[System] You are an expert US patent attorney. Draft a set of independent and dependent claims based on the provided invention description. Use correct USPTO formatting.

[User]
Title: Eddy Current Flaw Detection Device, Eddy Current Flaw Detection Method, And Eddy Current Flaw Detection Program

Technical Field and Background:
As a method for detecting a flaw, such as a crack, which exists in a vicinity of a surface of a metal, an eddy current flaw detection apparatus has been used. The eddy current flaw detection apparatus is configured such that an eddy current is generated on the surface of an inspection object by applying, to the inspection object, an excitation magnetic field from an excitation coil connected to an AC power source, and such that an induction magnetic field induced by the eddy current is detected by a detection coil. With the eddy current flaw detection apparatus, a flaw in the inspection object is detected in such a manner that a probe configured by the excitation coil and the detection coil is scanned on the surface of the inspection object, and that a change of the eddy current due to a flaw (crack) which exists in the surface of the inspection object is detected as a change of the induction magnetic field. Meanwhile, in order to detect a flaw with high sensitivity, it is necessary that the probe be scanned while the probe axis is made to coincide with the normal of the surface of the inspection object. When the probe inclines during the scanning, the sensitivity of detecting the flaw is reduced, and further, a ghost may be detected. In order to cope with this, there has been proposed a technique in which, in a test for detecting a flaw in a complicated-shaped surface having a three-dimensional shape change, the probe which is scanned is imaged so that the attitude of the probe is monitored (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Invention Disclosure:
There is provided an eddy current flaw detection technique capable of, even when inspecting an object having a narrow portion with a small curvature radius, recognizing detection sensitivity change due to change of attitude of a probe. An eddy current flaw detection apparatus 10 includes: an AC power source 14 which generates an excitation magnetic field in each of excitation coils 12a accommodated in a probe 11 to excite an eddy current in an inspection object 13; a detecting section 15 which detects a detection signal generated by an induction magnetic field induced by the eddy current in each of detection coils 12 accommodated in the probe 11; an output section 16 which outputs flaw detection data based on the detection signals; a storage section 17 which mutually associates and stores the detection signals detected at the same timing from the plurality of coils 12b; and an evaluating section 18 which evaluates an attitude of the probe 11 based on the plurality of detection signals detected at the same timing and associated with each other.

[Assistant]
1. An eddy current flaw detection apparatus comprising:
an AC power source configured to generate an excitation magnetic field in each of a plurality of coils accommodated in a probe to excite an eddy current in an inspection object;
a detector configured to detect a detection signal generated by an induction magnetic field induced by the eddy current in each of the plurality of coils accommodated in the probe;
an output configured to output flaw detection data based on the detection signals;
a storage configured to mutually associate and store the detection signals detected at a same time from the plurality of coils; and
an evaluating circuit configured to evaluate an attitude of the probe at a detected timing based on the plurality of detection signals detected using the detector and mutually associated in the storage, wherein:
each of the plurality of coils accommodated in the probe is configured to be enabled to detect a flaw in a self-induction mode, where each of the plurality of coils serves as both an excitation coil and a detection coil,
the plurality of coils accommodated in the probe are configured to be enabled to detect the flaw in a mutual induction mode, where at least one of the coils is operated as the detection coil, and
the evaluating circuit is configured to evaluate the attitude of the probe based on switching between an amplitude detected with the coils in the self-induction mode and a positive-or-negative of a phase detected with the coils upon switching to the mutual-induction mode.

2. The eddy current flaw detection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:
a control section configured to scan the probe based on a scanning program, wherein:
the storage section is configured to mutually associate and store the detection signals and position data on the inspection object, the position data being outputted at the same time as the detection signals.

3. The eddy current flaw detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of coils is arranged to have a central axis perpendicular to an axis of the probe.

4. The eddy current flaw detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the attitude of the probe is expressed by an inclination angle and an inclination direction of the axis of the probe with respect to a normal of the inspection object.

5. An eddy current flaw detection method comprising:
generating an excitation magnetic field in each of a plurality of coils accommodated in a probe to excite an eddy current in an inspection object;
detecting a detection signal generated by an induction magnetic field induced by the eddy current in each of the plurality of coils accommodated in the probe;
outputting flaw detection data based on the detection signals;
mutually associating and storing the detection signals detected at a same time from the plurality of coils;
evaluating an attitude of the probe at a detected timing based on the plurality of detection signals detected and mutually associated and stored;
detecting a flaw in a self-induction mode using each of the plurality of coils accommodated in the probe, where each of the plurality of coils serves as both an excitation coil and a detection coil; and
detecting the flaw in a mutual induction mode using each of the plurality of coils, where at least one of the coils is operated as the detection coil,
wherein the evaluating the attitude of the probe is based on switching between an amplitude detected with the coils in the self-induction mode and a positive-or-negative of a phase detected with the coils upon switching to the mutual-induction mode.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method for detecting an eddy current flaw comprising:
generating an excitation magnetic field in each of a plurality of coils accommodated in a probe to excite an eddy current in an inspection object;
detecting a detection signal generated by an induction magnetic field induced by the eddy current in each of the plurality of coils accommodated in the probe;
outputting flaw detection data based on the detection signals;
mutually associating and storing the detection signals detected at a same time from the plurality of coils;
evaluating an attitude of the probe at a detected timing based on the plurality of detection signals detected and mutually associated and stored;
detecting a flaw in a self-induction mode using each of the plurality of coils accommodated in the probe, where each of the plurality of coils serves as both an excitation coil and a detection coil; and
detecting the flaw in a mutual induction mode using each of the plurality of coils, where at least one of the coils is operated as the detection coil,
wherein the evaluating the attitude of the probe is based on switching between an amplitude detected with the coils in the self-induction mode and a positive-or-negative of a phase detected with the coils upon switching to the mutual-induction mode.


[System] You are an expert US patent attorney. Draft a set of independent and dependent claims based on the provided invention description. Use correct USPTO formatting.

[User]
Title: Method To Match Soi Transistors Using A Local Heater Element

Technical Field and Background:
Many circuits such as current mirrors, input pairs of operational amplifiers and comparators require matched circuit components. The mismatch between transistors in these types of devices gets larger and larger as these types of devices get smaller and smaller. A circuit diagram of a conventional 3 bit flash analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is shown in FIG. 1 . The 3-bit flash ADC employs a resistor chain with 2 N =8 resistors 1002 (N=number of bits) and 2 N −1=7 comparators 1004 . The reference voltage 1010 for each comparator 1004 is one least significant bit (LSB) lower than the reference voltage 1008 for the comparator immediately above it 1006 . Each comparator produces a “1” when its analog input 1012 is higher than the reference voltage 1010 and produces a “0” when its analog input is lower than the reference voltage. For example, if the voltage of the analog input signal 1018 lies between the reference voltage on comparator C 3 1014 and comparator C 4 1016 , comparators C 1 1004 through C 3 1014 produce “1” outputs and comparators C 4 1016 through C 7 1020 produce “0” outputs. The point where the code changes from “1”s to “0”s is the point where the input signal becomes smaller than the respective comparator reference voltage levels. An error may occur when there is an offset voltage between the reference voltage input 1010 and the analog input 1012 of a comparator 1004 . When this occurs the comparator may output the wrong value if the offset voltage adds or subtracts sufficient voltage from the analog input signal to either raise it above or reduce it below the reference voltage. SOI transistors are especially sensitive to variation due to heating effects because the buried oxide (BOX) upon which SOI transistors are constructed is an excellent thermal insulator. The threshold voltage (vt) of a typical transistor may change by as much as 1 mV per 1 degree change in temperature.

Invention Disclosure:
An integrated circuit with a matched transistor pair with a matching resistance heater coupled to each transistor of the matched transistor pair. A method for forming a matching resistance heater. A method for operating an SOI integrated circuit containing a matched transistor pair with a matching resistance heater coupled to each transistor of the matched transistor pair.

[Assistant]
1. A process of forming an SOI integrated circuit, comprising the steps:
forming a first transistor and a second transistor in said SOI integrated circuit where said first transistor and said second transistor form a matched transistor pair;
forming a first matching resistance heater coupled to said first transistor but not the second transistor so as to alter the threshold voltage of the first transistor; and
forming a second matching resistance heater coupled to said second transistor but not the first transistor so as to alter the threshold voltage of the second transistor.

2. A process of forming an SOI integrated circuit, comprising the steps:
forming a first transistor and a second transistor in said SOI integrated circuit where said first transistor and said second transistor form a matched transistor pair;
forming a first matching resistance heater coupled to said first transistor; and
forming a second matching resistance heater coupled to said second transistor, wherein said step of forming a first matching resistance heater further comprises the steps:
forming a diffusion in contact with at least one of a source and a drain of said first transistor where a doping of said diffusion is opposite to the doping of said source and said drain;
doping said diffusion;
blocking silicide from a diode between said diffusion and said at least one of said source and said drain; and
blocking silicide from a center portion of said diffusion to form a resistor body of said first matching resistance heater.

3. The process of claim 2 where said SOI transistor is nmos and said resistor is p-type single crystal silicon with a resistivity between 100 ohms and 10 kohms.

4. The process of claim 1 where said step of forming a first matching resistance heater further comprises the steps:
forming a polysilicon resistor geometry at the same time a gate geometry of said first transistor formed and over an active geometry of said first transistor and adjacent to at least one of a source and a drain said first transistor;
doping said polysilicon resistor geometry to a desired resistivity; and
blocking silicide formation over a body of said polysilicon resistor geometry.

5. The process of claim 4, wherein said SOI transistor is nmos and said polysilicon resistor has a resistivity between 100 ohms and 10 kohms.

6. The process of claim 1 where said step of forming a first matching resistance heater further comprises the steps:
forming a polysilicon resistor geometry which overlies a gate geometry of said SOI transistor;
doping said polysilicon resistor geometry to a desired resistivity; and
blocking silicide formation over a body of said polysilicon resistor geometry.

7. The process of claim 6, wherein said polysilicon resistor has a resistivity between 100 ohms and 10 kohms.


[System] You are an expert US patent attorney. Draft a set of independent and dependent claims based on the provided invention description. Use correct USPTO formatting.

[User]
Title: Automatic Analyzer

Technical Field and Background:
Automatic analyzers that analyze blood and other biological samples automatically and output the results are among the apparatuses absolutely necessary to perform efficient analyses at the testing centers and other medical laboratory facilities that subcontract to test/examine samples on behalf of hospitals and clinics that have many patients. It is being desired that these automatic analyzers be more compact, capable of conducting more kinds of analyses, and have higher throughput. If the reagent set up in the apparatus runs short during analysis, stopping the analysis before taking any necessary steps will reduce the efficiency of the analysis. Automatic analyzers are therefore designed so that if a shortage of reagent is likely, the apparatus will warn the operator about the shortage, thus avoiding the situation that the operator will have to stop the apparatus to replace the reagent with a new one of the same kind during the analysis. JP 4033060 describes a more advanced technique for preventing a shortage of reagent from occurring during analysis. In the technique of JP 4033060, a first and a second reagent-container storage means are provided beforehand and if the reagent stored within the first reagent-container storage means runs short, a reagent container as a replacement is supplied from the second reagent-container storage means automatically. According to the technique described in JP 4033060, although a plurality of reagent containers can be stored in the second reagent-container storage means, one reagent container can only be conveyed at a time from the second reagent-container storage means to the first reagent-container storage means. In addition, holding a plurality of reagent containers in the second reagent-container storage means for an extended time requires providing cold-storage means, the provision of which could result in an oversized apparatus structure. Analyzers are known in various embodiments, e.g., from EP 0 703 457 B1, EP 1 275 966 B1, U.S. Pat. No. 7,547,414 B2 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,384,601 B2. Those analyzers are used for automatically analyzing samples in order to determine the existence and particularly the concentration of specific components in the samples. Such analyzers are widely used in hospitals and clinical laboratories to analyze biological samples, namely body fluids collected from patients, such as blood and urine, in order to diagnose their morbidities. A method for analyzing such a biological fluid sample by means of an analyzer of the above mentioned type is explained in, e.g., EP 1 051 621 B1. The workflow of an analyzer of the above mentioned kind is usually completely sample orientated, i.e., analytical determinations are performed serially in a respective fluid sample, wherein for each analytical determination a set of different reagents is used to be added to a separated part of said sample. It is therefore required to provide a lot of different reagents on the turntable of the apparatus for providing reagents, and it is required that a fast access to particular reagent container assemblies on the turntable by treatment means such as pipetting means or agitating means is possible in order to achieve a high throughput of the analyzer. It is generally required that such an analyzer apparatus and particularly the apparatus for providing reagents has small dimensions to be space-saving.

Invention Disclosure:
According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the analyzer includes a reagent driving disk that accommodates a reagent configured for analysis and that transports the reagent to a desired position, and a fixed disk that has a reagent stand-by position in which to make a reagent container containing the reagent, temporarily stand by, and a magnetic particles stirring position for stirring magnetic particles. A portion of the reagent stand-by position is constituted by a loading system. A reagent container moving unit moves reagent containers containing the reagent, between the reagent driving unit and the fixed disk, according to analytical request status. Providing in a part of the fixed disk the loading system constructed so that reagent containers containing the reagent can be mounted therein during operation enables changing of reagent containers, irrespective of an operational status of the reagent driving disk, and the system to having cold-storage functionality.

[Assistant]
1. A method for providing reagents within an analyzer comprising:
providing:
a turntable having an axis of rotation and configured to store thereon a plurality of reagent container assemblies in an arrangement of at least one arcuate row, wherein each of the plurality of reagent container assemblies has at least two container sections, each of which has an inner volume to contain a particular reagent, and which container sections are arranged side-by-side in a row on a straight radial line and are connected to form a unitary cassette type assembly;
at least one treatment zone for treating reagent container assemblies stored on the turntable, the treatment zone is defined within the circumference of the turntable and has a surface area less than the surface area of the turntable;
treatment means comprising pipetting means and agitating means, where the treatment means treat reagent container assemblies positioned in the treatment zone, and the pipetting means and the agitating means are movable along a rectilinear operational path that extends within the circumference of the turntable, wherein the treatment zone is radially aligned with the rectilinear operational path of the pipetting means and the agitating means, and the treatment zone has a surface area less than the surface area of the turntable;
wherein the turntable comprises compartments arranged to accommodate the reagent container assemblies at predetermined locations on the turntable so as to form the arrangement of at least one arcuate row of reagent container assemblies corresponding to the arrangement of the compartments;
a circular first turntable partition that is adjustable by rotation so as to selectively move respective ones of the compartments in predetermined positions for disposing reagent container assemblies in predetermined positions in and out of the treatment zone and the first turntable partition is centered around the axis of rotation and carrying the arcuate row of compartments;
a fixed second turntable partition arranged radially adjacent to the first turntable partition and carrying a first compartment for accommodating a reagent container assembly therein, wherein the second turntable partition is fixed without a motor and is incapable of rotation with respect to the axis of rotation such that the first compartment remains located in the treatment zone;
the first turntable partition is rotatable relative to the fixed second turntable partition about the axis of rotation so as to selectively adjust a compartment of the first turntable partition in radial alignment with the first compartment of the fixed second turntable partition in a mutual transfer position in which a reagent container assembly is radially shiftable by a container shift mechanism between the aligned compartments in the treatment zone, the container shift mechanism comprising a shifting arm extending out from the axis of rotation and comprising a gripping element rotatable about a longitudinal axis of the shifting arm between an engagement position and a release position;
the pipetting means is movable along the rectilinear operational path to access at least one of reagent container assemblies positioned in a predetermined position in the treatment zone;
the agitating means is movable along the rectilinear operational path and configured to access in the treatment zone a reagent container assembly accommodated in the first compartment of the fixed second turntable partition in order to agitate a content of the container assembly in the first compartment; and
the first turntable partition is operable to provide reagent container assemblies in the treatment zone for being treated by the pipetting means independently of the operation of the agitating means and out of the treatment zone by rotation; and rotating the gripping element about the longitudinal axis of the shifting arm.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising arranging the first circular turntable partition radially outward of the second turntable partition with regard to the axis of rotation.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising rotating a second gripping element about the longitudinal axis of the shifting arm between the engagement position and the release position, the second gripping element located between the first gripping element and the axis of rotation along the arm.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising simultaneously operating the container shift mechanism and the pipetting means in order to simultaneously treat separate reagent container assemblies with the container shift mechanism and the pipetting means.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second turntable partition carries a plurality of compartments including the first compartment for accommodating reagent container assemblies in an arrangement of an arcuate row radially adjacent the arcuate row of compartments of the first turntable partition, and further comprising radially aligning the second turntable partition with respective compartments of the first turntable partition in mutual transfer positions.

6. The method according to claim 3, further comprising moving the container shift mechanism around the axis of rotation at selected angular positions corresponding to angular positions of the radial alignment of compartments aligned in their mutual transfer positions.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising aligning at least one of the compartments of the first turntable partition and at least one of the compartments of the second turntable partition to dispose reagent container assemblies contained therein on a straight radial line when positioned relative to each other in the predetermined positions in the treatment zone, and wherein the apparatus for providing reagents further comprises a driving and guiding means for selectively moving the pipetting means to reagent container assemblies positioned relative to each other in the predetermined positions in the treatment zone.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the pipetting means comprise at least two pipetting units and, moving each pipetting unit according to a specific treatment program via the driving and guiding means.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising simultaneously operating the agitating means and the pipetting means to simultaneously treat separate reagent container assemblies.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the turntable has a radial inner center including the axis of rotation, and further providing a cleaning station for cleaning treatment means and a drain channel for draining cleaning fluid, and wherein the drain channel is arranged in the area of the radial inner center, between three separate driving means of the container shift mechanism, each of the driving means providing movement for an aspect of the container shift mechanism along a different direction, and further comprising draining the cleaning fluid.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising moving the agitator means between a working position to agitate fluid in a reagent container assembly positioned in the first compartment and at least one other position outside of the container assembly.

12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising moving the pipetting means and agitating means independently from each other along the rectilinear operational path.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the treatment means comprises a frame fixed radially outward of the turntable and which extends above the turntable, and further comprising moveably disposing the pipetting means and agitating means for movement along the rectilinear operational path and acting in the treatment zone.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the treatment means comprises a frame fixed radially outward of the turntable and which extends horizontally above the turntable via a cantilever, the cantilever moveably disposed thereon the pipetting means and agitating means for movement along the rectilinear operational path and acting in the treatment zone, and further comprising independently moving the pipetting means and agitating means along the cantilever.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising shifting the shifting arm longitudinally along a horizontal guidance via a drive means.