing a yellowing phenomenon after use over a long period of time. As a result, the property of the material is changed. Since the object lens of the optical pickup is used to condense light, such phenomenon may cause a serious problem in such a lens.
A single lens may be manufactured using a machining process, but it is difficult to assemble the single lens with a device such as an optical module. In order to facilitate assembly, a flat type or multiple array type is desired. In order to make an array type lens, a micro process instead of a machining process is widely used. Among them, a photolithography process is most typical.
FIGS. 2A through 2E are sectional views showing sequential procedures of manufacturing a conventional micro-lens array using a photolithography process. Referring to FIG. 2A, a photoresist 23 is coated on a substrate 21. Referring to FIG. 2B, a mask M having a predetermined pattern is positioned on the photoresist 23 and an ultraviolet ray is irradiated to expose the photoresist 23. Referring to FIG. 2C, the exposed portion of the photoresist 23 is developed to form a patterned photoresist 23a. Referring to FIG. 2D, a reflow process is performed by applying heat to the patterned photoresist 23a, thus deforming the photoresist 23a into a preform 23b having a shape of a circular spherical lens. Referring to FIG. 2E, the shape of the lens preform is transferred on the substrate by anisotropic etching, such as by reactive ion etching, thereby forming a micro-lens array on the substrate.
According to the above conventional method of manufacturing a micro-lens array using a photolithography process, it is difficult to implement a high sag for obtaining a high numerical aperture. Accordingly, it is difficult to process an aspheric curved surface for aberration correction. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an ink, and an image forming method, an image forming apparatus, and an image formed product using the ink.
Description of the Related Art
Inkjet recording method is spreading rapidly these days thanks to its simplicity in recording color image and low running cost. Inks used for inkjet recording (hereinafter “inkjet inks”) include an aqueous dye ink in which a dye is dissolved in an aqueous medium and a solvent ink in which an oil-soluble dye is dissolved in an organic solvent. From environmental and safety aspects, an ink in which a water-soluble dye is dissolved in water or in a combination of water and a water-soluble organic solvent is generally used at office and home. However, disadvantageously, a recorded image formed with the water-soluble-dye-containing ink is poor in terms of water resistance and light resistance.
On the other hand, an aqueous pigment ink in which fine particles of pigment are dispersed in water is attracting attention. It is known that an inkjet ink containing a water-dispersible pigment has excellent water resistance and light resistance. In the case in which an image is recorded with such a pigment ink on glossy paper, the pigment in the ink does not permeate the ink receiving layer of the glossy paper and remains on the surface of the paper forming its film. Thus, the image recorded with pigment ink on glossy paper is inferior in terms of rub resistance than that recorded with pigment ink on plain paper or with dye ink that can permeate the ink receiving layer. As the image recorded with pigment ink on glossy paper is rubbed, the ink film will be peeled off and the rubbed surface will be fouled. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field
The present invention relates to a method of cloth simulation using linear stretch/shear model, and more particularly to a method of cloth simulation using linearized energy functions.
2. Brief Discussion of the Related Art
When it is needed to create an animated image of humans with a sufficient level of details and realism, whether it is in a movie, animation, video games, or virtual reality (VR) simulation, the problem of simulating dynamic movements of clothes arises. Unfortunately, clothing animation has been and still remains a stressful task to the animators. One of the major reasons for the frustration is the amount of computation clothing simulation involves; it takes several days of simulation time to produce one minute long animation of a ten thousand polygon outfit. Unless one gives up the quality drastically, the speed of simulation is far from real-time. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to medical devices, methods and systems for selectively contracting tissues, particularly for the treatment of urinary incontinence.
Urinary incontinence arises in both men and women with varying degrees of severity, and from different causes. In men, the condition most frequently occurs as a result of prostatectomies which result in mechanical damage to the urethral sphincter. In women, the condition typically arises after pregnancy when musculoskeletal damage has occurred as a result of inelastic stretching of the structures which support the genitourinary tract. Specifically, pregnancy can result in inelastic stretching of the pelvic floor, the external sphincter, and the tissue structures which support the bladder and bladder neck region. In each of these cases, urinary leakage typically occurs when a patient""s abdominal pressure increases as a result of stress, e.g., coughing, sneezing, laughing, exercise, or the like.
Treatment of urinary incontinence can take a variety of forms. Most simply, the patient can wear absorptive devices or clothing, which is often sufficient for minor leakage events. Alternatively or additionally, patients may undertake exercises intended to strengthen the muscles in the pelvic region, or may attempt a behavior modification intended to reduce the incidence of urinary leakage.
In cases where such non-interventional approaches are inadequate or unacceptable, the patient may undergo surgery to correct the problem. A wide variety of procedures have been developed to correct urinary incontinence in women. Several of these procedures are specifically intended to support the bladder neck region. For example, sutures, straps or other artificial structures are often looped around the bladder neck and affixed to the pelvis, the endopelvic fascia, the ligaments which support the bladder, or the like. Other procedures involve surgical injections of bulking agents, inflatable balloons, or other elements to mechanically support the bladder neck.
An alternative surgical procedure which is performed to enhance support of the bladder is the Kelly plication. This involves midline plication of the fascia, particularly for repair of central defects. In this transvaginal procedure, the endopelvic fascia from either side of the urethra is approximated and attached together using silk or linen suture. A similar procedure, anterior colporrhaphy, involves exposing the pubocervical fascia and reapproximating or plicating portions of this tissue from either side of the midline with absorbable sutures. While the Kelly plication and its variations are now often used for repair of cystocele, this procedure was originally described for the treatment of incontinence.
Each of these known procedures has associated shortcomings. Surgical operations which involve midline plications or direct suturing of the tissues of the urethra or bladder neck region require great skill and care to achieve the proper level of artificial support. In other words, it is necessary to occlude or support the tissue sufficiently to inhibit urinary leakage, but not so much that intentional voiding is made difficult or impossible. Balloons and other bulking agents which have been inserted can migrate or be absorbed by the body. The presence of such foreign body inserts can also be a source of urinary tract infections.
Alternative devices, systems, and methods for treatment of urinary incontinence have recently been proposed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/910,370, filed Aug. 13, 1997, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. This reference, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes techniques for treating urinary incontinence by applying sufficient energy to tissue structures that comprise or support the patient""s urethra so as to cause partial shrinkage of the tissue, and thereby inhibit incontinence. Hence, these techniques generally involve selectively contracting a patient""s own pelvic support tissues, often applying gentle heating of the collagenated endopelvic structures to cause them to contract without imposing significant injury on the surrounding tissues. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/910,775, filed Aug. 13, 1997, describes related non-invasive devices, methods and systems for shrinking of tissues, and is also incorporated herein by reference.
While these new methods for treatment of incontinence by selectively contracting tissues represent a significant advancement in the art, still further improvements would be desirable for treating urinary incontinence in men and women. In particular, it would be desirable to provide devices and therapies to reliably and repeatably contract tissues so as to effect the intended physiological change. It would be best if these improved techniques and structures could provide reliable results independent of the normal variations in the skill and experience of the surgeon. It would further be desirable if these improved techniques could be performed using minimally invasive techniques so as to reduce patient trauma, while retaining and/or enhancing the overall efficacy of the procedure.
2. Description of the Background Art
The following U.S. patents and other publications may be relevant to the present invention: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,453,536; 4,679,561; 4,765,331; 4,802,479; 5,190,517; 5,281,217; 5,293,869; 5,314,465; 5,314,466; 5,370,675; 5,423,811; 5,458,596; 5,496,312; 5,514,130; 5,536,267; 5,569,242; 5,588,960; 5,697,882; 5,697,909; and P.C.T. Published Application No. WO 97/20510.
The present invention provides improved devices, methods, and systems for repeatably and reliably contracting fascia and other support tissues, particularly for the treatment of urinary incontinence. The techniques of the present invention generally enhance the support provided by the natural tissues of the pelvic floor. Rather than relying entirely on the surgeon""s ability to observe, direct, and control the selective shrinking of these tissues, the present invention makes use of tissue contraction systems which are placed statically against the target tissue, and which direct sufficient energy into the tissue so as to inhibit incontinence or the like.
In the preferred embodiment, a thin semi-rigid or rigid credit card shaped device is inserted and urged flat against the endopelvic fascia. Interspersed heating and cooling areas are distributed across a treatment surface of the device, and the treatment surface will often be offset laterally from the urethra to avoid injury to the urinary sphincter or other delicate tissues. The treatment surface will often engage a relatively large area of the endopelvic fascia, and will be held in a static position against this tissue while energy from the heating areas heats and contracts the endopelvic fascia, preferably without ablating the endopelvic fascia. The interspersed cooling helps limit collateral damage to the surrounding fascia and tissues, and will also significantly enhance the rate of healing.
Advantageously, sufficient shrinkage can be provided by the device in the static position so that no additional heating/tissue contraction treatments may be required to the endopelvic fascia on the engaged side of the urethra. Hence, the present invention can take advantage of automated energy delivery circuits and/or selectable contraction probes having treatment surfaces of a variety of selectable sizes and shapes so as to predictably contract the target tissue, rather than relying entirely on a surgeon""s skill to contract the proper amount of tissue, for example, by manually xe2x80x9cpaintingxe2x80x9d a small electrode along the tissue surface, and may also reduce fouling along the electrode/tissue interface. A variety of heating elements can be used, including electrodes (both monopolar and in bipolar pairs), resistive heaters, preheated thermal masses, hot fluid conduits, exothermic reactive chemicals, and the like. Similarly, cooling could be provided by a variety of cooling elements such as chilled fluid conduits, endothermic reactive chemicals, thermoelectric cooling, chilled irrigation ports, and the like.
In one aspect, the invention provides a probe for contracting a target tissue of a patient body. The target tissue has a tissue surface, and the probe comprises a body having a tissue engaging surface. At least one cooling element is disposed on the tissue engaging surface of the probe. The at least one cooling element has a tissue cooling area. At least one energy applying element is also disposed on the tissue engaging surface of the probe. The at least one energy applying element has a tissue heating area that is interspersed with the tissue cooling area. These areas will generally be arranged so as to minimize injury to the target tissue when energy is directed from the tissue heating area to shrink the target tissue.
In another aspect, the invention provides a system for contracting a collagenous tissue. The system comprises a surface oriented for engaging the tissue, and an energy source that applies sufficient energy to selectively contract a portion of the engaged tissue. At least one element is coupled to the energy source so as to selectively transmit the energy through the surface and into the tissue so that the contracted portion is interspersed with other engaged tissue.
In yet another aspect, the invention provides a kit for contracting a collagenous tissue. The kit comprises a probe having at least one energy transmitting element. Instructions are provided for using the probe to direct energy from the probe into a portion of the tissue so as to contract the portion, and so that the contracted and uncontracted portions define an interspersed pattern. This interspersed pattern may significantly increase the rate of the healing process, regardless of whether active cooling is provided. | {
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This invention relates generally to a burner assembly and, more particularly, to an inproved burner assembly and method which operate in a manner to reduce the formation of nitrogen oxides as a result of fuel combustion.
Considerable attention and efforts have recently been directed to the reduction of nitrogen oxides resulting from the combustion of fuel, and especially in connection with the use of coal in the furnace sections of relatively large installations such as vapor generators and the like. In the burning of coal, nitrogen oxides are formed by the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen available in the combustion-supporting air, and is a function of the flame temperature. When the flame temperature exceeds 2800.degree., the amount of fixed nitrogen removed from the combustion-supporting air rises exponentially with increases in the temperature. Nitrogen oxides are also formed from the fuel-bound nitrogen available in the fuel itself, which is not a direct function of the flame temperature, but is related to the quantity of available oxygen during the combustion process.
In a typical arrangement for burning coal in a vapor generator, for example, one or more burners are usually disposed in communication with the interior of the furnace, and operate to burn a mixture of air and pulverized coal. The burners used in these arrangements are generally of the type in which a swirling fuel and air mixture is continuously injected through a single nozzle so as to form a single, relatively large flame. As a result, the surface area of the flame is relatively small in comparison to its volume, and therefore the average flame temperature is relatively high. This condition leads to the production of high levels of nitrogen oxides in the final combustion products, which cause severe air pollution problems.
Since the formation of nitrogen oxides increases with increases in the burner temperatures, attempts have been made to supress the latter temperatures and thus reduce the formation of nitrogen oxides. Attempted solutions have included techniques involving two stage combustion, flue gas recirculation, the introduction of an oxygen-deficient fuel-air mixture to the burner and the subsequent introduction of additional combustion-supporting air exteriorally of the burner itself, and the breakup of a single, large flame into a plurality of smaller flames. However, these attempts have often resulted in added expense in terms of increased construction costs, and the like, and have lead to other related problems, such as the production of soot and complex mechanisms to achieve the solutions.
Heretofore, registers positioned within a windbox disposed adjacent to a lower portion of the furnace have been used to jointly control the volume flow and the turbulence of the secondary combustion-supporting air from the windbox to support the burning of coal. These registers, which generally comprise mechanically-complex assemblies of rotatable vanes and associated control mechanisms, are designed primarily to induce turbulence, or swirl, in the flow of the mixture of fuel and combustion-supporting air. Secondarily, these registers were designed as damper or flow volume control devices. However, depending upon the operating condition, existing registers only function with one degree of control. That is, if they are operating in the closed-down, or slightly open condition, they function primarily as a damper to control the quantity flow of combustion-supporting air through the register and through the burner assembly. On the other hand, if they are operating at larger openings, the dampening effect achieved by further opening of the register is considerably reduced. At the more fully-open conditions, however, relatively more swirl is induced in the flow of the combustion-supporting air by only slight changes in the opening of the register. Thus, the prior art registers either function effectively as dampers or as turbulence creating devices, but do not function with equal effectiveness in both modes. The large numbers of components associated with the prior art registers also present problems of reliability. | {
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Vehicle airbags are safety devices that deploy toward the interior of a vehicle to help protect its occupants from injury in the event of a crash. Airbags may be concealed behind or beneath an interior panel during normal vehicle operation until such an event. When the airbag deploys, it typically does so through a deployment opening formed in or around the interior panel. The deployment opening may be pre-formed in the panel, the panel may move away to reveal the opening, or the opening may be formed during airbag deployment at a pre-determined location in the panel. Where formed during deployment, a tear seam may be provided in one or more components of the panel to at least partly define the location of the opening.
German patent DE 4411283 to Stückle et al. describes one method of forming a tear seam that includes stitching an outer foil to hold the outer foil in place over the airbag. The needle used to apply the stitching perforates the outer foil along a groove or ditch in the outer foil to form a visible, stitched tear line. The foil is heated along the stitched tear line to shrink the perforations, and then cooled rapidly. | {
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The present disclosure relates to a method for bonding substrates, and particularly, to a flip chip assembly apparatus employing a warpage-suppressor assembly, and a method of operating the same.
Connections employing an array of solder material portions, such as C4 balls or any other type of solder balls, are susceptible to mechanical stress created by a mismatch in the coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE's) between the semiconductor chip and the other semiconductor chip or the packaging substrate. Such mechanical stress may cause cracks in the solder material portions, back-end-of-lines in chips, or the semiconductor chip(s), causing the semiconductor chip(s) to fail during flip chip assembly process and/or usage.
The problem of mechanical stress caused by the mismatch between CTE's are exacerbated when an organic substrate is employed for a packaging substrate because the mismatch of CTE's is greater between organic substrates and semiconductor substrates than between ceramic substrates and semiconductor substrates. When an organic substrate is used as a packaging substrate for a fine pitch flip chip assembly, substrate warpage can occur in the conventional reflow process during which solder balls reflow. This warpage can result in non-wetting of solder bumps and/or bridging between solder bumps, thereby decreasing the assembly yield.
In general, organic substrates expand and contract more than silicon chips. For example, a silicon chip has a CTE of about 2.6 p.p.m./° C., and an organic substrate has a CTE of about 17 p.p.m./° C. Such a mismatch between CTE's can create thermally-induced stress and strain in a bonded flip-chip structure during the flip chip assembly process. Thermally-induced stress and strain in the flip-chip structure during a reflow process often results in a failure of back-end-of-line (BEOL) interconnect structures.
When a semiconductor chip is bonded to an organic substrate, a predominant fraction of the total heat energy employed to reflow the solder balls is transmitted through the semiconductor chip. Even if the organic substrate is maintained below 100 degrees Celsius and the heat flow from the semiconductor chip into the organic substrate is constricted at the chip area during the reflow of the solder balls, the thermal expansion of the organic substrate is sufficient to cause warpage of the organic substrate. Such warpage of the organic substrate tends to cause non-contacts between peripheral solder balls within the array of solder balls and bonding pads on the organic substrate, thereby causing electrical opens between the semiconductor chip and the organic substrate across the peripheral solder balls. Thus, there exists a need to provide a reliable flip chip joining method that can provide reliable solder bonding despite inherent warpage issues due to the thermal expansion of the organic substrate. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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A metal extrusion press for the production of tubular workpieces and/or pipes has been disclosed in the German patent DE 1,227,858 (GB 929,056). There, a mandrel is mounted with the piercing cylinder on the main extrusion piston. The piston of the piercing cylinder is connected to a piercing cross-bar that is guided in the platen of the press in a sliding manner. Alternatively to such inside punching devices, it is known to provide the piercing cylinder outside the main extrusion piston or cylinder of the press.
Since the mandrel in general can have varying lengths, wear has to be taken into consideration, exact adjustment of the mandrel tip in the die opening is carried out by means of threaded spindles and spindle nuts with associated drives when extruding a pipe with a fixed mandrel. These are typically mounted in conjunction with mandrel stroke-limiting rods in the cylinder cross-piece or in the piercing cross-bar. Such an arrangement of a threaded spindle and spindle nut in the piercing cross-bar for limiting the stroke of the mandrel is disclosed for example in the patent mentioned above. The mandrel stroke-limiting rods here are fixed with one end in the cylinder cross-piece and carry stops on the other end facing the pressure plate. The piercing cross-bar is supported against these stops with a nut that limits the stroke and consequently the mandrel and that can be adjusted with the threaded spindle.
In order to be able to position the mandrel guided through the ram in the tool or in the die when extruding tubular workpieces and/or pipes, and in order to maintain this position throughout the extrusion process with high precision, during the practical operation of the extrusion press the mandrel is held in position during operation by means of a piercing cylinder. To allow this position of the mandrel to be maintained in the die, the cylinder has to move the mandrel back at exactly the same speed at which the ram performs the forward movement. Here however disturbances due to forming forces, friction and hydraulic compressibility come into play, which the control system has to compensate for dynamically.
Additionally, it is necessary to cover high speed ranges of 1:120 and greater. Finally, it is important to note that due to the application method considerable, variable tensile forces are applied to the mandrel, which can also reverse at the end of the extruding operation. In order to guarantee positioning, servo valves are used, via which the entire volume for the piercing cylinder is controlled. Since these servo valves can operate only a limited volume range, it is unavoidable that several servo valves in different nominal variables have to be provided parallel to each other for the speed ratio of 1:120. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The invention relates to an exercise apparatus.
A variety of exercise machines and apparatus have been proposed or suggested. These machines range from complex and hence expensive machines typically found in gymnasiums or the like and are generally non-portable. At the other end of the spectrum are portable exercise machines or reduced cost and constructed and intended for home or office use. Such machines are either employed to exercise the arms or the legs.
One such machine comprised a stand or pedestal which carried a rotatable pedal crank assembly to which were mounted two opposed rotating pedals. A typical machine of this type is disclosed in Australian patent No. 507755. That machine could not, for example, be used in a confined space such as under a desk or the like. This was because the knees of the user would rise as a consequence of pedalling operation of that machine. In addition, the user would first need to locate the pedals which could be in any position along the circle described by the movement allowed by the crank assembly. Thus, the machine could not easily be used by a person with impaired vision or at a location where the machine was concealed, such as for example beneath a desk or the like. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field
The invention relates to microelectromechanical structures (MEMS).
2. Background
Communication systems generally require partitioning of the electromagnetic frequency spectrum. Communication transceiver devices therefore must be capable of high frequency selectivity, i.e., capable of selecting a given frequency band while rejecting all others. Frequency-selective devices, such as filters, oscillators and mixers are therefore some of the most important components within a transceiver and the quality of the devices generally dictates the overall architecture of a given transceiver.
In many communication systems (e.g., cordless and cellular phones), off-chip, passive components are used as part of the frequency-selective devices. Such passive components are typically implemented at the board level and therefore impede the ultimate miniaturization of portable transceivers.
Micromachining technologies have been applied to the miniaturization and integration of frequency-selective devices to bring such devices to the chip level. Polycrystalline silicon-based device structures represent one specific micromachining technology. High frequency (HF) and very high frequency (VHF) vibrating micromechanical resonators, for example, for use in bandpass filters and reference oscillators have been formed through a sequence of integrated circuit-compatible film deposition and patterning. To form small gaps, such as, for example, when fabricating a vibratable resonator, traditional integrated circuit lithography and etch processes may be employed. Such processes typically include depositing and patterning polycrystalline silicon, structural material, the patterning defining gap between device structures through photolithographic means. Potential problems with using traditional lithographic and etch patterning include the gap width miniaturization brought about by the limit associated with lithography and etch. In addition, certain design specifications require near exact symmetric gaps for balance. Such symmetry cannot be guaranteed by lithography and etch processes because the critical dimension (CD) variation is large when approaching the lithography limit. Still further, etching profiles for high aspect ratio gaps can create non-uniform gaps (e.g., vertical gaps) which can give rise to non-uniform charge distribution.
What is needed are methods and structures that are not constrained by the limitations of lithography and etch. | {
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The invention disclosed herein relates generally to systems and methods for transmitting instructions for cash payments. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method used to interface a computer system with an ATM system so that payment instructions may be freely routed between the disparate networks and protocols of the two systems.
Using current technology, it is possible to transmit a payment to an ATM or similar financial terminal or kiosk for receipt only by its intended recipient. An example of this type of technology is the Z-CASH™ system developed by WESTERN UNION™. Terminals equipped with software to support the Z-Cash standard or format are capable of electronic money transfers to and from any equipped ATM or Western Union money transfer outlet.
The Z-Cash system allows a consumer to electronically send money using any participating ATM by simply swiping an ATM card and selecting the money transfer option presented on the terminal's display device. The user is prompted to select a personalized code and the desired dollar amount to transfer. The sender relays the confirmation number and the personalized code to the intended recipient who can retrieve the funds from any participating ATM. No bankcard is required to retrieve the funds, just the confirmation number and personalization code, which provides a means for securing the transaction. An example of cardless transaction technology is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,039, entitled “Cardless Automated Teller Transactions”, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
FIG. 1 presents an illustration of the above-described system. A person wishing to make a payment 10, e.g., a payor, has two methods through which to make the payment: through the use of an ATM or similar terminal 20 or through interacting with a live agent 40 over a two way communication device such as a telephone. The ATM terminal 20 executes terminal software that allows the user to have a selected account debited by the payor's financial institution or instrument 25 and transmit the payment request, including confirmation number and personalization code, to an ATM terminal control server 50, e.g., a Western Union Z-Cash compliant server operative to control one or more ATM terminals 20, 80.
The terminal 20 forwards the payment request to the ATM control server 50, which is received and processed by ATM control software 60. The ATM control software 60 processes the payment request and transmits it to a destination terminal 80. The terminal software 90 receives and stores the request. The payor 10 coveys the confirmation number and personalization code to the intended recipient or payee 70. Once in possession of this information, the payee 70 inputs the confirmation number and personalization code into the terminal 80 where it is verified against the data received by the terminal software 90 from the ATM control server 50. If the data is verified, the currency is dispensed and the transaction concluded.
One limitation of a system such as this is its lack of support for systems not equipped to communicate according to the native format of the ATM system, e.g., the Z-Cash standard. There is thus a need for a system and method that allows users of computer systems, for example, P2P systems, to execute payments to other users that may be received by the intended recipient at an ATM or other similar financial terminal or kiosk communicating according to a native format that is different from that used by the computer system. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Residential swimming pools are not uncommon. They can be above ground pools or in ground pools. Typically, the above ground pools hold about 3,000 gallons to about 15,000 gallons water and the in ground pools hold about 10,000 gallons to about 30,000 gallons water. In all cases, the water must be run through a filter apparatus to remove debris, including airborne material such as fallen leaves, other plant material, insects, and material brought into the pool by the swimmer such as hair and lint.
The typical pool has a water intake line which draws water from at least the surface of the pool and ideally from both the surface and the bottom of the pool. The water at the surface level is initially pulled into a skimmer and passed through a skimmer basket. The skimmer basket is a rigid mesh basket which filters out larger debris, e.g. leaves. The water then is conveyed by a pipeline to a primary filter apparatus to filter out more minute debris. There are different filter apparatus. Sand or diatomaceous earth are common filter medias. Periodically, the filter media in the filter apparatus becomes clogged and must be replaced. This involves a fairly arduous task of disassembling the filter apparatus, removing the filter media, discarding the filter media, adding fresh filter media to the filter apparatus, and reassembling the filter apparatus. Needless to say, the typical swimming pool owner would rather be swimming.
There is a need for a filter system to lessen or even eliminate the current necessity of periodic replacing of filter media in the filter apparatus. In accord with the need, there have been developed pre-main filter apparatus systems. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,202,020 and 5,672,271 disclose devices for placement in the swimming pool's skimmer basket. The device of U.S. Pat. No. 5,202,020 appears costly to manufacture. The device of U.S. Pat. No. 5,672,271 appears difficult to use.
In accord with a continued need for a pre-primary filter apparatus filtering system, there has now been developed an assembly for use in the pool's skimmer. The assembly is economical to produce, easy to use and efficient in operation. The assembly of the invention effectively filters debris from the swimming pool water before it reaches the pool's primary filter assembly. The assembly is very conveniently cleaned and reused. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates generally to a technique and resulting structure which compensates for performance differences of devices due to process variations in the process of manufacturing integrated circuit devices and in particular, circuits utilizing CMOS technolgy. In more particular aspects, this invention relates to a technique and resulting structure which compensates for process variables, and variables in supply voltage, and operating temperature in the manufacture and operation of device drivers for integrated circuits on chips utilizing CMOS technology.
In the production of integrated circuit devices, and particularly in the production of circuits using CMOS technology, process variables or variations can significantly affect the performance of many of the devices particularly device drivers which are formed on the chip. These performance variables include delay, rise and fall time, impedance, etc., and indeed in uncompensated CMOS circuits the 3-sigma statistical combination of these independent variations on driver devices can be as much as .+-.60%. These process variables which affect the performance include variation of channel length (which typically can vary up to .+-.35%); threshold voltage (.+-.20%) the thickness of the dielectric in the gate electrode channel (.+-.20%); diffusion channel width (.+-.2%); and supply voltage (.+-.10%). As indicated above, all of these various independent factors can have a significant effect even to the accumulative effect of as much as .+-.60% difference in device characteristic between worst case performance i.e. slowest, and best case performance i.e. fastest. (As used herein "best case" and "worst case" are not qualitative values, but rather are quantitative in that "best case" denotes fastest response time and "worst case" denotes slowest response time). These variations have a significant effect on the performance of the devices in various circuits. In the driver circuit when the driver circuit is designed to drive a certain load, if the driver circuit operates too fast and too many drivers are switched on at once, noise will be generated which will be very high due to inductance which will interfere with or even prevent the proper signal recognition. Therefore, a circuit cannot be designed which operates too fast under any given load or the design will be selfdefeating. On the other hand, if the device driver circuit is designed to operate at an extremely slow speed, performance time is lost. Thus, if simultaneous operation of a known number of drivers is required, the inherent variation in performance of the drivers due to process variations prevent the designer from designing close to the optimum rate of performance. Expressed another way, if there is a wide variation in performance characteristics of a driver circuit and a circuit designer designs a circuit to drive at a "nominal" rate which is slow enough to prevent excessive noise being produced but rapid enough to produce good desirable speed, then under certain process conditions the resulting circuit may in fact operate so fast that it encounters noise or inductance problems and is unsatisfactory because of process variations. Therefore, without circuit compensation, the circuit designer is forced to design to a speed which, even under "best" conditions of process varibles which result in the fastest speed of the device driver, will result in a speed which is not so fast that it will induce excessive noise. Of course this designed speed, when there is a significant amount of variation in the process parameters, will be a very low speed, and in fact, in worse case conditions i.e. the slowest operation of the driver's circuit due to process variations, will have an extremely slow driver circuit this speed being significantly slower than that at which it could optimately perform without producing excessive noise. Of course, it would be desirable to reduce to a minimum level the amount of variations introduced by the processing techniques utilized in the manufacture of integrated circuits. However, with the present state of the art of such processing, there are not available any viable commercially acceptable cost effective means to substantially reduce these variables; hence, it becomes necessary to compensate for these process variables. There have in fact been several techniques suggested for compensating for such process variables. One such technique is the so called "serpentine gates", which helps to compensate for delay in which output device gates are connected by connecting the gates in series instead of parallel and thus the turn-on time for each successive finger is delayed by a time proportionate to the resistance of the gate and its capacitance. Since gate resistance increases as channel length decreases, this technique reduces the delay variation with channel length variation which is the most sensitive process parameter. While this technique does reduce certain process related variations somewhat, it does nothing to compensation for variations in supply voltage or other process parameters. This also has other potential difficulties in that with certain types of silicides, an extra mask may be required to generate a precision resistor when this technique is used.
Another technique for reducing the effect of processing variables is shown and described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 240,853, filed Sept. 2, 1988, Entitled "Performance Enhancing for Integrated Circuit Chips". This technique consists of counting the number of stages in an on-chip delay path that switch within one cycle of an off-chip oscillator and using the count as a basis for digitally adjusting the performance of all drivers on the chip. The complexity of this technique makes it unattractive. Also, in this technique, the same compensation is applied to all drivers on the chip, regardless of localized process differences on the chip. For example, N/FET'S and P/FET'S are given identical compensation even if there are differences in their respective characteristics.
Another technique utilizes feedback from the output node which is shown and described in U.S. patent application No. 07/419,341 filed: Oct. 10, 1989 entitled: CMOS Driver Circuit. However, this is a technique which compensates for off-chip load and not for process variations.
Other various prior art patents suggest various circuits and compensations which include U.S. Pat. No. 4,613,772 which compensates for leakage currents in internal logic gates but does not compensate for process variations; U.S. Pat. No. 4,584,492 compensates trigger points on input buffers but doesn't use opposition currents in prebuffers to control gate voltage on buffer devices; U.S. Pat. No. 4,634,893 discloses a PROM programmed drive, but there is no compensation for the process variations; U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,091 is a dynamic logic precharge with cascode voltage switch and logic for improved performance, but it does not disclose any compensation for process variations; IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin 31, No. 1, June 1988, pages 21-23 shows a series of devices for certain compensation but does not show opposition devices to control gate voltage; IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin 27, No. 10B, Mar. 1985, pages 6,012 to 6,013 shows CVS logic which improves logic performances but does not show any means for compensating for various process variable. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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With the development of display technology, the flat panel device, such as Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) possesses advantages of high image quality, power saving, thin body and no irradiation. Thus, it has been widely applied in various consumer electrical products, such as mobile phone, television, personal digital assistant, digital camera, notebook, laptop, and becomes the major display device.
Most of the liquid crystal displays on the present market are back light type liquid crystal displays, which comprise a shell, a liquid crystal display panel located in the shell and a backlight module located in the shell.
The traditional LCD panel comprises a Thin Film Transistor Array Substrate (TFT Array Substrate) and a Color Filter (CF). The pixel electrode and the common electrode are respectively formed on the TFT substrate and the CF substrate, and Liquid Crystal is injected between the TFT substrate and the CF substrate. The working principle is that the light of backlight module is refracted to generate images by applying driving voltages between the pixel electrode and the common electrode for controlling the rotations of the liquid crystal molecules with the electrical field formed between the pixel electrode and the common electrode. The traditional liquid crystal display panel has defects of the narrow view angle, and the color washout phenomenon under wide view angle.
For expanding the view angle of the liquid crystal display panel, a Plane-to-Line Switching (PLS) liquid crystal display panel is proposed. The PLS liquid crystal display panel is to locate the pixel electrode and the common electrode on the same substrate, and the vertical electrical field formed between the pixel electrode and the common electrode is employed to drive the liquid crystal molecules to rotate along the direction parallel with the substrate to expand the view angle. However, in the PLS liquid crystal display panel, all the liquid crystal molecules are aligned along the same direction, which can cause that the colors shown by the PLS liquid crystal display panel will change from the different watch angles and create the color washout phenomenon. Generally, the color washout is improved by utilizing the method of forming multi-domains in single pixel unit. Nevertheless, as the method is applied to the PLS liquid crystal display panel, the crystal textures are formed at edges of respective domains. Accordingly, the brightness descends and the display effect is influenced. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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While most people appreciate the importance of physical fitness, many have difficulty finding the motivation required to maintain a regular exercise program. Some people find it particularly difficult to maintain an exercise regimen that involves continuously repetitive motions, such as running, walking and bicycling.
Additionally, individuals may view exercise as work or a chore and thus, separate it from enjoyable aspects of their daily lives. Often, this separation between athletic activity and other activities reduces the amount of motivation that an individual might have toward exercising. Further, athletic activity services and systems directed toward encouraging individuals to engage in athletic activities might also be too focused on one or more particular activities while an individual's interests are ignored. This may further decrease a user's interest in participating in athletic activities or using the athletic activity services and systems.
Therefore, improved systems and methods to address these and other shortcomings in the art are desired. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field Of The Invention
This invention relates to foldable chairs, in general, and to a collapsible chair especially useful at a beach or seashore location, in particular.
2. Description Of The Related Art
Folding or collapsible chairs in the nature of furniture have been described in such U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,635,520 (Roher et al) and 5,984,406 (Lee). In a multiple seat arrangement, they are also described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,928 (Staunton et al). For outdoor use, in camping and watching sports games, chairs of this type have been illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,605 (Chang). When a reclining chair is desired for camping, hiking, fishing, and concert events, a construction of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,068 (Levine) is said to be useful.
While chairs of these types may prove adequate to suit their intended purposes, they have proven deficient when employed at beaches or seashore locations where users prefer low seat heights, typically no more than 6" to 10" above ground. While adjustments for multiple reclining positions in these chairs are highly desirable, the need for adjusting the position safely and easily is equally as important. As the reclining chair is oftentimes left unoccupied when open, it is almost as important, if not more so, for the beach chair to have a degree of stability about it, so as to limit its propensity to be blown about by wind gusts, as well as when being sat upon by a user. These various features, however, are not readily available with the type of folding chair arrangements that typify the prior art. | {
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The wind-and-react method involves winding the precursor to a superconducting material around a mandrel in order to form a coil, and then processing the coil with high temperatures and an oxidizing environment. The processing method results in the conversion of the precursor material to a desired superconducting material, and in the healing of micro-cracks formed in the precursor during the winding process, thus optimizing the electrical properties of the coil.
Superconducting magnetic coils, like most magnetic coils, are formed by wrapping an insulated conducting material around a mandrel defining the shape of the coil. When the temperature of the coil is sufficiently low that the conductor can exist in a superconducting state, the current-carrying performance of the conductor is markedly increased and large magnetic fields can be generated by the coil.
Certain ceramic materials exhibit superconducting behavior at low temperatures, such as the compound Bi.sub.2 Sr.sub.2 Ca.sub.n Cu.sub.n O.sub.2n+4 where n can be either 1, 2, or 3. One material, Bi.sub.2 Sr.sub.2 Ca.sub.2 Cu.sub.3 O.sub.10 (BSCCO (2223)), performs particularly well in device applications because superconductivity and corresponding high current densities are achieved at relatively high temperatures (T.sub.c =115 K.). Other oxide superconductors include general Cu-O-based ceramic superconductors, such as members of the rare-earth-copper-oxide family (ie., YBCO), the thallium-barium-calcium-copper-oxide family (ie., TBCCO), the mercury-barium-calcium-copper-oxide barium-calcium-copper-oxide family (ie., HgBCCO), and BSCCO compounds containing lead (ie.,(Bi,Pb).sub.2 Sr.sub.2 Ca.sub.2 Cu.sub.3 O.sub.10).
Insulating materials surrounding the conductor are used to prevent electrical short circuits within the winding of a coil. From a design point of view, the insulation layer must be able to withstand large electric fields (as high as 4.times.10.sup.5 V/cm in some cases) without suffering dielectric breakdown, a phenomenon that leads to electrical cross-talk between neighboring conductors. At the same time insulation layers must be as thin as possible (typically less than 50-150 .mu.m) so that the amount of superconducting material in the coil can be maximized.
Using existing conducting and insulating materials, the maximum magnetic field generated by a superconducting coil is ultimately determined by the winding density (defined as the percentage of the volume of the coil occupied by the conductor) and the coil geometry. However, the large tensional forces necessary for high winding densities can leave conductors in highly stressed and/or strained states. The bend strain of a conductor, equal to half the thickness of the conductor divided by the radius of the bend, is often used to quantify the amount of strain imposed on the conductor through coil formation. Many superconducting magnet applications involving high-density conductor windings require conductor bend strains on the order of 0.2%, and in some cases much higher. The critical strain of a conductor is defined as the amount of strain the material can support before experiencing a dramatic decrease in electrical performance. The critical strain value is highly dependent on the formation process used to fabricate the conductor, and is typically between 0.05%-1.0%, depending on the process used. If the bend strain exceeds the critical strain of a conductor, the current-carrying capability of the conductor, and hence the maximum magnetic field generated by a coil, will be decreased significantly.
One approach to manufacturing high-performance conductors having desirable mechanical properties involves starting with a precursor to a high temperature superconducting material, typically a ceramic oxide in a powder form. Despite relatively poor mechanical properties and more complex manufacturing processes which requires high temperatures and an oxidizing environment, high temperature superconducting materials are preferred to low temperature superconducting materials for certain applications because they operate at higher ambient temperatures. Oxide powders are packed into a silver tube (chosen because of malleability, inertness, and high electrical conductivity) which is then deformed and reduced in size using standard metallurgical techniques: extrusion, swaging, and drawing are used for axisymmetric reductions resulting in the formation of rods and wires, while rolling and pressing are used for aspected reductions resulting in the formation of tapes and sheets (Sandhage et al., "Critical Issues in the OPIT Processing of High-Ic BSCCO Superconductors", Journal of Metals 3, 21, 1991).
Following the deformation process, heating and cooling results in the growth and evolution of individual crystalline oxide superconductor grains in the conductor which typically take on a rectangular platelet shape. Further deformation results in a collective alignment of the crystallographic axes of the grains. An iterative heating/deforming schedule unique to the ceramic oxide forms of superconductors is typically carried out until the desired grain size, alignment, and density of the superconducting state are achieved.
Conductors having a single oxide core, classified as mono-filament composite conductors, result from the iterative schedule described above and can have critical strain values as high as 0.1%. Mono-filament composite conductors can be transformed into multi-filament composite conductors using a rebundling fabrication operation involving further reduction in size of the mono-filament composite conductors, and finally concatenation of individual conductors to form a single conductor. Typically, the evolution of cracks in response to bend strains is more likely in mono-filament composite conductors than in multi-filament composite conductors, where critical strain values increase with the number of filaments in the conductor, and can be greater than 1.0%. Other limitations of mono-filament composite conductors include decreases in crack healing ability and oxygen access to the conductor during processing. Furthermore, because mono-filament composite conductors have only a single superconducting region, it is difficult to control the conductor size and shape, and mechanically robust conductors can not be easily fabricated (K. Osamure, et al., Adv. Cryo. Eng., ICMC Supplemental, 38, 875, 1992). Thus, multi-filament composite conductors have desirable mechanical properties, and can be used in coils requiring high winding densities.
One method used to fabricate coils with multi- and mono-filament composite conductors is the react-and-wind process. This method first involves the formation of an insulated composite conductor which is then wound into a coil. In this method, a precursor to a composite conductor is fabricated and placed in a linear geometry, or wrapped loosely around a coil, and placed in a furnace for processing. The precursor can therefore be surrounded by an oxidizing environment during processing, which is necessary for conversion to the desired superconducting state. In the react-and-wind processing method, insulation can be applied after the composite conductor is processed, and materials issues such as the oxygen permeability and thermal decomposition of the insulating layer do not need to be addressed.
In the react-and-wind process, the coil-formation step can, however, result in straining composite conductors in excess of the critical strain value of the conducting filaments. Strain introduced to the conducting portion of the wire during the deformation process can result in micro-crack formation in the ceramic grains, severely degrading the electrical properties of the composite conductor.
Another method used to fabricate magnetic coils with mono-filament composite conductors is the wind-and-react method. In this method, the eventual conducting material is typically considered to be a "precursor" until after the final heat treating and oxidation step. Unlike the react-and-wind process, the wind-and-react method as applied to high temperature superconductors requires that the precursor be insulated before coil formation, and entails winding the coil immediately prior to a final heat treating and oxidation step in the fabrication process. This final step results in the repair of micro-cracks incurred during winding, and is used to optimize the superconducting properties of the conductor. However, these results are significantly more difficult to achieve for a coil geometry than for the individual wires which are heat treated and oxidized in the react-and-wind process.
Due to the mechanical properties of the conducting material, superconducting magnetic coils fabricated using the wind-and-react approach with mono-filamentary composite conductors have limitations related to winding density and current-carrying ability. Although the wind-and-react process may repair strain-induced damage to the superconducting material incurred during winding, the coils produced are not mechanically robust, and thermal strain resulting from cool down cycles can degrade the coil performance over time.
A feature of the invention is a wind-and-react process which is used to manufacture superconducting magnetic coils with multi-filament composite conductors. This processing method can be used to manufacture several variations of coils types, all of which are discussed below.
An advantage of the invention is ability to produce mechanically robust coils requiring high winding densities, without significantly degrading the superconducting properties of the multi-filament composite conductors used to form the coils. | {
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It is known in the prior art to package fragile objects in cardboard boxes, particularly by disposing one or more bolsters between the interior walls of the packing and the packed or packaged product. The bolsters have two main functions. First, they keep the product away from the walls, to keep forces that would ruin the outer package from reaching the product, as in a glancing blow in which the shock energy in the direction of the impact on the product is not overly high. Second, such bolsters serve as shock absorbers in certain cases. It is understood that in general the economic importance of a package goes far beyond its merely industrial aspect. However, very elaborate apparatus has been invented for specific products exposed to particular environments. Hence the packaging of the product sold makes for a very high added value.
However, in a broader senses, fragile products are not at present protected by particularly heavy-duty packing. | {
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This invention generally relates to support rails used in spring assemblies such as bedding foundations, seat assemblies and the like and, more particularly, to metal support rails having improved spring mounting capabilities.
Generally, a box spring assembly includes a rectangularly shaped and horizontally positioned frame above which is supported a mattress support deck. A plurality of spring modules are interposed between the frame and deck to support the deck. At their upper ends, the springs include deck attaching portions which interact with the deck so as to attach the springs to it. At their lower ends, prior springs have typically included a pair of mounting feet for attachment to the frame. A grid-like network of deck wires forms the deck and the grid wires which extend both longitudinally and transversely between a border wire. The support springs yieldably support the deck a predetermined distance above the frame.
Most often, the frame itself is formed with a wood perimeter that defines the sides and ends of the frame. Cross rails transversely span the width of the frame and are formed out of either metal or wood. Depending on the type of cross rail, the mounting feet of the springs are secured to the cross rails by various methods. If the cross rail is wooden, the mounting feet of the springs are generally stapled in place on the cross rail. If the cross rail is constructed from metal, each mounting foot is typically provided with a U-shaped horizontal wire portion that is transversely inserted into a slot defined in the cross rail.
While most formed wire springs have had two opposed yieldable portions, each with a mounting foot at its lower end, newer varieties of the formed wire springs have been constructed with only a single mounting foot integrally formed with both of the yieldable portions. One such spring is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,176,367. This patent is commonly assigned to the assignee of the present application. These springs, however, do not readily lend themselves to mounting with metal cross rails. As is evident from the '367 patent, that design is easily and efficiently mounted to a frame having wooden cross rails through the use of staples. This mounting method has proven satisfactory but, obviously, it is not feasible with metal cross rails which are often desired because of their increased rigidity.
One current trend in the industry is to minimize the amount of assembly required by the end manufacturer while still maximizing space during the shipping of components to that facility. A further trend is to decrease the number of fasteners and variety of springs utilized in the assembly.
In the '367 patent mentioned above, the springs are capable of being mounted to the support deck without fasteners and prior to shipping to the final assembler. Shipping is maximized because the specific construction of the springs was designed so that the deck/spring combination could be stacked and nested within similar deck/spring combinations. One principal element which permits the stacking and nesting of the deck/spring combinations is the V-shape of the springs themselves. This is not readily achievable when the springs have mounting feet on the lower ends of each yieldable section. The present invention, however, can be utilized with either variety of spring. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The 2D grayscale X-ray image data (i.e. the projection data) usually undergoes a filtering step using conventional mathematical signal processing methods. The mathematical filtering is a convolution with a suitable function, said function indicating how different frequencies are to be weighted. Mathematical filtering is followed by actual 3D back projection. The entire process is also known as filtered back projection as described, for example, in the book by A. C. Kak and M. Slaney, “Principles of Computerized Tomographic Imaging”, IEEE Press, 1988.
It has now been recognized that, to reconstruct a region of interest of an object, it suffices to map only half of said region of interest in the grayscale X-ray images, provided that 2D grayscale X-ray images are taken at angular positions of X-ray source and flat-panel X-ray detector over a full circle (i.e. through 360°).
This is based on the recognition that each ray which passes from the X-ray source of a particular angular position to a detector element on the flat-panel X-ray detector has a correspondence at another angular position where the radiation passes in the opposite direction, but on the same path.
This fact is utilized e.g. in DE 10 2008 051 157 A1 to virtually enlarge a detector, cf. also the article by Holger Kunze and Frank Dennerlein: “Cone beam reconstruction with displaced flat panel detector.” Proc. of the Fully 3D, 2009. In the case of the “differentiated back projection” method as described in Seungryong Cho, Dan Xia, Erika Pearson, Charles A. Pelizzari, and Xiaochuan Pan: “Half-fan-based Region-of-interest Imaging in Circular Cone-beam CT for Radiation Therapy”, Proc. of the Fully 3D, 2009, there does not even have to be an overlapping region, for example.
It is now known that a 3D reconstruction does not necessarily provide all the information necessary for an assessment. This problem is frequently overcome by obtaining a second 3D reconstruction. For example, a first 3D image dataset is acquired using X-rays of a particular frequency or energy, and a second X-ray image dataset is obtained using X-rays of a different frequency or energy. With this so-called dual-energy imaging, different materials can then be separated, as one material attenuates the X-ray radiation of one frequency slightly more than that of another frequency, and in the case of another material precisely the opposite may apply. Using suitable image fusion methods, this enables in particular different materials to be separated and image quality improvements to be achieved.
DE 10 2008 056 891 A1 describes a computed tomography (CT) scanner in which an X-ray filter is used to produce an unfiltered and a filtered radiation component of a fan beam, said radiation components having different X-ray spectra. In order to operate the scanner in a dual-energy mode, the processing unit analyzes a measurement signal of the unfiltered radiation component separately from a measurement signal of the filtered radiation component. An X-ray detector is of curved design to detect the entire radiation.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,620,141 B2 discloses a computer tomograph in which a flat-panel X-ray detector is used and the tomograph's X-ray source is operated at different voltages to generate two different kinds of X-ray fan beams alternately one after the other.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,476,023 B1 discloses an X-ray emitter for an X-ray apparatus, comprising two X-ray sources. The X-ray sources are interconnected such that their beams always have the same focal spot. In conjunction with a dual-energy mode, it is proposed, because of the common focus, to generate beams with different energy levels consecutively.
However, acquiring a plurality of 3D image datasets is very time-consuming. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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With overcrowded jails and work-release centers and the high cost of keeping an individual incarcerated, systems for electronic supervision of criminals have gained increased attention. Benefits of such systems include relieving overcrowding, avoiding the incarceration of non-violent criminals or persons guilty of less serious crimes with career criminals, and allowing probation or parole officers to keep track of a substantially larger number of incarcerees than in the past. However, such a system must also be cost effective to operate.
Prior art personnel monitoring systems, however, have complex circuits for identifying an incarceree. One such system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,120 to Foley, discloses a system utilizing an automatic dialer which randomly calls various incarcerees assigned to a parole officer. A bracelet, which includes coded information and is worn by the incarceree, is placed in a decoder for identification by a sensor. When the bracelet is inserted into the sensor, the decoder couples itself to the telephone line and uncouples the telephone from the telephone line. The sensor then reads the coded information and the decoder performs a handshake procedure if the coded information is the correct information. Any suitable coding scheme may be used, optical, magnetic, capacitive, etc. In the embodiment of the sensor described therein, the coded information is either a sliver of metallic material or a blank. When the sliver is lined up with a foil spiral of an oscillator, the oscillator ceases to oscillate. When the blank is lined up with the foil, the oscillator continues oscillating. The oscillating/nonoscillating can be used to determine if the coded information is correct. Foley has a drawback in that it requires a decoder having complex circuitry. | {
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Digital additive manufacturing is a process by which an object is defined three dimensionally by a series of volume elements (hereinafter referred to as voxels). The object is then produced by creating/laying down each voxel one at a time, in rows at a time, swaths at a time or layers at a time.
There exists systems that use modified inkjet type technology to ‘print’ material onto a substrate, so building the object. However, these systems typically utilize a single scanning printhead and are only useful for producing non-working models. | {
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1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a special type of switch circuit for power electronics, intended to supply electric power to any type of load. The load may be an electric motor, an electric lamp, an electric loudspeaker or any other type of system that needs a controlled supply of voltage and current. The power level can be from less than a watt to hundreds of kilowatts. The direction of power flow can also be regenerative, i.e. from the load to the power supply. The major purpose of the special switch circuit is to supply controllable electric power with low electric losses in the switch circuit and with low electric noise at the input and output of the switch circuit.
The present invention discloses a means to avoid ringing in a control stage of the switch circuit.
2. Prior Art
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,309 “Method and Means for Controlling a Bridge Circuit” describes a special switch circuit. In the following, “switch circuit” refers to this special switch circuit. It is a classical bridge circuit, consisting of two transistor switches and two free-wheel diodes connected in series between a positive and a negative power bus. The bridge circuit is combined with an LC filter at the output of the transistor bridge plus a control circuit with a special switch sequence for controlling the bridge circuit. The primary purpose of the LC filter is to isolate the bridge current from the load current in such a way that the bridge current can go to zero during each switching cycle, while the load current is constant or approximately constant. Such a load current is typical for all applications with inductive load, for example an electric motor. Thanks to the LC filter and the special switch sequence it is possible to turn on the upper or lower transistor at zero transistor current and essentially zero transistor voltage. This eliminates the high electric stress and the electric losses that occur during turn on of conventional bridge circuits. A secondary purpose of the LC filter is to isolate the switching transients in the bridge circuit from the output of the switch circuit. Thanks to this it is possible to control high electric power with low electric noise at the output of the switch circuit.
The switch circuit is suitable for use in so called “frequency inverters” for control of electric AC motors. Then one switch circuit is needed for every motor phase. Only one switch circuit is described in the following.
During certain operating conditions the voltage waveform from the transistor bridge will have a high frequency ringing. A voltage comparator in the control circuit reacts on this voltage waveform and this may cause the upper or lower switch transistor to switch on and off several times. The present invention discloses a means to stop this extra switching by means of a logic circuit, which reacts only on the first voltage change during each switch cycle. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Laser guides have been widely used, as optical fiber components for transmitting laser beams with high energy density, for machining equipment, etc.
Incidentally, laser machining for a surface ablation process for semiconductor, etc., using a laser beam emitted through a laser guide requires that the intensities of a laser beam at the spot irradiated with the laser beam be uniform.
A conventional optical fiber including, e.g., a core having a circular cross section, and a cladding surrounding the core is configured such that the distribution of the intensities of a laser beam at the spot irradiated with the laser beam corresponds to a Gaussian distribution. Therefore, in order to obtain uniform intensities of the laser beam at such an irradiated spot, mode scrambling is required. Here, mode scrambling denotes a process for inducing the interchange of optical power between modes in an optical waveguide, e.g., by winding an optical fiber while bending the optical fiber within the range of allowable bend radii of the fiber. However, since this mode scrambling requires the winding of an optical fiber, the optical fiber may be broken, and the size of a mode scrambling device (mode scrambler) may increase. In addition, sufficiently uniform light intensities cannot be obtained by merely winding an optical fiber having a length of hundreds of meters. This decreases processing efficiency.
PATENT DOCUMENT 1 describes an optical waveguide fiber including a core material functioning to allow light to propagate and having a rectangular cross section.
PATENT DOCUMENT 1: Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. H03-49591 | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus, and more particularly, to an ink storage unit for storing ink which is supplied to a recording head of the ink jet recording apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
An ink jet recording system performs recording in a manner that an ejection-energy-generating element provided at a portion communicating with orifice of a recording head, such as a heating element or a piezoelectric element, operates based on recording signals to eject ink droplets from the orifice, and to attach the ejected ink droplets to a recording medium. This system has such an advantage that high speed recording is possible and operation noises generated by-recording are fairly low, and is recently in the wide use in printers.
The configuration of an ink supplying system in the above recording system is as follows: Ink which is stored in an ink tank as an ink storage member, is supplied to a recording head via an ink supplying route member such as la tube. The ink supplied to the recording head is temporarily stored in an ink temporary storage portion such as a common liquid chamber, and then is supplied into ink paths in accordance with the ink ejection, the ink paths communicating with orifices correspondingly, an ejection energy generating element being provided in each ink path.
A pressure exerted on the ink in the ink supplying system comprising the ink storage member, the ink supplying route member, and the ink paths in the recording head and the like, is always maintained to be lower than the atmospheric pressure (a pressure lower than the atmospheric pressure is hereinafter referred to as a negative pressure). This can prevent ink from leaking out from the orifices of the recording head and an air communication port of the ink storage member, through each of which the ink paths and an inside of the ink storage member communicate with air respectively. An ink supply from the ink storage member to the ink paths, in which ink refilling into the ink paths is included, is mainly performed by the capillary force of the ink paths and the ink supplying tube.
In the above ink supplying system, the above described negative pressure in the ink supplying system is generally obtained by making the pressure of the inside of the ink storage member negative. Some configurations for making the pressure of the inside of the ink storage member negative, will be shown below.
FIG. 1 is a view showing a head cartridge where the recording head and the ink tank is integrally formed. As shown in FIG. 1, in an ink tank 1000 as the ink storage member, a portion where ink is stored communicates with air via an air communicating port (not shown). Moreover, for instance, as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,771,295, a porous ink absorber 6000 typified by urethane sponge is housed in the ink storage portion. A force to hold ink, which is caused by a capillarity force of the ink absorber 6000 and is regarded as a virtual negative pressure, maintains the negative pressure in the inside of the ink supplying system composed of a series of members from the ink tank 1000 to the ink paths in a recording head unit IJU.
With respect to another configuration, as shown in FIG. 2, an ink storage portion 230 is made of flexible materials such as rubber, a plastic film, a laminated aluminum film, etc. in the shape of a bag. The inside of the bag and the whole ink supplying system are maintained at a negative pressure by sealing the inside of the ink storage portion 230 against air.
Besides the above configuration for generating the negative pressure, FIG. 3 shows still another configuration of the ink tank. In this configuration, a layer 130 of a liquid is formed on an upper surface of the ink 210 stored in the ink tank 110. The liquid has a specific gravity smaller than that of the ink and will not be mixed with the ink. In this configuration of the ink tank, since the inside of the ink tank communicates with air via an air communicating port 1120, the layer 130 of the liquid moves together with the ink liquid surface according to the ink consumption, and hence the layer can always separate the ink from air.
In the above described conventional ink storage member, as shown in FIG. 1, where the negative pressure is generated by the porous ink absorber which is provided in the ink tank and is typified by urethane sponge, an effective ink capacity (usable ink capacity) for the ink tank volume can not be obtained because of the existence of the ink absorber. In addition, when the amount of the ink in the ink tank decreases, the negative pressure increases to the contrary, and refilling of the ink into the ink paths accompanying the ink ejection can not be performed well. This may cause defective ejection such as non-ejection. In addition, since amount of remaining ink in the ink tank becomes large because of the negative pressure increasing, use efficiency of ink is difficult to raise.
Therefore, in the case where recording is performed by using the above conventional ink tank including the ink absorber so that a sufficient number of recorded sheets of paper can be obtained, there occurs a problem that the ink tank must be enlarged. Moreover, the urethane sponge of a porous absorber is relatively expensive, and its manufacturing process becomes complicated, and hence it is difficult to provide an ink tank of a low manufacturing cost and with high productivity.
In the configuration where the ink storage portion, as shown in FIG. 2, is made of flexible materials such as rubber formed in the shape of a bag, since the inside of the bag is always sealed and the bag is made of flexible materials, when the amount of the ink in the bag decreases in response to the ejection of ink and the like, the pressure in the bag decreases and causes deformation of the bag. As a result, and for the same reason as described above, all the ink in the bag can not be exhausted. Moreover, there also occurs a problem in that the ink tank must be enlarged in order to provide an amount of ink which is sufficient to record on the desired number of sheets of paper.
In the configuration of the ink storage member where the liquid layer is provided in the ink tank as shown in FIG. 3, a desired negative pressure can not be obtained by the ink tank itself. This may not prevent ink from leaking out from orifices of the recording head, and may have adverse effect on the ink ejection by the recording head in the recording apparatus, where the ink tank is mounted on a carriage and the ink in the ink tank vibrates markedly as a result of a movement of the carriage while a recording operation, so that the vibration is transmitted to the ink near the orifices. In addition, in the above configuration, the ink tank is only in the direction shown in FIG. 3. When the ink tank has another attitude or is moved violently, the movable wall, that is, the liquid layer may be destroyed and the ink may leak out via the air communicating port.
As for a configuration for solving the above problems in various kinds of the above ink storage member, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laying-Open No. 204355/1985 proposed by the assignee of the present invention discloses the ink storage member. This ink storage member has a movable wall therein. The movable Wall is disposed in the ink storage member in a manner that edges of the movable wall slidably contacts on internal wall of the ink storage member with one side face of the movable wall contacting ink stored in the ink storage member and with the other side face of the movable wall contacting air. This makes it possible to always maintain the constant negative pressure in the inside of the ink storage member by a friction force exerted on the sliding portion of the movable wall.
However, the ink storage member using the above movable wall has the following subject to be solved, which is associated with a setting of the friction force.
The ink storage member may have various attitudes according to the mount attitude of the recording apparatus on which the ink storage member is mounted. Incidentally, an ink jet recording apparatus of portable type may have various attitudes when transported, and may be subjected to a relatively great external force such as an impact. Consequently, the ink storage member mounted on such an ink jet recording apparatus, which uses the above movable wall, has a configuration that the movable wall must not move against various attitudes or the external force described above, and good ink supply must be always secured. In order to prevent the movable wall from moving easily in the case where a large amount of ink is stored in the ink storage member, it is considered that materials having relatively great friction coefficient may be employed for the movable wall, or that the maximum static friction force is designed to be great by making the contact area between the movable wall and the internal wall of the ink storage member large.
However, in this case, the movable wall may have a difficulty in moving according to the ink consumption by ink ejection or the like. As a result, the negative pressure in the ink storage portion increases excessively, so that the ink supply to the recording head may have a difficulty and then the ink ejection by the recording head may be disabled.
Besides the above described problem of setting the friction force of the movable wall, in the case where a large amount of ink is stored in the ink storage member, there may occur problems associated with the external force exerted on the ink storage member, a force of inertia produced when the ink storage member which moves together with a recording head, is accelerated or is decelerated during the recording operation and the variation of the pressure on ink in the ink storage member which is caused by a change in environmental temperatures or the like.
More specifically, when a large amount of ink is stored, the pressure on ink in the ink storage member fluctuates easily because of the above problems, so that ink may leak out from the orifices of the recording head when the pressure in the ink storage member is high, to the contrary, when the pressure is low, the ink may not be supplied to the recording head. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Fluid-ejecting devices such as print heads often incorporate a slotted substrate in their construction. It is desirable to form slotted substrates having fluid-handling slots positioned closely together on the substrate. Some current slotting techniques cannot produce slots as close together as desired. Other existing technologies produce slotted substrates having a high failure rate due to cracking. For these and other reasons, there is a need for the present invention. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing system, an image processing method, and a computer-readable recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
A print preview technique for previously displaying a print result of document data printed with color materials, such as toner and ink, on a base material (printing substrate), such as a paper medium, a transparent film, or a cloth medium, by using an image forming apparatus, such as a printer, on-screen on a display device, such as a display, has been known. Such a conventional print preview technique can be used, for example, to preview a print result when the position or lighting direction of a light source is changed.
Some print processes perform transfer and fixing a plurality of times by using special color materials (such as white toner and clear toner) as well as CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) process colors. A print result of such print processes has been unable to be previewed by the conventional print preview technique before actual printing. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an evaporative humidifier having a wick assembly. More particularly, the present invention relates to a wick assembly that includes a wick element and a rivet.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Humidifiers are useful in raising the humidity of air inside homes, particularly during periods of dry weather during the winter and heat inside a home causes the relative humidity within the home to be lowered to an uncomfortable level. Under these circumstances, it is beneficial to introduce moisture into the air. Several types of humidifiers for increasing humidity in a room are well known in the art, and include steam-type, ultrasonic, warm-air and evaporative humidifiers.
Certain humidifiers, and in particular the evaporative type, generally include a housing having an inlet, an outlet, and a reservoir for holding water, a water absorbing material seated partially submerged in the water of the reservoir, and a fan that is connected to the housing for creating an airflow. The water absorbing material is generally known as a wick in the art and is adapted to draw water in the upper non-emersed part by capillary action. The airflow created by the fan is directed to pass through the upper non-emersed portion of the wick to humidify the air in the room. The wicks tend to accumulate minerals from the water which blocks the capillary action of the wick. Accordingly, the performance of the wick degrades over time requiring replacement of the wick.
Portable humidifiers are currently manufactured with different performance capacities to suit a consumer's particular needs. The retailers that carry humidifiers are generally required out of necessity to offer a line of humidifiers having different performance characteristics. Since humidifiers that have a higher performance capacity generally require a larger wick, retailers must stock a plurality of different size wicks to satisfy the demands of all consumers. Replacement wicks are traditionally a bulky and expensive inventory for retailers to maintain because the wicks are expensive to purchase, do not turn over very often, and take up a lot of shelf space. In addition, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that very often by the time the consumer needs to replace the wick element, the packaging on the wick looks old and shoddy.
Another general problem associated with humidifiers is that the devices create noise which can be disturbing to the user. Most of the noise attributed to the humidifier is attributed to the airflow through the device. Generally the noise levels generated by the humidifier will increase with the volume of airflow passing through the device. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to a Duty Cycle Corrector (DCC), and more particularly, to a technique for correcting duty cycle with one clock to improve characteristics of DCC.
In semiconductor devices that operate based on a clock, a technique of controlling a duty cycle of the clock exactly is important. A clock duty of 50% indicates that a ‘high’ level interval of a clock signal is identical to a ‘low’ level interval of a clock signal.
For a semiconductor memory device, data should be input/output exactly in synchronization with a rising edge and a falling edge of a clock. In such a semiconductor device, if a duty ratio of clock is not exactly 50%, a timing mismatch occurs between the rising edge and the falling edge, which makes data not input/output at exact timing. Therefore, a semiconductor memory device adopts a DCC to correct a duty cycle of clock exactly to 50%.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional DCC for correcting a duty cycle of clock by mixing clocks.
In a conventional DCC 130 that corrects a duty cycle by mixing clocks CLK_1 and CLK_2, since the duty cycle is corrected by mixing the two clocks CLK_1 and CLK_2 having synchronized rising edges, a Delay Locked Loop (DLL) of dual loop structure is arranged in front of the DCC 130.
The DLL compensates for skew between an external clock EXTCLK and the internal clocks CLK_1 and CLK_2, and includes a first delay locking unit 110 and a second delay locking unit 120. The first delay locking unit 110 adjusts a delay value of the first clock CLK_1 to synchronize its rising edge with a rising edge of the external clock EXTCLK when there is a delay in the first clock CLK_1 while it passes through a chip. The second delay locking unit 120 adjusts a delay value of the second clock CLK_2 as an inverted clock of the first clock to synchronize its rising edge with a rising edge of the external clock EXTCLK when there is a delay in the second clock CLK_2 while it passes through the chip.
The present invention to be described later relates to the DCC 130 but does not relate directly to the DLL 110 and 120 and, since designing the DLL of dual loop structure is well-known to those skilled in the art, a further description thereon will be omitted herein.
The conventional DCC 130 mixes the first clock CLK_1 with the second clock CLK_2 as output clocks of the DLLs 110 and 120, and generates clocks CLK1_OUT and CLK2_OUT having corrected duty cycle. The first clock CLK_1 and the second clock CLK_2 have opposite duties (e.g., the first clock has a duty ratio of 7:3 and the second clock has a duty ratio of 3:7) and are synchronized with each other at their rising edge. Therefore, mixing the two clocks CLK_1 and CLK_2 may generate the clocks CLK1_OUT and CLK2_OUT having exactly 5:5 duty.
FIG. 2 a timing diagram showing a schematic operation of the conventional DCC 130.
The first clock CLK_1 and the second clock CLK_2 having locked delay values are output from the first delay locking unit 110 and the second delay locking unit 120 of the DLL. Referring to the drawing, it can be seen that the first clock CLK_1 and the second clock CLK_2 have independently locked delay values but have identically aligned rising edges.
The DCC 130 mixes the first clock CLK_1 with the second clock CLK_2. Since rising edges of the first clock CLK_1 and the second clock CLK_2 are aligned with each other, rising edges of mixed clocks CLK1_OUT and CLK2_OUT (upon completion of operation, CLK1_OUT=CLK2_OUT) remain unchanged. However, falling edges thereof have middle values of the falling edge of the first clock CLK_1 and the second clock CLK_2. Thus, the clocks CLK1_OUT and CLK2_OUT whose duties are corrected to 50% are output from the DCC 130.
The conventional DCC described above generates clocks having 50% duty by mixing the two clocks having opposite duties. However, although the two clocks having opposite duties are mixed, rising edges of the two clocks should be aligned with each other. Thus, there is a need for the DLL of dual loop structure in front of the DCC.
In short, since the conventional DCC adopts a technique of combining two clocks to correct a duty cycle of clock, it needs the DLL of dual loop structure in front of the DCC, which increases the overall area of the DLL two times. | {
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1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure may generally relate to a repair device and a semiconductor device including the repair device, and more particularly to post package repairs (PPRs).
2. Related Art
A semiconductor memory device includes a large number of memory cells integrated into one chip. However, if a defective or failed cell occurs in at least one memory cell from among a plurality of memory cells, it is impossible for a semiconductor memory device to operate normally. As a result, the semiconductor memory device having the defective cell is regarded as a defective product and abandoned. Semiconductor memory devices have been developed to have higher degrees of integration and operate at higher speeds, however higher degrees of integration and operating speeds increase the possibility of defective cells. Provided that the entirety of the semiconductor device is discarded due to a defect generated in only a few memory cells among all memory cells contained in the semiconductor memory device, the discarding of the entirety of the semiconductor memory device is cost ineffective and is far from productivity efficiency.
As a result, a production yield denoted by the ratio of a total number of chips to the number of normal chips, which is needed for deciding production costs of semiconductor memory devices, is gradually reduced. Therefore, in order to increase a production yield of semiconductor memory devices, many developers and companies are conducting intensive research into a method for fabricating highly-integrated semiconductor memory devices configured to operate at higher speeds and a method for efficiently repairing defective cells.
Generally, the semiconductor memory device includes a redundancy memory cell. When defective or failed memory cells occur after completion of such packaging, the defective memory cells are replaced with redundancy memory cells, such that the semiconductor memory device can be processed as a normal product. A method for replacing defective memory cells with redundancy memory cells after completion of a test in the packaged state is referred to as a post package repair (PPR).
The post package repair (PPR) technology can repair defective memory cells that are not discovered in a wafer state and generated after packaging completion, using an electrical fuse (e.g., array E-fuse: ARE), such that package productivity can increase through the post package repair (PPR) process. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a covered-type gate valve assembly, and more particularly, to a covered-type gate valve assembly for opening or closing a vacuum chamber.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, a gate valve assembly is widely applied on various kinds, of equipment, such as a stop valve used in water conduits, a discharge valve used in motorcycle's engines, and so on. Additionally, the gate valve assembly is also usually used in semiconductor apparatuses such as an etcher and a chemical vapor deposition apparatus.
Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) apparatus. As shown in FIG. 1, a CVD apparatus 10 comprises two load chambers 12 for carrying a wafer in or out of the CVD apparatus 10, a substrate-transferring chamber 14, and four reaction chambers 16 for performing a chemical vapor deposition process on the wafer, such as depositing a dielectric layer on the wafer. Additionally, the substrate-transferring chamber 14 functions as a buffer space for allowing the wafer to be transferred from one chamber to the other. Furthermore, the substrate-transferring chamber 14 includes a substrate-transferring device 18 at least comprising a robot and a stage for transferring the wafer.
The CVD apparatus 10 further comprises a plurality of gate valve assemblies 20. Each gate valve assembly 20 is located between each of the load chambers 12 and the substrate-transferring chamber 14, and between each of the reaction chambers 16 and the substrate-transferring chamber 14. Furthermore, each gate valve assembly 20 functions to open or close the chambers. Noticeably, the pressure of the substrate-transferring chamber 14 or each of the reaction chambers 16 is extremely low, and further, is close to a vacuum. Therefore, each gate valve assembly 20 must be provided with an excellent airtightness so as to maintain a vacuum level of each chamber.
Please refer to FIG. 2 to FIG. 5. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a prior art gate valve assembly. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view along line 3—3 of FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the gate valve assembly shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view along line 5—5 of FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 2, a gate valve assembly 20 comprises a valve seat 22 and a valve 30. Additionally, the valve seat 22 comprises a passage opening 24 for allowing the wafer to pass in and out of each chamber, and a plurality of metal sheets 28 located on the bottom of the passage opening 24.
Referring to FIG. 3, the valve 30 comprises a first surface 30a facing the passage opening 24 and a second surface 30b. Moreover, as shown in FIG. 4, the valve 30 comprises a groove 32 surrounding a rim of the first surface 30a, and an O-ring 34 positioned in the groove 32. As shown in FIG. 5, the O-ring 34 has an approximately round cross-section so that the O-ring 34 frequently drops from the groove 32. Accordingly, for tightly fixing the O-ring 34 in the groove 32, the valve 30 further includes polymer glue 36 for filling a gap between the O-ring 34 and sidewalls of the groove 32.
Referring to FIG. 3, the operation manner will be explained as follows. As shown in FIG. 3, a double arrow AA″ indicates a sliding direction along which the valve 30 slides. Furthermore, the passage opening 24 can be closed when the valve 30 slides downward, and after the passage opening 24 is closed, the O-ring 34 of the valve 30 is contacted with a plane 26 of the valve seat 22 for sealing the passage opening 24. On the contrary, when the valve 30 slides upward, the passage opening 24 is opened to make the wafer pass through the passage opening 24. Nevertheless, when the valve 30 slides upward or downward, the second surface 30b will rub against a side surface 28a of each metal sheet 28 frequently, which leads to producing particles. Since the gate valve assembly 20 is installed in the CVD apparatus 10, the produced particles will contaminate the inside of the CVD apparatus 10 and further influence a quality of the semiconductor process. Additionally, the polymer glue 36 is always corroded by a corrosive gas used in a CVD process, and therefore, the gap between the O-ring 34 and the sidewalls of the groove 32 is exposed. That would cause the valve 30 to be unable to seal the passage opening 24 completely, and thus, a vacuum level of the CVD apparatus 10 cannot be effectively maintained. | {
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The present invention relates, according to a first aspect, to a method for designing a spectacle lens for a user, the spectacle lens comprising a first lens element and at least one second lens element, the first lens element having a front surface and a back surface that comprises a first back surface region and a second back surface region, the at least one second lens element comprising a front surface and a back surface, the second back surface region of the first lens element and the front surface of the second lens element being contiguous, a front surface of the spectacle lens being formed by the front surface of the first lens element and a back surface of the spectacle lens being formed in a base region by the first back surface region of the first lens element and in an achromatic region by the back surface of the at least one second lens element.
The present invention furthermore relates, according to a second aspect, to a method for producing a spectacle lens, which comprises the method for designing a spectacle lens according to the first aspect.
According to a third aspect, the present invention relates to a computer program product having program code for carrying out the method for designing a spectacle lens according to the first aspect of the invention.
The present invention furthermore relates, according to a fourth aspect, to a spectacle lens comprising a first lens element and at least one second lens element, the first lens element being formed from a first material and the second lens element being formed from a second material, the first material and the second material interacting at least partially achromatically, the first lens element having a front surface and a back surface that comprises a first back surface region and a second back surface region, the at least one second lens element comprising a front surface and a back surface, the second back surface region of the first lens element and the front surface of the second lens element being contiguous, a front surface of the spectacle lens being formed by the front surface of the first lens element and a back surface of the spectacle lens being formed in a base region by the first back surface region of the first lens element and in an achromatic region by the back surface of the at least one second lens element, the first back surface region of the first lens element having a first tangent at at least one first transition point between the base region and the achromatic region in a first cross-sectional plane of the spectacle lens, the back surface of the at least one second element having a second tangent at the at least one first transition point in the first cross-sectional plane.
The present invention furthermore relates to spectacles comprising a frame and at least one spectacle lens according to the fourth aspect.
It is widely known that, owing to the wavelength dependency of the refractive index of the optical material from which it is manufactured, a spectacle lens causes chromatic aberrations when the spectacle lens is manufactured from only one lens element. The chromatic aberrations include axial chromatic aberration, which creates different foci for different wavelengths of light. This is also referred to as longitudinal chromatic aberration. Besides axial chromatic aberration, transverse chromatic aberration occurs as a further chromatic aberration, which is manifested by colour fringes or colour edges in the image plane, i.e. on the retina of the eye in the case of a spectacle lens, which the spectacle wearer perceives and finds perturbing beyond a certain strength. Transverse chromatic aberration is also referred to as difference in chromatic magnification or as lateral chromatic aberration.
An estimate of the width of the resulting colour fringes, or the transverse chromatic aberration, can be given according to standard technical literature, for instance Diepes/Blendowske, “Optik and Technik der Brille” [Optics and technology of spectacles], Optische Fachveröffentlichung GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany, 2005, Chapter 5.3, by the formula:
Δ δ chrom = δ e v e where Δδchrom is a width of the colour fringe in
cm m ,which is proportional to a prismatic power δe at the position in question and to the inverse of the Abbe number of the material in question. The prismatic power and the Abbe number in this case relate to the same wavelength, in the formula above to the e-line, i.e. a wavelength of 546.074 nm.
In the case of spectacle lenses with a low strength, the transverse chromatic aberration is not noticeable as a perturbation for the spectacle wearer. However, the chromatic aberration, in particular the transverse chromatic aberration, increases in the case of spectacle lenses with an increasing prismatic power. Furthermore, even if the ground prescription does not comprise prismatic correction, spectacle lenses may nevertheless exhibit transverse chromatic aberration owing to prismatic side-effects according to Prentice's rule for large viewing angles, even though the visual defect to be corrected is based on short-sightedness or long-sightedness.
High-index materials are often used nowadays, in particular plastics or high-index glass types, in order to keep the spectacle lens thickness as thin as possible for cosmetic reasons. Yet precisely in the case of materials with a high refractive index, the transverse chromatic aberration also becomes much stronger because an increasing refractive index generally entails a lower Abbe number.
It is therefore desirable to at least attenuate the transverse chromatic aberration which is created by a spectacle lens.
In the field of objectives, for example for cameras, it is known to correct chromatic aberration by so-called achromats. An achromat in optics means a system of at least two lenses which consist of materials with a different Abbe number and/or different refractive index and therefore different dispersion behaviour. One of the two lenses is a converging lens, which is conventionally made of a material with a higher Abbe number, for example crown glass, and the other lens is a diverging lens made of a material with a lower Abbe number and therefore higher dispersion than the converging lens, this lens being made for example from flint glass.
The two lenses are shaped and connected together at mutually complementary surfaces in such a way that the chromatic aberration is virtually eliminated for two wavelengths. The two lenses then interact achromatically.
In the context of the present invention, “interact with one another at least partially achromatically” or “interact achromatically” is intended to mean that the transverse chromatic aberration or the chromatic aberration is/are not necessarily entirely eliminated, but is/are at least attenuated.
The conventional achromats described above are not suitable for use as spectacle lenses. This is because, since these achromats are composed of two complete lenses, they also have a corresponding thickness and concomitantly a weight which is too high.
A lens is shown in the document GB 487 546 A. A lens may consist of two lens elements which essentially have the same refractive index, one of which lens elements is made of flint glass with a refractive index of about 1.61 and an inverse relative dispersion of about 36. The other lens element is made of barium crown glass with a refractive index of about 1.61 and an inverse relative dispersion of about 50. The former lens element is a diverging lens element, and the latter lens element is a converging lens element. The two lens elements are connected together at mutually complementary surfaces.
The lens produced in this way has a back surface, i.e. a surface facing towards the wearer's eye, which is formed entirely by the diverging lens element, while the front surface of the lens, i.e. the side of the lens facing away from the wearer's eye, is formed partially by the surface of the converging lens and in its edge region by the surface of the diverging lens. This lens furthermore suffers from the disadvantage that it consists of two lens elements and is therefore relatively thick and of high weight.
The technical article: “Hybrid diffractive-refractive achromatic spectacle lenses”, W. N. Charman, Ophthal. Physiol. Opt. 1994, Vol. 14, pages 389 to 392 also relates to the reduction of chromatic aberrations in spectacle lenses. It is emphasised therein that achromats which comprise a lens with a low refractive index and a high Abbe number and a lens with a high refractive index and a low Abbe number, of which the first lens is divergent and the other convergent, are not practicable as spectacle lenses since they conflict with the desire for small thickness and low weight of spectacle lenses. In order to overcome the difficulty of achromats, it is proposed therein to combine a refractive lens with a diffractive element, in which case the combination of the refractive lens and the diffractive element can have essentially the same thickness and the same weight as the refractive lens on its own.
However, a spectacle lens which is composed of a refractive lens and a diffractive element is very elaborate in terms of its production, since the diffractive element has to be produced with high precision in order to prevent other imaging defects from being induced by the diffractive element. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Memory devices are typically provided as internal, semiconductor, integrated circuits in computers or other electronic systems. There are many different types of memory including volatile and non-volatile memory. Volatile memory can require power to maintain its data (e.g., host data, error data, etc.) and includes random access memory (RAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), and thyristor random access memory (TRAM), among others. Non-volatile memory can provide persistent data by retaining stored data when not powered and can include NAND flash memory, NOR flash memory, and resistance variable memory such as phase change random access memory (PCRAM), resistive random access memory (RRAM), and magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), such as spin torque transfer random access memory (STT RAM), among others.
Electronic systems often include a number of processing resources (e.g., one or more processors), which may retrieve and execute instructions and store the results of the executed instructions to a suitable location. A processor can comprise a number of functional units such as arithmetic logic unit (ALU) circuitry, floating point unit (FPU) circuitry, and a combinatorial logic block, for example, which can be used to execute instructions by performing an operation on data (e.g., one or more operands). As used herein, an operation can be, for example, a Boolean operation, such as AND, OR, NOT, NAND, NOR, and XOR, and/or other operations (e.g., invert, shift, arithmetic, statistics, among many other possible operations). For example, functional unit circuitry may be used to perform the arithmetic operations, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division on operands, via a number of operations.
A number of components in an electronic system may be involved in providing instructions to the functional unit circuitry for execution. The instructions may be executed, for instance, by a processing resource such as a controller and/or host processor. Data (e.g., the operands on which the instructions will be executed) may be stored in a memory array that is accessible by the functional unit circuitry. The instructions and/or data may be retrieved from the memory array and sequenced and/or buffered before the functional unit circuitry begins to execute instructions on the data. Furthermore, as different types of operations may be executed in one or multiple clock cycles through the functional unit circuitry, intermediate results of the instructions and/or data may also be sequenced and/or buffered. A sequence to complete an operation in one or more clock cycles may be referred to as an operation cycle. Time consumed to complete an operation cycle costs in terms of processing and computing performance and power consumption, of a computing apparatus and/or system.
In many instances, the processing resources (e.g., processor and associated functional unit circuitry) may be external to the memory array, and data is accessed via a bus between the processing resources and the memory array to execute a set of instructions. Processing performance may be improved in a processor-in-memory (PIM) device, in which a processor may be implemented internally and near to a memory (e.g., directly on a same chip as the memory array). A processing-in-memory device may save time and/or power by reducing and/or eliminating external communications. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
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