A horizontal metal-insulator-metal capacitor including a first metal spacer and a second metal spacer laterally separated by a dielectric material portion is provided within a single opening within at least one layer of dielectric material. A diffusion barrier material portion laterally separates sidewall surfaces of each metal spacer from a corresponding sidewall surface of the at least one layer of dielectric material provided by the opening. Each diffusion barrier material portion, each metal spacer and the dielectric material portion within the opening containing the horizontal metal-insulator-metal capacitor has a bottommost surface that is in contact with a recessed surface of the at least one layer of dielectric material.

The present application relates to a semiconductor structure and a method of forming the same. More particularly, the present application relates to a horizontal metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor that is located within a same level as that of a back-end-of-the-line (BEOL) structure, and a method of forming such a MIM capacitor.
Capacitors are used extensively in electronic devices for storing an electric charge. Capacitors essentially comprise two conductive plates separated by an insulator. Capacitors can be used, for example, in filters, analog-to-digital converters, memory devices, various control applications, and mixed signal and analog devices.
There is a demand in semiconductor device technology to integrate many different functions on a single chip, e.g., manufacturing analog and digital circuitry on the same die. Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors are often used in these integrated circuits. A MIM capacitor is a particular type of capacitor which typically includes two metal plates sandwiched around a capacitor dielectric that is parallel to a surface of a semiconductor substrate. MIM capacitors are generally large in size, being several hundred micrometers wide, for example, depending on the capacitance, which is much larger than a transistor or memory cell, for example. MIM capacitors are typically used as decoupling capacitors for microprocessor units (MPU's), RF capacitors in high frequency circuits, and filter and analog capacitors in mixed-signal products.
To form a conventional MIM capacitor, the top capacitor metal plate is formed by a planar deposition of a conductive material. Next, the deposited conductive material is patterned by lithography and etching providing the top capacitor metal plate. The patterning of the top metal plate requires the use of a mask, and there can be alignment problems to underlying features (e.g., the MIM capacitor bottom plate) and vias to connect to interconnect layers.
Another problem in fabricating MIM capacitors is a restriction in the selection of the MIM dielectric materials, due to potential interaction with or diffusion of the metals (such as copper) used for the metal plates. The MIM dielectric material restriction may result in limited area capacitance.
A yet further problem in forming MIM capacitors is that, in order to avoid problems that arise in fabricating semiconductor devices using copper, often higher resistive plate materials such as, for example, aluminum, titanium nitride, and tungsten, are used for the top and bottom metal plates, which results in reduced high frequency capability. The use of copper, which has a lower resistivity, for the top and bottom metal plates is therefore desired. The use of copper for the top and bottom metal capacitor plates also produces a MIM capacitor having higher quality factors (Q-values).


A method for communicating signals between an instrument in a wellbore and a device at the Earth's surface using a wired drill pipe telemetry channel includes allocating signals generated by at least one instrument in the wellbore to a plurality of buffers. Each buffer represents data having a respective communication priority. Signals from each buffer are communicated to the wired drill pipe telemetry channel according to a predetermined priority procedure. The procedure allocates telemetry channel priority related to the communication priority.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of wellbore instruments and well logging methods. More specifically, the invention relates to systems and methods for communicating data and commands between wellbore disposed instruments and a surface disposed control and recording unit.
2. Background Art
Well logging instruments are devices configured to move through a wellbore drilled through subsurface rock formations. The devices include one or more transmitters, sensors, actuators, and other devices that measure various properties of the subsurface rock formations and/or perform certain physical or mechanical acts on the formations, such as drilling or percussively obtaining samples of the rock formations, and withdrawing samples of connate fluid from the rock formations. Measurements of the properties of the rock formations made by the sensors may be recorded with respect to the instrument axial position (depth) within the wellbore as the instrument is moved along the wellbore. Such recording is referred to as a "well log."
Well logging instruments can be conveyed along the wellbore by extending and withdrawing an armored electrical cable ("wireline"), wherein the instruments are coupled to the end of the wireline. Such conveyance relies on gravity to move the instruments into the wellbore. Extending and withdrawing the wireline may be performed using a winch or similar spooling device known in the art. It is also known in the art to use "logging while drilling" ("LWD") instruments in certain circumstances. Such circumstances include expensive drilling operations, where the time needed to suspend drilling operations in order to make the wellbore accessible to wireline instruments would make the cost of such access prohibitive, and wellbores having a substantial lateral displacement from the surface location of the well. Such circumstances include large lateral displacement of the wellbore particularly where long wellbore segments having high inclination (deviation from vertical). In such cases, gravity is not able to overcome friction between the instruments and the wellbore wall, thus making wireline conveyance impracticable unless it is complemented by an actuator, known as a tractor, to provide movement. LWD instrumentation has proven technically and economically successful under the appropriate conditions. LWD instrumentation is also typically used in conjunction with so-called measurement while drilling ("MWD") instrumentation. MWD instruments typically include navigation sensors that determine the geodetic trajectory of the wellbore, and can include sensors that measure mechanical parameters such as torque applied to the pipe string, vibration, angular acceleration, and pressure in the annular space between the wall of the wellbore and the drill string.
MWD and LWD instruments are typically disposed in thick walled segments of pipe called drill collars, and such collars are typically disposed proximate the lower end of a "string" of pipe segments coupled end to end to form a "drill string." Signals from the various sensors in MWD and LWD instruments are typically communicated to the Earth's surface using a device that modulates flow of drilling fluid as the fluid is pumped through the drill string. One or more pressure transducers disposed at the surface detect pressure changes caused by the modulator. The detected pressure changes are then decoded into the signals that were transmitted by the MWD and LWD instruments. Mud flow modulation telemetry is typically limited to a transmission rate of several bits per second.
Another MWD/LWD data communication technique known in the art of extremely low frequency ("ELF") electromagnetic telemetry. Just as is the case with mud modulation telemetry, the data rate is relatively low. Further, electromagnetic telemetry is not useful where subsurface formations are highly electrically conductive.
More recently, a type of drill pipe has been developed that includes an electromagnetic signal communication channel. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,641,434 issued to Boyle et al. and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. Such drill pipe has in particular provided substantially increased signal telemetry speed for use with LWD instruments over conventional LWD signal telemetry, which typically is performed by mud pressure modulation or by very low frequency electromagnetic signal transmission.
In any of the foregoing examples, as well as other types of well logging instrumentation, data obtained from the various sensors in the MWD and LWD instruments are communicated to a device such as a data acquisition and recording unit disposed at the Earth's surface. Data and command signals may also be communicated from the device to the various instruments in the wellbore. Even when using multiple data communication systems, e.g., both wired drill pipe and mud flow modulation (or electromagnetic), the volume of data generated by typical MWD/LWD instrument configurations is such that optimized use of the data communication channels is desirable. The present invention addresses various forms of data communication to optimize use of available communication channels.

System and method for communicating data between wellbore instruments and surface devices


The present invention provides presence management to a multimodal communication network. A unified messaging system, providing the ability to deliver messages across multiple modes of communication, is integrated with a presence managing system. The presence management system provides an ability to locate a recipient of a message according to a stored schedule. The unified messaging system retrieves contact information from a presence management system. Upon received the message, the recipient can respond along the established line of communication. Multiple modes of communication comprises telephone, wireless telephone, electronic mail, pager, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), video, audio, picture, among others.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing presence management. In particular, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for integrating a presence management system with a universal messaging platform to enable tracking and establish communication links across multiple modes of communication.
2. Description of the Related Art
Presence Management provides a method for delivering a message to an intended recipient when the recipient has moved from one contact point, such as a telephone, to another. Call forwarding is an example of a Presence Management system in which a call originally placed to one phone number is transferred to another phone number. If a recipient does not pick up, a voicemail option is often available as well. In some presence management systems, a phone system can ring phones in parallel or serial (in an assigned order). In other words, when a call is made, all phone numbers stored in a database are rung at once. Alternatively, the phone stored phone numbers can be rung in a sequential order.
With the proliferation of newer technologies, there are more modes of communication available, such as phone, text messaging, email, pager, etc. For example, some people have several phone numbers and email addresses at which they can be reached. Current technologies are able to integrate various aspects of presence management. Voicemail can be integrated into Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes environment, for example. Also, Microsoft Live Communication Server (LCS) offers Presence Management integration for Microsoft Applications. In general, a user can keep their Microsoft Exchange Server on customer premises and integrate messaging between the Exchange and a network-based messaging platform. Another option is for customers to leverage a Unified Messaging Platform residing on a processor with memory to store email. A more sophisticated Presence Management System is generally needed that can be used to deliver messages across these multiple modes of communication.


A method of heating a cabin of a motor vehicle that includes an internal combustion engine operatively connected to an exhaust system having a catalyst, and a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system is provided. The method includes detecting a request to increase temperature inside the cabin, supplying fuel and air to the engine, and motoring the engine to pump the fuel and air into the exhaust system. The method also includes heating the catalyst to combust the fuel and air inside the catalyst such that a stream of post-combustion exhaust gas is generated. The method additionally includes channeling the generated stream of post-combustion exhaust gas to the HVAC system such that a temperature of a coolant circulated through the HVAC system is increased to heat the cabin. A system configured to perform the above method is also disclosed.

A majority of modern vehicles employ internal combustion engines for propulsion. Additionally, in search of reduced exhaust emissions, as well as for improved fuel efficiency, an internal combustion engine may be combined with one or more electric motor-generators to form a hybrid powertrain. Similarly, for reduced exhaust emissions and improved fuel efficiency, the subject internal combustion engine may be equipped with start-stop capability.
Start-stop capability allows the engine to be automatically shut off when engine power is not required to drive the vehicle and then be automatically restarted when engine power is again requested. Generally, start-stop capability reduces the engine's emissions and improves the vehicle's overall fuel efficiency since the engine does not consume fuel or produce post-combustion exhaust when the engine is shut off. However, when the engine is thus shut off, it does not generate energy that may otherwise be used to heat a passenger compartment of the subject vehicle.

System and method for heating a vehicle cabin


An interactive software development environment in one embodiment can interactively provide outputs of execution or evaluation of software entered into the environment prior to compilation of the software and can automatically add one or more error handling expressions that isolate errors from effecting future software. The environment can automatically add the one or more error handling expressions for each line for software or for a set of software to wrap the set to catch and isolate errors. The execution or evaluation of software in the environment can be, for example, by read-evaluate-print-loop functionality provided by the environment.

Many modern programming languages require advanced editing and compiling software in order to edit, debug, and compile source code. In some development environments, a software developer generally engages in several manual steps before testing new code. For example, in a typical development lifecycle, source code must be separately edited, compiled, and executed before debugging can commence. To enhance the task of software development, software developers can develop software applications using an integrated development environment. An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that usually includes a source code editor, a compiler and/or interpreter, build automation tools, and a debugger. Examples of integrated development environments include Xcode from Apple Inc. of Cupertino Calif. and Visual Studio from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. The editor of an integrated development environment can include features that facilitate moving between files and accessing related reference materials such as an application programming interface (API) definition. The source code editor of the integrated development environment can also include features that facilitate viewing and editing text data such as source code or XML and checking the text data.
In the case of Xcode, a computer programmer can enter source code into the source code editor and then submit the source code to a compiler and then the compiler can display results of the output of the compiled and then executed computer program, and these results can be displayed in the integrated development environment. For example, these results can be displayed in a region of the source code editor.
Some software development tools also provide for outputs on a statement by statement basis. For example, some software development tools provide read-evaluate-print-loop (REPL) functionality that evaluates each line of software after the line is entered by the programmer. REPL functionality provides, prior to compilation of the software, a display of results of a statement in the source code by evaluating the statement and executing the statement and then printing (e.g., displaying) the result of the execution of the statement. This can allow the programmer to determine if the statement is generating the expected or desired result. The Basic interpreter is an example of a software development tool that provides REPL functionality. REPL functionality makes the software development environment interactive because the programmer can enter program code and immediately see the results and then revise the program code and immediately see the results of the revisions. REPL software development environments are prone to failures when new software contains flaws that cause a termination of the REPL coding session. For example, consider a case where a first line of code entered in the REPL coding environment contains no flaws and is evaluated to provide results before compilation and produces a set of saved states which can be used for subsequently entered software in the REPL software development environment. Normally, subsequently entered software in the REPL software development environment will generate additional saved states based on the previously saved states if there are no errors in the subsequently entered software. If a second line of code, which is subsequent code, contains flaws or errors which prevent the evaluation of the newly entered code, the REPL coding session is terminated as a result of the flaws in the second line of code. Any software entered after the second line of code will not be evaluated due to the failure to evaluate the second line of code. Thus the REPL session is terminated and all of the code in the session must be re-entered again.

Dynamic updates in an interactive programming environment


Provided is rotational-state-of-wheel detecting apparatus that can avoid output of an incorrect rotational direction during a halt of a wheel. In ECU 10, a signal input section 10a accurately detects wheel speeds and rotational directions of respective wheels 12, 14, 16, 18, and, based on the results, respective computers 10b, 10c, 10d execute ABS control, TC control, and VSC control. On this occasion, switching of the rotational direction is restricted with a computation result of wheel speed of zero, and it is thus feasible to prevent occurrence of a malfunction or state hunting being repetitive switching of signs, due to an external magnetic field during halts of the wheels 12, 14, 16, 18. This further optimizes the state control of a vehicle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for detecting a rotational state of a wheel mounted on a vehicle.
2. Related Background Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-187039 discloses a system including a pair of sensors per rotating body, e.g., a wheel, and adapted to detect a rotational direction of this rotating body in accordance with phase states of detection outputs from the pair of sensors.
In use of the rotational state detecting system as described above, however, when a wheel is in a halt (including states equivalent to a halt), the system can sometimes fall into such an unstable state that the output of rotational direction of the wheel is indistinguishable or the system can sometimes output an incorrect rotational direction because of influence of an external magnetic field, a magnetic environment, or the like. Such output signals are unwelcome to optimal operations of on-vehicle systems including an antilock brake system (hereinafter referred to as ABS) and others in certain cases.
An object of the present invention is, therefore, to provide rotational-state-of-wheel detecting apparatus that can avoid the output of the incorrect rotational direction and the unwanted change of rotational direction even during halts of a vehicle.
In order to accomplish the above object, a rotational-state-of-wheel detecting apparatus according to the present invention is an apparatus for detecting a rotational state of a wheel, comprising a rotating member which rotates together with the wheel, a detected portion provided at the rotating member, detecting means for detecting passage of the detected portion to output a detection signal, and rotational direction detecting means for detecting a rotational direction of the wheel, based on the output of the detecting means, the apparatus further comprising halt detecting means for detecting whether the wheel is in a halt or not, and restricting means for restricting a change of the rotational direction detected by the rotational direction detecting means, when the halt detecting means detects that the wheel is in a halt.
In the above rotational state detecting apparatus, when the halt detecting means detects that the wheel is in a halt, the restricting means restricts the change of the rotational direction detected by the rotational direction detecting means, so that the apparatus can avoid repetitive switching of output between forward and backward rotational directions and output of an incorrect rotational direction in a state in which the wheel is judged in a halt.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not to be considered as limiting the present invention.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

Apparatus for detecting rotational state of wheel


A crimping apparatus is provided for use with a crimping machine. The crimping apparatus comprises a support structure including a first portion and a second portion. The second portion is configured to engage the first portion to define an axial passage into an interior area of the crimping apparatus. The second portion is configured to be moved completely out of engagement with the first portion to selectively define an alternative passage into the interior area of the crimping apparatus.

Conventional die cage assemblies are known to be used with a crimping machine to crimp a fitting on an end of a hose. For example, a die cage assembly may be used with a ProCrimp™ 1390 crimping machine available from Eaton Aeroquip Inc. of Maumee, Ohio. Such a crimping machine may be used with various die cage assemblies. Die cage assemblies can be convenient to properly align die segments with respect to the crimping machine. Moreover, die cage assemblies can also provide a unitary structure that simplifies carrying and installation of the die segments by an operator setting up the crimping machine. Examples of die cage assemblies are disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,484,552 which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Die cage assemblies of U.S. Pat. No. 6,484,552 include a hinge portion to provide an alternate passage into an interior area of the die cage assembly. The alternate passage is designed to allow passage of large elbow hose fittings that could not pass through the central bore of a conventional die cage assembly. There is a continuing need to provide die cage assemblies that allow passage of oversized elements into the interior area of the die cage assembly for subsequent crimping with a crimping machine.

Crimping apparatus with a support structure including first and second portions


An apparatus and method for an adhesive assembly for securing a printed circuit board to a substrate. The assembly provides a printing tool with a plurality of apertures defined therethrough. Preferably, the apertures have a top opening with a larger area than a bottom opening. The printing tool is placed upon one of the printed circuit board and/or substrate, and a liquid adhesive is printed onto the printing tool. The liquid adhesive forms islands of adhesive within each aperture. Removing the printing tool deforms each island to form a raised edge at a periphery of each island. A temporary liner can be placed on the raised edges to protect the adhesive until the printed circuit board can be assembled with the substrate.

Engine mounted electronic control units for automotive engines are subject to a high level of heat that can limit or impair their performance. Typically, in order to reduce the high level of heat and enhance thermal performance, a printed circuit board that includes control circuitry is affixed to a cooling plate. For example, in a direct engine mount application, a printed circuit board is affixed to an aluminum substrate. The substrate provides mechanical support for the printed circuit board and assists in the dissipation of heat generated by components on the printed circuit board, which heat is conductively transferred from the components to the underlying aluminum substrate.
In one prior art method, printed circuit boards are affixed to a substrate by use of a pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) tape. When manufactured, the adhesive tape, or film, is encased in liners that protect the film during shipment and storage. The adhesive film is then punched by a converter and manually cut into appropriately sized sheets. The sheets are manually loaded into a lamination machine along with the printed circuit boards and substrates. A release liner must be manually peeled off of the film sheets. The film is then applied to the substrate and a printed circuit board is applied to the adhesive film, thereby securing the printed circuit board to the substrate.
Use of adhesive film poses several problems. It is a manual process when manufacturing operations are becoming increasingly automated. Mistakes made in the manual handling of the film results in film that must be scrapped. Use of an adhesive film in the assembly of electronic control units requires a batch-oven bake cycle to prevent blisters from forming in the film during solder reflow, which baking process is lengthy, as long as twelve hours, and is disruptive of a high volume manufacturing process. In addition, acrylic adhesive films suffer from high temperature instability, typically at temperatures well below maximum operating temperatures of high power field effect transistors (FETs) and the reflow temperatures of lead-free solders, thereby imposing constraints on the manufacturing process and on the operation of electronic control units that employ the adhesive films.
In another prior art method, printed circuit boards are affixed to a substrate by use of a B-stage epoxy adhesive. A release liner sheet can be placed on the semi-cured adhesive to protect the adhesive for shipment and storage. Before lamination the release liner must be manually peeled off of the adhesive. The lamination machine then secures the printed circuit board to the substrate.
Use of a B-stage epoxy adhesive poses several problems. Mistakes made in the handling of the adhesive and the release liner film results in product that must be scrapped. Moreover, the epoxy has outgassing problems and is flammable. In addition, the epoxy requires two curing cycles which adds to processing.
What is needed is a technique to be able to use a dispensed liquid adhesive without causing significant damage to the adhesive. It would also be of benefit if the technique could utilize low-cost release liners, such as common release liners or even plastic films, which can be easily peeled off without significantly affecting the adhesive bonding surface property of the adhesive.


A hanging outdoor christmas light holder for a lamp socket fixture is provided and consists of a removably attaching member having a first component that is permanently attachable to a static structure on a building, while a second mating component is carried on underside of the lamp socket fixture so that the lamp socket fixture can be quickly and simply attached thereto and removed therefrom.

The instant invention relates generally to electric lamp mounting structures and more specifically it relates to a hanging outdoor christmas light holder.
Numerous electric lamp mounting structures have been provided in the prior art that are adapted to clamp strings of decorative lights to buildings and other structures. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,291,428 to Sisulak; 3,883,926 to Reynolds and 4,714,219 to Mayse all are illustrative of such prior art. While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they would not be as suitable for the purpose of the present invention as hereafter described.

Device for hanging outdoor Christmas lights


Apparatus providing thermal management for radio frequency devices. An antenna is provided that includes an antenna body configured for transmitting electrical signals, and one or more mounting surfaces coupled to the antenna body, the one or more mounting surfaces configured for mounting to a device surface so that a resulting thermal resistance (Rth) between the device surface and the antenna body is less than 15 degrees centigrade per watt. The antenna body forms one of a PIFA antenna, whip antenna, patch antenna, or a meandered patch antenna.

1. Field
The present application relates generally to the operation of wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to an apparatus for providing thermal management for radio frequency devices.
2. Background
Wireless communication devices typically use power amplifiers to transmit radio frequency signals to communicate with other devices. The power amplifiers are typically coupled to an antenna, such as a Planar Inverted F Antenna (PIFA) that is tuned for optimal performance. However, transmitting signals at high power levels can lead to a device experiencing higher than acceptable operating temperatures. Furthermore, the need for wireless devices to be as small as possible in order to be competitive in the market place has resulted in increased power densities, which have further increased operating temperatures. Unfortunately, operating at high temperatures may result in decreased performance or other heat related problems, such as reduced reliability, reduced data rates, or excessively hot touch temperatures.
Several techniques have been used to overcome the problems associated with increased operating temperatures. One technique involves performance throttling (i.e., adjusting data rates, transmit power, etc.) to reduce or limit high temperature exposure to sensitive components. Other techniques that have been used to cool components and dissipate heat include filling air gaps within a device with thermally conductive gap fillers, increasing board area and/or product size, adding vents, and adding fans.
Unfortunately, the above techniques may not be effective in reducing operating temperatures or may result in added material cost, increased product size, or degraded device performance. For example, in a device that utilizes a PIFA, gap fillers are not appropriate since a PIFA typically requires a low loss dielectric, such as air, between the antenna elements and the ground plane for good performance.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a mechanism that overcomes the problems associated with increased operating temperatures described above thereby allowing high performance compact devices to be built.


The present invention discloses a composite magnetic material. The composite magnetic material may comprise an Nd—Fe—B alloy and a Fe-based soft magnetic alloy having the general formula of Fe100-x-y-z-aAxRaSiyBz. A may be at least one element selected from Cu and Au. R may be at least one element selected from the group consisting of Ti, Zr, Hf, Mo, Nb, Ta, W and V. And the x, a, y, and z may satisfy: 0≦x≦3, 0≦a≦10, 0≦y≦20 and 2≦z≦25. The present invention further discloses a method of preparing the composite magnetic material as described above. According to the present invention, the composite magnetic material may have an enhanced magnetic energy product and residual magnetism respectively.

Because of its magnetic properties, low cost and ample reserves, Nd—Fe—B composite magnets are widely used in vehicles, computers, electronics, mechanical and medical devices, to name a few. In addition, because of its performance to price ratio, Nd—Fe—B materials have been favored to produce magnetic devices with high efficiency, small volume and light mass. However, Nd—Fe—B materials are also known to have poor coercivity and mechanical properties, thereby limiting its applications to some extent.
The polymer-bonding method is usually used for preparing a permanent magnetic material. It is easy to press and form a blank, but the polymer and other additives have different structures compared with Nd—Fe—B magnets, which lead to poor mechanical properties of the Nd—Fe—B composite magnets.

Composite magnetic material and method of preparing the same


Embodiments of the invention are described in which correlated virtual data streams are managed within an optical network connection. In certain embodiments of the invention, a client signal is allocated across a plurality of transport wavelength channels according to various transposition methods. The assignment of portions of the client signal to corresponding wavelengths may depend on various factors including channel utilization within the transport network and skew characteristics between particular wavelengths.

A. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to optical transport networks, and more particularly to the maintenance of correlated virtual data streams within a network.
B. Technical Field
High-speed, long-haul transport networks are able to communicate large amounts of information across significantly large distances. These networks transmit this information within the optical domain by modulating one or more optical signals. These optical signals may have different wavelengths and can be multiplexed together into a wave-division multiplexed optical signal, which is transported between a long-haul transmitter and receiver using optical fiber.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary transport connection 100 between a long-haul transmitter 110 and receiver 120 that carries multiple channels or signals at different wavelengths (e.g., 130, 135) for optically communicating information from the transmitter 110 to the receiver 120. Connection 100 may include one or more optical fibers.
A transport network is oftentimes unable to efficiently use the available bandwidth within one or more of the channels in the transport system. For example, first channel 130 may be carrying client data at a rate (e.g., 2.5 Gbps) that is significantly slower than the capacity of channel 130 (e.g., 10 Gbps) which results in an under-utilization of the channel bandwidth and wasted capacity. Such wasted capacity not only reduces the efficiency of the transport network but also introduces additional cost to the customer and/or network provider.
In another example, the first channel 130 and a second channel 135 may collectively carry client data at a rate that exceeds the capacity of either channel individually. Such transmission on two wavelengths may also introduce inefficiencies depending on the rates of the client data and transport channels. For example, the first 130 and second 135 channels may each have a capacity of 10 Gbps, but collectively transmit client data at 15 Gbps, thereby resulting in wasted bandwidth in either one or both of the channels.
The cost of inefficient bandwidth use within a transport system is absorbed by either a customer, who must pay for the unused capacity, or a service provider who is unable to monetize the unused capacity. Additionally, this relationship between a client data rates and transport channel capacity is often static, such that bandwidth allocation is difficult to change with changing network conditions.

Maintaining correlated virtual data streams through a network


A lifting system is provided that prevents a thermal bridge between concrete layers of a precast concrete structure. In some precast concrete panels, an insulation layer is provided between concrete layers. Lifting systems of the present invention allow lifting forces from a hoisting system to be transferred to the concrete panels without creating a thermal bridge between the concrete layers, and thus, reducing the effectiveness of the insulation layer. In some embodiments, a multi-plate configuration allows a central plate to distribute a lifting force to the concrete layers and then rotate away to prevent a thermal bridge between concrete layers.

Precast concrete panels and integral lifting anchors are widely used in the construction industry. Traditional concrete structures are formed in place and on site, whereas precast concrete panels are poured and cured off site in a modern manufacturing facility before being transported to the building site. Precast concrete panels allow for better quality control and cheaper costs since precast forms can be reused hundreds or thousands of times. The popularity of precast concrete panels has translated into a greater variety of types and styles of panels.
One particular variation of precast concrete panel is an insulated precast concrete panel. Typically, this type of precast concrete panel has an inner precast concrete layer, or wythe, and an outer precast concrete layer with an insulating layer positioned therebetween. Like traditional precast concrete panels, an insulated precast concrete panel must be positioned in place at the building site. In prior art devices, a lifting member such as a steel anchor is interconnected to both precast concrete layers and spans the insulated gap between the layers. After the insulated precast concrete panel is placed in the desired position, the lifting member is typically retained in place since it is embedded in the hardened concrete. However, steel and other metals used to form lifting members are thermally inefficient since they readily transfer heat, and therefore, a thermal bridge is created through the insulation layer, which reduces the thermal effectiveness of the insulation layer and the insulated precast concrete panel.
Prior art devices do not adequately address the thermal bridge problem described above. Examples of prior art devices may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,857,296; 8,806,811; 6,761,007; and 8,959,847, which are incorporated herein in their entireties by reference. These references describe devices that provide the lifting function for precast concrete panels, or even alternative materials to help mitigate the thermal bridge issue, but none of the prior art references adequately address the problems described above.

Thermally broken anchor for lifting a concrete sandwich panel


A method for processing downlink control information in a mobile terminal capable of receiving multiple component carriers. The mobile terminal receives on a component carrier, downlink control information that includes a bit field allocated for a transmit power control (TPC) command. If the bit field comprises one or more bits that are not used for the TPC command, the mobile terminal interprets the meaning of the bits not used for the TPC command based on an ACK/NACK feedback mode with which the mobile terminal is configured.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is responsible for the standardization of the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) and its Long Term Evolution (LTE). The 3GPP work on LTE is also referred to as Evolved Universal Terrestrial Access Network (E-UTRAN). LTE is a radio access technology for realizing high-speed packet-based communication that can reach high data rates both in the downlink and in the uplink, and is thought of as a next generation mobile communication system relative to UMTS.
LTE uses OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) in the downlink and Discrete Fourier Transform-spread (DFT-spread) OFDM in the uplink. The basic LTE downlink physical resource can thus be seen as a time-frequency grid as illustrated in FIG. 1, where each resource element, i.e. each square in the grid, corresponds to one OFDM subcarrier during one OFDM symbol interval.
In the time domain, LTE downlink transmissions are organized into radio frames of 10 ms, each radio frame consisting of ten equally-sized subframes of length Tsubframe=1 ms. The LTE time-domain structure is illustrated in FIG. 2. Furthermore, resource allocation in LTE is typically described in terms of resource blocks, where a resource block corresponds to one slot (0.5 ms) in the time domain and 12 contiguous subcarriers in the frequency domain. Resource blocks are numbered in the frequency domain, starting with 0 from one end of the system bandwidth.
Downlink transmissions are dynamically scheduled, i.e., in each subframe the base station transmits control information indicating to which terminals data is being transmitted, and upon which resource blocks the data is transmitted, in the current downlink subframe. This control signaling is typically transmitted in a control region comprising the first 1, 2, 3 or 4 OFDM symbols in each subframe. A downlink subframe with 3 OFDM symbols as control region is illustrated in FIG. 3.
Hybrid-ARQ (Automatic Repeat Request), also known as HARQ, is a method used in LTE for correcting transmission errors where data units that are not acknowledged by the receiver are automatically retransmitted. Forward error correction bits are also added to the data to enable the receiver to correct and/or detect if a packet has been incorrectly received. Thus, after receiving downlink data in a subframe, the terminal attempts to decode it and reports to the base station whether the decoding was successful (acknowledgement, ACK) or not (negative acknowledgement, NAK). In case of an unsuccessful decoding attempt, the base station may retransmit the erroneous data.
Uplink control signaling from the terminal to the base station comprises                hybrid-ARQ acknowledgements for received downlink data;        terminal reports related to the downlink channel conditions, used as assistance for the downlink scheduling;        scheduling requests, indicating that a mobile terminal needs uplink resources for uplink data transmissions.
If the mobile terminal has not been assigned an uplink resource for data transmission, the L1/L2 control information, e.g. channel-status reports, hybrid-ARQ acknowledgments, and scheduling requests, is transmitted in uplink resources, i.e. resource blocks, specifically assigned for uplink L1/L2 control on the Physical Uplink Control CHannel (PUCCH). As illustrated in FIG. 4, these resources are located at the edges of the total available cell bandwidth. Each such resource consists of 12 subcarriers, i.e. one resource block in frequency, within each of the two slots of an uplink subframe. In order to provide frequency diversity, these frequency resources are frequency hopping on the slot boundary, i.e. one resource consists of 12 subcarriers at the upper part of the spectrum within the first slot of a subframe and an equally sized resource at the lower part of the spectrum during the second slot of the subframe or vice versa. If more resources are needed for the uplink L1/L2 control signaling, e.g. in case of very large overall transmission bandwidth supporting a large number of users, additional resources blocks can be assigned next to the previously assigned resource blocks.
The reasons for locating the PUCCH resources at the edges of the overall available spectrum are two-fold:                Together with the frequency hopping described above, this maximizes the frequency diversity experienced by the control signaling.        Assigning uplink resources for the PUCCH at other positions within the spectrum, i.e. not at the edges, would have fragmented the uplink spectrum, making it difficult to assign very wide transmission bandwidths to single mobile terminal and still retain the single-carrier property of the uplink transmission.
The bandwidth of one resource block during one subframe is too large for the control signaling needs of a single terminal. Therefore, to efficiently exploit the resources set aside for control signaling, multiple terminals can share the same resource block. This is done by assigning the different terminals different orthogonal phase rotations of a cell-specific length-12 frequency-domain sequence and/or different orthogonal time-domain covers covering the subframes within a slot or subframe.
The LTE Rel-8 standard has recently been standardized, supporting bandwidths up to 20 MHz. However, in order to meet the upcoming IMT-Advanced requirements, 3GPP has initiated work on Release 10, also referred to as LTE-Advanced. One of the aims of LTE-Advanced is to support bandwidths larger than 20 MHz. One important requirement on LTE-Advanced is to assure backward compatibility with LTE Rel-8. This should also include spectrum compatibility. That would imply that an LTE-Advanced carrier, wider than 20 MHz, should appear as a number of LTE carriers to an LTE Rel-8 terminal. Each such carrier may be referred to as a component carrier (CC). In particular for early LTE-Advanced deployments it can be expected that there will be a smaller number of LTE-Advanced-capable terminals compared to many LTE legacy terminals. Therefore, it is necessary to assure an efficient use of a wide carrier also for legacy terminals, i.e. that it is possible to implement carriers where legacy terminals can be scheduled in all parts of the wideband LTE-Advanced carrier. The straightforward way to obtain this would be by means of carrier aggregation. Carrier aggregation implies that an LTE-Advanced terminal can receive multiple CCs, where the CCs have, or at least the possibility to have, the same structure as a Rel-8 carrier. Carrier aggregation is illustrated in FIG. 5.
The number of aggregated CCs as well as the bandwidth of the individual CC may be different for uplink and downlink. A symmetric configuration refers to the case where the number of CC in downlink and uplink is the same, whereas an asymmetric configuration refers to the case that the number of CC is different. It is important to note that the number of CC configured in a cell may be different from the number of CC seen by a terminal: A terminal may for example support more downlink CC than uplink CC, even though the cell is configured with the same number of uplink and downlink CC.
In current LTE carrier aggregation terminology, the concepts of "primary serving cell" and "secondary serving cell" (SCell) are also used. A primary serving cell, or PCell, is configured on a primary component carrier, PCC, and a secondary serving cell, or SCell, is configured on a secondary component carrier, SCC. In this context, "component carrier" or "carrier" refers to the physical frequency resource that the cell is configured to use. Thus, whenever this disclosure refers to "a mobile terminal receiving information on a component carrier", "a base station transmitting on a component carrier" etc, it should be understood this does not preclude a situation where the mobile terminal or base station in question is configured with a primary serving cell and optionally one or more secondary serving cells, and where each serving cell in turn is configured on a component carrier.
Scheduling of the CC is done on the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) via downlink assignments. Control information on the PDCCH is formatted as a Downlink Control Information (DCI) message. DCI messages for downlink assignments contain i.a. resource block assignment, modulation and coding scheme related parameters, hybrid-ARQ redundancy version, etc. In addition to those parameters that relate to the actual downlink transmission, most DCI formats for downlink assignments also contain a bit field for Transmit Power Control (TPC) commands. These TPC commands are used to control the uplink power on the corresponding PUCCH that is used to transmit the hybrid-ARQ feedback.
From a UE perspective, both symmetric and asymmetric uplink/downlink CC configurations are supported. For some of the configurations, one may consider the possibility to transmit the uplink control information on multiple PUCCH, PUCCH or multiple uplink CCs. However, this option is likely to result in higher UE power consumption and a dependency on specific UE capabilities. It may also create implementation issues due to inter-modulation products, and would lead to generally higher complexity for implementation and testing. Hence, it is advantageous if the transmission of PUCCH does not depend on the uplink/downlink CC configuration. Therefore it has been agreed for LTE Release 10 to use the design principle that all uplink control information for a UE should be semi-statically mapped onto one specific uplink CC, a so-called "anchor carrier", or uplink primary component carrier, PCC.
In case the ACK/NACK feedback would be transmitted on PUSCH, it would be beneficial if the ACK/NACK feedback was only transmitted on one CC, for similar reasons as described for PUCCH above.
For the base station to fully utilize all the DL HARQ processes in the UE, it is beneficial to have the individual HARQ bits fed back per HARQ process. In case of carrier aggregation and FDD this means that there will be a maximum of two HARQ processes that need to be fed back per component carrier. In case of TDD, there is also a time component associated with HARQ feedback, so there may be more than two HARQ processes that need to be fed back per CC.
One limiting factor for the downlink transmission is the possibility for the terminal to feedback all the HARQ states to all HARQ process reliably to the base station. In such a situation it is beneficial for the terminal to bundle together the HARQ states for several different HARQ process to generate common HARQ states, i.e. ACK/NACK bundling. This could be done across CCs, across layers (spatial bundling) or over time (temporal bundling). The ACK/NACK bundling may also be done according to any of these examples combined in different ways.
A basic problem with ACK/NACK bundling is that a terminal may miss a DL assignment, which may not be indicated in the bundled response. For instance, assume that the terminal was scheduled on two CCs. On CC 1 the terminal misses the scheduling assignment and will not be aware that it was scheduled, while in the second CC it successfully receives the data. The terminal will, as a result, transmit an ACK, which the base station will assume holds for both CCs, including data in the CC the terminal was not aware of. As a result, data will be lost. The lost data needs to be handled by higher-layer protocols, which typically takes a longer time than hybrid-ARQ retransmissions and is less efficient.
For this reason, it is beneficial to add a DL assignment index (DAI) in the DL assignment, which represents the number of assigned DL CCs. The terminal may, when it has received multiple DL assignments, count the number and compare it with the signalled number in the DAI to see whether it has missed any DL assignments. The terminal may, in the case that it is aware it has missed a DL assignment, provide an indication to the base station, for example by transmitting NACK or using a specific resource.
There is a general need in the art to reduce signaling overhead when transmitting control information.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods and arrangements in a wireless communications system


A cooling device for use in an electronic apparatus is capable of achieving a sufficient cooling capability with an effective replacement method in a narrow flow path. The cooling device for the electronic apparatus, which includes a plurality of members juxtaposed such that surfaces thereof confront each other, at least one of the members including a heat radiating surface, includes a first air-cooling member which includes a first outlet port that creates a first air stream, and a second air-cooling member which includes a second outlet port that creates a second air stream to flow in a direction different from the first air stream. The first and second outlet ports have different opening widths, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooling device for use in an electronic apparatus such as a liquid crystal projector, and more particularly to a cooling device for cooling the surface of a member which gives off heat.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cooling devices comprising a fan for forced air cooling are widely used as cooling means for electronic apparatus because they are inexpensive and simple in structure. Liquid crystal projectors also employ a cooling device which comprises a plurality of fans for forced air cooling of optical components which give off heat in the liquid crystal projectors.
In the liquid crystal projectors, a light beam from a light source is applied to a polarizing beam splitter. The light beam polarized by the polarizing beam splitter is separated into red, green, and blue light beams corresponding to the three primary colors. The red light beam is applied to a red liquid crystal panel, the green light beam to a green liquid crystal panel, and the blue light beam to a blue liquid crystal panel. The liquid crystal panels optically modulate the respective applied light beams with a video signal. The optically modulated light beams are combined by a color combining prism into a single light beam, which is projected onto a screen by a projecting lens.
Each of the liquid crystal panels comprises a matrix of liquid crystal cells and a light shielding area called a "black matrix" surrounding each of the liquid crystal cells. When the black matrix absorbs light, the liquid crystal panel produces heat.
If the liquid crystal panels comprise liquid crystal panels that operate in a TN (Twisted Nematic) mode, then polarizer plates are disposed respectively on the entrance and exit sides of each of the liquid crystal panels. The polarizer plates pass only certain polarized light, e.g., S-polarized light, and block other light. When the polarizer plates block light, they convert the light into heat. Therefore, the polarizer plates also produce heat.
The liquid crystal panels and the polarizer plates are often made of an organic material. Therefore, if the liquid crystal panels and the polarizer plates are kept at high temperatures for a long period of time, then alignment layers of the liquid crystal panels may be damaged and polarization selectivity may be lowered. Therefore, liquid crystal projectors incorporate cooling devices for cooling components that give off heat, such as liquid crystal panels and polarizer plates.
A cooling device for use in liquid crystal projectors will be described below. Liquid crystal panels and polarizer plates disposed on the entrance and exit sides of the liquid crystal panels will hereinafter be referred to as "a liquid crystal unit".
FIGS. 1A through 1C are views showing a liquid crystal projector according to the related art. FIG. 1A is a perspective view of the liquid crystal projector, FIG. 1B is a perspective view showing internal structural details of the liquid crystal projector, and FIG. 1C is a view showing the layout of components of the liquid crystal projector.
As shown in FIGS. 1A through 1C, liquid crystal projector 1 has a casing which houses therein liquid crystal unit assembly 2, cooling fan 3, air cooling duct 4, light source 5, power supply unit 6, lamp cooling fan 7, exhaust fan 8, and projecting lens 9.
Liquid crystal unit assembly 2 comprises R, G, B liquid crystal units. Each of the liquid crystal units comprises a liquid crystal panel and polarizer plates disposed on the entrance and exit sides of the liquid crystal panel. A light beam from light source 5 is separated into red, green, and blue light beams by a plurality of dichroic mirrors. The separated red, green, and blue light beams are supplied to the respective liquid crystal units of liquid crystal unit assembly 2. The red, green, and blue light beams are spatially modulated by the liquid crystal units into image light beams, which are combined by a color combining prism. The combined image light beam from the color combining prism is projected onto a screen by projecting lens 9.
Lamp cooling fan 7 serves as a means for cooling light source 5. An air stream produced by lamp cooling fan 7 flows through a lamp cooling duct to light source 5. Cooling fan 3 and air cooling duct 4 serve as a means for cooling liquid crystal unit assembly 2. An air stream produced by air cooling fan 3 flows through air cooling duct 4 to the liquid crystal units of liquid crystal unit assembly 2. Exhaust fan 8 discharges air in the casing out of the casing.
FIGS. 2A and 2B are views showing specific structural details of a cooling device for cooling liquid crystal units. FIG. 2A is an exploded perspective view of the cooling device, and FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view illustrative of a cooling action of the cooling device.
As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, liquid crystal unit assembly 2 comprises three liquid crystal units. Each of the liquid crystal units comprises liquid crystal panel 11 and polarizer plates 10, 12 disposed respectively on the entrance and exit sides of liquid crystal panel 11.
Cooling device 13 comprises air cooling fan 3 and air cooling duct 4. Air cooling duct 4 has a portion positioned below liquid crystal unit assembly 2 and having three outlet ports 15 for ejecting air streams toward the respective liquid crystal units. The air streams flow through air cooling duct 4 and are directed from respective outlet ports 15 toward the respective liquid crystal units. The air streams from outlet ports 15 pass upwardly through spaces (gaps) between polarizer plates 10 and liquid crystal panels 11 and between liquid crystal panels 11 and polarizer plates 12. As the air streams flowing out of outlet ports 15 pass through the gaps between liquid crystal panels 11 and polarizer plates 10, 12, they cool liquid crystal panels 11 and polarizer plates 10, 12.
JP-A No. 11-295814 discloses another cooling device for cooling a liquid crystal unit. FIG. 3 is a view showing structural details of the disclosed cooling device.
As shown in FIG. 3, air streams from cooling fan 3 flow between polarizer plate 10 and liquid crystal panel 11 and between liquid crystal panel 11 and color combining prism 16. Air deflecting plate 17 for changing the direction of the air stream from cooling fan 3 is mounted on a portion of a member which holds color combining prism 16 near cooling fan 3. The air stream from cooling fan 3 has its direction changed by air deflecting plate 17, and is directed toward the surface of liquid crystal panel 11. The direction of the air stream is thus changed to improve the cooling efficiency of liquid crystal panel 13.
JP-A No. 2001-318361 discloses still another cooling device for cooling a liquid crystal unit. FIG. 4 is a view showing structural details of the disclosed cooling device.
As shown in FIG. 4, liquid crystal panel 11 is held by holding frame 18 having two protrusions 19 along the opposite edges thereof. Protrusions 19 are in the form of plate-like members for limiting an air stream supplied from duct outlet port 20 to flow in one direction, thereby keeping a flow rate (air rate) of the air stream flowing along the surface of liquid crystal panel 11.
JP-A No. 2000-124649 discloses yet another cooling device for cooling a liquid crystal unit. FIGS. 5A and 5B are views showing structural details of the disclosed cooling device. FIG. 5A is a plan view, and FIG. 5B is a sectional side elevational view.
As shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, air guide 21 having a U-shaped cross section is mounted on and extends between color combining prism 16 and polarizer plate 10 that are disposed in confronting relation to each other with liquid crystal panel 11 interposed therebetween. An air stream from cooling fan 3 passes between color combining prism 16 and liquid crystal panel 11, and thereafter is caused to flow back by air guide 21. The air stream caused to flow back by air guide 21 passes between liquid crystal panel 11 and polarizer plate 10. This structure is effective to prevent temperature irregularities on the surface of liquid crystal panel 11.
JP-A No. 2000-124649 also discloses a modification of the above cooling device. FIGS. 6A and 6B are views showing such a modification. FIG. 6A is a plan view, and FIG. 6B is a sectional side elevational view. According to the modification, lower cooling fan 22 is disposed below liquid crystal panel 11, and upper cooling fan 23 is disposed above liquid crystal panel 11. An air stream from lower cooling fan 22 passes upwardly between color combining prism 16 and liquid crystal panel 11. An air stream from upper cooling fan 23 passes downwardly between liquid crystal panel 11 and polarizer plate 10. The modification is also effective to prevent temperature irregularities on the surface of liquid crystal panel 11.
Generally, attempts to improve the heat transfer coefficient for promoting the heat transfer in forced air cooling for a heated flat plate include two approaches, "thinned layer method" and "replacement method".
The former "thinned layer method" is a method of promoting the heat transfer from a heated body to a coolant (air) by thinning a thermal boundary layer (thinned layer) on the surface of the heated body. Since the thickness of the thermal boundary layer is inversely proportional to the square root of the velocity in the direction of a main flow (the flow velocity of a flow along the surface of a flat plate), the flow velocity may be increased for lowering the temperature of the heated body.
However, if the flow velocity from a fan is increased for the purpose of improving the cooling capability, then the operating noise of the fan becomes worse and the volume of the fan increases. Furthermore, inasmuch as the heat transfer coefficient is proportional to the square root of the flow velocity (=thickness of the thermal boundary layer is inversely proportional to the square root of the flow velocity) (laminar flow), the thinned layer method is problematic in that if the temperature is lowered to a certain level, then it will not be significantly lowered further no matter how much the flow velocity is increased (air cooling limitation). The cooling device shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B and the cooling devices disclosed in JP-A No. 2001-318361 and JP-A No. 2000-124649 are classified as cooling devices according to the method of cooling a heated flat plate based on the "thinned layer" method. These cooling devices are facing the above problem as liquid crystal projectors are required to be smaller in size, higher in luminance, and longer in product-life cycle.
The latter "replacement method" is a method of promoting the heat transfer by creating a turbulent flow of air to accelerate the generation/elimination of unsteady vortexes for thereby forcibly exchanging a fluid near the surface of the heated body (high temperature) and a fluid spaced a little from the surface of the heated body (low temperature).
One typical example of the "replacement method" is impinging jet cooling. The impinging jet cooling refers to a cooling method for causing a jet (a coolant such as water or air) from a nozzle to impinge perpendicularly upon a heated flat plate to radiate heat therefrom.
According to the impinging jet cooling, the heated surface is effectively cooled by the following three processes:
1) the breakage (peeling) of the thermal boundary layer on the surface of the heated body due to the impingement of the jet;
2) the fluid exchange (temperature replacement) due to swirling vortexes generated on the impinging surface; and
3) the slippage on the wall surface of the jet due to the Coanda effect.
The Coanda effect refers to the property of a fluid such that when an object is placed in a fluid flow, the pressure between the fluid and the solid wall surface of the object drops to attract the fluid flow to the wall surface, causing the fluid to flow along the solid wall surface of the object.
If the impinging jet cooling is applied to a process of cooling the liquid crystal units of a liquid crystal projector, then the position of the nozzle for producing the jet is of importance. Specifically, since the liquid crystal panels and the polarizer plates give off heat as they absorb light passing therethrough, the surface which gives off heat and the surface through which light passes essentially coincide with each other. Therefore, it is important to generate an air flow (impinging jet) of air perpendicularly to the heated surface so as not to block the transmission of the light in the small gaps between the liquid crystal panels and the polarizer plates.
According to the cooling device disclosed in JP-A No. 11-295814, the air deflecting plate at the duct outlet controls the amount and direction of air applied to the liquid crystal panel to improve the cooling capability. The disclosed cooling device is classified into something between the "thinned layer method" and the "replacement method". Since the amount of air applied to the polarizer plate which is positioned opposite to the liquid crystal panel is reduced, the cooling capability for the polarizer plate is lowered. For tilting the air flow between the liquid crystal panel and the polarizer plate with the air deflecting plate at the duct outlet, the liquid crystal panel and the polarizer plate need to be spaced sufficiently apart from each other. Unless they are spaced sufficiently apart from each other, the air flow therebetween cannot effectively be tilted, and the flow path is closed instead, resulting in a reduction in the cooling capability. Furthermore, even if the air is delivered obliquely to the liquid crystal panel, its cooling capability is far from the cooling capability which would be achieved by the impinging jet.

Cooling device for electronic apparatus and liquid crystal projector


An image sensor pixel structure including a photosensitive area; a stacking of insulating layers covering the photosensitive area; and a device for focusing the light of the pixel to the photosensitive area. The focusing device includes first and second microlenses, the first microlens being arranged between layers of the stacking and substantially conjugating the second microlens with the photosensitive area.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image sensor comprising a matrix of photosensitive cells arranged in lines and columns and formed in a CMOS-type technology.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
FIG. 1 schematically shows an image sensor formed of a matrix of pixels 1 receiving through an objective 2 the image of a distant object field of vision 3. The image of a point A located in the middle of the object plane will form substantially in the middle of matrix 1. The image of a point B located at the edge of the object plane will form at the edge of matrix 3.
FIG. 2 is a cross-section view of a substantially central photosensitive cell 6 of an image sensor formed on a substrate 7, for example, silicon. Photosensitive cell 6 is associated with a portion of the surface of substrate 7 which, in top view, generally has the shape of a square or of a rectangle. Photosensitive cell 6 comprises an active photosensitive area 8 generally corresponding to a photodiode capable of storing a quantity of electric charges according to the received light intensity. Substrate 7 is covered with a stacking of transparent insulating layers 9, 11, 12, 13 which may be, as an example, alternatively silicon oxide and silicon nitride. Conductive tracks 14, formed between adjacent insulating layers, and conductive vias 16, formed between two conductive tracks, especially enable addressing photosensitive area 8 and collecting electric signals provided by photosensitive area 8. Conductive tracks 14 and conductive vias 16 are generally metallic. As an example, aluminum, tungsten, copper, and metal alloys may be used. Such materials are opaque and possible reflective. In a color sensor, a color filter element 17, for example, an organic filter, is arranged on the stacking of insulating layers 9, 11, 12, 13 at the level of photosensitive cell 6. The elements of color filter 17 are generally covered with a planarized equalization layer 18 which defines an exposition surface 19 exposed to light.
The maximum light sent by objective 2 (FIG. 1) on the portion of exposition surface 19 associated with photosensitive cell 1 must be directed towards photosensitive active area 8. For this purpose, a microlens 21 is arranged on equalization layer 18, opposite to photosensitive area 8 to focus the light rays on photosensitive area 8. The paths of two rays of light R1, R2 are schematically shown as an example for photosensitive cell 6. Conductive tracks 14 and conductive vias 16 are arranged to avoid hindering the passing of the rays of light. Microlens 21 is for example obtained by covering equalization layer 18 with a resin. The resin is etched to delimit distinct resin blocks, each resin block being arranged substantially opposite to a photosensitive area 8. The resin blocks are then heated. Each resin block then tends to deform by reflow to obtain a convex external surface 22. As an example, for a photosensitive cell 6 with a 4-μm side and for a distance on the order of from 8 to 10 μm between a microlens 21 and the associated photosensitive area 8, the maximum thickness of microlens 21 is approximately 0.5 μm.
Photosensitive area 8 only covers a portion of the surface of substrate 7 associated with photosensitive area 6. Indeed, a portion of the surface is reserved to devices for addressing and reading photosensitive area 8. For clarity, these devices have not been shown in FIG. 2.
FIG. 3 is a cross-section view of a photosensitive cell 6 of an image sensor located at the edge of the pixel matrix. Two rays R1′, R2′ have been shown as an example. It can be observed that the focusing of rays R1′ and R2′ is performed on the side of photosensitive area 8. Thus, a portion at least of the light spot provided by microlens 21 does not hit photosensitive area 8 and the image edges will appear, for a same lighting, darker than the image center. This results in a loss of peripheral sensitivity due to the offset of the image projected on the peripheral portions of the photosensitive cell matrix.
It is constantly attempted to decrease the dimensions of image sensors to be able to integrate an always-increasing number thereof on a same surface of a substrate. This results, for photosensitive cell 6, in a decrease in lateral dimension d of photosensitive cell 8. However, distance T between microlens 21 and photosensitive area 8 generally does not significantly vary. The ratio between distance T and lateral dimension d thus tends to increase. Microlens 21 must thus be less converging to enable focusing on photosensitive area 8. Microlens 21 must thus be thinner, which requires that the resin layer deposited on equalization layer 18 must be thinner. In the steps of reflow of the resin blocks etched in the resin layer, it becomes in practice difficult to obtain a microlens with a shape enabling it to have the light rays converge properly. Further, the increase of this ratio tends to increase the size of the ray of light at the level of the photosensitive area which can then become wider than the photosensitive area. This results in a loss in the available light intensity. A third limitation of the current manufacturing process results from the presence of conductive tracks 14 and of conductive vias 16 which can be obstacles and hinder the passing of the light rays.

Image sensor with a conjugate lens arrangement


An engine and drive train system suitable for personal or commercial transportation vehicles. The system converts the expansive energy of compressed air or gas into mechanical energy to produce motion or force. The engine of the present invention further uses the intrinsic kinetic energy of the vehicle in motion to generate and store compressed air or gas for in-situ or later use. The engine may also be used for braking by the introduction of high pressure air or gas at maximum displacement.

There are significant advantages to using compressed air engines over internal combustion engines. Compressed air as a fuel is relatively unlimited in availability compared to hydrocarbon-based fuels such as coal, natural gas, oil, and their derivative products. The latter fuels also have by-products as a result of their extraction and use that adversely affect the environment. Further, internal combustion engines that burn hydrocarbon fuels are very inefficient. The efficiency of an internal combustion engine powered vehicle has been estimated at less than ten percent based on energy delivered to the drive train wheels (see Efficient Use of Energy, K. W. Ford, et al. (eds.), American Institute of Physics (New York), p. 99-121).
Compressed air engines are well known in the art. Several exemplary configurations of compressed air engines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,693,351; 3,765,180; 3,980,152; 4,104,955; 4,014,172 4,018,050; 4,370,857; 6,367,247; 6,508,324; 6,629,573; 6,862,973; and 7,315,089; the complete disclosures of which are incorporated herein in their entireties by specific reference for all purposes.
However, the energy density of compressed air is substantially lower than hydrocarbon-based fuels. Currently known compressed air engines with compressed air stored in reasonably-sized containers at reasonable pressures provide only a short time of operation before needing recharging (i.e., they have a short charge range), which is not practical or useful for motor vehicles with the current wide-ranging applications and demands. Longer periods of operation using the prior art require either a much larger volume of compressed air, or air stored at extremely high pressures, neither of which are practical or useful solutions.
These and other drawbacks are seen in the few air-powered cars now available in the marketplace. These cars are of much lighter weight and much smaller than typical internal combustion vehicles, which can result in safety issues on the road. The reduced mass, which may be as much as 80% less, is necessary to increase the charge range. These vehicles also have stated charge ranges of from 40 to 150 miles, with lower-speed "in-town driving" suggested or required to reach this advertised charge range. This is a function of the amount of energy required to overcome air drag, which increases with velocity, which prevents these use of these vehicles for longer trips at higher speeds.
Accordingly, what is needed is a compressed air engine and system that can deliver the power of an internal combustion engine with a charge range comparable to an internal combustion engine powered vehicle. It is to such a need that the present invention is directed.

Compressed air engine and power train system


As a client device accesses and interacts with a web server of an online retailer, an engagement evaluation server gathers data from both the client device and the web server. Over time, as the client device is used to access the web server and other web servers within the evaluation server network, a profile is built and maintained that describes some aspects of the client device interaction with the web server, including recency of visits, frequency of visits, frequency of views of products, frequency of shopping cart creation and modification, and other factors indicative of the user being engaged with the online retailer. The evaluation server performs statistical analysis and data modeling on profiles in order to generate an engagement score, and then provides the contact information for profiles meeting certain criteria.

While many challenges are shared by brick and mortar retailers and online retailers, the nature of a website or online service that offers the opportunity to browse and purchase goods or services online provides both additional capabilities as well as additional challenges. Some of the additional capabilities available to an online retailer include the ability to track what areas of an online store are visited, what products and services are viewed, time spent viewing certain areas or products, frequency of visit, referring sites, and even where a potential customer's mouse icon moves and rests on the page. Whether the online presence is a retailer of goods or services, an online directory for a physical venue (e.g. an informational page for a museum, park, or zoo), or even an online home for a non-profit organization or fundraising organization, such a breadth of data may represent a powerful resource. However, despite this additional breadth of data that is available to such online presences, the efforts of online presences to reach an audience are often based upon simplistic choices such as email distributions to every customer who has provided their email address, or email distributions to every customer who has purchased a good or service in the last month. This sort of heavy handed approach to audience communication may not be a problem for email distributions or targeted banner advertisements, but for print communications the cost of creation and mailing may make such broadly targeted efforts a poor choice.
One additional challenge is that the ease with which a potential customer can visit an online presence may lead to a much higher number of visits that have no purchase, service request, donation, or information request associated with them, since the visitor is not heavily invested in the choice to visit the online presence, and has spent little or no time traveling to the online presence via a web browser or other software. For example, in some cases, a potential customer may visit an online retailer and view several products at regular intervals of time, perhaps checking to see if the price has lowered or if additional product information or reviews are available. Since the potential customer is not completing a transaction, and in many cases is not even logging into the sight and identifying themselves, information related to this repeated visitation of the retailer and its products is essentially wasted for purposes of marketing to that potential customer. This wasted data is potentially valuable, since it could be used to provide an indication of a potential customer's engagement with the online retailer and its products, which may provide an indication of the potential customer's receptiveness to marketing efforts.
Some online presences attempt to recapture this data by essentially forcing users to log in to an online storefront or interface, through either obfuscating products, product prices, or other features until a user has a logged in, or by generating a steady stream of reminders, pop ups, and other interface elements that force a user to acknowledge the need to log in. Once the user is forced to identify themselves, the online presence may then attempt to associate some of this wasted data with the user. However, these methods tend to alienate and drive away many visitors, such that even if data is successfully captured and associated with a user it may be of no value since the user may be less likely to respond to a subsequent communication from the online presence in the future as a result of the aggressive approach to identifying the visitor.
Since many online presences have chosen to simply ignore mail advertisement due to the high cost and risk associated with such a marketing campaigns, a powerful tool for growth of an audience is lost. However, if non-transaction data could be seamlessly captured and associated with a visitor, and if that visitor could be identified without harming the user experience, it could allow online presence to target a narrow and receptive audience with print communications. What is needed, therefore, is an improved system for statistical evaluation of non-transactional information in order to determine user engagement with services, products, or purposes of an online presence.

Triggering supplemental channel communications based on data from non-transactional communication sessions


An arrangement structure of a starter motor in an all-terrain vehicle in which a minimum road clearance is secured sufficiently and lowering of the center of gravity and adequate weight distribution of the vehicle can be achieved. The starter motor is arranged in an area at the front portion of the vehicle with respect to a vertical line including a center point of a crankshaft of an engine, downwardly of a horizontal line including the center point of the crankshaft of the engine, and upwardly of a horizontal line including a lowermost portion of the crankcase of the engine in the vehicle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an arrangement structure of a starter motor in an all-terrain vehicle.
2. Description of Background Art
In general, a vehicle suitable for traveling on all-terrain such as a three-wheel buggy or a four-wheel buggy, for example, an all-terrain vehicle (hereinafter referred to as ATV) is well known. Such a vehicle is typically provided with a front wheel shaft and a rear wheel shaft provided at the front and rear of a vehicle frame, a front wheel and a rear wheel provided on the front wheel shaft and the rear wheel shaft, an engine provided between the front wheel shaft and the rear wheel shaft, a saddle-type seat provided on the upper portion of the vehicle frame, a bar-shaped handle provided in front of the saddle-type seat and supported by the vehicle frame, and a foot-rest disposed between the front wheel shaft and the rear wheel shaft and disposed on the vehicle frame.
The vehicle of this type has a design in which a minimum road clearance is sufficiently secured and a weight distribution of the vehicle is considered, so that it can travel on all terrain.
In the structure described above, a starter motor is provided for enabling the user to start the engine in a state of being seated on the saddle-type seat. The starter motor is normally arranged behind the engine and in an upper portion of an crankcase (For Example, Patent Document No. JP-A-10-121933).
On the other hand, although it is not the ATV having the structure described above, a motorcycle having the starter motor for the engine on the front side of the vehicle with respect to a vertical line including a center point of a crankshaft of the engine and downwardly of the horizontal line including the center point of the crankshaft of the engine is proposed (for example Japanese Patent Document No. 3261966).
However, in Japanese Patent Document No. JP-A-10-121933, since the starter motor is arranged in the upper portion of the crankcase, the position of the center of gravity of the engine is high, which leaves a problem in adjustment of the weight distribution of the ATV. On the other hand, in Japanese Patent Document No. 3261966, since the starter motor is disposed downwardly of the center point of the crankshaft, better adjustment of the position of the center of gravity is achieved
However, in Japanese Patent Document No. 3261966, since an oil filter, which is lighter than the starter motor, is located below the starter motor, the position of the center of gravity of the engine becomes inevitably high, which also leaves a problem in adjustment of the weight distribution.


In a multinode storage system, a virtual disk associated with a storage device to be connected is created, and a slice of a connected storage device is allocated to one segment of the virtual disk. Next, one slice of data in the storage device to be connected is copied to the connected storage device. The rest of the data in the storage device to be connected is divided into slices, which are allocated to segments of the virtual disk. Then, metadata of the rest of the slices is written into a management information area in which copying of the data therefrom has been completed.

In a large-scale computer network, to ensure reliability of data, there is a case where data is multiplexed and stored in a plurality of storage devices. As a technique of multiplexing data, there has been proposed a method of distributing and storing data in a plurality of storage devices which are respectively connected to a plurality of nodes (disk nodes) on a network. A system in which data are thus distributed and managed in a plurality of nodes on the network is referred to as a multinode storage system.
In the multinode storage system, a virtual disk is defined in a node for access (access node), and data is input/output via the virtual disk. A storage area in the virtual disk is divided into a plurality of segments, and each of the segments is associated with a plurality of storage areas within the respective storage devices. When an application specifies a segment on the virtual disk to write data therein, the data is written in respective storage areas of the storage devices, associated with the specified segment. By multiplexing data as described above, it is possible to improve the reliability of the data (see e.g. International Publication Pamphlet No. WO2004/104845).
By the way, if data is duplexed, in the storage devices, storage areas are used which correspond to twice as large as the data amount to be stored. Therefore, also to reduce waste of resources, data which does not require reliability is often controlled not to be duplexed. However, if a computer system has been operated for a long term, also as to data supposed not to require high reliability, it sometimes becomes necessary to ensure reliability of the data by duplicating the same. In this case, it is necessary to transfer the data which has been stored in a storage device to a virtual disk for duplexing.
To duplex the data stored in the storage device (used disk), using the virtual disk, there are two methods of transferring data described hereafter.
First, if access to the used disk can be stopped, it is possible to make use of the following data transfer method:    After creating a virtual disk, access to the used disk is suspended.    Data stored in the used disk is copied to the virtual disk.
However, in the above-described data transfer method, it is impossible to access the used disk during copying, and hence service stop time occurs due to the data transfer. If it is not possible to stop access to the used disk, copying of the data is carried out by the following data transfer process:    After creating a virtual disk, a snapshot of the used disk is created by the OS (Operating System) in use. Snapshot is a technique for virtually duplicating data of the whole disk at a certain time point. For example, according to a copy-on-write snapshot, before creating a snapshot, the relationship between data and a block in the disk storing the data is recorded. Then, the access to the disk is monitored, and if data is updated, the data before the update is copied to another area (shadow copy area). This makes it possible to preserve in the disk the data at the time of creating the snapshot.    The snapshot is copied to the virtual disk by the OS in use. At this time, in place of data which has been updated after creating the snapshot, corresponding data before the update is read out from the shadow copy area, whereas data which has not been updated is read out from the used disk. The data which has been copied to the virtual disk is actually written in the storage areas of the disk devices, which are associated with the segments which form the virtual disk.    Access to the used disk is stopped, and the used disk is synchronized with the virtual disk. That is, the data which has been updated after creating the snapshot of the used disk is copied to the virtual disk. This causes the contents of the used disk and the contents of the virtual disk to become identical to each other.    Access to the virtual disk is started.
However, the two above-described data transfer techniques suffer from the following problem:
Both the two data transfer methods require a copying time proportional to the disk capacity. Therefore, it takes a longer time to transfer data stored in a disk device having a larger capacity. If the copying time is longer, extra processing load is placed on the computer to which the used disk is connected, resulting in a reduced processing efficiency of the entire system.

Virtual disk management program, storage device management program, multinode storage system, and virtual disk managing method


An electric discharge device 9 is provided for removing material from a workpiece 5 to form a through hole 5b therein. The electric discharge device 9 is designed to maintain the pressure of processing liquid after the hole 5b extends through the workpiece 5 to thereby stabilize the electric discharge during the hole forming process. Basically, the electric discharge device 9 includes a movable discharging electrode 10, an arc voltage discharging device 11, a processing liquid supply mechanism 13 and an indexing mechanism 15. The arc voltage charging device 11 supplies current at a predetermined voltage between the discharging electrode 10 and a workpiece 5. An electrode reciprocating mechanism 12 moves the discharging electrode 10 towards and away from the workpiece. The processing liquid supply mechanism 13 is fluidly coupled to an internal bore 10a of the discharging electrode 10 for supplying processing liquid inside the discharging electrode 10. The processing liquid flows out of an end of the discharging electrode 10 and engages the workpiece 5. The indexing mechanism 15 has a jig 14 with a plurality of concave portions or recesses 14a that are positioned to correspond to the discharging electrode 10. These concave portions or recesses 14a maintain the pressure of the processing liquid after a through hole 5b is formed on the workpiece 5. In the preferred embodiment, the workpiece 5 is a gear with a plurality of holes being formed between adjacent teeth portions. The gear has an annular space 6 that receives the jig 14.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to an electric discharge device and a method of using the electric discharge device. More specifically, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method of performing a hole forming process on a workpiece by utilizing an electric discharge device.
2. Background Information
An electric arc discharge process is often used to cut or form holes in a metal workpiece. Specifically, an arc voltage charging device is connected between an electrode and a workpiece. Current flows from the arc voltage charging device to the electrode. When the electrode is located adjacent the workpiece, an arc is formed between the electrode and the workpiece such that current passes from the electrode through the workpiece and back to the arc voltage charging device. The arc from the electrode then causes material of the workpiece to be eroded away. The workpiece is often processed under an insulating liquid, with intermittent electric arcs occurring between the electrode and the workpiece under the insulating liquid. The conventional electric discharge methods used to form a hole in a workpiece have many advantages over conventional mechanical methods of forming a hole. For example, prior art electric discharge processes typically do not create burrs during the formation of holes. Moreover, these prior art electric discharge processes can typically form diagonal holes without any difficulty. These prior art electric discharge processes can also be used to process workpieces made of very hard rigid material.
An example of a conventional electric arc discharge process is diagrammatically illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. As seen in FIG. 2, a hole is formed in a workpiece 1 using a long cylindrical discharging electrode 2. The diameter of the electrode 2 is sized to correspond to the diameter of the hole to be formed. This discharging electrode 2 is cylindrical and has an internal pathway 2a through which processing liquid flows. The hole is formed in the workpiece as the discharging electrode 2 is moved downwardly towards the workpiece with the processing liquid being supplied through the pathway 2a.
When a hole forming process is performed with a processing liquid being supplied to the above-described discharging electrode 2, a sludge or process powder is formed. The sludge or process powder from the workpiece is disposed of by the processing liquid, which flows upwardly around the discharging electrode 2. This disposal of the sludge or process powder occurs until the hole formed in the workpiece 1 by the discharging electrode 2 passes through the workpiece 1.
However, as shown in FIG. 2, when the discharging electrode 2 passes through the workpiece 1, the processing liquid starts to flow out of the hole, which decreases the pressure of the processing liquid. Also, the sludge or process powder builds up around the electrode since it is no longer being properly disposed of by the processing liquid. Furthermore, the electric discharge between the electrode 2 and the workpiece 1 becomes unstable because the arc or electric discharge is occurring in the air instead of under the processing liquid. The discharging electrode 2 is moved downward by a servo-actuated control. When electric discharge or arcs becomes unstable, the discharging electrode 2 goes down less smoothly. As a result, just prior to completion of the hole forming process, the discharging electrode 2 keeps moving up and down, which lengthens the time to complete the hole forming process.
To solve such problems, prior art electric arc discharging devices blow compressed air from beneath the processing hole to keep the processing liquid from escaping out of the bottom of the processing hole. Although this method prevents arcs or electric discharges from occurring in the absence of the processing liquid, it still does not stabilize the pressure of the processing liquid. Therefore it is difficult for electric discharges or arcs to take place under the most desirable conditions.
In view of the above, there exists a need for electric discharge device which overcomes the above mentioned problems in the prior art. This invention addresses this need in the prior art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.

Electric arc discharge device and method


A heat seal between a plastic bag and a plastic sheet is used to provide a more secure and reliable seal to define a modified atmosphere for a pallet of perishables. The heat seal reduces atmosphere failures and aids in providing a more consistent atmosphere in the pallet bag system thus reducing the number of pallets that have an out of specification atmosphere. The heat seal may be created with a heating sealing apparatuses that is part of a system used to load and seal a load of containers of perishables onto a pallet. The heat sealing apparatus uses two heated rollers coupled to a rotating arm to contact and heat seal a plastic bag to a plastic seal that enclose a palletized load of perishables that are rotated on a turntable.

The fresh perishables trade uses modified atmosphere technologies on bagged, or otherwise enclosed, and sealed pallet unit quantities of perishables to preserve freshness and reduce market losses during distribution. Current systems use a plastic sheet located between the pallet and a stack of packages of perishables and a plastic bag positioned over the stacked packages of perishables. Tape is used to seal the plastic bag to the plastic sheet. Prior to or after tape sealing the plastic bag and plastic sheet, desired quantities of one or more gasses may be injected into the plastic bag, creating a modified atmosphere, which benefits the enclosed perishables. The tape seal may result in bunching of the plastic bag and/or plastic sheet at the tape seal which forms air channels from the modified atmosphere interior through the taped seal. The air channels allow the injected gas of the modified atmosphere to escape into the outside atmosphere and/or the outside atmosphere to seep into the bag at an undesirable and uncontrolled rate. Gas escaping or entering the enclosed bag in an uncontrolled manner is undesirable because it leads to loss of freshness or total loss of the perishables. The use of tape is additionally undesirable because it requires labor to apply and remove, and further results in additional wasted material used to seal the plastic bag to the plastic sheet.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide a more secure and reliable seal for the plastic bag and plastic sheet in order to provide a more consistent atmosphere in the pallet bag and reduce the number of pallets that have an out of specification atmosphere.