RFID tags are commanded to generate a pilot tone in their backscatter. When the backscattered pilot tone is received in the reader, the pilot tone is used to estimate the tag period/frequency. Then, the estimate is used to seed and lock a symbol timing recovery loop, which provides a detected signal to one or more correlators for detecting the tag preamble. A delayed version of the received tag signal is compared against a baseline signal threshold established from the received signal to detect the pilot tone.

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) systems typically include RFID tags and RFID readers (the latter are also known as RFID reader/writers or RFID interrogators). RFID systems can be used in many ways for locating and identifying objects to which the tags are attached. RFID systems are particularly useful in product-related and service-related industries for tracking large numbers of objects being processed, inventoried, or handled. In such cases, an RFID tag is usually attached to an individual item, or to its package.
In principle, RFID techniques entail using an RFID reader to interrogate one or more RFID tags. The reader transmitting a Radio Frequency (RF) wave performs the interrogation. A tag that senses the interrogating RF wave responds by transmitting back another RF wave. The tag generates the transmitted back RF wave either originally, or by reflecting back a portion of the interrogating RF wave in a process known as backscatter. Backscatter may take place in a number of ways.
The reflected-back RF wave may further encode data stored internally in the tag, such as a number. The response is demodulated and decoded by the reader, which thereby identifies, counts, or otherwise interacts with the associated item. The decoded data can denote a serial number, a price, a date, a destination, other attribute(s), any combination of attributes, and so on.
An RFID tag typically includes an antenna system, a power management section, a radio section, and frequently a logical section, a memory, or both. In earlier RFID tags, the power management section included an energy storage device, such as a battery. RFID tags with an energy storage device are known as active tags. Advances in semiconductor technology have miniaturized the electronics so much that an RFID tag can be powered solely by the RF signal it receives. Such RFID tags do not include an energy storage device, and are called passive tags.
In a typical reader-tag communication, the reader and the tag clocks are not synchronous in frequency or phase. Therefore, the reader has to recover the timing information from the received tag signal. To accomplish that the reader needs to estimate and track symbol rate (frequency) and symbol phase (temporal boundaries).
There is a wide variance of when tag responses can be received for detection. Moreover, the tag and reader clocks are not synchronized for their period and/or phase. The response is due after many cycles of these clocks. So, even small discrepancies in their synchronization may accumulate resulting in potentially large variances of time and frequency. Therefore, not only are the tag and reader clocks not synchronized in an RFID communication, but the frequency errors may be much larger than in traditional wireless communications systems.

RFID reader systems detecting pilot tone


An adhesive mounting article includes a flexible adhesive tape structure having a first major surface and a second major surface opposite to the first major surface. The flexible adhesive tape structure includes a peelable adhesive layer disposed on the first major surface and a first separable connecting member disposed on the second major surface. The peelable adhesive layer is capable of adhering to a mounting surface and thereafter being manually removable from the mounting surface by peeling. A rigid faceplate structure includes a rigid faceplate having a first major surface and a second major surface opposite to the first major surface, and a second separable connecting member disposed on the first major surface of the rigid faceplate. The first and second separable connecting members engage with each other to form a separable connection to connect the flexible adhesive tape structure and the rigid faceplate structure.

Peelable adhesive products are available that can adhere to a surface, for example, a wall surface, and thereafter removed by peeling. In one commercially available hook, a semi-rigid plastic backing and a rigid hook are integrated as a one-piece article support. The rigid hook is permanently attached to a central surface of the semi-rigid plastic backing and the opposite surface of the semi-rigid plastic backing can be adhered to a wall surface, and thereafter removed by peeling. However, the shear performance of the available peelable adhesive products needs to be improved.

Article support using peel release adhesives


A method for receiving data onboard an aircraft is provided. The method obtains a plurality of aircraft transponder messages associated with a particular landing zone; extracts, from each of the plurality of aircraft transponder messages, aircraft position data associated with landing at least one lead aircraft at the particular landing zone; and determines a landing path for use by the aircraft to land at the particular landing zone, based on the extracted aircraft position data.

Landing in an airport in poor visibility conditions is a challenge to any pilot. Current technology used to obtain lateral and vertical guidance for an aircraft during landing may include an instrument landing system (ILS), a Transponder Landing System (TLS), a microwave landing system, a Localizer Performance with Vertical guidance (LPV), a Ground-Based Augmentation System (GBAS), a global positioning system (GPS), or the like. Such aircraft systems are used to guide the flight crew to an appropriate touch down point at a particular location. However, both of the aforementioned aircraft systems (e.g., ILS and/or GPS) require functional ground and onboard equipment support to issue vertical and lateral deviation cues to the flight crew, which may not be available in every situation.
Accordingly, it is desirable to obtain vertical and lateral guidance information in alternative ways. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.

Methods and apparatus for obtaining aircraft landing guidance


Near infrared absorbing composition and material comprising a specific thioamide compound and a copper compound and/or a lead compound. The composition and material of this invention provide an uniform absorption over a near IR-region without decreasing other properties.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a near infrared absorbing composition (hereinafter referred to as a near IR-absorbing composition) comprising both thioamide compound and at least one compound selected from a member consisting of copper compound and lead compound, a near infrared absorbing material (hereinafter referred to as a near IR-absorbing material) comprising both compounds, and a product containing said composition or said material.
2. Prior Art
Recently, near IR-absorbing materials have been researched and developed. They have found a wide use, including light-sensitive materials using a semiconductor laser ray having a near IR-wave length range, etc. as a light source; information-recording materials such as an optical recording disk; optical materials such as IR-cut filter, IR-cut film; light-heat-converting record material used together with a heat-sensitive material.
As hitherto developed near IR-absorbing materials, there are disclosed a chrome-cobalt complex in Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-42269, a thiolnickel complex in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 60-21294, an anthraquinone derivative in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 61-115958, a novel squarylium compound having a maximum absorption in a wave length range of 700-800 nm in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 61-218551.
Further, there are described a nitroso compound, metal complex thereof, a polymethine dye (cyanine dye), a cobalt-, platinum-, or palladium-complex of thiol, Phthalocyanine dye, triarylmethane dye, immonium dye, diimmonium dye, a naphthoquinone dye, and the like in "Near IR-absorbing dyestuff" (Kagakukogyo, 43, May 1986).
Among the conventional near IR-absorbing materials, the organic materials have the defects that the durability is inferior and the original abilities deteriorate with the change of condition or the lapse of time. On the contrary, the complex-base materials, which exhibit a good durability, have defects that they are strongly colored owing to the absorption of both visible range and near infrared range, so that their uses are limited. Both materials indicate an absorption peak at a particular wave length and have little absorbency in the range of outside the particular wave length. For a recording material in which one of both materials is used and a laser ray of near IR-wave length, for example, is applied as a light source, it is required that the wave length of laser agrees with an absorption peak of one material. Since both the wave length of laser and the absorption wave length of the near IR-absorbing material are limited, the combination in which the wave length of laser agrees with the absorption peak of the near IR-absorbing material is extremely restricted. It is said that this combination hardly exists taking the absorbency, durability, coloring, costs, etc. into consideration. This use is extremely limited.

Near infrared absorbing composition and material and product containing same


Some embodiments provide a content delivery network (CDN) solution that affords the CDN control over those elements of customer content that are delivered by third parties. The CDN integrates a distributed set of monitoring agents. Each monitoring agent monitors the delivery performance of third parties to the region in which the agent operates. The CDN uses the performance monitoring information to dynamically manage the content tags to the third-party delivered elements of CDN-customer content. Specifically, a CDN server retrieves the parent page for requested CDN-customer content. The CDN server identifies the region from where the request originates and retrieves the logs from the monitoring agents monitoring from that region. The CDN server then modifies the base page by dynamically removing the tags to the third-party delivered elements that are reported in the monitoring agent logs as being unavailable, inaccessible, or underperforming in the identified region.

Much of today's content is delivered over data networks that collectively form the Internet. Usually, this content is composed of one or more elements. These elements can include text, audio, video, images, multimedia, applications, advertisements, or some combination thereof. For specific content, the identification and retrieval of the included elements are controlled by a set of "child tags" that are specified in a "parent page" for that content. A child tag identifies a content element. A parent page is any page or file that directly or indirectly includes one or more child tags. A parent page directly includes a child tag by defining the tag within the body of the parent page. A parent page indirectly includes a child tag by including a reference or link to another parent page that then defines the child tag. Accordingly, the parent page can be a base page, include file, header file, metadata containing file, or other pages or files associated with customer content.
A tag can be a link or a script. The link can specify a Uniform Resource Locator or other reference identifying one or more of the content's elements (e.g., the HTML "src" tag). The script can specify a set of instructions for one or more of the content's elements. Scripts can be specified using a variety of languages including JavaScript and PERL as some examples.
The user experience is determined based on the speed with which all of the elements associated with the child tags of one or more parent pages are delivered. The user is typically unaware or unconcerned with the fact that the elements may be delivered from different servers or different sources. For example, a particular content provider may specify a parent page for its website, with the parent page including child tags for populating the website with an advertisement, a video, and different images. The parent page, as well as the images, may be delivered from the content provider's own servers, the advertisement may be delivered from a third-party advertisement server, and the video may be delivered from the server of a third-party video hosting service provider. The user simply expects all these elements to load within some time frame. When one or more of the elements continues to load beyond that time frame, the user may become disinterested, frustrated, or otherwise indifferent to that content and as a result, navigate away from the particular content provider's website.
To improve the user experience, content providers have come to rely on content delivery networks (CDNs) for expedited delivery of their content. CDNs cache the content provider content at different points-of-presence (PoP) throughout the network. This allows the CDN to serve the content to different users from locations that are geographically proximate to those users. As a result, the content can be delivered with less latency and with fewer network errors. Moreover, the CDN inherently provides failover because of its redundant caching at its different PoPs. Should one PoP become inaccessible, the same content can be served from a different PoP.
However, the CDN is only able to accelerate the delivery for the elements of the content provider content that it hosts. The CDN itself is reliant on third-party servers to deliver the other elements for services of those third parties. Some such elements include dynamically generated content or restricted content of the third parties that cannot be cached by the CDN. As some examples, the third-party delivered content elements can include advertisements from third-party advertising servers, social media feeds from third-party social media sites, video from third-party video hosting servers, as well as analytics, monitoring tools, scripts, and other applications from third-party tracking servers. Accordingly, content may include a third party delivered element without the recipient for the content even knowing about the included third party delivered element. For example, a third party delivered element can include a single pixel graphic or token object that is unperceivable, but that the third party uses to track and monitor the recipient. If any one of these third-party servers is down or otherwise performs poorly, the delivery of the overall content is degraded.
Exacerbating the situation are various regional, enterprise, and national firewalls that block certain content and content elements from certain content providers. For example, it is not uncommon for countries with restrictive speech policies to block tags identifying content elements that are retrieved from social media sites such as www.facebook.com and www.twitter.com. Therefore, even when the CDN delivers elements of CDN-customer content that are not blocked, the parent page for that same CDN-customer content may include a tag to a blocked element that is delivered by a third-party. The blocked element would then delay the overall delivery of the customer's content.
Accordingly, there is a need to empower a CDN with more control over elements of CDN-customer content that are delivered by third parties. To this end, there is a need to enable the CDN to identify, from the customer hosted content, tags to elements that are hosted by other third parties that are unavailable, inaccessible, or severely underperforming. There is further a need to enable the CDN to dynamically modify or remove these tags when the CDN-customer content elements to which the tags point are unavailable, inaccessible, or severely underperforming from the third-party. Generally, there is a need for the CDN to prevent the degradation of the overall delivery performance for the CDN-customer content and the receiving user's experience, due to poorly performing or inaccessible third parties.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Dynamic tag management for optimizing content delivery


New nonwoven fibrous webs are taught which comprise a collected mass of a) directly formed fibers disposed within the web in a C-shaped cross-sectional configuration and b) staple fibers having a crimp of at least 15% dispersed among the directly formed fibers in an amount of at least 5% the weight of the directly formed fibers. The web is lofty but free of macrovoids. Preferably, the web has a filling ratio of at least 50 and a light transmittance variation of about 2% or less. Typically, fibers within the web are bonded together at points of fiber intersection, preferably with autogenous bonds, to provide a compression-resistant matrix. The webs are especially useful as acoustic and thermal insulation.

Prior-art workers have used microfibers to create superior acoustic and thermal insulating webs, taking advantage of insulating effects associated with the large surface area of the fine-diameter microfibers. Staple fibers have been blended with the microfibers in this prior work to open the web, thereby increasing the effectiveness of the microfibers and improving the insulating properties of the web (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,118,531 and 5,298,694). The prior-art microfiber-based insulating webs have developed important commercial acceptance and value; but improvement is continually sought, and the present invention makes possible an advance in these webs—e.g., an improvement in insulating properties—as discussed below.
The present invention is also an advance in another nonwoven web technology, which was first developed many years ago, even before development of the just-described insulating webs (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,607,588; 3,676,239; 3,738,884; 3,740,302; 3,819,452; and U.K. Patent No. 1,190,639, all issued from a line of patent applications originally filed in 1966). This technology involved the collection of spray-spun filamentary material with a collector consisting of two spaced-apart, contrarotating rolls disposed in the path of the material issuing from the extrusion orifice. The gap between the rolls was substantial, and only portions of the spray-spun filamentary material were deposited directly on the roll surfaces. The remainder of the filamentary material crossed back and forth randomly between the layers of material deposited on the roll surfaces to form a bridging structure connecting the layers together.
An object of this prior-art development was to provide nonwoven fibrous structures in which each of the opposed surfaces of the web consists of a densified layer, with those densified surface layers being connected by an integrally formed core made up of fibrous components bridging the space between the surface layers. A particular use of the technique was to provide pile-like fabrics formed by splitting the collected web lengthwise between and parallel to the surface layers. The dense surface layers, which desirably were collected on smooth-surfaced solid (nonporous) rolls while the fibers were tacky, served as a backing for the fabric, and the cut bridging structure between the surface layers became the "pile," or upstanding fiber portion. In a representative example, the fibers had a diameter of about 24 micrometers.
When observed in a longitudinal vertical cross-section through the described collected web, the fibers exhibited a C-shaped configuration. A segment (or segments) of a representative individual fiber was disposed so as to be generally transverse or perpendicular to the faces of the web (this segment(s) formed the vertical portion of the "C"), and other segments of the fiber connected to the transverse segment(s) lay within the faces of the web (the arms of the "C"). Also, the C shapes were discrete from one another. That is, the fibers were grouped into sheets or subassemblies, each of which had a C-shaped configuration. The discrete C-shaped sheets or subassemblies were spaced apart in the machine direction of the web. That is, the arms of adjacent C-shaped subassemblies overlapped and formed the faces of the web, but the transverse portion of the C's were spaced apart, thus leaving large channels or voids within the collected webs that occupied almost the full height of the web and appeared to extend across the width of the web.
Another prior-art use of fibers in a C-shaped configuration is found in a series of patents issued in the U.S. in 1983-84 (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,375,446; 4,409,282; and 4,434,205), based on original filings in Japan in 1978-79. These patents teach the collection of meltblown fibers in the "valley-shaped" zone between two separated porous plates or rollers. The collected webs are rather compact (one of the plates is often referred to as a presser plate, though it is stated that compression is not always necessary). A preferred use for the collected webs seems to be as synthetic leather; other described uses are electrical insulators, battery separators, filters, and carpets.
A more recent patent publication, WO 00/66824, published November 2000, also teaches webs with fibers collected in C-shaped configuration. The collected fibers are said to be folded to form loops, with the loops forming "a train of waves spaced along the machine direction, running from edge to edge in the cross direction and extending in the z-direction" (through the thickness of the web). Large channels or voids are pictured running through the width of the web. Either meltspun or meltblown webs are contemplated, and the meltblown webs may be a "coform" type of web; the latter are described with reference to U.S. Pat. No. 4,818,464 as containing other materials such as pulp, superabsorbent particles, cellulose or staple fibers, exemplified as cotton, flax, silk or jute.
The densified, compacted, or channeled webs of the prior art may be adapted to particular uses as described in the patents, though we are unaware of any commercial products that have resulted from these prior-art teachings.


A vertical type abdominal and hip exercising apparatus including two swivel frames bilaterally and revolvably fastened to two angle bars on two opposite sides of a back rest being fastened to a bevel frame above a machine base and turned by the player's chest or legs to lift weights through traction cables and a pulley block for trunk bending or leg pressing exercises. The swivel frames are linked for synchronous movement. Each swivel frame has two position-adjustable actuating members for turning with the chest or the leg in lifting the weights.

The present invention relates to an abdominal and hip exercising apparatus, and more particularly the present invention relates to a vertical type abdominal and hip exercising apparatus.
Various exercising apparatus have been proposed for different purposes, and have appeared on the market. A normal universal gym generally has an abdominal board for exercising the muscles of the abdominal. When in use, the player should lie on the abdominal board and then alternately bend the trunk. This exercising method needs much effort to perform, and therefore it is not suitable for fat or aged persons.
FIG. 1. 1 illustrates an adbominal exercising apparatus from CYBEN U.S.A. called ABNOMINAL, which allows the player to sit on a chair and then bend the trunk forwards in lifting weights. The load of the weights can be adjusted according to individual physical conditions. However, this structure of abnominal exercising apparatus needs much installation space, and allows only a limited space for bending the trunk. CYBEN U.S.A. also produces another exercising apparatus called MULTI-HIP for exercising the muscles of the hips. However, this apparatus can only be used for exercising the muscles of the hips, and therefore it is not economical.


The preferred embodiment utilizes metal coated high strain fabric reinforcement including but not limited to fiberglass, cotton fiber, or other materials that can undergo deformation, and various resin or elastomer compounds to create a conductive polymer whose resistivity and resistance remain essentially constant under a strain of approximately 0-150% or more. Additionally, the preferred embodiment utilizes a method of imprinting, depositing, etching, or embossing a design or pattern of conductive metal on fabric used in composites. The use of designs of conductive metals wrapped around a deformable core and the unique features of elastomeric polymers allows for their use as a flexible circuit board, formable heaters, and other various uses.

1. Field of the Discovery
The field of the presently disclosed apparatus relates to filling a void's volume with a conformal heater. More specifically the apparatus relates to the use of conductive linings or imprints surrounding a conformal core to fill the void's volume and/or impart heat energy to a void's walls through more efficient conduction and heat transfer. The conformal core will need to impart force that maintains the surface contact between the heater and material wall.
2. Description of Related Art
The terms "elastic" and "elastomeric" are used herein to mean any material which, upon application of a biasing force, is stretchable, to a stretched, biased length which is at least about ten percent (10%) longer than its relaxed unbiased length, and which, will recover at least fifty percent (50%) of its elongation upon release of the stretching, elongating force. A hypothetical example would be a one inch sample of a material which is stretched to at least 1.10 inches and which, upon being elongated to 1.10 inches and released, will recover to a length of not more than 1.05 inches. Many elastic materials may be elongated by much more than ten percent (10%) (i.e., much more than one hundred ten percent (110%) of their relaxed length), for example, elongated by two hundred percent (200%) or more, and many of these will recover to substantially their initial relaxed length, for example, to within one hundred one percent (101%) of their initial relaxed length, upon release of the stretching force.
The term composite is commonly used in the industry to identify components produced by impregnating and/or encapsulation a filler material, often comprised of particles or fibers, with a resin material. Examples of fillers include, but are not limited to cloth fabrics, carbon nanotubes and carbon nanofibers, metallic fabrics and particles, wood fibers and particles, and other similar fabrics, fibers, and particles. Generally, polymers and polymer composites have the advantages of weight saving, high specific mechanical properties, and good corrosion resistance which make them indispensable materials in all areas of manufacturing. Nevertheless, manufacturing costs are sometimes detrimental, since they can represent a considerable part of the total costs and are made even more costly by the inability to quickly and easily repair these materials without requiring a complete, and expensive, total replacement. Furthermore, the production of complex shaped parts is still a challenge for the composite industry. The limited potential for complex shape forming offered by advanced composite materials leaves little scope for design freedom in order to improve mechanical performance and/or integrate supplementary functions. This has been one of the primary limitations for a wider use of advanced composites in cost-sensitive large volume applications.
Shape memory polymers (SMPs) and shape memory alloys (SMAS) were first developed about twenty (20) years ago and have been the subject of commercial development in the last ten (10) years. SMPs are polymers that derive their name from their inherent ability to return to their original "memorized" shape after undergoing a shape deformation.
SMPs have a dynamic modulus that undergoes a sharp change in the modulus of elasticity at its glass transition temperature (Tg). This sharp change facilitates easy molding and forming of SMPs or composites wherein the resin used in the composite is an SMP. SMPs which have been preformed can be deformed to any desired shape below or above its Tg. If the SMP is below the Tg, this process is called cold deformation. When deformation of the SMP occurs above its Tg, the process is denoted as warm deformation. In either case the SMP must remain below, or be quenched to below, the Tg while maintained in the desired deformed shape to "lock" in the deformation. Once the deformation is locked in, the polymer network cannot return to a relaxed state due to thermal barriers. The SMP will hold its deformed shape indefinitely until it is heated above its Tg, whereupon the strain energy, stored as potential energy in the SMP, is released and the SMP returns to its preformed state. Typically, SMPs are deformed above their Tg because of the ease of deforming the SMP at these temperatures versus deforming the SMP at temperatures below their Tg. Additionally, SMPs have can have a higher strain imparted on the SMP before failure if deformed above their Tg.
SMPs are not simply elastomers nor simply plastics. They exhibit characteristics of both materials, depending on their temperature. While rigid, and below its Tg, an SMP demonstrates the strength-to-weight ratio of a rigid polymer; however, normal rigid polymers under thermal stimulus simply flow or melt into a random new shape, and they have no "memorized" shape to which they can return. While heated and pliable, above its Tg, an SMP has the flexibility of a high-quality, dynamic elastomer, typically tolerating four hundred percent (400%) elongation or more; however, unlike normal elastomers, an SMP can be reshaped or returned quickly to its memorized shape and subsequently cooled into a rigid plastic. If deformed or reshaped above its Tg and this deformation is maintained while the SMP is cooled, the SMP will retain this new, deformed, shape while below its Tg. If the SMP is then reheated to above its Tg the SMP, without additional force, will return to its original memorized shape.
Several known polymer types exhibit shape memory properties. Probably the best known and best researched polymer types exhibiting shape memory polymer properties are polyurethane polymers. Other SMP polymers known in the art include articles formed of Norborne or dimethaneoctahydronapthalene homopolymers or copolymers, set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,094. Additionally, styrene copolymer based SMPs are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,759,481 and Shape Memory Cyanate Ester Copolymers are disclosed in PCT application WO/2005/108448 published Nov. 17, 2005, which are incorporated herein by reference.
The primary design components of thermally activated SMPs include at least one monomer, possibly a co-monomer, a crosslinker, and possibly an initiator and additional filler material. A polymer engineered with shape memory characteristics provide a unique set of material qualities and capabilities that enhance traits inherent in the polymer system. SMPs can be chemically formulated with a transition temperature to match most application needs. It can be cast and cured into an enormous variety of "memorized" shapes, from thick sheets and concave dishes to tiny parts or a complicated open honeycomb matrix.
Methods other than thermal energy can activate the shape memory properties of SMP. Electromagnetic radiation, UV light and magnetism can be used to activate the SMP. Throughout this application "activation" will be defined as transitioning the material from a hard, rigid state to a soft, pliable and elastic state. Additionally, throughout this application, "deactivation" will be defined as transitioning the material from a soft, pliable state to a hard, rigid state.
Sheets of conductive metalized fabrics are well known in the art. In one method for introducing metal into the fabric of a composite, metal threads are woven into the graphite fabric at regular intervals. While this prior art technique has been proven satisfactory for most cases, it is evident that due to the inability of a metal thread to stretch, any strain is likely to break some, if not all, of the metal threads, reducing the conductivity of the composite.
In a second prior art technique for introducing metal into a composite, each fiber of the outermost layer is coated with metal prior to being woven into a continuous sheet. This technique is particularly disadvantageous in that the coaxial metal sheath around each fiber has a substantially different modulus of elasticity than the fiber itself. Thus, when the composite is subject to bending moments, the metal sheath tends to shear away from the fiber. In addition, unnecessary excess weight is introduced into the fabric weave.
A third prior art technique for introducing metal into a composite is shown by EEONYX Corporation (www.eeonyx.com). They created a intrinsically conductive polymer (ICP) with a chemical composition of polyaniline or polypyrrole. Those ICPs can only be added to plastics with a lower melting point of up to two hundred degrees Celsius (200° C.), and are therefore very limited in their use. The ICP can be prepared and deposited into a carbon black or other matrix and increase the use of plastics with three hundred degree Celsius (300° C.) melting point. The use of ICPs improves the electrical, mechanical and melt flow properties and greatly reduces the compounding difficulties and easier end-product fabrication of composites. In certain applications, the plastic exhibits a ten-fold increase in conductivity compared to high structure carbon black loaded alloys at the same loading level.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,807 issued to Myron M. Fuerstman on Apr. 14, 1987, discloses a method of depositing metal onto fabrics such as cotton and polyester. The process used according to Fuerstman was to select a fabric capable of flattening or polishing under heat and pressure, pressing the fabric against a heated surface and then vacuum metalizing the fabric by vapor deposition.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,665 issued to Ralph Orban, et. al, on Aug. 16, 1988 discloses several uses of a metalized conductive fabric. Specifically, Orban discloses use of the metalized fabric as a resistive heating element for use on airplane wings and in clothing, specifically gloves. The gloves are electrically heated woven fabric in which the fabric has been coated with electrically conducting metal to enable its use as a heating element. The fabric is in the shape of a hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,089,325, issued on Feb. 18, 1992, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,626 issued on Jan. 9, 1990, to James Covey discloses methods for plating one side of a woven fabric sheet by using a backing layer applied to one side of the sheet. The sheet and backing layer are wetted in an electrolytic solution containing metallic ions to be deposited on one side of the fabric sheet only. Air bubbles trapped in interstices of the fabric weave and beneath the backing sheet prevent the electrolytic solution from soaking through the fabric sheet. Electrodes bond the metal ions on the wetted fabric thereto. The backing sheet is then removed. The resulting fabric is coated on only one side and the interstices are not filled in by plating material. The fabric is useful as the outermost layer in a composite laminate for an aircraft skin.
Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 7,078,658 issued to Daniel Brunner and André Amari on Jul. 18, 2006 discloses a method for using conductive fibers as a heater mat for aircraft. The heater mat is provided with a resistive element including at least two substantially parallel segments of electrically conductive fibers disposed on the aerodynamic surface of an aircraft. The segments come from a single strip of electrically conductive fibers, with two adjacent segments being obtained by folding a portion of the single strip at least twice. However, similarly to the previously discussed methods, Brunner fails to disclose a method of creating conductive patterns on a piece of fabric for use in a composite and limits the composite to those containing carbon fibers.
The drawbacks of the present methods, including the imprinting of a design onto a fabric by pressing metal foil which is well known in the art, include the inability to selectively deposit the material onto a particular portion of the fabric. Orban, while showing the ability to cut a piece of conducting fabric into a predetermined shape, does not disclose or show a means for selectively depositing metal onto only a predetermined portion of a single side or both sides of a piece of fabric. Similarly Fuerstman does not disclose a means to selectively deposit metal in a predetermined shape or pattern onto a fabric. Finally, both patents issued to Covey only disclose a means for depositing metal onto a single side and does not disclose how to imprint or deposit metal onto a fabric in a predetermined shape or pattern.
The two principal methods of creating high-strain conductive elastomers focus on developing the elastomer at the nano scale or involve the addition of conductive nano-sized fillers including: carbon nano-fibers/tubes, carbon black, nickel nano-strands, nickel coated graphite particles, and other nano-sized conductors.
The first major effort to create conductive elastomers, polymers and polymer composites was through the use of fillers. These processes use nano-sized conductive additives to increase the conductivity of elastomers, polymers, and polymer composites. High percent loadings of fillers, ten percent (10%) or more, are required to achieve useful electrical conductivity, resulting in a large decrease in the maximum percent elongation and ultimate tensile strength of the base elastomer. The electrical resistance of these materials also increased significantly with percent strain, rendering circuit design with these materials essentially impossible. The use of small, nano-sized carbon tubes, or other conducting material, as filler, to create a conductive elastomer, polymer and polymer composite is well known in the prior art.
One example of the use of fillers to create a conductive elastomer involves tailoring the electrical conductivity in elastomeric and polymeric materials used to build military and commercial aerospace components, with negligible impact on the elastomer's mechanical properties or manufacturing ability. This technology transforms almost any common elastomer or polymer into a multifunctional material capable of carrying or dissipating a significant electrical charge, an advancement offering tremendous promise throughout the space, aerospace, automotive, and chemical industries. This is controlled by dispersion of specifically designed, highly electrically conductive, yet remarkably flexible, carbon nano-tubes into the supporting elastomer or polymer matrix. These nano-tubes have the current carrying capacity of copper but with a comparatively much lower density.
The nano-tubes used in the finished products are on the order of sixty to two hundred nanometers in diameter with an aspect ratio (the ratio of their length to their diameter) of greater than eight hundred. The electrical and thermal conductivity of these nano-tubes is highly dependent on the architecture and design of the nano-tubes. This high aspect ratio results in a much lower required filler content to achieve percolation (onset of conductivity) than traditional metal-filled systems. The percolation threshold for these materials is less than one half of one percent by volume. The multi-wall nano-tubes used in this process are available in ton quantities, which allow affordable, realistic scale-up of the resultant nano-composites. Other examples of use of nano-tubes of conducting material are well known in the art.
The principle disadvantages of this method are the difficulty in achieving and maintaining the proper alignment of nano-tubes in the resin/elastomer matrix to ensure good conductivity. The specific environmental conditions and special equipment needed make these production methods very expensive. Additionally, as described in Effect of Strain on the Properties of an Ethylene-Octene Elastomer with Conductive Carbon Fibers, L. Flandin, et. al., Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2000; 76 (6): 894-905, 897; Practical Considerations for Loading Conductive Fillers into Shielding Elastomers, Brian W. Callen and James Mah, ITEM 2002, 130-137, 134; and Interrelationships Between Electrical And Mechanical Properties Of A Carbon Black-Filled Ethylene-Octene Elastomer, L. Flandin, A. Hiltner, E. Baer, Polymer, January 2001 827-838, 831; the resistance of these materials likely dramatically increases under strain and the maximum strain decreases as the percentage of nano-tubes increase.
Because of the loading requirements and the size of the tubes it would be nearly impossible to imprint electrical circuit designs onto this type of composite as the scale of the conductive elements is not easily manipulated.
The second major area of investigation involved the manufacture of conductive polymers on the nano-scale. The process typically involved manipulating molecules to achieve a desired set of material characteristics by allowing only some molecules to bond to particular sites.
One of the latest attempts at solving the problem on the nano-scale involves NanoSonic, Inc.'s process to produce what it calls Metal Rubber™ U.S. Pat. No. 6,316,084 issued Nov. 13, 2001 to Richard O. Claus and Yanjing Liu covers some of NanoSonic's technology. According to Claus and Liu the material can be stretched to about three hundred percent (300%) of its original length and relax back. It can be exposed to chemicals, boiled in water overnight, and it doesn't mechanically or chemically degrade. Additionally it can be heated to approximately three hundred seventy degrees Celsius (370° C.), and it maintains its properties.
Metal Rubber™ is made using a nanotechnology process call electrostatic molecular self-assembly which means that Metal Rubber™ is formed one layer at a time where individual molecules are formed layer by layer on a surface. Starting with a plastic or glass substrate, or base, that is given an electric charge, either positive or negative, the plate is dipped alternately into two water-based solutions, one containing plastic molecules that have been given a positive electrical charge and the other containing plastic molecules with a negative charge. If the base has a positive charge, it goes into the negative molecules first, and they cling to the base, forming a layer only one molecule thick. After the next dipping, into positive molecules, a second ultra thin layer forms and this process will continue until the completed product is formed.
The biggest challenge to accurate and mass production is that the process requires the layers to be built one molecule layer thick at a time, which is very time consuming. Another difficulty is that the fabric size capable of being produced is limited to the plate size and is not readily capable of mass production. The added expense of chemicals, cleaning, and the low production rate makes the product very expensive. Finally, it is even more difficult and time consuming to produce a pattern of conductive metal on a fabric using this method.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,152,313, issued Oct. 6, 1964 to Barbour et al., discloses an elastic heater comprising of a wire heating element attached to an elastic cloth. The wire heating element is bent in a zigzag shape to allow the wire to straighten out with the stretching of the elastic cloth and return to a zigzag shape when the elastic cloth returns to its resting state. This disclosure is limited in stretch by the straight length of the heating wire in the stretched state. Further wire fatigue will become an issue over repeated use. This disclosure is used to cover an outer surface and not to cover an inner surface of a void.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,714,738 issued Feb. 3, 1998 to Hauschulz et al., discloses a heater mat that is preferably made of two layers of fiberglass reinforced rubber sheets laminated together with resistive heater wires sandwiched between the laminated sheets. The heater mat is formed with a curvature and size to fit snugly around the peripheral surface of the pipe that is to be heated. A jacket of thermally insulative material, such as a polymer foam, is molded over the external surface of the heater mat. The mat and the jacket are configured so that the heater has interfacing opposite edges that meet and preferably touch each other when the heater is mounted onto the pipe, but the combination of the mat and jacket have sufficient resilient flexibility to allow opening the heater by separating the edges enough to slip the heater over the pipe, whereupon the heater resumes its original inherent cylindrical shape when released. Snaps, Velcro™ fastening material straps, or other suitable fasteners can be used to secure the heaters snugly around the pipe, if desired, although the biased resilience of the heater to its formed shape is generally sufficient itself to hold the heater in place. The disclosure uses resistive heaters, has a fixed shape defined by a mold, and is only flexible enough to snap around an object.

Conductive elastomeric heater with expandable core


A card to be used is first discriminated as to whether the card is a credit card or a debit card on the basis of data recorded on the card. In the case of a credit card, a necessary credit card processing including card authorization is effected. In the case of a debit card, a necessary debit card processing including immediate payment processing of an amount of money for transaction is efffected.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card processing terminal suitable for use in distribution and money business industries and so on, and more specifically to a terminal for selectively processing both credit and debit card (or cash card) transactions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In accompanying the spread of various cards such as credit cards, debit cards (cash cards), etc., is a demand for processing various transactions on the basis of cards without depending upon payment in cash. Commonly, a terminal for processing only credit card transactions and a terminal for processing only debit card transactions is installed independently at each shop or store in such a way that a credit card processing terminal is installed so as to face the operator and a debit card terminal is installed so as to face customers.
In the case of a credit card, an amount of money to be paid by a customer is loaned on credit, and the amount of money is settled within a predetermined time period (e.g. one month). Therefore, when a credit card is used at a store, an authorization by a central installation (i.e. host computer) is required to check whether the used card is valid and whether the amount of money for transaction exceeds an upper credit limit. Further, according to circumstances, an amount of money on credit is transmitted to the host computer to be stored in a memory for settlement. The above credit processing is mainly operated by an operator at each store.
In contrast with this, in the case of a debit card, an amount of money for transaction is settled whenever a transaction is made. Therefore, when a debit card is used at a store, an amount of money for transaction is paid through a central installation of a bank associated with the debit card by transferring an amount of money for transaction from the customer's account to the store's account. The above debit processing is mainly operated by a customer himself.
Conventionally, as described above, since it has been necessary to equip two, credit card and debit card, processing terminals at each store, there exists problems in that a large installation space is required and therefore the installation cost is high.

Credit and debit card processing terminal


A first light source arranged behind a display field and configured to generate an elementary color or a secondary color from red, green and blue elementary colors for increasing safety of a display device having an optical display field, wherein the first light source is connected to an activation module which is configured to activate the first light source based on the desired color. A second light source is arranged behind the display field and configured to generate the elementary color or the secondary color from the red, green and blue elementary colors. The second light source is connected to the activation module which is configured to activate the second light source based on the desired color of the first light source, and a monitor is provided which is configured to identify an error or a fault on one of the light sources and to shutdown the faulty light source.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a display device having an optical display field in which a first light source is arranged behind the display field, where the light source is configured so as to generate an elementary color or a secondary color from the elementary colors red, green and blue, and where the first light source is connected to an activation module and the activation module is configured to activate the first light source in accordance with the color to be generated.
2. Description of the Related Art
Display devices are preferably used in automation technology to automate industrial processes. Here, the display devices are preferably configured as control and observation devices or Human Machine Interface (HMI) devices. Furthermore, the display devices can be embodied as key panels or pushbutton panels. The key panels or pushbutton panels generally comprise illuminated push-buttons for machine operation. These display devices and/or panels are preferably designed for direct machine operation. As a result, they are preferably connected to a programmable logic controller by a field bus, such as a Profibus or a Profinet. Display devices of this type are essentially used to relay a machine status in the form of color information and to receive information in the form of pushed or keyed buttons on the display device.
With buttons that are configured as illuminated pushbuttons, the five colors red/green/blue/yellow/white can preferably be represented on account of the RGB LED used. In this way, yellow and white represent secondary colors. Yellow is produced from red and green, white is produced from red and green and blue.
If a fault occurs on one of the LEDs, the color information to be reproduced is distorted. The user or a machine operator may then interpret the machine status incorrectly. Particularly in automation technology, i.e., in safety-oriented automation technology, the color information yellow is interpreted as an abnormal status (also see International Electrotechnical Commission/European (IEC/EN) standard 60204-1.

Display device having an optical display field


A process for producing allyl acetate is disclosed. The process comprises reacting a feed comprising propylene, acetic acid, oxygen, and carbon dioxide in the presence of a supported palladium catalyst. The feed comprises from 2 to 6 mole percent carbon dioxide, which improves the selectivity to allyl acetate.

Oxidation of propylene in the presence of acetic acid catalyzed by a palladium catalyst to produce allyl acetate is known. The process includes a reaction (acetoxylation) of propylene with oxygen and acetic acid to form a mixture comprising allyl acetate, propylene, oxygen, acetic acid, water, carbon dioxide, and possibly other inert gases. The reaction mixture is typically separated into a gas stream comprising propylene, oxygen, acetic acid, water, and carbon dioxide, and a liquid stream comprising allyl acetate, acetic acid, and water. Allyl acetate can be separated from the liquid stream. At least a portion of the acetic acid and water separated from the liquid stream is recycled to the acetoxylation reaction.
The gas stream is also generally recycled to the acetoxylation reaction (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,970,713 and 4,010,198). U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,198 discloses that the feed entering the reactor contains significant concentration of carbon dioxide. In Example 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,198, the feed contains 10 volume percent carbon dioxide. In Example 4, it contains 65 volume percent carbon dioxide. A higher carbon dioxide concentration in the feed to the acetoxylation reaction decreases the productivity of the process. In addition, the recycle gas needs to be pressurized before it can enter the reactor because the acetoxylation is performed at a higher pressure. Consequently, a higher carbon dioxide concentration in the recycle gas requires higher energy consumption for compressing the recycle gas.


Methods and apparatus relate to air handling for an internal combustion engine system, particularly utilizing premixed air and fuel. The engine system includes an intake air throttle (IAT) having a position set in response to the engine speed and a variable valve timing module having an intake valve timing set in response to the engine load. The variable valve timing module may be a cam phaser having a position at or between full retard and full advance positions. The engine system may operate in a transient mode or a fuel efficiency mode. The IAT position is adjusted in response to an engine speed error value or set at full throttle. The cam phaser position is adjusted in response to a pressure difference across the IAT, the engine speed, or is set to a limit position.

Internal combustion engine systems are often required to meet various performance goals, including engine speed, power production, efficiency, and regulatory requirements. For example, achieving a target engine speed is important in utility power generation applications for synchronization with the electrical grid. To achieve these performance goals, it is often desirable to control the contents of an engine cylinder during combustion, including the amount of air and its related characteristics (e.g., temperature and pressure). Among the techniques to control the airflow into one or more engine cylinders, internal combustion engine systems often include an intake throttle and a cam. The intake throttle is often adjustable for providing a desired flow of air from the ambient environment to an intake manifold. Air is delivered from the intake manifold to an engine cylinder through an intake valve, the opening and closing of which may be controlled by the cam. The flow of air to the engine cylinder can be adjusted with the presence of a cam phaser, which is one technique of variable valve control or timing, to change the phase of the cam (e.g., timing of valve opening and closing, which affects the amount of air that flows into the engine cylinder) and thus to provide a desired amount of air to the engine cylinder. As the operating conditions of the engine change, the desired amount of airflow may change in order to reach the various performance goals required.

Cooperative cam phaser and air throttle control


An optical unit for a wavelength-selecting switch according to the present invention comprises: an input port; a dispersion section that produces wavelength dispersion of input light that is input from the input port; a light-collecting element that collects the light dispersed by the dispersion section; an output port; an optical path correction section that shifts the light that is dispersed by the dispersion section; an adjustment section that changes the amount of shift produced by the optical path correction section; and a casing that hermetically seals the input port, dispersion section, light-collecting element, output port, and optical path correction section. The casing has an optically transparent section in a location onto which the light that is collected by the light-collecting element is directed. The adjustment section is arranged outside the casing. The optical path correction section can be controlled from outside the casing by the adjustment section.

Conventionally, as the wavelength selecting switch, there has been proposed a wavelength selecting switch in which a dispersive element, a plurality of optical parts, and a micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) array (a mirror array) are accommodated in a state of being sealed in an internal portion of a casing (for example, refer to patent document 1). In the wavelength selecting switch mentioned above, if a light path is appropriately adjusted so as to be fixed and the casing is sealed in a manufacturing stage, fluctuation of refraction factor due to change of air pressure can be avoided, and the light path within the casing is appropriately maintained.
FIG. 26 is an exploded perspective view showing an outline structure of a wavelength selecting switch disclosed in patent document 1. In the wavelength selecting switch, various optical parts constructing an optical system of the wavelength selecting switch are mounted to a flat optical bench 1000. Further, a casing 1001 is hermetically sealed by fixing the optical bench 1000 to which the optical system is mounted, to a bottom portion within the casing 1001, and covering an upper opening portion of the casing 1001 by a lid 1002.
Further, the wavelength selecting switch generally employs an apparatus which is provided with at least one input port, at least one output port, a dispersing portion, a converging portion and a deflecting portion. In this apparatus, the wavelength multiplexed light input into the wavelength selecting switch from one optical fiber of the input port is dispersed per wavelength by the dispersion portion such as a diffraction grating, and is converged into a different mirror element in the deflecting portion such as the MEMS mirror array. The light converged into each of the mirror elements is deflected and output in a predetermined output port direction per wavelength by controlling each of the mirror elements to a predetermined angle. Generally, the mirror array is constructed by mirror elements which are arranged in one line in a direction of x axis on a plane which is approximately vertical to the incident light. A light flux wavelength dispersed in the direction of x axis is incident on the mirror element. A wavelength of the light coming to a center of each of the mirror elements is preferably close to a predetermined value which is defined by a standard.
Further, as the dispersing portion, there has been various structures for obtaining a great dispersion by a reduced number of optical parts. For example, in a wavelength selecting switch having a dispersion portion of so-called Littman-Metcalf configuration in which the diffraction grating and the mirror are arranged in a mutually inclined manner, a great dispersing effect is obtained by converting the wavelength multiplexed light into parallel light by the lens or the mirror so as to enter into the diffraction grating, temporarily bringing the light dispersed by the diffraction grating to the mirror so as to be reflected, and thereafter again entering into the diffraction grating (for example, refer to patent document 2).
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2009-145887
Patent Document 2: U.S. Pat. No. 7,630,599

Optical unit for wavelength selecting switch and wavelength selecting switch


A surface treating method for treating a surface of a substrate inside a process chamber includes the steps of generating an atmosphere containing no moisture in the process chamber, heating the substrate inside the atmosphere containing no moisture in the process chamber; and causing a reaction between the substrate and an adhesion accelerating agent by feeding the adhesion accelerating agent gas into the process chamber.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surface treating method for treating a surface of a substrate and a film depositing method for depositing a film on the substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a wide range of materials from inorganic materials to organic materials are used for a semiconductor device. The characteristics of the organic materials (of which inorganic materials do not have) help to optimize the properties of the semiconductor device and the manufacturing process of the semiconductor device.
One of the organic materials is polyimide. Polyimide has a high insulating property. Therefore, a polyimide film obtained by depositing polyimide on a surface of a substrate can be used as an insulating film, and as an insulating film of a semiconductor device.
As a method for depositing the polyimide film, a film deposition method is known, where vapor deposition polymerization is performed by using, for example, pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA) and 4,4′-oxydianiline (ODA) as raw material monomers. Vapor deposition polymerization is a method that causes thermal polymerization of pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA) and 4,4′-oxydianiline (ODA) (being used as raw material monomers) on a surface of a substrate (see, for example, Japanese Patent No. 4283910). Japanese Patent No. 4283910 discloses a film deposition method where a polyimide film is deposited by vaporizing PMDA and ODA monomers in a vaporizer, feeding each of the vaporized gases to a vapor deposition polymerization chamber, and causing vapor deposition polymerization on a substrate.
However, the film deposition apparatus which deposits a polyimide film by supplying the above-described PMDA gas and ODA gas to the substrate has the following problems.
In order to improve the adhesive property of the polyimide film deposited on the substrate, surface treating is to be performed with an adhesion accelerating agent before depositing the polyimide film. The surface treatment using the adhesion accelerating agent may be performed by treating the surface of the substrate with an adhesion accelerating agent such as a silane coupling agent. Further, in order to cause hydrolysis of the silane coupling agent when treating the substrate surface with the silane coupling agent, water vapor is to be applied to the substrate together with the silane coupling agent.
However, in a case where water vapor that is fed during the surface treatment is remaining, a source gas would react to the water vapor and change the property of a film being deposited on the surface treated substrate. Thus, the film may not be satisfactorily deposited. Further, particles may be generated due to polymerization between the silane coupling agent contained in the adhesion accelerating agent and the water vapor.
Further, in order to perform surface treatment by supplying the silane coupling agent and the water vapor, the surface of the substrate is to be terminated with a hydroxyl group. Therefore, in a case where a Si wafer is used as the substrate, the surface of the substrate is to be terminated with a hydroxyl group after performing dilute hydrofluoric (DHF) cleaning, terminating the surface of the substrate with hydrogen, and cleaning the surface of the substrate by ammonia peroxide (standard clean, (SC) 1) cleaning. This results in a problem of requiring many steps for adjusting the terminating state of the substrate surface.
The aforementioned problem no only applies to a case of depositing a polyimide film on a substrate by feeding a source gas formed of PMDA gas or a source gas formed of ODA gas, but also to a case of depositing various films by feeding various source gases on a substrate.

Surface treating method and film depositing method


An information detection device includes: a plurality of light sensing units each configured to detect light; a plurality of sensor scanning drivers each configured to apply sensor scanning signals to the light sensing units; a sensing signal processor configured to receive position information detected by the light sensing units; a plurality of bias applying units each configured to apply bias voltages to the light sensing units; wherein each bias applying unit applies a different polarity of bias voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information detection display more particularly, to an information detection display that includes a light sensing unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display includes substrates on which pixel electrodes and a common electrode are formed, and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the substrates. The pixel electrodes are disposed on one of the substrates as a matrix. Each pixel electrode is connected to a switching element, such as a thin film transistor (TFT), which applies data voltages to the pixel electrode. The common electrode is formed on the opposite substrate, on which the pixel electrodes are not formed, and has a common voltage. The common electrode faces the pixel electrodes, creating a liquid capacitor with the liquid crystal layer disposed between the electrodes. The liquid capacitor and the switching elements connected to each pixel form unit pixel, and the plurality of unit pixels are disposed as matrix.
An information detection display is a display that can detect position information or touch information from, for example, a finger or stylus applied to the surface of the display.
The position information or touch information of a selected position in a predetermined area of such an information detection display is detected by detecting a variation in resistance or light. When resistance is used to detect position information, a plurality of resistive lines are disposed on the lower and upper substrates, and extend vertically or horizontally. The resistive lines contact each other as a result of external stimulus, for instance a touch to the surface of the display, and vary the resistance thereof. The device senses the variation of the resistance to find the position or touch information. On the other hand, when light is used, light sensing units that can sense variations in the amount of light, or amount of light having a predetermined wavelength, are used to detect the position information or the touch information.
A device using the resistive method is usually formed on a transparent substrate and can be easily combined with other display devices. However, the resistive method decreases the luminance of the display device, and increases the thickness of the product. On the other hand, a device using the light sensing method usually includes light sensing units incorporated into the display device, and such light sensing units typically do not increase the thickness of the device. Thus, research is ongoing on devices that utilize the light sensing method.
When light sensing units are incorporated into a display device, the light sensing units can be affected by other components of display device. For example, the light sensing unit is affected by extraneous light, variations in temperature, and also applied bias voltage. Particularly, bias voltage applied to the light sensing unit can change the threshold voltage of the thin film transistor. The change in threshold voltage affects a number of characteristic of thin film transistors included in the light sensing unit, which can affect the performance of the device.


An amplifier circuit comprises first and second gain cells connected in cascade. Each of the gain cells comprises first and second common emitter differential transistors, a current source coupled to the emitters of the transistors, a first plurality of forward biased, series diodes connected between a power supply terminal and a base of the first transistor, and a second plurality of forward biased, series diodes connected between the power supply terminal and a base of the second transistor. A collector of the first transistor of the first gain cell is connected to the base of the first transistor of the second gain cell, and a collector of the second transistor of a first gain cell is connected to the base of the second transistor of the second gain cell. Because of the low inherent resistance of the biasing diodes, the operating speed of the amplifier is large, and the current amplification can be large without exceeding the power supply voltage. The current source limits the gain for high level signals without causing saturation of the transistors and therefore, does not comprise operating speed. The gain of each cell equals the numbers of diodes connected to the base of the transistor until the level of the current source.

The invention relates generally to electronic amplifiers, and deals more particularly with a multistage amplifier which operates at high speed and requires only a low power supply voltage.
For some applications, such as a fiber optic digital receiver, high gain and high speed/high band width are essential. For example, some fiber optic cables used for digital communication between computers are required to transmit and receive 800 megabits per second, and faster speeds will be required in the future. Also, it is preferable to operate the amplifier from the same power supply used for the digital signals, and such a power supply may provide a low voltage. For example, if the digital signals are at a TTL level, the power supply voltage is five volts.
Many types of amplifiers were previously known. For example, a very common amplifier comprises a bipolar transistor, a large DC biasing resistor connected between the base of the transistor and the power supply, an emitter resistor connected between the emitter of the transistor and ground, and a collector resistor connected between the collector of the transistor and the power supply. Such an amplifier is useful for moderate speeds. However, the transistor in the amplifier inherently includes a parasitic capacitance at the base, and this capacitor is located in parallel with the base resistor. Consequently, the amplifier has a substantial RC time constant at its input, which time constant reduces the speed and band width of the amplifier. Differential amplifiers were also known for increased sensitivity.
It was also known to use "Gilbert Cells" to provide a high speed/high band width amplifier. These cells can be combined to yield high gain. However, each cell requires 0.5-1.0 volts of power supply voltage swing to operate, and the cells are stacked "vertically" from the power supply to the ground to combine them. Consequently, the maximum gain possible with a small power supply voltage such as 5 volts is limited.
There is yet another requirement that the fiber optic amplifier should meet. The photo signals impinging at the input of the amplifier may vary by a factor of 1000 in energy due to the proximity of the LED or LASER to the corresponding photosensitive diode, fabrication tolerance and other factors, and the amplifier should compensate for these variations to provide a manageable voltage output range. In the prior art, single ended amplifier noted above having the base and other resistors, the transistor will saturate to limit the output voltage. However, the saturation condition slows the subsequent response of the transistor, i.e. turn-off. The Gilbert Cell also is not suitable for a wide range of inputs because vertical stacking limits the allowable DC component that an input can have in relation to the power supply voltage.
Accordingly, a general object of the present invention is to provide a high speed/high band width amplifier.
Another general object of the present invention is to provide a multistage amplifier of the foregoing type which can operate at a low power supply voltage.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an amplifier of the foregoing types which is operable over a wide range of signal inputs, and yields an output within a manageable voltage range.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an amplifier of the foregoing types which can be fabricated as a densely populated integrated circuit.


An image forming apparatus and method for rotating a generated print image are provided. The image forming apparatus includes a print engine to form an image on a printing paper and a processor to generate a print image corresponding to print data, rotate the generated print image so that the generated print image corresponds to a user setting orientation if a default output orientation of the image forming apparatus is different from the user setting orientation, and control the print engine to print the rotated print image.

With the advancement of electronic technology, various types of electronic devices have been developed. In particular, as the spread of computers has been popularized, the penetration rate of computer peripheral devices has been improved. A computer peripheral device refers to a device for heightening a utility of a computer. As an example, there may be an image forming apparatus, such as a printer, a scanner, a copier, and a multi-function printer.
The image forming apparatus outputs a printed image after performing a print job, and output orientations of printed images may be different from each other for respective manufacturers and models.
Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, parts, components, and structures.

Image forming apparatus enable to change output direction of printed paper, electronic apparatus and method for image forming thereof

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A low temperature hydrogen storage alloy which is not pyrophoric upon exposure to ambient atmosphere, particularly even after hydrogen charge/discharge cycling.

This invention relates to alloys in which hydrogen may be stored, more particularly to such alloys or materials which are non-pyrophoric on exposure to ambient atmosphere, and most particularly to such non-pyrophoric alloys which may have a heterogeneous spectrum of hydrogen bonding energies.
Hydrogen, generally considered to be the ultimate fuel, presents numerous potential benefits to be realized as well as numerous difficulties to be overcome. With capacity to serve as a fuel for combustion engines, other processes in which heat energy is derived from combustion and used; as well as a direct source of electrochemical energy in direct conversion processes such as, for example, those used in electrochemical fuel cells, hydrogen presents opportunities for production of energy without the creation of waste products bearing disposal difficulties.
The products of hydrogen combustion, whether thermal or electrochemical, are energy and water. Neither of these is toxic, neither presents difficulties of disposal of greenhouse gases, soot, or radioactive waste. From the standpoint of being a useful, high-energy content fuel, hydrogen is an excellent candidate for most of the uses in which fossil fuels are currently used. When used for direct conversion to electrical energy in a fuel cell, hydrogen does not yield oxides of carbon which often poison catalytic material used in such electrochemical cells, nor is radioactive waste generated as is the case with electricity-supplying nuclear-powered generators.
With these tremendous benefits accruing to its use as a fuel, some burdens in the use of hydrogen as a fuel may be expected. They are present and provide challenge to overcome. The greatest difficulties with hydrogen as a fuel lie in its containment and transportation. Hydrogen may be liquefied but there is tremendous cost involved in cooling and compressing; additionally the containment vessel cannot be completely sealed; tremendous losses are incurred through evaporation. Compression of the gas itself is costly, although not nearly so much as liquefication, and requires stout, durable, and heavy containers. Both are inefficient forms of storage in terms of energy storage per unit volume. Other storage means are would be useful.
Storage of hydrogen as a solid is appealing as enhanced volumetric efficiency is available. Various metals and metal alloy compositions are available for storage of hydrogen within the metallic crystal lattice; generally as a hydride. Such materials will generally release heat upon charging, take-up of hydrogen, absorption of hydrogen, or hydriding. Conversely, heat is necessary to release stored hydrogen from the metallic structure. The important reversible reaction to keep in mind is:
M+H⇄MH+heat
in which M is a metal or metal composition in which hydrogen may be stored. And H is atomic hydrogen. Generally something serving to catalyze the breakup of hydrogen molecules into hydrogen atoms will be helpful prior to this reaction.
There are two general types of hydrogen-storage alloys available. These are the so-called xe2x80x9chigh-temperature alloysxe2x80x9d and the xe2x80x9clow-temperature alloysxe2x80x9d. The heat of reaction for the reversible transition provided above is the basis for the differentiation and the basis of the invention described here. As a general matter, magnesium-based hydrogen storage alloys are high-temperature alloys as they generate a great deal of heat during hydriding and require a similar amount of heat to reverse the reaction and release hydrogen; their storage capacities are generally beyond about 5% by weight.
Low temperature alloys, generally transition-metal based and often of the AB2 structure, generate less heat during charging or hydriding, require less heat to release hydrogen, and have storage capacities generally around or below about 2% hydrogen by weight. Such alloys will normally release hydrogen at ambient temperatures simply by opening a valve and on whatever container is used for containment of the storage material, thereby reducing the hydrogen pressure around the storage material or alloy which in turn drives the previous reaction forward.
Either of the two broad categories of hydrogen storage alloys will generally have enhanced hydrogen take-up or absorption with greater effective surface area or smaller particle size. Another possible reaction exists with these alloys, particularly the low-temperature alloys:
M+0⇄MO+heat
Again, for this reaction to proceed forward, something will normally catalyze the dissociation of molecular oxygen to atomic oxygen. This can be and generally is a competing reaction with the hydriding/dehydriding reactions. Normally, the oxygen absorption by the alloy will occur preferentially when available, since the oxides of the storage metals provide a lower energy ground state than do the hydrides. Attainment of a lower energy ground state involves evolution of greater heat than a higher energy ground state, the forward reaction above generates tremendous heat. Such heat generation is the basis of the need for the current invention.
The low temperature alloys, particularly in light of their easy acceptance of oxygen and rapid formation of oxides, likely will release tremendous amounts of heat upon exposure to ambient atmosphere. Such rapid release of heat yields a material which can easily heat to glowing red almost instantaneously and burst into flames and/or ignite other material nearby whose ignition temperature is at or below the temperature of the glowing metal. These alloys or hydrogen storage materials because of their affinity for oxygen are normally simply pyrophoric. Such pyrophoricity means that the materials must be treated with respect and handled with care under non-reactive atmosphere. Even more important, from the standpoint of distribution and enhancement of hydrogen storage capacity, the pyrophoric nature of these materials require special handling (read: more costly) in transportation. The means by which they may be shipped is also severely circumscribed; generally, for example, such materials normally may not be shipped by air in light of their pyrophoric nature. Thus, the pyrophoric nature of some hydrogen storage alloys is one of the main safety issues concerning the commercial use of hydrogen storage in hydride alloy form.
Here we specifically describe the basic means in which multi-elemental hydrogen storage materials are atomically engineered and designed into non-pyrophoric hydrogen storage alloys by considering them as a system. These multi-elemental alloys can also be made in a non-equilibrium manner so that not only compositional disorder is produced, but also the desired local chemical order is formed. This revolutionary breakthrough has been made possible by considering the materials as a system and thereby utilizing chemical modifiers and the principles of disorder and local order, pioneered by Stanford R. Ovshinsky (one of the instant inventors), in such a way as to provide the necessary catalytic local order environments, such as surfaces and at the same time designing bulk characteristics for storage and high rate charge/discharge cycling. In other words, these principles allow for tailoring of the material by controlling the particle and grain size, topology, surface states, catalytic activity, microstructure, and total interactive environments for storage capacity.
The earliest work at atomic engineering of hydrogen storage materials is disclosed by Stanford R. Ovshinsky (one of the present inventors) in U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,597 (xe2x80x9cthe ""597 patentxe2x80x9d), the contents of which are incorporated by reference. Ovshinsky, described disordered multicomponent hydrogen storage materials for use as negative electrodes in electrochemical cells for the first time. In this patent, Ovshinsky describes how disordered materials can be tailor made to greatly increase hydrogen storage and reversibility characteristics. Such disordered materials are formed of one or more of amorphous, microcrystalline, intermediate range order, or polycrystalline (lacking long range compositional order) wherein the polycrystalline material may include one or more of topological, compositional, translational, and positional modification and disorder, which can be designed into the material. The framework of active materials of these disordered materials consist of a host matrix of one or more elements and modifiers incorporated into this host matrix. The modifiers enhance the disorder of the resulting materials and thus create a greater number and spectrum of catalytically active sites and hydrogen storage sites.
The disordered electrode materials of the ""597 patent were formed from lightweight, low cost elements by any number of techniques, which assured formation of primarily non-equilibrium metastable phases resulting in the high energy and power densities and low cost. The resulting low cost, high energy density disordered material allowed such Ovonic batteries to be utilized most advantageously as secondary batteries, but also as primary batteries and are used today worldwide under license from the assignee of the subject invention.
Tailoring of the local structural and chemical order of the materials of the ""597 patent was of great importance to achieve the desired characteristics. The improved characteristics of the anodes of the ""597 patent were accomplished by manipulating the local chemical order and hence the local structural order by the incorporation of selected modifier elements into a host matrix to create a desired disordered material. The disordered material had the desired electronic configurations which resulted in a large number of active sites. The nature and number of storage sites was designed independently from the catalytically active sites.
Multiorbital modifiers, for example transition elements, provided a greatly increased number of storage sites due to various bonding configurations available, thus resulting in an increase in energy density. The technique of modification especially provides non-equilibrium materials having varying degrees of disorder provided unique bonding configurations, orbital overlap and hence a spectrum of bonding sites. Due to the different degrees of orbital overlap and the disordered structure, an insignificant amount of structural rearrangement occurs during charge/discharge cycles or rest periods therebetween resulting in long cycle and shelf life.
The improved battery of the ""597 patent included electrode materials having tailor-made local chemical environments which were designed to yield high electrochemical charging and discharging efficiency and high electrical charge output. The manipulation of the local chemical environment of the materials was made possible by utilization of a host matrix which could, in accordance with the ""597 patent, be chemically modified with other elements to create a greatly increased density of catalytically active sites for hydrogen dissociation and also of hydrogen storage sites.
The disordered materials of the ""597 patent were designed to have unusual electronic configurations, which resulted from the varying 3-dimensional interactions of constituent atoms and their various orbitals. The disorder came from compositional, positional and translational relationships of atoms. Selected elements were utilized to further modify the disorder by their interaction with these orbitals so as to create the desired local chemical environments.
The internal topology that was generated by these configurations also allowed for selective diffusion of atoms and ions. The invention that was described in the ""597 patent made these materials ideal for the specified use since one could independently control the type and number of catalytically active and storage sites. All of the aforementioned properties made not only an important quantitative difference, but qualitatively changed the materials so that unique new materials ensued.
The disorder described in the ""597 patent can be of an atomic nature in the form of compositional or configurational disorder provided throughout the bulk of the material or in numerous regions of the material. The disorder also can be introduced into the host matrix by creating microscopic phases within the material which mimic the compositional or configurational disorder at the atomic level by virtue of the relationship of one phase to another. For example, disordered materials can be created by introducing microscopic regions of a different kind or kinds of crystalline phases, or by introducing regions of an amorphous phase or phases, or by introducing regions of an amorphous phase or phases in addition to regions of a crystalline phase or phases. The interfaces between these various phases can provide surfaces which are rich in local chemical environments which provide numerous desirable sites for electrochemical hydrogen storage.
These same principles can be applied within a single structural phase. For example, compositional disorder is introduced into the material which can radically alter the material in a planned manner to achieve important improved and unique results, using the Ovshinsky principles of disorder on an atomic or microscopic scale.
One advantage of the disordered materials of the ""597 patent were their resistance to poisoning. Another advantage was their ability to be modified in a substantially continuous range of varying percentages of modifier elements. This ability allows the host matrix to be manipulated by modifiers to tailor-make or engineer hydrogen storage materials with all the desirable characteristics, i.e., high charging/discharging efficiency, high degree of reversibility, high electrical efficiency, long cycle life, high density energy storage, no poisoning and minimal structural change.
Until the advent of the instant invention, no one has applied Ovshinsky""s atomic engineering principals to provide low temperature hydrogen storage alloys that are non-pyrophoric. Upon application of these principles to low temperature alloys, have provided a non-pyrophoric hydrogen-storage material. Specifically provided are low-temperature hydrogen storage alloys with acceptably high hydrogen storage capacity, cost-effective composition, reasonably high absorption/desorption hydrogen storage kinetics coupled with non-pyrophoricity.
This invention relates to alloys in which hydrogen may be stored, more particularly alloys known as xe2x80x9clow temperaturexe2x80x9d hydrogen storage alloys or materials, and specifically to such alloys or materials which are non-pyrophoric on exposure to ambient atmosphere, even after hydride/dehydride cycling. Provided are alloy compositions, particularly low-temperature alloys, which have good hydrogen storage capacity, high absorption/desorption kinetics, and yet are not pyrophoric.
Generally the alloy comprises titanium, zirconium, vanadium, chromium, and manganese. The alloy may preferably further comprise iron and aluminum and may also contain 1-10 at. % total of at least one element selected from the group consisting of Ba, Co, Cu, Cs, K, Li, Mm, Mo, Na, Nb, Ni, Rb, Ta, Tl, and W (where Mm is misch metal). Specifically the low temperature hydrogen storage alloy comprises 0.5-10 at. % Zr, 29-35 at. % Ti, 10-15 at. % V, 13-20 at. % Cr, 32-38 at. % Mn, 1.5-3.0 at. % Fe, and 0.05-0.5 at. % Al. The alloy remains non-pyrophoric upon exposure to ambient atmosphere even after 400 hydrogen charge/discharge cycles, and preferably even after 1100 hydrogen charge/discharge cycles. The alloy has a hydrogen storage capacity of at least 1.5 weight percent, more preferably at least 1.8 weight percent, and most preferably at least 1.9 weight percent.


In some examples, a transport agnostic source includes a streaming device to stream video on diverse transport topologies including isochronous and non-isochronous transports. In some examples, a transport agnostic sink includes a receiving device to receive streamed video from diverse transport topologies including isochronous and non-isochronous transports.

Video streaming solutions typically focus on a link layer that is closely tied to the physical layer of the transport. For example, a DisplayPort (DP) definition only works on DP transport. Similarly an HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) definition only works on an HDMI transport.
Some definitions such as Miracast from the Wi-Fi Alliance focus on using Internet Protocol (IP) as a basis for abstraction of the transport. However, such adaptations are limited to transports that support networking and network protocol abstractions, such as Ethernet or Wi-Fi. They are not supported on isochronous transports (for example, such as connected input/output or CIO transports).
In some cases, the same numbers are used throughout the disclosure and the figures to reference like components and features. In some cases, numbers in the 100 series refer to features originally found in FIG. 1; numbers in the 200 series refer to features originally found in FIG. 2; and so on.


Provided are an apparatus and method for managing power, and more particularly, an apparatus and method for stably managing power by comparing a predetermined reference voltage level with a battery voltage level. The provided method for managing power includes (a) detecting the battery voltage level, which supplies power to a system after a predetermined period from the system being powered off, and comparing the battery voltage level with a reference voltage level, and (b) deciding the operation of the system in correspondence to the result of the comparison. According to the provided method, when the battery voltage level of the system is between the power off voltage level and the reference voltage level, the system is operated in the sleep mode using a minimum amount of power. When the battery voltage level is above the reference voltage level, the system is operated normally when a power switch is turned on. Consequently, the power and system are stably managed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for managing power, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for stably managing power by comparing a predetermined reference voltage level with a battery voltage level. The present application is based on Korean Patent Application No. 2001-88232, which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional system using a battery manages power by turning off the system when the voltage level of the battery drops below a predetermined voltage level. In the case where a system driven by the battery, e.g., a mobile telephone, is used continuously, when the battery voltage level drops below the predetermined voltage level, the system turns off. However, when detecting the battery voltage level after a specific period, the battery voltage level often returns to a level higher than the power off level.
Therefore, the conventional method for managing power repeatedly turns the power on and off because, after power-off the voltage level reaches a level higher than the power off level and power is turned on, but after a short period the voltage drops below the power off level and power is turned off. The power-on and power-off operations are repeated until the battery power is completely drained. This phenomenon may cause system failure or a fatal system defect.
To solve the above-described problems, it is an objective of the present invention to provide an apparatus for managing power, where a reference voltage level for managing battery power is established and the established reference voltage level is compared to the battery power, thereby stably managing the battery power by using the result of comparison.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a method for managing power, where a reference voltage level for managing battery power is established and the established reference voltage level is compared to the battery voltage level to stably manage the battery power by using the result of the comparison.
To accomplish the above objective of the present invention, an apparatus for managing power includes a power control unit for detecting a battery voltage level of a battery, which supplies power to a system, after a predetermined period from powering off the system and for comparing the detected result with a reference voltage level so as to determine the supply of power to the system, and a power switching unit for operating the system in a normal mode when the battery voltage level is above the reference voltage level.
It is preferable that the power control unit outputs a signal for operating the system in a sleep mode in a case where the detected battery voltage level is between a power off voltage level and the reference voltage level.
To accomplish another objective of the present invention, a method for managing power includes (a) detecting a battery voltage level of a battery, which supplies power to a system after a predetermined period from powering off the system, and comparing the battery voltage level with a reference voltage level, and (b) deciding the operation of the system in correspondence to the result of the comparison.
It is preferable that if the detected battery voltage level is between a power off voltage level and the reference voltage level, the system is operated in a sleep mode. It is preferable that if the detected battery voltage level is above the reference voltage level, a switch for operating the system is turned on, thereby normally operating the system.

Apparatus and method for managing power of a battery