A method of fabricating a developer bearing body includes the steps of preparing metallic base material blasting the surface of the metallic base material using spherical particles and plating the surface of the metallic base material blasted, wherein a thickness of the plating layer is two or more times as large as a particle diameter in volume average of the developer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is used for image forming apparatuses such as copying machines and printers using the electrophotographic method and the electrostatic recording method, and relates to a developing apparatus for developing an electrostatic image on an image bearing body, a developer bearing body used for this developing apparatus and a production method for the developer bearing body.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus of, for example, the electrophotographic type, an electrostatic latent image has been formed on an image bearing body made of electrophotographic photoreceptor, and the latent image has been developed by a developer unit. The developer unit has a development sleeve as a developer bearing body for bearing developer to convey.
The surface of this development sleeve is unevenly roughened to promote the conveyance of developer, and there are known knurled grooves in a development sleeve mainly for two-component development as shown in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 54-79043 formerly, and blasting treatment in a development sleeve mainly for one-component development as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-26526.
In the case of a development sleeve subjected to blasting treatment, since asperities on the surface are prone to be worn and reduced by long-term use, for example, high-hardness material such as SUS (Vickers hardness Hv.congruent.180) is most frequently used for the material for the development sleeve in order to prevent the wear, and formerly the Alundum blasting method has been used in which alumina particles are used as blasting abrasive grains (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-66455).
As shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 57-116372, 58-11974, 1-131586 and the like, however, a sharp, uneven roughened surface is formed on the surface of a development sleeve made of SUS in the blasting treatment using Alundum. FIG. 14 is a schematic view showing a roughness profile curve for the development sleeve surface subjected to the Alundum blasting treatment. During long-term use, it is known that specially-fine toner and the like will be filled in sharp concave portions on this surface (hereinafter, the state in which this toner and the like are filled in will be referred to as "sleeve contamination"), and charging of toner in the portions will be hindered to cause a defective image.
Thus, a method of performing blasting treatment using spherical particles such as, for example, glass beads is considered. FIG. 15 is a schematic view showing a similar roughness profile curve using the glass beads blasting treatment. As shown in FIG. 15, the roughened surface having a smooth cross-sectional shape on the surface of the development sleeve of SUS can be obtained according to the glass beads blasting treatment, and the sleeve contamination can be reduced.
On the other hand, as the material for the development sleeve, aluminum is popularly being used. This is because if aluminum is used, the cost of the sleeve could be reduced although SUS is expensive, and if an a-Si drum (amorphous silicon drum) is used as a photosensitive drum, the aluminum sleeve will be indispensable for the following reason.
When the a-Si drum is used as a photosensitive drum at high humidities, an electric discharge product (such as NOx) adhering to the surface of the photosensitive drum takes up moisture so that surface charge on the photosensitive drum which forms an electrostatic latent image after charging and exposure escapes in the vicinity through the electric discharge product to disturb the latent image, resulting in a turbulent image. In order to prevent this turbulent image, there is a method in which the surface is made easier to be shaved like an OPC drum and the surface layer including NOx is shaved. This method is effective for the flow of the image, but the life of the a-Si drum will be naturally shortened. Thus, a surface-like heating element or the like is placed into the photosensitive drum, and it is heated while the image forming apparatus is in a standby state, to prevent the electric discharge product from taking up moisture. However, the heat at the photosensitive drum is transmitted to the development sleeve which is opposed thereto. If it is made of SUS having low thermal conductivity, the development sleeve will be considerably thermally deformed. When it is the first copy after the standby and for example, a halftone image which ought to have uniform density is copied, a defective image occurs as sleeve pitch-shaped unevenness in the density. In contrast, the development sleeve made of aluminum is hardly thermally deformed, and such unevenness in the density as the deformation is made conspicuous hardly appears. Therefore, it is indispensable to combine the aluminum sleeve with the a-Si drum (with a built-in heater).
Since, however, the aluminum sleeve has as low hardness as Hv.congruent.100, the asperities on the surface provided by the blasting treatment will be easily worn by use and reduced soon.
For this reason, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-276174, there is a carbon-coated development sleeve having high-hardness resin coated on the surface of the aluminum sleeve. As high-hardness resin, for example, phenolic resin is coated on the surface of the aluminum sleeve, and graphite is dispersed on the phenolic resin in advance to thereby obtain the conductivity required as the development sleeve.
In the carbon-coated sleeve, the phenolic resin is coated with a thickness of about 10 to 20 .mu.m by dipping or spraying, and therefore, the resin surface basically takes over the uneven shape of the aluminum surface as the substrate. The minute surface property, however, looks as if graphite particles 102 are imbedded in the phenolic resin 100 as shown in FIG. 16, and the roughness cross-sectional shape is comparatively close to the surface state subjected to the Alundum blasting treatment shown in FIG. 14, having a surface on which sharp asperities are present. Toner is imbedded in these sharp concave portions to easily cause the sleeve contamination.
This carbon-coated sleeve has conventionally been used for a developer unit for laser beam printers (LBP) for negatively chargeable OPC, digital copying machines and the like. In the case of LBP, long-term use is not assumed because the development sleeve is also included in a cartridge as consumables. The development is of the reversal development system using negative toner. The resin used as negative toner such as, for example, styrene acryl and polyester is basically strongly negatively chargeable. The negative toner is highly electrified, and the toner can have a sufficient amount of charge even if the sleeve contamination occurs, and therefore, there were many cases where almost no problem is presented. Also, since the carbon-coated sleeve is also shaved little by little, it may be considered that the contaminant also might have been shaved together. For the reason, however, the carbon-coated sleeve was inferior to SUS in respect of life although it has high hardness.
In recent years, however, there has been the tendency to further reduce the toner particle diameter in order to improve the image quality, and it could be understood that the sleeve contamination is prone to occur more than before.
With reference to FIG. 17, this will be described. FIG. 17 is a view obtained by enlarging the asperities in the roughness profile curve of FIG. 15. FIG. 15 is, as described above, the roughness profile curve obtained when the surface of the development sleeve made of SUS is subjected to the blasting treatment using spherical particles of glass beads. In FIG. 17, in the case of large-diameter toner, it does not enter cracks in large asperities in the roughness profile curve, i.e., small concave portions such as, for example, concave portions a, b and c, but if the toner is turned into smaller-diameter, it is considered that toner which enters those small concave portions a, b and c, and the like, will be increased to thereby cause the sleeve contamination.
In small-diameter toner having particle size distribution for an average particle diameter of, for example, 7 .mu.m, there is contained 15 to 20% of smaller toner having particle diameter of 4 .mu.m or less, and these toner enter small concave portions a, b, c and the like. Of course, if fine powder in the toner is removed, it will be possible to reduce smaller toner, but smaller toner cannot be reduced to 0% in the manufacturing cost of the toner.
Also, even if the particle diameter of the toner is not reduced as described above, if toner having low electrification property (particularly, positive toner) is used, slight sleeve contamination easily causes inhibited electrification of toner, resulting in a problem of low density.
Under such circumstances, it becomes necessary to take a countermeasure against the sleeve contamination in order to extend the life of the developer unit.

Developer bearing body electroless plated on blasted surface using spherical particles, production method therefor and developing apparatus using the same


A sample treating method and apparatus adapted to treat a sample such as a semiconductor element substrate or the like and, particularly, a sample that must be etched and anticorrosion-treated. The adhered matters formed by the etching of the sample are removed from the sample sufficiently and easily when the etched sample is treated by utilizing the plasma of an anticorrosion gas that is capable of removing the adhered matters. There is required no wet-type anticorrosion treatment enabling the throughput to be improved in treating the samples that must be etched and anticorrosion-treated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sample treating method and an apparatus, and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for treating samples such as semiconductor element substrates that are to be etched as well as to be anticorrosion-treated.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In etching samples such as semiconductor element substrates having, for example, an aluminum film, an aluminum alloy film, or a multi-film structure consisting of these films and a barrier metal using a plasma of a halogen gas, a problem arises in regard to corrosion when they are exposed to the atmosphere after etching. Therefore, these samples must be anticorrosion-treated in addition to being etched. In order to cope with such requirements, there have heretofore been proposed the following technologies.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 30268/1987 discloses a technology of dry-etching and after-treatment according to which an aluminum film or an aluminum alloy film such as of aluminum-silicon, aluminum-copper, or aluminum-silicon-copper is dry-etched in a vessel using a halogen compound gas which is active, followed by treatment with a plasma of a mixture gas consisting of fluorocarbon and oxygen without taking it out of the vessel.
Further, Japanese Patent Publication No. 12343/1983 discloses a technology which exposes the etched aluminum film or the aluminum alloy film to the fluorination plasma in order to prevent the film etched by using the chlorination plasma from corroding after etching.
According to such technologies, however, it is difficult to remove corrosive matter formed during the etching of the samples and adhesive to the side walls of the patterns. In such prior technologies, furthermore, the substitution reaction (substitution into Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 due to the reaction of, for example, AlCl.sub.3 which is a component of the adherred corrosive matter with, for example, oxygen which is a component of gas plasma in the after-treatment) takes place on the surface layer only of the corrosive matter adhered to the side walls of the pattern, and does not proceed into the adhered corrosive matter. When the samples are exposed to the atmosphere, furthermore, water content in the open air infiltrates into the corrosive adhered matter which is not dense, whereby the reaction takes place between the infiltrated water content and the corrosive adhered matter to form a corrosive component (e.g., hydrochloric acid) that corrodes the samples. According to the conventional technologies, as described above, the samples after etching do not have sufficient resistance against the corrosion. In dealing with modern multi-layer films consisting of aluminum and other materials or aluminum alloy films containing copper, in particular, corrosion develops due to the so-called cell action (aluminum works as an anode), the degree of corrosion is accelerated, and lack of resistance against the corrosion becomes more conspicuous.
Therefore, these samples have generally been anticorrosion-treated by a wet system after etching as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 133388/1986. The wet-type anticorrosion treatment makes it possible to remove corrosive matters adhered to the side walls of the pattern of the samples and to increase resistance of the samples against corrosion in the open air after etching.
According to the above-mentioned prior art which anticorrosion-treat the samples based on the wet system after etching, any water content remaining after the wet-type anticorrosion treatment reacts with a component containing, for example, chlorine that remains after the wet-type anticorrosion treatment or reacts with chlorine in the open air to form hydrochloric acid (HCl) which is a corrosive component. Therefore, the samples are corroded after the wet-type anticorrosion treatment. Inevitably, therefore, drying is required after the wet anticorrosion treatment.
Therefore, the conventional are involves the following problems.
(1) An extended period of time (at least wet-type anticorrosion treatment time plus dry treatment time) is required before the anticorrosion treatment of samples is finished after etching, and the throughput decreases.
(2) The cost of the apparatus increases and an increased area is occupied by the apparatus when the samples after etching are anticorrosion-treated using a wet-type anticorrosion treatment apparatus and another dry-treatment apparatus (needing means for conveying the samples between these apparatus as a matter of course).
(3) Apparatus are needed to recover waste liquor from the wet-type anticorrosion treatment and to treat the waste liquor, causing the apparatus to become complex and increasing the cost.


A system and method for automatically analyzing virtual machine bytecode of a software application and adding additional bytecode operable to determine information regarding database access performed by the software application are described. According to one embodiment of the method, program code of a software application may be received, wherein the program code includes bytecode for a virtual machine. The bytecode may be automatically analyzed to detect access to a database. The method may operate to automatically add additional bytecode to the bytecode of the software application, where the added bytecode is operable to determine information regarding the access to the database.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer software. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and method for automatically analyzing virtual machine bytecode of a software application and adding additional bytecode operable to determine information regarding database access performed by the software application.
2. Description of the Related Art
Software developers typically create the source code for software applications in a high-level programming language by writing textual program statements that specify the application's functionality. The source code may then be compiled into executable machine code that can be executed by a physical processor. This executable machine code is also referred to as native code because it is formatted so that it executes on a specific type of processor using that processor's instruction set. Thus, native code is typically not portable across different types of computing devices, e.g., devices that use different types of processors.
An alternative method of program execution is to compile the source code into an intermediate form of code called bytecode, which is a binary representation of program instructions suitable for execution on a specific type of virtual machine. The virtual machine itself is implemented in software and is executed by the processor of the physical computing device. A software application that has been compiled into bytecode instructions may be executed on the virtual machine, e.g., by the virtual machine dynamically interpreting the bytecode instructions. Alternatively, another level of compilation may be performed. For example, some virtual machine runtime environments perform just-in-time compilation to compile bytecode into native code during execution of the software application.
The virtual machine provides a layer of abstraction between the compiled bytecode and the underlying hardware platform and operating system. Thus, compiling a software application into bytecode rather than native code may reduce the software application's dependence on specific hardware. For example, the same bytecode may be executed on several different types of computing platforms as long as a virtual machine to execute the bytecode is available on all the respective computing platforms.
Software application code that has been compiled into bytecode may be operable to perform any of various kinds of functions. Many software applications utilize a database to store or manage data for various purposes. In particular, many software applications connect to relational databases in order to manage data.

Automatically adding bytecode to a software application to determine database access information


This disclosure describes barcode scanning techniques for an image capture device. The image capture device may automatically detect a barcode within an image while the image capture device is operating in a non-barcode image capture mode, such a default image capture mode. In one aspect, the detection of the barcode within the image may be based on a combination of identified edges and low intensity regions within the image. The image capture device may configure, based on the detection of the barcode, one or more image capture properties associated with the image capture device to improve a quality at which the images are captured. The image capture device captures the image in accordance with the configured image capture properties. The techniques may effectively provide a universal and integrated front-end for producing improved quality images of barcodes without requiring significant interaction with a user via a complicated user interface.

A barcode is a machine-readable representation of information in the form of one or more patterns. Conventional one-dimensional barcodes represent information in the form of a series of parallel, adjacent bars of various widths and spacings. Barcodes have expanded, however, to represent information in a number of other patterns, such as patterns of dots, concentric circles and the like. These other patterns may include shapes arranged in one-dimensional (1D) or two-dimensional (2D) patterns.
Barcodes may be used to identify, track, inventory and price items. Typically, barcodes are used to associate an identification number to a type of item using a database or other tracking system. Barcodes, however, have recently begun to be used for encoding a wide variety of information associated with the item to which it is attached or to other related items. Barcodes have thus emerged as a way of communicating information for purposes unrelated to the traditional uses. Consequently, consumers, rather than solely retailers, have begun to embrace the efficiency with which barcodes can convey information.

Image capture device with integrated barcode scanning


A perhydrolysis system or activated oxidant system for in situ generation of peracid in aqueous solutions is disclosed including a protease enzyme, a source of hydrogen peroxide and an ester substrate having the general structure ##STR1## where R and R' are alkyl groups unsubstituted or substituted with at least one functional group. Preferred substrates are defined which are preferably chemically non-perhydrolyzable. Processes for bleaching and peracid production are also disclosed.

Various bleaches have long been employed in numerous cleaning applications including the washing and prewashing of fabrics as well as in other applications such as hard surface cleaning. In these applications, the bleaching agent oxidizes various stains or soils on fabrics, textiles and hard surfaces.
Peroxygen bleaching compounds such as hydrogen peroxide, sodium percarbonate and sodium perborate have been found useful in dry bleach formulations because of their oxidizing power.
It has also been found that certain organic compounds, including activators such as tetraacetylethylenediamine, can be added to perborate bleaches for improved bleaching performance because of in situ formation of peracetic acid.
Cleaning compositions for fabrics, textiles and other materials including hard surfaces have also been developed which employ various enzymes for removing certain stains or soils. Protease enzymes have been found useful for hydrolyzing protein-based stains particularly in the cleaning of fabrics. Amylase enzymes have been found useful against carbohydrate-based stains resulting, for example, from foods. Lipase enzymes have also been found useful for hydrolyzing fat-based stains in a prewash or presoak mode.
In connection with the use of enzymes in cleaning or detergent compositions, European Patent Application, Publication, No. 0 130 064, (1985), applied for by Novo Industry A/S, related to improvements in enzymatic additives for use with detergents in washing applications. That publication discussed the use of lipase enzymes for achieving substantially improved lipolytic cleaning efficiency, over a broad range of wash temperatures including relatively low temperatures below 60.degree. C. This reference further disclosed the use of enzymes, including lipases, for direct interaction with stains or soils as a means of at least partially dissolving or loosening such fat-based stains.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,974,082, issued Aug. 10, 1976 to Weyn, disclosed a bleaching composition and method of use in which an acyl-alkyl ester was used with an esterase or lipase enzyme in an aqueous medium. However, nothing in the prior art disclosed or taught that proteases can be used in combination with a source of hydrogen peroxide and selected ester substrates to produce peracid in an aqueous medium. In any event, there has been found to remain a need for improved bleaching or activated oxidant systems capable of enhanced performance in aqueous solution under high or low temperature wash conditions.

Proteolytic perhydrolysis system and method of use for bleaching


A hi-hat bottom supports a bottom cymbal, through which a rod is passed, from below in a state fixed to the upper end of an upper pipe via a retainer. The hi-hat bottom has the retainer, a receiving plate, a compression coil spring, and a lock nut. When a foot plate is depressed, the compression coil spring urges a top cymbal and a bottom cymbal in such a direction that the cymbals contact each other. When the foot plate is not depressed, the bottom cymbal is inclined, together with the receiving plate, at a predetermined inclination angle with respect to a horizontal plane by the urging force of the compression coil spring.

The present invention relates to a mounting structure for cymbals, a hi-hat stand, and a closed hi-hat attachment including the mounting structure.
As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,819, for example, a hi-hat stand includes a stand body, a foot pedal, and a rod that selectively descends and ascends as the foot pedal is depressed or released. A hi-hat is configured by a pair of cymbals, which are a bottom cymbal supported by the upper end of the stand body in a slightly inclined posture and a top cymbal attached horizontally to the upper end of the rod.
The hi-hat is played by operating the foot pedal to cause the top cymbal attached to the rod to selectively contact and separate from the bottom cymbal. When the foot pedal is depressed, the top cymbal descends integrally with the rod. Specifically, a portion of the circumferential edge of the top cymbal initially contacts a portion of the circumferential edge of the bottom cymbal that is located higher than the remainder of the circumferential edge of the bottom cymbal. Then, the remainder of the circumferential edge of the top cymbal is brought into contact with the circumferential edge of the bottom cymbal sequentially from higher to lower portions. That is, as the foot pedal is depressed, the circumferential edge of the top cymbal and the circumferential edge of the bottom cymbal come into contact with each other not at one time but sequentially in the opposite direction from the portions at which the top cymbal and the bottom cymbal initially contact each other.
As has been described, the top cymbal contacts the bottom cymbal while changing its orientation in correspondence with the inclination angle of the bottom cymbal. In this manner, contact between the top cymbal and the bottom cymbal is brought about while allowing the air to escape from the gap between the top cymbal and the bottom cymbal. This allows the hi-hat to resonantly produce its characteristic sound. When the foot pedal is released, the top cymbal ascends integrally with the rod and separates from the bottom cymbal. In other words, the top cymbal restores its original horizontal posture from the posture inclined by the bottom cymbal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,819 discloses a structure for mounting a bottom cymbal to a hi-hat stand in an inclined posture. In this structure, as illustrated in FIG. 9, a tubular retainer 101 is fixed to the upper end of a pipe 100. A flat receiving plate 102 is supported by the retainer 101 to be pivotable via a shaft 103. A damper member 106 formed of a felt piece is arranged on the top surface of the receiving plate 102 to absorb vibration from a bottom cymbal BS. A nut 101a is attached to the end of the retainer 101 opposite to the shaft 103. An adjustment thread 108 is threaded into the nut 101a with the distal end of the adjustment thread 108 facing upward. The distal end of the adjustment thread 108 is held in contact with a bottom surface 102a of the receiving plate 102. In this mounting structure, by rotating the adjustment thread 108 to selectively advance and retract the adjustment thread 108, the receiving plate 102 is pivoted about the shaft 103 to adjust the inclination angle of the bottom cymbal BS. The inclination angle of the bottom cymbal BS is fixed by fastening a lock nut 110, which is threaded onto the adjustment thread 108, with respect to the retainer 101.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,177,621 discloses a closed hi-hat attachment as a mounting structure for cymbals. The closed hi-hat attachment has a mounting structure for cymbals that is similar to the structure illustrated in FIG. 9.
As has been described, the top cymbal is located above the bottom cymbal when the foot pedal is not depressed. When the foot pedal is depressed, the top cymbal descends and contacts the bottom cymbal. However, in the mounting structure disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,819, after the top cymbal ascends and descends repeatedly through depression of the foot pedal, the top cymbal may ascend without restoring its original horizontal posture after having been inclined in correspondence with the inclination angle of the bottom cymbal. Particularly, if the foot pedal is operated in a rapidly repeated manner, the top cymbal cannot restore its horizontal posture and thus ascends or descends in the inclined posture in many cases. Such movement of the top cymbal prevents the hi-hat from sufficiently producing its characteristic sound.

Mounting structure for cymbals, hi-hat stand, and closed hi-hat attachment


A Schmitt trigger circuit that has a separate HI bias circuit, a separate LO bias circuit, and a trigger circuit that includes HI and LO sections that respectively match the circuitry in the HI and LO bias circuits. HI and LO threshold signals are applied to locations in the HI and LO bias circuits that correspond to an input terminal for the trigger circuit, while particular nodes in the bias circuits are connected to corresponding locations in the trigger circuit to set up matching signal levels when the trigger input equals either the HI or the LO threshold levels. The bias circuits include negative feedback paths which inhibit errors due to process, temperature or supply voltage variations, while switching set points are applied to the bias circuits and reflected to the trigger circuit to set the output voltage at a desired level that corresponds to an intermediate point in the switching transition. The circuit can thus be set to be at the middle of a switching transition, with a maximum rate of output voltage change, at the threshold levels.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to Schmitt trigger circuits, and more particularly to Schmitt triggers in which separate bias circuits are provided for setting the Schmitt's switching voltage levels.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A Schmitt trigger circuit functions as a level-detecting comparator with hysteresis. Its output changes from a LO to a HI state when an increasing input signal crosses an upper switching threshold Vhi, and reverts back to its initial state only when the input crosses a lower threshold level Vlo which is less than Vhi. The difference between the two threshold levels, Vhi-Vlo, is the hysteresis associated with the switch. Schmitt trigger circuits are commonly used in applications such as R-C relaxation oscillators; several different designs are described for example in Grebene, Bipolar and MOS Analog Integrated Circuit Design, John Wiley & sons, 1984, pages 556-564.
A typical input-output voltage characteristic for a non-inverting Schmitt trigger circuit is illustrated in FIG. 1. The output follows trace 2 when the input rises above the turn-on voltage threshold Vhi, and then follows trace 4 as the input falls back below the turn-off voltage threshold Vlo.
The schematic diagram of a conventional non-inverting CMOS Schmitt trigger is give in FIG. 2. It includes two P-channel field effect transistors (FETs) P1pa and P2pa which have their source-drain current circuits connected in series with the source-drain current circuits of a pair of N-channel FETs N1pa and N2pa ("pa" indicates "prior art"). The P-channel end of the series circuit is connected to a positive voltage supply line Vdd, typically 5 volts, while the N-channel end of the circuit is connected to a lower voltage reference such as ground. An input terminal 6 is connected in common to the gate control electrodes for each of the FETs. A third P-channel device P3pa has its source-drain circuit connected between ground and the junction 8 of the P1pa/P2pa current circuits, while a third N-channel device N3pa has its source-drain circuit connected between Vdd and the junction 10 of the current circuits for N-channel devices N1pa and N2pa. The gate electrodes of P3pa and N3pa are connected together to the junction 12 of the current circuits for P2pa and N1pa, which in turn is connected through an inverter INV1 to an output terminal 14.
In operation, assume that the input signal at terminal 6 is initially LO. The P-channel devices P1pa and P2pa will thus be ON, while the N-channel devices N1pa and N2pa will be OFF. This ties node 12 to a HI state equal to Vdd, which in turn holds P3pa off and N3pa on to set the node 10 HI (less a threshold voltage). The output at terminal 14 at this time is the inverted value of the signal at node 12, or LO.
Assume now that the input voltage at terminal 6 begins to rise. When the input voltage has become great enough, the N-channel devices N1pa and N2pa will become conductive, while the P-channel devices P1pa and P2pa will turn OFF. When conductive FET N2pa connects node 10 to the ground reference, which in turn grounds nodes 12 through N1pa; the result is a HI inverted signal at output terminal 14. However, N2pa has to overcome the connection of Vdd to node 10 (through N3pa) before it can place that node in a LO state. The relative sizings of N1pa, N2pa and N3pa are selected to set the threshold voltage level Vhi at which this transition to a HI output occurs. Conversely, once the trigger circuit output is HI, P3pa is held in a conductive state by virtue of its gate's ground connection through N1pa and N2pa, while P1pa and P2pa are held OFF. For the circuit output at terminal 14 to revert to a L0 state when the input signal at terminal 6 falls, P1pa must become conductive enough to overcome the grounding effects of P3pa and set node 8 at a HI level corresponding to Vdd. This is the point at which the circuit switches back to a LO output, and the relative sizes of P1pa, P2pa and P3pa are selected so that the switching transition occurs at the threshold voltage level Vlo, thus providing the proper amount of hysteresis.
While this circuit is capable of switching at the desired levels Vhi and Vlo when the circuit design is properly implemented, in practice the actual switching points have been found to be sensitive to variations in the manufacturing process, the ambient temperature and the power supply voltage. Such variations in the Vhi and Vlo values impact the voltage hysteresis and the circuit's speed, as well as its absolute switching points. One way to reduce the effects of variations in the manufacturing process is to use metal oxide semiconductor (MOS)FETs with large widths and lengths. Also, to maintain the switching speed requirements, and especially to accommodate a slow process condition, MOSFETs having large width-to-length ratios are employed. However, this requires more chip area for the transistors and increases their switching noise, especially when a fast process condition is encountered. In addition, the circuit is not readily adaptable to various Vdd power supply values. For example, if it is desired to reduce Vdd from 5 V operation down to 3 V operation, the circuit would either have to be redesigned, or a separate Schmitt trigger design for a 3 V supply would have to be provided on the same chip.
A Schmitt trigger design that improves upon the above limitations is disclosed in O'Shaughnessy et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,873, assigned to Western Digital Corporation, the assignee of the present invention. In this patent, independent biased threshold sections are provided for controlling the Vhi and Vlo switching points. A drive disabling switch blocks one of the threshold sections from driving a logic node toward a predetermined logic state, with the drive disabling switch operated to obtain unidirectional sensitivity to the crossing of the threshold voltage level associated with its corresponding threshold section. While the patent represents an improvement over prior designs, it still has certain disadvantages. Among these is the inclusion of a fairly large number of devices in its switching (as opposed to bias) section. Since multiple Schmitt triggers are commonly used on the same chip (for example, an 8-bit bus will normally require eight Schmitt triggers), the provision of multiple switching sections will consume more chip area than is desirable.
Another important limitation of the patented circuit is that, although it controls the input voltage thresholds at which switching is initiated, this does not correspond exactly to the change in output states that results from a switching operation. Since a finite amount of time is required to complete a triggering operation from an OFF to an ON state, the actual input voltage will exceed the nominal Vhi by the time the circuit has actually switched ON in an effective manner; the converse applies when the circuit switches back to an OFF state. The O'Shaughnessy et al. patent also requires the use of a NOR gate in the trigger section that reduces the switching speed. Furthermore, only the input voltage level at which a switching action is initiated, not the voltage level at which effective switching takes place, adjusts to processing and voltage supply variations.
Recognizing its limitation in switching speed, the O'Shaughnessy et al. patent suggests the use of larger current mirrors to obtain larger currents and a correspondingly faster switching operation. However, larger currents generally involve larger device sizes, a higher level of AC power dissipation and an increase in transient noise.
Finally, the patented circuit employs saturated transistors with relatively large drain-source voltage drops in series with other transistors. These voltage drops may not leave enough "head room" to accommodate a drop to a lower Vdd supply, such as going from 5 to 3 volts.

High speed Schmitt trigger with process, temperature and power supply independence


The emergency terminal stopping speed is checked by comparing (30) the number of pulses (26) provided by an encoder (10) driven by the elevator motor (12) with a fixed number (36) which for the particular elevator will correspond to the maximum allowable speed when received within a time frame determined by the overflow (46) from a presettable (44) counter (40). The time period is adjusted for each elevator installation so that the fixed number of pulses relate to the desired speed by adjusting the preset of the presettable counter. Floor leveling speed is also determined by comparing (32) the counted number of pulses with a settable (38) number.

Certain elevator safety code regulations (such as ANSI A17.1) require checking speed, to determine an adequately slow speed before the doors are opened at a landing and to ensure that the elevator is slowing down as it approaches a terminal landing, by means which are in addition to the normal speed measurement utilized in the operational control of the elevator. It has heretofore been common to provide both of these speed checks based upon an encoder mounted to the elevator motor shaft. In low cost systems, the encoder output frequency has typically been converted to a voltage for comparison with a predetermined voltage indicative of the maximum safe speed being checked. Analog systems have very poor system-to-system repeatability, and lose accuracy over lifetime due to component aging and the effects of working in a high noise environment. Other systems utilize digital comparison of the count produced by said frequency over a known time interval with a count indicative of the maximum safe speed being checked. Digital systems of this type may have accuracy limited to between 2% and 5%, and may typically have data latency (the delay in sensing an overspeed after it occurs) on the order of 60 milliseconds. This can be inadequate for certain applications. The data latency is due at least in part to the length of time that the actual encoder output stream is measured; for instance, if it takes a half minute to make the measurement, the result is always a half minute late from the occurrence of an excess that will show up in the measurement. By increasing the frequency or reducing the number of counts which are counted, one can reduce the latency; but increasing the frequency requires a much greater increase in the bit capacity of all of the involved hardware or software, and reducing the number of counts checked reduces the accuracy even further. It is conceivable that among various systems with which a speed checker is to work, the number of counts can vary from on the order of 100 to on the order of several thousand; for the comparator to be universal for either application, it must be able to accommodate counts in excess of 1,000 in such a case; such a comparator is therefore wasting 90% of the hardware if it is operating at on the order of 100 counts.

Elevator speed check using constant ratiometric comparison


In a method for fabricating a thin film transistor array substrate, a glass substrate undergoes an oxygen plasma treatment. A silver or silver alloy-based conductive layer is deposited onto the substrate, and patterned to thereby form a gate line assembly proceeding in the horizontal direction. The gate line assembly includes gate lines, gate electrodes, and gate pads. Thereafter, a silicon nitride-based gate insulating layer is deposited onto the substrate, and a semiconductor layer and an ohmic contact layer are sequentially formed on the gate insulating layer. The semiconductor layer and the ohmic contact layer are HF-treated. A silver alloy-based conductive layer is deposited onto the substrate, and patterned to thereby form a data line assembly. The data line assembly includes data lines crossing over the gate lines, source electrodes, drain electrodes, and data pads. A protective layer based on silicon nitride or an organic material is deposited onto the substrate, and patterned through dry etching such that the protective layer bears contact holes exposing the drain electrodes, the gate pads and the data pads, respectively. An indium zinc oxide or indium tin oxide-based layer is deposited onto the substrate, and patterned to thereby form pixel electrodes, and subsidiary gate and data pads. The pixel electrodes are electrically connected to the drain electrodes, and the subsidiary gate and data pads to the gate and data pads.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wiring line assembly and method of manufacturing the same, and thin film transistor array substrate having the wiring line assembly and method of manufacturing the same.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Generally, wiring lines for a semiconductor device or a display device are used for signal transmission, and hence, it becomes important for such wiring lines to minimize signal delay.
For that purpose, it is required that the wiring lines should be formed with a conductive material having a low resistance. For instance, silver (Ag) may be used for such a conductive material. However the wiring lines of silver or silver alloy cannot easily adhere to the underlying substrate or thin film. Therefore, the wiring lines are liable to become detached from the substrate or thin film.

Wiring line assembly and method for manufacturing the same, and thin film transistor array substrate having the wiring line assembly and method for manufacturing the same


A fast steering mirror has n plate springs (40a to 40d) and m drive means (50a to 50d). The plate springs (40a to 40d) are arranged such that a cross-sectional plane passing through the center of the thickness of each of the plate springs is on the same plane as the reflection surface of a mirror (20), and are arranged rotationally symmetric to each other about the center (O20). The plate springs each have a section extending along the circumference of the mirror holder, the section being obtained by dividing the perimeter of the mirror holder substantially into n sections. The drive means (50a to 50d) are arranged such that a cross-sectional plane passing through the center of torque generated by each of the drive means is on the same plane as the reflection surface of the mirror (20) and are rotationally symmetric to each other about the center (O20).

Intersatellite optical communication is expected as an effective bulk communication system in outer space. Since very little light is scattered or absorbed in outer space, outer space is an extremely good light transmission path, which can transmit light for a distance as long as several tens thousands km without the need of amplification.
In order to establish such intersatellite optical communication successfully, optical communication antennas must be set on both of the transmitting and receiving sides to precisely oppose each other with an extremely small limit of error on the order of 1/10,000 degrees. In order to switch a satellite to be communicated with, it is necessary to rapidly track and acquire a target antenna. This means that an optical communication antenna is required to combine high-precision tracking capability and high-speed acquisition capability. In general, a beam pointing system for intersatellite optical communication is composed of two mechanisms of a coarse pointing mechanism (CPM) for roughly controlling the beam direction and a fine pointing mechanism (FPM) for precisely controlling the beam direction on the order of 1/10,000 degrees. Specifically, the CPM is often provided with a large-size gimbal mirror, whereas the FPM is often provided with a small size fast steering mirror. This invention relates to a small size fast steering mirror suitably applicable to the latter, namely the FPM.
This type of beam pointing system is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. JP-A-2001-264663 (Patent Document 1) and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. JP-A-H11-281925 (Patent Document 2).
Referring to FIG. 1, a mirror drive mechanism disclosed in Patent Document 1 is of a biaxial gimbal type, and a movable part 249 including a mirror 250 is fixed to a base by means of deformable elastic pivots 246a-246b and 248a-248b. The mirror 250 is tilted about the X-axis and the Y-axis as viewed in the figure by electromagnetic power exerted by a drive unit composed of yokes 245a-245b and 254a-254b, permanent magnets 251a-251b and 252a-252b, and coils 255a-255b and 256a-256b.
Referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, a laser pointing device 600 disclosed in Patent Document 2 is shown. A mirror holder 602 including a mirror 601 is fixed to a base 605 by means of a torsion bar 603 extending in a Z-axis direction from the center of the mirror holder 602, and a leaf spring 604 which is bent from the XY plane of the mirror holder 602 toward a Z-axis direction. The mirror holder 602 has arms 606 extended therefrom, and there are provided at the ends of the arms, drive units composed of coils 607a to 607d and permanent magnets 608a to 608d, respectively. The mirror holder 602 is tilted by the electromagnetic force of the drive units, toward a θx direction or θy direction around the fixed end of the torsion bar 603. The torsion bar 603 and the leaf spring 604 suppress the shift of the mirror holder 602 in a Z-axis direction.
In the mirror drive mechanism described in Patent Document 1, stress is concentrated at the elastic pivots 246a-246b and 248a-248b during tilt driving. In the laser pointing device 600 described in Patent Document 2 as well, stress is concentrated at the base portion of the of the torsion bar 603. In order to ensure resistance to such stress, the rigidity of the elastic pivots 246a-246b and 248a-248b or the torsion bar 103 must be enhanced to realize a robust structure, which results in reduced efficiency in tilt drive.
Further, since the mirror drive mechanism described in Patent Document 1 is of a biaxial gimbal structure, the size of the mirror face is large. In the laser pointing device 600 of Patent Document 2 as well, the size of the mirror face is so large due to the arms 606 extending from the mirror holder 602 that the laser pointing device 600 cannot be suitably mounted in a limited space such as in a satellite.
Still further, this kind of beam pointing system is required to have superior vibration characteristics.

Small size fast steering mirror having small size and excellent vibration characteristics


An ESD protection circuit includes a pad of an IC, circuitry coupled to the pad for buffering data, an RC power clamp on the IC, and first and second silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) circuits. The RC power clamp is coupled between a positive power supply terminal and a ground terminal. The first SCR circuit is coupled between the pad and the positive power supply terminal. The first SCR circuit has a first trigger input coupled to the RC power clamp circuit. The second SCR circuit is coupled between the pad and the ground terminal. The second SCR circuit has a second trigger input coupled to the RC power clamp circuit. At least one of the SCR circuits includes a gated diode configured to selectively provide a short or relatively conductive electrical path between the pad and one of the positive power supply terminal and the ground terminal.

In integrated circuits, electrostatic discharge (ESD) stress events may arise when a charged object, such as a human body or another machine, is placed in proximity to an integrated circuit device and a static discharge occurs. The conductive leads on a packaged integrated circuit (IC) constitute an efficient surface for receiving electrostatic discharge. If the voltage stress that is caused by the discharge into an IC pin is not protected against, physical damage including breakdown, metal electromigration, gate oxide rupture and other damage due to an ESD stress may destroy or damage the physical devices within the integrated circuit.
Prior art ESD protection approaches involve a variety of circuit elements that are associated with the pads of the integrated circuit. Typically, a bond wire couples the input/output pad, which is a metallic or conductive surface, to a package pin. The pins may be gold, copper, palladium and nickel plated material or the like. The ESD protection circuit provides a path to a safe terminal, typically a power supply pin or ground pin, and causes the electro-static current (called a "strike") to bypass the susceptible semiconductor devices formed within the integrated circuit. An effective ESD circuit can protect a device and prolong its life.
The level of ESD protection needed for integrated circuits varies widely depending on the application and the type of integrated circuits. Circuits intended for use in automobile applications require particularly robust ESD protection. Similarly, integrated circuits that are intended to be handled by a consumer, such as flash cards and DIMM modules that a consumer physically inserts into a board or slot are particularly vulnerable to human body ESD strikes. In contrast, circuits that are installed into a robust circuit board inside a factory setting and placed on a well protected system in a highly controlled environment may require far less robust ESD protection. The work stations, workers, and the tools used in such an environment can be strapped to a ground terminal, and the humidity and materials used in the environment can be controlled to lower the probability of a static discharge event. In some cases, this protection may lower the ESD probability to a level such that on-board protection circuitry may not be required. This is a rare case, however, and most integrated circuits have some on-board ESD circuitry.
The electronics industry has created standards and classes for ESD ratings of devices, so that the purchasers of an integrated circuit may know what level of protection or class of ESD event the integrated circuit is designed for. These may be described as classes of protection for a human body model (HBM) event, for example. Class 0 may be for events from 0-2 kilovolts, Class 1 may be from 2 kilovolts to 4 kilovolts, Class 2 may be for greater than 4 kilovolts. Machine model (MM) events are also specified. This information is typically provided by an IC manufacturer so that the buyer understands what ESD stresses the device typically can withstand. Another test framework known as the charged device model (CDM) has been gaining popularity recently for ESD testing because it provides a more practical real world ESD test. The CDM simulates what happens when an IC, in an automated manufacturing environment, becomes electrically charged (e.g., by coming into contact with another material and then being separated from that other material) and then discharges due to contact or proximity with a conductor referenced to another potential or to ground.
ESD events typically happen between an input, input/output or output pad and another terminal, either VSS (ground) and VDD (positive power supply). Four modes of ESD stress are commonly described. A positive voltage from a pad to VSS may be referred to as a PS strike, a positive voltage from a pad to VDD may be referred to as a PD strike, a negative voltage from a pad to VSS may be referred to as an NS strike, and a negative voltage from a pad to VDD may be referred to as a ND strike. These terms for ESD stress modes are used herein.
ESD circuits have used silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) structures previously to provide a current path. SCR devices are known in the art to be formed from p-n-p-n or n-p-n-p junctions. Once an SCR device is triggered, it will continue to conduct current so long as an adequate hold current is present, and the low on-resistance Ron for SCR devices and low triggering voltage renders SCR devices particularly useful in ESD protection circuits.
A challenge associated with the use of SCR structures as ESD clamps has been the relatively low turn-on speed (i.e., relatively long turn-on time) provided by such an approach, which has resulted in low CDM performance. The CDM discharge is a fast transient pulse, which may occur over several nanoseconds as an upper limit. Turn-on efficiency is therefore a factor that impacts ESD performance, e.g., for CDM testing.

Bidirectional dual-SCR circuit for ESD protection

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


An air conditioner having a compressor, an outdoor fan, and two indoor heat exchangers which are connected by an electric expansion valve. During a dehumidifying operation, the opening of the electric expansion valve is decreased, thereby decompressing the refrigerant flowing from the first indoor heat exchange into the second indoor exchanger. The first and second heat exchangers thereby function as a reheater and an evaporator, respectively. The second indoor heat exchanger cools and dehumidifies the indoor air, and the first indoor heat exchanger heats the indoor air again. The indoor air, first cooled, then dehumidified, and finally re-heated, is supplied into the room. During the dehumidifying operation, a deviation (T) of the indoor temperature (Ta) from a preset indoor temperature (Ts), and a change (.DELTA.T) in the deviation (T) are detected, and the deviation (H) of the indoor humidity (Ha) from a preset indoor humidity (Hs), and a change (.DELTA.H) are also detected. Fuzzy inference is performed based on the deviation (T), the change (.DELTA.T), the deviation (H) and the change (.DELTA.H), thereby calculating an adjustment value (.DELTA.F) and an adjustment value (.DELTA.N). The value (.DELTA.F) adjusts the drive frequency of the compressor, and the value (.DELTA.N) adjusts the rotational speed (N) of the outdoor fan.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioning apparatus which can perform a dehumidifying operation, to thereby removing water from the air in a room.
2. Description of the Related Art
Air conditioners are known which have two indoor heat exchangers located in a room and in which these heat exchangers can be used as evaporators to cool the room, and also as an evaporator and a condenser, respectively, to dehumidifying the room. In the dehumidifying operation, one of the indoor heat exchangers is used as an evaporator to cool the room, whereas the other indoor heat exchanger is used as a condenser to reheat the air thus cooled and hence dehumidified, to room temperature. The air dehumidified and reheated is supplied into the room.
Among these air conditioners are two types. In the first type, both the indoor temperature and the indoor humidity are measured during the dehumidifying operation, and the frequency of driving the compressor is determined in accordance with the position the indoor temperature and the indoor humidity relationship assumes in a matrix chart. In the second type, the rotational speed of the outdoor fan is controlled in accordance with the indoor temperature, to thereby change the sensible heat of the outdoor heat exchanger to adjust the temperature of the air which is being supplied into the room.
It is desirable that an air conditioner control the temperature and humidity in a room in accordance with various load conditions. Among these conditions are: the structure of the building including the room; the climate of the region where the building is located; and the bodily sensation of the persons staying in the room.
An air conditioner which controls the indoor temperature and the indoor humidity is disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 3-13751. This air conditioner has sensors and a microcomputer. The sensors detects the indoor conditions. The microcomputer performs fuzzy inference based on the indoor conditions detected, thereby determining an optimal temperature to which air should be heated before supplied into the room and also an optimal amount in which the heated air should be supplied into the room. The outdoor heat exchanger heats air to the optimal temperature, and the air thus heated is supplied into the room in the optimal amount. The indoor temperature is thereby maintained at a preset value desirable for the people staying in the room.
Another air conditioner which controls the indoor temperature and the indoor humidity is disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 1-276319. In this air conditioner, the indoor temperature and the changes thereof are detected and used to control the capacity of the compressor.
The air conditioners disclosed in these publications control the indoor temperature only. They cannot control the indoor humidity.

Air conditioning apparatus capable of performing a dehumidifying operation


An electromagnetic valve has a valve housing; a valve body disposed inside the valve housing and movable in a reciprocating manner; an urging member configured to urge the valve body in one direction; and a drive device which is connected to the valve housing and applies a drive force to the valve body. A drive rod of the drive device includes a guide portion which faces an inner peripheral surface of a fixed iron core such that a movement of the drive rod is guided in an axial direction and a groove portion which is recessed in an inward radial direction from the guide portion and the groove portion is continuously formed from an inside of the valve housing to an inside of a movable iron core.

As shown in Patent Citation 1, a variable displacement compressor used in an air conditioning system of an automobile or the like includes a rotation shaft rotationally driven by a drive force of an engine, a swash plate connected to the rotation shaft so that an inclination angle is variable, a compression piston connected to the swash plate, and the like and controls a fluid discharge amount by changing a stroke of the piston with a change in inclination angle of the swash plate. Particularly, in Patent Citation 1, since a capacity control valve driven to be opened and closed by an electromagnetic force is used, the inclination angle of the swash plate can be continuously changed by appropriately controlling a pressure in a control chamber while using suction pressure of a suction chamber sucking the fluid, a discharge pressure of a discharge chamber discharging the fluid pressurized by the piston, and a control pressure of the control chamber accommodating the swash plate.
The capacity control valve includes a valve housing which is formed of a metal material or a resin material, a valve body which is disposed inside the valve housing so as to be movable in a reciprocating manner, a pressure sensitive body which urges the valve body in one direction (toward a drive device), and a drive device which is connected to the valve housing and operates the valve body in the other direction. The valve body can open or close each of a port connected to the suction chamber formed in the valve housing, a port connected to the discharge chamber, and a port connected to the control chamber according to the position of the valve body in the axial direction.
The drive device includes a casing which is connected to the valve housing, a sleeve of which one end portion is closed, a cylindrical fixed iron core which is disposed inside the casing and the sleeve, a drive rod which is disposed inside the fixed iron core so as to be movable in a reciprocating manner and of which a front end at one end side is connected and fixed to the valve body, a movable iron core which is fixed to the other end side of the drive rod, a coil spring which urges the movable iron core against the drive force of the drive device, a coil which applies an electromagnetic drive force to the movable iron core, and the like.
Further, since a slight gap is formed between the drive rod and the fixed iron core and the fluid on the side of the valve housing flows into the movable iron core inside the sleeve through the gap, a pressure difference of the fluid between a space on the side of the valve housing and a peripheral space of the movable iron core is decreased and the capacity control valve can be operated with the designed performance in a normal state.


A wrench includes a tool head, an outer tube unit, a rod unit and a sleeve unit. The outer tube unit includes an outer tube, a tail seat and a biasing member. The tail seat is detachably mounted to the outer tube. The rod unit includes an inner rod telescopically disposed in the outer tube and formed with a plurality of cavities. The biasing member biases the inner rod away from the tail seat. The sleeve unit is slidably sleeved on the outer tube and includes a positioning ball engageable with a selected one of the cavities to prevent the inner rod from moving relative to the outer tube and removable from the selected one of the cavities to allow the inner rod to move relative to the outer tube.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, Taiwanese Invention Patent Publication No. 200815159 discloses a conventional telescopic wrench that includes an outer tube 11 extending along a longitudinal direction (L), an inner rod 12 and a sleeve device 13. The inner rod 12 is telescopically disposed in the outer tube 11. The sleeve device 13 is mounted at a front end of the outer tube 11 and is configured to permit and prevent movement of the inner rod 12 relative to the outer tube 11. The sleeve device 13 includes a control sleeve 131, a spring 132 disposed between the outer tube 11 and the control sleeve 131, and two balls 133. The outer tube 11 has an inner surface formed with two receiving holes 111 corresponding in position to the control sleeve 131 so as to allow the balls 133 to be respectively and movably mounted into the receiving holes 111 and partially and respectively project from the receiving holes 111. The inner rod 12 is formed with a plurality of annular grooves 121 spaced apart from one another along the longitudinal direction (L). The control sleeve 131 has a large diameter segment 134 disposed proximate to the front end of the outer tube 11, a small diameter segment 135 connected to and disposed behind the large diameter segment 134 and having a diameter decreasing gradually from the large diameter segment 134 toward a rear end of the outer tube 11.
The control sleeve 131 is movable between a locking position, where the balls 133 extend into a selected one of the annular grooves 121 and are clamped between the small diameter segment 135 and the inner rod 12 to prevent the inner rod 12 from moving relative to the outer tube 11, and an adjustable position, where the receiving holes 111 are aligned with the large diameter segment 134 in the radial direction and the balls 133 are removed from the selected one of the annular grooves 121 to allow the inner rod 12 to move relative to the outer tube 11.
However, during use of the conventional telescopic wrench, a rear end of the inner rod 12 tends to colliding with the rear end of the outer tube 11 when the inner rod 12 is moved rearwardly within the outer tube 11. Consequently, an undesired vibration is caused, which is troublesome to use and adversely affects the operation of the conventional telescopic wrench.


A method and a system are provided for detecting a condition indicative of a dislodged needle in a hemodialysis procedure. A venous return pressure for a patient undergoing dialysis is measured. The venous return pressure is analyzed via a controller, and an intravascular blood pressure in proximity to a location of needle insertion into the patient is derived. A lower limit is calculated as a function of the intravascular blood pressure via the controller. An average of the venous return pressure is calculated via the controller during a predetermined time window. The average is compared to the lower limit via the controller, and if the average is within a specified range of the lower limit, the controller determines that a condition indicative of a dislodged needle is present.

In the field of hemodialysis and other techniques where blood is removed from a patient for processing and then returned, it is important to periodically assess the blood flow rate through an arteriovenous fistula, graft, or catheter to monitor the venous needle position. This is often accomplished by the reading of access pressures through the venous and arterial access needles.
Dialysis is a very complicated procedure that must be carried out by a team of trained professionals who are responsible for delivering safe and effective care to the patient. It can also be self-administered by a patient in their home, but only after the patient has undergone extensive training. There are many ways that complications can arise during a dialysis session. Many of these potential issues are constrained by alarm circuits and other safeguards built into the dialysis machine; however, needle dislodgement or displacement is often undetected or detected after a significant time delay.

System and method of monitoring dislodgement of venous needles in dialysis patients


A process variable transmitter for use with a removable operator interface has a non-volatile memory and a latching component. The non-volatile memory stores device settings. The latching component prohibits changes to transmitter settings if the removable operator interface is absent. Circuitry in the transmitter detects the presence of the removable operator interface. The removable operator interface can include zero and span settings.

The present invention is directed to field devices for use in industrial processes, and more particularly, to removable operator interfaces for operator interaction with such field devices.
Industrial field devices (sometimes referred to as industrial process transmitters) typically include circuitry within the field device that is adapted to sense a process variable associated with an industrial process. The process variable can include temperature, pressure (including absolute or gauge pressure), fluid flow rate, viscosity, pH, and various other process variables, depending on the particular implementation.
Such transmitters typically include a mechanism for calibration. For example, in 4-20 mA transmitters, a minimum or zero value of the parameter sensed can be adjusted to correspond to the minimum output (for example a current of 4 mA). Similarly, a maximum value of the sensed parameter can be set to a maximum output (for example, a current of 20 mA). Zero and span potentiometers can be used to calibrate the minimum and maximum settings of the transmitter.
Since the minimum and maximum parameter values may vary from one installation to the next, it is common for manufacturers of industrial field devices to provide a button or screw that the user can use locally on each field device to set its zero and span reference points. Depending on the specific field device, the location of the button or screw can be internal to the field device housing, such as within a cover of the field device, or it can be external to the device on the top or side of the device. Alternatively, the zero and span settings can be accessed using a local operator interface (LOI), such as a keypad that is coupled to the field device.
Industrial field devices or process transmitters employed in process industries such as pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or food and beverage industries, often are required to satisfy special requirements related to verification and validation of the processes used to manufacture the product. Included in the verification and validation process is the requirement for routine and periodic calibration of the transmitters. While access to such systems is typically controlled to prevent unauthorized access, providing such adjustment means on each field device or transmitter makes it possible for undesired and/or unauthorized changes to be made to device settings.
Therefore, there is an on-going need in monitoring and process control field devices for a means for adjusting setting of the transmitter that makes adjustment easy and simple for the operator while minimizing the number of operators authorized to make the adjustment. Embodiments of the present invention provides solutions to these and other problems and provide advantages over the prior art.

Transmitter with removable local operator interface


A laser gain medium and a method of manufacturing a laser medium, such as a laser rod, or slab for use in high-powered laser peening systems. A laser medium and method reduces stress risers along the surface of the amplifier medium by grit blasting, polishing, etching, annealing, and by eliminating platinum inclusions within the laser glass.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the use of coherent energy pulses as from high-power pulsed lasers in the shock processing of solid materials, and more particularly to a laser rod or slab and method of improving the same for generating more frequent laser pulses in laser peening systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known methods for the shock processing of solid materials, particularly known methods for the laser shock processing of solid materials, typically use coherent energy from a laser beam oriented near normal to a workpiece.
Typical laser shock processing techniques and equipment can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,957 to Epstein.
An operational effect and use of such laser shock processing systems is that to decrease operational costs, there is a necessity to generate more laser pulses per unit of time. In order to accomplish this goal, it is necessary to fire the laser flash lamps more frequently, thereby putting forth more heat into the Nd glass gain medium of the laser amplifiers. The convectively cooled medium develops thermal gradients which cause surface tensile stresses. These stresses are intensified at flaws along the surface of the Nd glass medium, and therefor cause fracture of the medium. An illustration of surface flaws in a glass rod is shown in FIG. 1.
Particular flaws in such laser rods include the natural surface finish and manufacturing accidents, such as accidentally bumping the edge of the glass medium or improper fixation of the medium during cutting, or other manufacturing steps. Such flaws act as stress risers along the surface of the amplifier laser rod or slab causing, at that location, a crack to initiate.
What is needed in the art is a laser rod or slab which may prove to have an ability to withstand thermal stress of use by reducing the flaws on a surface finish of amplifier rods and slabs.
The present invention comprises a laser rod or slab and method of manufacturing of the laser rod or slab for use in a laser peening system. Generally, the concept revolves around reducing the stress risers along the surface of the amplifier laser rods or slabs.
The invention, in one form thereof, is a laser peening system comprising a phosphate glass laser amplifier rod or slab, having an absence of surface defects larger than about 50 xcexcm, whereby the surface finish permits the laser peening system to operate at a rate of at least two peening operation per second.
The invention, in another form thereof, provides a laser peening system as described above, in which the laser rod or slab is operated in excess of 20 watts per centimeter average power.
The invention, in another form thereof, provides a phosphate glass laser amplifier rod or slab having substantially no platinum inclusions therein.
An advantage of the present invention, is that by reduction of the surface flaws, an increase in the repetition rate of the laser system is possible, thereby reducing the costs of laser peening.
Another advantage of the present invention is that by reducing surface flaws, the laser rod or slab of the present invention has a reduced chance of cracking as it is utilized.
A further advantage of the invention is that by utilization of the present method, a change in the stress concentration of the laser rod or slab is created so that the concentration is more even, thereby blunting stress risers which may cause crack initiation.

Surface finishes on laser rods and slabs for laser peening systems


There is disclosed a carbon material from which an electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) having a large capacitance can be fabricated. First, a carbon material is activated to produce crystallites of graphite-like carbon having interlayer distances of 0.365 to 0.385 nm. Positive and negative plates are fabricated using the crystallites.

The present invention relates to an electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) and, more particularly, to a carbon material for EDLCs, a method of producing a carbon material for EDLCs, an electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) and a method of fabricating such an EDLC.
An EDLC, also known as a supercapacitor or electrochemical capacitor, has a pair of polarized plates made of activated carbon. These plates are placed opposite to each other via a separator and are used as a positive electrode and a negative electrode, respectively. Each plate is impregnated with an aqueous electrolyte solution or a nonaqueous electrolyte solution and contacted with a collector. Each polarized plate is manufactured, for example, by (1) adding small amounts of a conductive additive and binder to activated carbon, kneading them together and rolling the mixture into a desired form, (2) adding small amounts of a conductive additive and binder to activated carbon, dissolving the mixture to form a slurry and applying it to a collector, or (3) mixing a small amount of uncarbonized resin into activated carbon and sintering the mixture.
In the past, it has been considered that the capacitance of an EDLC is roughly in proportion to the surface area of the polarized plates. For this reason, activated carbon with large specific surface area has been used as a carbon material for EDLCs.
Activated carbon is prepared by carbonizing a carbonaceous material at a temperature lower than 800xc2x0 C. and then activating the material. The activation is performed either by heating at 600-1000xc2x0 C. in an ambient of steam or carbon dioxide or by adding zinc chloride, potassium hydroxide, or the like and carrying out a heating step in an inert ambient. During this activation process, a large number of micropores adapted for adsorption are formed in the surface of the carbon material produced by the carbonization process.
In the past, in order to make the capacitance of the EDLC as large as possible, attempts have been made to increase the surface area of activated carbon. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 78513/1988 proposes a technique for obtaining activated carbon by mixing potassium hydroxide into petroleum cokes and calcinating the mixture. It is said that the specific surface area which was about 1500 m2/g at maximum in the past could be increased to 2000-3500 m2/g. However, we have found that even if activated carbon whose specific surface area is increased is used as a polarized electrode material, limitations are imposed on the obtainable capacitance since the surface area per unit volume decreases by strong activation.
The present invention is intended to provide an EDLC having a large capacitance.
It is a specific object of the invention to provide a carbon material from which an EDLC having a larger capacitance than heretofore can be fabricated.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method of producing this carbon material.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an EDLC using this carbon material.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method of fabricating this EDLC.
A carbon material produced in accordance with the present invention and used for an EDLC has crystallites of graphite-like carbon produced by activating a carbon material. The carbon material is characterized in that the crystallites have interlayer distances of 0.365 to 0.385 nm.
A method of fabricating a carbon material for an EDLC in accordance with the present invention starts with heating a raw material to carbonize it, thus growing crystallites of graphite-like carbon. The heat-treated carbon material is activated with an alkali. The obtained carbon material consists of crystallites of carbon having interlayer distances of 0.365 to 0.385 nm.
In a method of producing a carbon material for an EDLC in accordance with the present invention, the carbon material is activated with steam. A carbon material consisting of crystallites of graphite-like carbon is obtained. These crystallites have interlayer distances of 0.365 to 0.385 nm.
An EDLC in accordance with the present invention has polarized plates immersed in an organic electrolyte. These polarized plates are made of a carbon material including crystallites of graphite-like carbon produced by activating a carbon material. The crystallites have interlayer distances of 0.365 to 0.385 nm.
A method of fabricating an EDLC having polarized plates immersed in an organic electrolyte in accordance with the present invention uses a carbon material having crystallites of graphite-like carbon produced by activating a carbon material. The crystallites have interlayer distances of 0.365 to 0.385 nm. After the EDLC has been assembled, a voltage in excess of the rated voltage is applied across the polarized plates to induce a capacitance.
The EDLC in accordance with the present invention has the polarized plates consisting of a carbonaceous material that expands on application of the voltage. The polarized plates are held within a dimension-limiting structure that limits the expansion on application of the voltage.
Other objects and features of the invention will appear in the course of the description thereof which follows.

Carbon material for electric double layer capacitor, method of producing same, electric double layer capacitor and method of fabricating same


Methods, systems, and devices for maximizing signal to interference plus noise ratio of a channel in a location tracking system. The methods, systems, and device may include tools and techniques for minimizing interference from adjacent samples at a receive filter, may include relaxing constraints at a transmitter. A receive filter or set of receive, or both, filters may be determined and utilized by specifying and or determining various transmitter, receiver, and channel characteristics. The receive filter and set of filters may be determined through an iterative approach involving one or more solution metrics.

In some settings, such as in indoor and enterprise environments, it may be important to easily locate various types of assets or people, or both. Examples of such settings include hospitals, retail stores, warehouses, etc. The accuracy and speed with which the location of assets or people is monitored in an indoor setting may be an important factor in determining the usefulness of the tracking system. In addition, having a tracking system that is cost effective, scalable, and that can provide continuous, accurate, and precise location monitoring is also desirable.
Different systems and devices may be used to locate assets and/or people in a particular indoor environment. An ultra-wideband (UWB) network, or some other radio frequency network deployed throughout at least a portion of the indoor environment, may be configured to perform indoor tracking. Systems may employ multiple access points (APs) placed at specific locations in the indoor environment. A location tracking tag also may be attached to each mobile asset and/or to each person to be tracked. The tag may send waveforms (e.g., beacon signals) that are received by the APs for ranging measurements to determine the distance between the tag and the APs that receive the waveforms. Once the distances between the tag and at least three different APs are obtained, triangulation or trilateration may be used to estimate the location of the asset or person to which the tag is attached.
Determining distances between APs and tags may include determining an earliest ray of a signal. This determination may be complicated by channel noise and/or interference associated with the signal. In some cases, design or regulatory constraints, or both, may limit the power with which signals may be transmitted. It may therefore be desirable to mitigate interference effects of received signals by determining adjusting either, or both, transmitter and receiver characteristics.

Receive filters to minimize side lobes in a UWB system


Disclosed is a method and device for controlling the startup of a synchronous reluctance motor. The device includes: a voltage injector which generates injection voltages to estimate an initial position of the rotor; a motor drive voltage generator which converts stationary-coordinate-system voltages including the injection voltages to three-phase motor drive voltages and applies the three-phase motor drive voltages to the motor; a current extractor which extracts response current components iα-inj, iβ-inj in respect to the injection voltages from two-phase stationary-coordinate-system currents converted from three-phase currents detected upon rotation of the motor; and a position/speed estimator which extracts response current components related to a rotor position from the response current components iα-inj, iβ-inj in respect to the injection voltages to calculate a rotor position error (e), and estimates the speed and position {tilde over (ω)},{tilde over (θ)} of the rotor from the calculated rotor position error (e).

This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 2004-101840, filed on Dec. 6, 2004, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and device for controlling a motor and, more particularly, to a method and device for controlling the startup of a synchronous reluctance motor.
2. Description of Related Art
A synchronous reluctance motor implies one configured such that a driving source of a rotor is synchronous with that of a stator and the rotor rotates so that a resistance created in the rotor can be minimized when a current flows into the stator. To drive such a synchronous reluctance motor, the position of the rotor should be known. The position of the rotor can be directly detected by use of a rotor-position detector, such as an encoder. However, the rotor position detector can not be used in a compressor for a refrigerator or air-conditioner since the internal temperature of the compressor is extremely high. Thus, the synchronous reluctance motor for the compressor is controlled by means of a sensorless control scheme.
A typical sensorless control system will now be described in detail with reference to FIG. 1. The sensorless control system includes a reference torque current generator 10, a rotating-coordinate-system voltage generator 20, a stationary-coordinate-system voltage generator 30, a motor drive voltage generator 40, and a coordinate system converter 50. The reference torque current generator 10 generates a reference torque current i*q for compensating an error caused by a difference between a reference speed ω*, also called an instruction speed, and an estimated rotor speed {tilde over (ω)}. The rotating-coordinate-system voltage generator 20 generates a reference torque voltage ν*q for compensating an error caused by a difference between the reference torque current i*q and an actual torque current iq, and a reference flux voltage ν*d for compensating an error caused by a difference between a reference flux λ*d and an observed flux {circumflex over (λ)}d. The stationary-coordinate-system voltage generator 30 converts the reference torque voltage ν*q and the reference flux voltage ν*d, both of which are the rotating-coordinate-system voltages, into stationary-coordinate-system voltages ν*α,ν*β. The motor drive voltage generator 40 converts the stationary-coordinate-system voltages as ν*α,ν*β to three-phase voltages νU,νV,νW by means of a space-voltage vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) and then applies the three-phase voltages to the synchronous reluctance motor (SynRM motor).The coordinate system converter 50 converts three-phase currents iU,iV detected upon rotation of the synchronous reluctance motor to stationary-coordinate-system currents iα,iβ and in turn converts the stationary-coordinate-system currents iα,iβ to rotating-coordinate-system currents id,iq.
In addition, the sensorless control system further includes a flux observing unit 60 for outputting an observed flux {circumflex over (λ)}αβ on α-axis and β-axis of the stationary coordinate system of the motor, an estimated flux {tilde over (λ)}dq on d-axis and q-axis of the rotating coordinate system and an observed flux {circumflex over (λ)}q on q-axis of the rotating coordinate system from stationary-coordinate-system voltages να,νβ and stationary-coordinate-system currents iα,iβ inputted to the motor.
For reference, the observed flux {circumflex over (λ)}αβ and the estimated flux {tilde over (λ)}dq are calculated from the following Equations 1 and 2 using detected voltage ναβ and currents iαβ,idq, predetermined resistance R in a stator coil, and a magnetic model.
                                          λ            ∼                    dq                =                  L                                (                          i              dq                        )                                              [                  Equation                                                              1                ]                                                      λ            ^                    αβ                =                                            s                              s                +                g                                                                (                                                                    v                    αβ                                    -                                                            R                      s                                                                                i                      αβ                                                                      s                            )                                +                                    g                              s                +                g                                                                                λ                ∼                            αβ                                                          [                  Equation                                                              2                ]
In addition, the sensorless control system further includes a position/speed estimator 70 for estimating a rotating angle {tilde over (θ)} of the motor's rotor from the observed flux {circumflex over (λ)}αβ, {circumflex over (λ)}q and the estimated flux {tilde over (λ)}dq, which are outputted from the flux observing unit 60, based on a predetermined equation, and for estimating a rotor speed {tilde over (ω)} from the estimated rotating angle {tilde over (θ)}.
The sensorless control system incorporated in the synchronous reluctance motor uses a startup-through-signal-injection algorithm at an initial startup time (i.e., an interval from halt of the rotor to low speed of the rotor) when input/output information is weak. For this, a typical sensorless control system further includes a d-axis flux injector 80. The d-axis flux injector 80 is used for generating and injecting a small-sized excitation signal λ*d-inj necessary for estimating the position of the rotor.
In the sensorless control system thus configured, the observed flux {circumflex over (λ)}αβ and the estimated flux {tilde over (λ)}dq are to be obtained to estimate the position of the rotor. For this, the resistance Rs of the stator coil and the magnetic model {tilde over (λ)}dq=L(idq) are to be specified in advance. These motor constants are specified through a prearranged experiment or simulation.
Accordingly, when the specification of the synchronous reluctance motor has changed, the resistance Rs of the stator and the magnetic model should be newly obtained through an experiment or simulation. Further, there is a problem in that the obtained values are applied to a startup algorithm so that the motor should be controlled through a new startup algorithm.

Method and device for controlling startup of motor