There is presented a method for controlling a plurality of wind turbines comprising measuring wind turbine operation parameters in a model relating a plurality of wind turbine parameters to each other, estimating one wind turbine operation parameter value based on the model and the measured remaining wind turbine operation parameter values, providing a reliability parameter value for each wind turbine based on a difference value, said difference value being a difference between the estimated wind turbine operation parameter value, and the measured wind turbine operation parameter value corresponding to the wind turbine operation parameter for which the estimated wind turbine operation parameter value is provided, and controlling the plurality of wind turbines based on the corresponding plurality of reliability parameter values.

When determining power set-points for wind turbines comprised in a plurality of wind turbines, the controller for the plurality of wind turbines, e.g., the power plant controller (PPC) may use an estimate of what power the individual turbines can produce if the production is not restricted by the power plant controller (Available Power).
In a situation where one or more turbines produces bad estimates of the available power the PPC will not be able to ensure that the wind power plant produces the requested output power.
A wind power plant is also known as a wind farm or a wind park.
Hence, an improved method for controlling a plurality of wind turbines would be advantageous, and in particular a method which overcomes the problems related to bad estimates would be advantageous.

Controlling wind turbines according to reliability estimates


Present embodiments provide for an optical imaging lens. The optical imaging lens may comprise four lens elements positioned sequentially from an object side to an image side. Through controlling the convex or concave shape of the surfaces of the lens elements and designing parameters satisfying at least one inequality, the optical imaging lens may exhibit better optical characteristics and the total length of the optical imaging lens may be shortened.

The specifications of electrical products for consumers change with each passing day, and trend for reducing sizes of mobile phones has not slowed down. Therefore, the specifications of critical elements of optical lens also must been upgraded continuously to conform to consumers' demands. Except for imaging quality and size of an optical lens, the most important characteristic of an optical lens further comprise the field angle of view enhancement. The applications of the optical lens are not only limited in taking picture and recording videos, and the optical lens can be applied in a monitor or a driving recorder.
However, manufacturing an optical lens with perfect imaging quality and smaller size cannot be achieved only by reducing the length of the optical lens. The process for manufacturing an optical lens must consider the optical lens's material and assembly yield. In conclusion, designing a small sized optical lens is more difficult than designing a traditional optical lens. Therefore, manufacturing an optical lens conformed to consumers' demands and upgrading its imaging quality are always in high demand with regard to industries, governments, and academia for a long time.

GeniuS Electronic Optical (Xiamen) Co., Ltd


A motorized conveyor roller having a rotatable portion and at least one non-rotatable portion; including a method of inhibiting contact with a motorized rotatable conveyor roller that drives a conveyor roller that drives a conveyor medium.

A variety of conveyor roller systems have heretofore been designed and utilized. A large variety of known conveyor roller systems comprise a continuous belt or conveyor medium which travels over a series of rollers. The rollers can be simple shafts on which may be mounted various forms of sprockets or drive means for supporting the conveyor medium. Some advanced conveyor systems utilize enclosed and sealed drive rollers with the drive motors contained inside the rollers themselves.
An example of such motorized conveyor roller is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,596 which teaches a motorized conveyor roller mounted in a conveyer frame to support and propel articles from one end of the conveyor path towards the opposite end. The conveyer roller includes a roller tube rotatably mounted in the conveyor frame and drive means contained inside the roller tube for driving the roller tube. The drive means includes a motor, a gear reducer assembly operatively connected to the motor, and a drive member connected to the outward shaft of the speed reducer for engaging and rotating the roller tube.
Furthermore there has been a concern by some to improve the safety features of conveyor rollers and particularly motorized conveyor rollers. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,799 illustrates a brake device for a conveyor having two load supporting conveyor rollers rotatable to engage a load thereon to be transported along the conveyor. The load supporting rollers are movably transversely to their axis of rotation by a load passing there over against a resilient bias into engagement with a brake roller adapted to brake rotation of the conveyor rollers.
Moreover U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,184 illustrates a safety shutdown system for luggage conveyor systems.
Furthermore U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,528 teaches a conveyor roller.
There is, however, a need to improve the safety features of motorized conveyor rollers.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved motorized conveyor roller and method thereof.
It is an aspect of this invention to provide a motorized conveyor roller having a rotatable portion and at least one stationary end.

Motorized drum roller with stationary ends


This application discloses a session management function entity selection method, apparatus, and system. The method includes: receiving a reselection indication and information about a first session of user equipment UE from a first session management function entity, where the reselection indication is used to instruct to reselect a session management function entity; saving a correspondence between the first session management function entity and the information about the first session according to the reselection indication; receiving a session establishment request message, where the session establishment request message carries the information about the first session; determining a second session management function entity different from the first session management function entity; and sending a session management request to the second session management function entity. In the foregoing solution, a prior-art problem of selecting an improper session management function entity is resolved.

In the 5th Generation (5G) communications system, there are three types of session and service continuity modes (SSC mode), which are separately described below. A first mode is to ensure session continuity when a terminated user plane function (TUPF) remains unchanged. As an anchor of a user plane, the TUPF remains unchanged, to ensure session continuity. The TUPF is a last UPF that the user plane is connected to a data network. The TUPF may be considered as a user plane function entity with an anchoring function. A second mode is to maintain session continuity in a specific area. The TUPF remains unchanged in a specific area, but the TUPF changes when user equipment (UE) used by a user moves out of the area. Therefore, session continuity is ensured in the specific area, but session continuity is not ensured outside the area. A third mode is to ensure session continuity when a TUPF changes. In the third mode, when the TUPF changes, session continuity may be ensured in the following manners: A new TUPF is used for a new session initiated by the UE; and a current TUPF is still used for an existing session of the UE. For ease of description, the first mode, the second mode, and the third mode of the SSC mode are respectively referred to as an SSC mode 1, an SSC mode 2, and an SSC mode 3 below.
In an existing solution, for packet data unit (PDU) sessions in the SSC mode 2 and the SSC mode 3, when a session management function (SMF) entity needs to be selected due to an event such as a UE location change (the selected SMF may be a current SMF or a new SMF), an access and mobility management function (AMF) entity performs an SMF selection operation. However, this manner has the following disadvantages: The AMF does not sense information about PDU session management, and if the AMF continues to perform the SMF selection operation, the selected SMF may be improper.

Session management function entity selection method, apparatus, and system


An apparatus and method for regulating analogue-to-digital converters. First and second input signals are received at controlled oscillator circuitry which generates respective first and second pulse streams with pulse rates based on the relevant input signal. Difference circuitry determines the difference in number of pulses of the first and second pulse streams and outputs a first digital signal. Circuitry also determines a signal independent value based on the number of pulses of the first and/or second pulse streams. In one embodiment this value is the sum or average of the number of pulses of the first and second pulse streams. This value can be used to calibrate for any variation in transfer characteristic of the oscillator circuitry. In one embodiment this value is compared to a reference value and a regulation signal passed to control circuitry to regulate the operation of the oscillation circuitry.

1. Field of the Invention The present application relates to analogue-to-digital converters having controlled oscillators and to apparatus and methods for regulating an analogue-to-digital converter to account for, or provide, a variation in oscillator transfer characteristic.
2. Description of the Related Art
Analogue-to-Digital converters (ADCs) using voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs) are known. FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional ADC for differential input signals that produces a digital output based on the difference between two analogue input signals. The differential analogue input signals, SP and SN, are received by respective VCOs 101 and 102 respectively. Each VCO 101, 102 outputs a steam of pulses at a pulse rate or frequency which is dependent on the input voltage, i.e. the respective input signal SP or SN. First and second pulse streams, at frequencies fP and fN respectively are thus produced by VCOs 101 and 102. The two pulse streams are supplied to difference circuitry 103 which determined the difference in the pulse rates or frequencies fP, fN. The difference circuitry comprises first and second counters 104 and 105 which count the number of pulses in a period defined by a clock signal CK to produce digital count values DP and DN respectively. These digital count values DP, DN are subtracted 106 to give the digital output value Dout.
The counters 104 and 105 may either be periodically sampled and reset, in which case the difference in their sampled counts, Dout, is then a direct digital representation of the difference between the input signals SP, SN. Alternatively, for some applications, such as the integrator of a sigma-delta ADC, the counters may run continuously, in which case the difference count is a digital representation of the integrated input signal difference.
One problem with this type of ADC, especially when formed as, or as part of, an integrated circuit (IC), is that the VCO transfer characteristic from input voltage to output frequency may have wide manufacturing tolerances. Thus, the frequency output for a given defined input signal may be unpredictable from IC-to-IC and/or wafer-to-wafer and hence the scale factor or gain of the ADC, i.e. the digital output for a given known input, may be unpredictable. Also the VCO transfer characteristic may be temperature dependent thus meaning that the gain or scale factor may vary in use.
Embodiments of the present invention mitigate at least some of the above mentioned problems.


A mobile terminal having a flat panel sound output unit and vibration generation method for the same are disclosed. When a user touches the mobile terminal, the user can feel a sense of touch through the flat panel sound output unit. The mobile terminal includes: a touch screen; a flat panel sound output unit attached on a surface of the touch screen to generate sounds or vibrations according to an input signal; and a vibration processor sending, when a touch event occurs at the touch screen, a signal to the flat panel sound output unit to generate vibrations corresponding to the touch event. Hence, the method can provide a sense of touch to the user without use of a separate vibration motor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a generation vibration in a mobile terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to a mobile terminal having a flat panel unit that provides a user with a sense of touch through the flat panel unit, and a vibration generation method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a mobile terminal can perform various functions implemented by wireless communication and application programs. It includes, by way of example, a personal mobile communication terminal, personal digital assistant (PDA), smart phone, international mobile communications 2000 (IMT-2000) terminal, and wireless local area network (WLAN) terminal.
With steady advances in technologies, mobile terminals have become miniaturized and lightweight, and have now evolved into multifunction convergence terminals that perform various functions related to MP3 audio, digital photographing, navigation, and Internet browsing. In today word, mobile terminals are one of the necessaries of life.
Various technologies have been applied to mobile terminals. For example, touch screens are installed on the display units of mobile terminals, so that users can execute various functions by touching the screens. Flat panel sound technology is also applied to mobile terminals.
Currently, flat panel sound technology is used for producing only high-frequency sounds to prevent screen distortions due to vibrations, and woofers are separately used to produce low-frequency sounds. The application of flat panel sound technology to mobile terminals (in particular, those having touch screens) is somewhat unsatisfactory.

Mobile terminal having flat panel sound output unit and vibration generation method for the same


An optical element and image capture lens structure. The optical element includes a substrate and an optical component with at least one effective area and non-effective area, formed on the substrate, wherein the non-effective area has a rough surface. The image capture lens structure includes a substrate, an optical component formed on the substrate, and a spacer with a micro structure, attached to the substrate by an adhesive, wherein the micro structure is located between the adhesive and the optical component to prevent the overflow of the adhesive.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical element, and in particular relates to a wafer-level optical element, image capture lens structure and manufacturing thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, image capture apparatuses, such as mobile phones with a photographing function and digital cameras have become popular due to employment of solid-state image capture devices, such as CCD (charged coupled device) type image sensors, CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) type image sensors and the like, which are capable of meeting demands for higher performance and miniaturization. In such image capture devices, taking a picture is performed by forming an object image on a detecting surface of the image capture device so as to capture an image, and then the image data is read (i.e. output).
In the image capture apparatus, the optical elements include refractive components such as lenses and diffractive and/or refractive micro-optical components for influencing an optical beam in a pre-defined manner.
When optical elements are produced by replication, there is often a basic configuration involving a substrate and replication material on a surface thereof. The replication material can be shaped and hardened in the course of a replication process.
Conventionally, the optical element includes effective areas and non-effective areas, wherein both effective and non-effective areas are very smooth, as like a mirror. Unfortunately, the smooth non-effective area reflects large angles or any unnecessary light to cause stray-light of images, wherein stray-light significantly impacts image quality. In addition, when an optical element is bonded to another optical element, the bonding adhesive usually overflows and closes the optical path (effective area). The leaked adhesive also reflects the unnecessary light resulting in image destruction.
FIGS. 1A and 1B are cross-sectional views illustrating a conventional structure of a wafer-level optical element. As shown in FIG. 1A, an optical element 10 is composed of a substrate 12 and lens 14. The lens 14 is indicated by two areas including non-effective area 142 and effective area 144. As discussed above, both effective and non-effective areas are smooth so that unnecessary light is reflected to cause stray-light of image. Additionally, referring to FIG. 1B, an optical element is bonded to another optical element to form a wafer level image capture lens by using a spacer 16 and an adhesive 18, wherein the adhesive usually overflow to close or contact the non-effective area 142. Similarly, the unnecessary light also can be reflected by the leaked adhesive 20. The image sensor, such as a CMOS or CCD, thus usually catches the reflected light, resulting in decrease of image quality.
Thus, a novel manufacturing method and an optical structure are required to mitigate the previously mentioned problems.

Optical element and manufacture method thereof


A material handling system and method of use for increasing throughput at security checkpoints. The material handling system includes a dual input conveyor with a merge conveyor leading to a detection system. At the output of the detection system is a diverting mechanism which will divert the items leaving the detection system to one of two output conveyors, corresponding to the input conveyors. A reject mechanism and accompanying conveyor may be provided, in addition to a bin return and control system.

Airport security is a critical aspect of air safety throughout the world. In current situations, within the United States and many other countries worldwide, airport security checkpoints have been fast evolving to meet the safety and other concerns of the public, in general. For example, the public demands safe air travel, but also places a premium on their own convenience when traveling within airports. This includes conveniently located safety checkpoints, shorter lines at such safety checkpoints and ease of effort for placing their items such as baggage through x-ray machines and the like.
To address many of these issues, industry and the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) have been developing new systems in an attempt to increase throughput of the passengers through security checkpoints. However, in many instances, these new systems are very expensive to implement and, in some instances, may even contribute to the problem that they are attempting to solve. By way of one example, the TSA has hired more airport screeners, security personnel and others in an attempt to increase efficiency. Although the addition of more personnel may, in the short term, alleviate some of the inconveniences of passengers, they are very expensive to implement by way of added labor costs and overhead.
Another solution is simply to increase the number of safety checkpoints. This certainly can increase throughput, but this solution also has its shortcomings. First, in order to increase the number of safety checkpoints, more scanning machines are needed. Also, since airports are under extreme space constraints, especially in view of the increased traffic throughout airports in addition to the physical constraints of the buildings themselves, this solution leads to increased congestion and loss of space for airport vendor and support services. This causes loss of revenue to the airport authorities.
By way of example, FIG. 1 shows a conventional layout of a security checkpoint. The conventional layout is depicted generally as reference numeral 100 and includes two substantially identical lanes of security checkpoints 100a and 100b. In this conventional layout, a passenger will first place their baggage and other items at the table 102, which leads to a conventional conveyor 104. However, this area typically has insufficient "buffer" space for passenger divestiture causing congestion, longer queues and the like.
The conveyor 104 then transports the baggage and other items to the x-ray machine 106, at which point a security screener will use a monitor 106a to view the internal contents of the items passing through. At the output of the machine 106, another conventional conveyor 108 is used to transport the baggage to a pick up area 110. Much like the divesture area 102, the pick up area, due to space constraints within the airport, has insufficient buffer space, again, causing congestion, longer queues and the like.
If there was anything suspicious within the baggage, an inspection area 112 is used to manually search through such items near the output area of the system. This inspection area is accessible to the public, which may cause some security concerns. Also, this manual operation, since it is "in-line" with the non-rejected items, may result in congestion at each station, reduce throughput, and increase passenger queue times.
Additionally, a chemical trace detection system 114 may be provided at the output of the system. But, since the chemical trace detection system 114 is very expensive, only one of these systems is used for each pair of checkpoints 102a, 102b. Thus, in case items such as laptops that have been transported through the checkpoint 102b, must be screened, an airport personnel must bring the item to the chemical trace detection system 114 at checkpoint 102a. This leads to more congestion, more time, and more labor needed at each of the checkpoints.
While the baggage is being transported and searched through the system, the passenger is ushered through a metal detector 116. If a suspicious object is detected, the passenger will be manually searched in "hand wand" area 118. Also, due to the limited space associated with each of these systems, only one passenger at a time may place their baggage and other items on the table 102. Thus in this conventional system, the existing checkpoint design has:                limited material handling;        extensive manual operations (rejects, review of suspicious items, rescanning items, etc.);        movement of personnel that is counter to the normal flow, causing congestion and confusion; and        inadequate buffers that cause stoppage of processing operations.
Thus, this layout has increased passenger queue times resulting in customer dissatisfaction. Long or unpredictable queue times and customer dissatisfaction can lead to decreased travel which causes a negative economic condition at airports. Also, these shortcomings have resulted in the TSA to purchase, install, staff, and maintain additional equipment, adding to overall costs.
The invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.

Material handling system and method of use


An assembly kit includes a first turbocharger component flange with receptacles spaced according to a first interval angle; a second turbocharger component flange with receptacles spaced according to a second interval angle that differs from the first interval angle; and a piece configured for receipt by a receptacle of the first component and a receptacle of the second component where alignment of the receptacles determines a rotational orientation angle of the first component with respect to the second component. Various other examples of devices, assemblies, systems, methods, etc., are also disclosed.

Many conventional turbine systems include a housing that supports a shaft and another housing that houses a turbine wheel connected to the shaft. In turbochargers, the housing that supports the shaft is often referred to as a center housing as it is positioned between a compressor housing and a turbine housing. Conventional techniques for attaching a turbine housing to a center housing rely on a joint secured by a clamp with a circular shape. Such a clamp is usually flexible or expandable and may have a V-shaped cross-section that acts to force two components toward each other upon tensioning of the clamp. Sometimes a clamp with a V-shaped cross-section is referred to as a "v-band".
In practice, a v-band clamp can effectively join a turbine housing and a center housing axially. However, a v-band clamp may not sufficiently deter rotation of a turbine housing with respect to a center housing. Turbocharger field failures have been reported where the failure mode is turbine housing rotation relative to the center housing. Such rotation can stretch a turbine inlet bellows and eventually results in a cracked bellows and accompanying heavy exhaust leak. An exhaust leak has multiple consequences ranging from engine control, environmental control and hazards to occupants of a vehicle or other exposed to leaked exhaust.
As described herein, in various examples, equipment and techniques can help reduce risk of failures caused wholly or in part by rotation of a turbine housing relative to another housing.


An object of the present invention is to provide a method of proximity detection based on transmitting at random intervals burst of a RF signal at a power level, and receiving, while not transmitting, a received RF signal. When detecting said received RF signal emitted by a target in range; an alarm signal is provided to warn of the proximity of the target. Another broad aspect of the invention is to deploy the above method among members of a territory and provide a monitoring patrol to verify if the proximity of those members can be detected from their RF signal. Another broad aspect of the invention is to provide to those members a plurality of status from which each member selects one corresponding to its current status and to transmit that status in the RF signal he is transmitting, thereby informing other members in range of his current status and enabling them to evaluate the potential danger associated with him.

In recent years, an increased number of vehicles combined with increased driving speeds have been giving rise to a concurrent increase in the number of collision accidents. Such accidents each year result in a relatively large number of fatalities and injuries and cause significant property damage.
As is well known, collisions may occur as a result of numerous factors including operator inattentiveness, incompetence, errors in judgment, and so forth. Typically, operator reaction time also plays a part in determining whether a potential collision, once detected, can be avoided.
Accordingly, one potential method for reducing the number of accidents is to allow vehicle drivers to be apprised of the presence of another vehicle and it is in more or less general vicinity. Various situations exist wherein the need to be informed of the presence of another vehicle is particularly crucial. Examples of such situations include atmospheric conditions such as fog, smog, rain, snow, or the like. Other examples include terrain or road conditions such as rough or mountainous terrain, curves, dips or crests, intersections, or the like. Lighting conditions ranging from well-lit highways in clear weather to unlit back roads in foul weather are further examples of situations wherein the knowledge of the presence of another vehicle, within the predetermined range, may become crucial.
Heretofore, it has been a customary practice by drivers of various types of vehicles to attempt to view the area in the vicinity of the vehicle by way of one or more mirrors mounted on the interior or exterior of the vehicle or, alternatively, for drivers to turn their heads to visually observe a particular area. As will be recognized, the various interior and exterior mounted mirrors of the vehicle typically yield a selective area in the vicinity of the vehicle commonly referred to as a blind spot which cannot be properly observed, thereby rendering a driving manoeuvre dangerous while the turning of the driver's head to visually observe the desired area requires the drivers to be momentarily inattentive to the vicinity in front of the vehicle. Thus, these two alternatives for observing the selected areas in the vicinity of the vehicle prior to making a driving manoeuvre have proven less than ideal and usually have posed a significant safety hazard to the driver of the vehicle or adjacent vehicles.
The prior art has shown some examples of systems and devices for detecting the presence of other vehicles. However, most of these systems or devices suffer from numerous drawbacks. For example, some of these systems have a marked directionality requiring precise alignment between vehicles. Also, some prior art devices and systems have limited effectiveness when used for measuring distances of less than a few hundred meters.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved vehicle proximity alarm system, that would be inexpensive, robust and that would be efficient in a variety of weather, lighting, road and field conditions, where several obstacles may be found. There is also a need for a vehicle alarm system that would not only alert someone of the presence of someone else in the immediate neighborhood, but would indicate if that presence is at long or short range and furthermore, would give indications about the nature or the status of the presence. Finally there is a need for such systems to be deployed among travelers that can be vehicles or pedestrians, and be installed on obstacles of a territory, in order to increase the safety of the territory and to provide to those travelers the possibility of traveling without concerns of having a collision with another traveler until being warned with the vehicle alarm system of his presence. It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide such an improved vehicle proximity alarm system.

Vehicle proximity alarm system and method


A magnetic data read circuit includes a differentiation circuit and an integration circuit which are individually connected to a magnetic head, and a means of read judgment for pass/fail judgment on reading operation of magnetic data detected at the magnetic head. The read judgment means has first and second storage sections in which data relating to an output signal of the differentiation circuit and the integration circuit, respectively, are stored. The read judgment section obtains data from at least one of the first storage section and the second storage section and makes a pass/fail judgment on reading operation of the magnetic data. Such a magnetic data read circuit improves accuracy of reading magnetic data stored in a magnetic recording medium from a single transfer of the magnetic recording medium data.

In general, what is known as a magnetic recording method to be used for a magnetic record regeneration system such as a magnetic card reader and so on is an FM modulation method, in which binary magnetic data is recorded into a magnetic recording medium by applying combination of two kinds of frequencies, namely F and 2F. When reading out the magnetic data that has been recorded by the FM modulation method, a magnetic head is slid relatively against a magnetic stripe on the magnetic recording medium to regenerate the magnetic data as an analog regeneration signal, with which the binary data becomes demodulated.
Regarding the demodulation process, concrete explanation is given by using FIG. 11 and FIG. 12. FIG. 11 is a block diagram to show an electrical structure of a circuit that puts the demodulation process into practice by the FM modulation method. Meanwhile, FIG. 12 includes drawings of signal waveforms, each of which relates to its corresponding position in the circuit shown by FIG. 11. That is to say; the signal waveforms of (b) to (g) in FIG. 12 show those at the positions of (b) to (g) in FIG. 11. Incidentally, the signal waveform of FIG. 12(a) is a signal waveform of a record signal saved in a magnetic stripe of a magnetic card 102.
In FIG. 11 and FIG. 12; a magnetic head detection signal (Refer to FIG. 12(b)) obtained by sliding a magnetic head 101 relatively against the magnetic stripe on the magnetic card 102 is processed at first so as to remove high-frequency noise by using a band pass type filter, i.e., BPF (Band Pass Filter) 103 (Refer to FIG. 12(c)), and subsequently the signal being as BPF output is input into an amplifier 104. Then, the BPF output amplified by the amplifier 104 is input into a peak detection circuit 105. After peak detection is carried out there (Refer to FIG. 12(d)), zero cross point detection of the peak detection signal is carried out in a comparator 106a (Refer to FIG. 12(e)). On the other hand, the BPF output amplified by the amplifier 104 is also input into a comparator 106b in order to carry out zero cross point detection of the BPF output through comparison with a zero level (Refer to FIG. 12(f)). Finally, a timing generation circuit 107 outputs a signal that has a signal level of the output signal of the comparator 106b at each changeover timing from/to Hi-level and to/from Lo-level of the output signal of the comparator 106a (Refer to FIG. 12(g)). Thus, the signal waveform of FIG. 12(a) is obtained to complete the demodulation process.
In this sample case, a differentiation circuit is used as the peak detection circuit 105 in FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 (Refer to FIG. 12(d)). However, operation only with the peak detection circuit 105 as a differentiation circuit does not work out adequately sometimes. For example, if a passing speed of the magnetic card 102 in relation to the magnetic head 101 suddenly becomes slow, change in an analog regeneration signal by magnetic reversal becomes so small that the peak detection signal shown by FIG. 12(d) results in a signal with small peak values as the solid line shows in FIG. 13(d). Consequently, in the output signal of the comparator 106a there are generated a couple of so-called saddles SD1 and SD2 (Refer to FIG. 13(e)), and an irregular signal shown by FIG. 13(g) is input into a CPU 107 to cause a read error.
To avoid such a bad influence by the saddles SD1 and SD2, sometimes an integration circuit is used instead of the differentiation circuit as the peak detection circuit 105. In that case, an output signal of the integration circuit results in a signal waveform as the dotted line shows in FIG. 13(e). Then, zero cross point detection is carried out through comparison with a zero level by the comparator 106a, in the same manner as an operation using a differentiation circuit; and eventually it becomes possible to avoid the bad influence by the saddles SD1 and SD2 shown in FIG. 13(e). However, when such an integration circuit is used, it may become difficult to detect a peak in a signal with a long time-interval and a low-frequency noise may come up due to noise accumulation. As a result, there exists a chance of a read error because of another reason that is different from the problem of the saddles SD1 and SD2 described above.
Thus, taking into account that it is difficult to maintain a sufficient reading accuracy in a magnetic data read circuit in which only one of the differentiation circuit and integration circuit is built in; a magnetic data read circuit, where both of the differentiation circuit and integration circuit are built in, is being developed. For example, in the magnetic data read circuit that FIG. 14(a) shows, there is placed an analog switch 109 (a relay, etc.) for selecting one of a differentiation circuit 105a and an integration circuit 105b in the circuit so that a changeover is made between the differentiation circuit 105a and the integration circuit 105b by sending a selection signal, as required, to the analog switch in order to enable reading the magnetic data with optimum circuit condition. Furthermore, if a read error comes up while peak detection is carried out by the differentiation circuit 105a (or the integration circuit 105b), it is possible to try reading the magnetic data again while changing to the integration circuit 105b (or the differentiation circuit 105a, respectively) by sending the selection signal described above.
Furthermore, there is developed another magnetic data read circuit, in which no changeover between the differentiation circuit and the integration circuit is made but output signals from both the circuits are synthesized for improvement of reading accuracy (For example, refer to FIG. 14(b) and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 62-234205, incorporated herein by reference). In a magnetic data read circuit shown by FIG. 14(b), there is placed a subtraction circuit 110, by which the output signal of the integration circuit is subtracted from the output signal of the differentiation circuit. As a result, it becomes possible to prevent any of so-called saddles from coming up in an output signal of the comparator 106a (Refer to FIG. 13(e)), and eventually to avoid any read error.
Incidentally, other demodulation methods in addition to the method shown by FIG. 14(b) in which both the output signals of the differentiation circuit 105a and the integration circuit 105b are used; include, for example, a method where the output signal of the integration circuit 105b is used as a gate signal to the differentiation circuit 105a (Namely; an AND operation between the output signal of the differentiation circuit 105a and the output signal of the integration circuit 105b is considered), and another method using a circuit where the output signal of the differentiation circuit 105a and the output signal of the integration circuit 105b are compared and integrated (For example, the output signal of the integration circuit and an F2F signal are synthesized by a circuit of a diode and so on, and then the newly synthesized signal is used as a gate signal to a circuit where the output signal of the differentiation circuit becomes the data).
However, in the circuit described above where demodulation is carried out by a changeover between the differentiation circuit and the integration circuit as required; if once a read error occurs, it becomes necessary to change from the circuit being selected at the time to the other circuit between the differentiation circuit and the integration circuit, and then read again the magnetic data. Therefore, it is required to transfer the magnetic card again, and namely it is difficult to read the magnetic data with high accuracy through "One-and-only" transfer of the magnetic card.
Furthermore, also in the circuit where demodulation is carried out by using both the output signals of the differentiation circuit and the integration circuit; if once a read error occurs, it is necessary to read the magnetic data again through the same circuits. Therefore, it is required to transfer the magnetic card again, and as described above, namely it is difficult to read the magnetic data with high accuracy through "One-and-only" transfer of the magnetic card. In particular, when reading the magnetic data is carried out again under the same circuit condition, there is a strong possibility of another read error because of no hardware-wise change in reading conditions.

Magnetic data read circuit and card processing unit


In a field emitter (100) including a substrate (110), the substrate (110) has a substantially non-conductive top substrate surface (112). A conductive cathode member (130) is disposed on the top substrate surface (112) and has a top cathode surface (132). A conductive gate member (120) is disposed on the top substrate surface (112) and is substantially coplanar with the cathode member (130). An emitter structure (140) extends away from the top cathode surface (132). The gate member (120) is spaced apart from the cathode member (130) at a distance so that when a predetermined potential is applied between the cathode member (130) and gate member (120), the emitter structure (140) will emit electrons.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to nano-scale structures and, more specifically, to planar field emitters.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Cold cathode field emission occurs when the local electric field at the surface of a conductor approaches about 109V/m. In this field regime, the work function barrier is reduced enough to permit electronic tunneling from the conductor to vacuum, even at low temperatures. To achieve the high local fields at experimentally achievable macroscopic fields, field emission sources are typically made from sharp objects such as etched wires, micro-fabricated cones or nanostructured conductors such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs).For the majority of field emission applications, the cathode current needs to be controllable. In general, control is achieved with a gate located nearby the field emission source that generates the field used to eject electrons from the field emission source but only absorbs a fraction of the emitter current.
Cold cathode field emission devices have the capability to produce very high current density electron beams (greater than 100 A/cm2) with low power consumption. However field emission devices have not, to date, been incorporated into commercial high current density applications such as power microwave electronics because field emission sources may fail prematurely unless extreme care is taken to protect the devices.
Typical field emission devices are variants of the conventional Spindt field emission array. This device design has several inherent vulnerabilities stemming from the small dimensions required to achieve a high enough field strength to emit electrons from a conical structure. Under ideal operating conditions (e.g. 10−9 Torr, with no perturbation in the gate voltage, gate currents or anode voltage), Spindt emitter arrays have been shown to emit in excess of 40 A/cm2 for extended periods of time. In most applications however, the electron source typically encounters occasional plasma discharges, called spits. Spits are often caused by gas desorption from an anode surface that is ionized by the electron beam. The resulting plasma generates an arc between the anode and nearby surfaces at a lower potential such as the field emitter. Depending upon the cable capacitance, potential difference and embedded circuit protection, a spit has the potential to destroy field emitter devices, even if the spit does not land on the device itself. In high voltage applications, such as x-ray tubes, because spits typically draw more than 100 amps for less than 1 microsecond, the inductively and capacitively coupled currents will often destroy Spindt field emitter devices, even if the spit does not directly impact the field emission source. In addition, during the spit, the voltage on the anode often drops to a low enough value that the anode is no longer able to absorb the cathode current. Therefore, the gate electrode absorbs up to the entire cathode current. At moderate current densities in Spindt emitters, (greater than about 100 mA/cm2), localized heating from the excessive gate current can destroy the device quickly.
Recently, nanostructured materials, such as carbon nanotubes, have been proposed as field emission sources. Because of their narrow diameter, high electrical conductivity and high thermal conductivity they offer the potential for field emission sources that operate at lower gate voltages compared to conical emitters. To date however, nanostructured field emission sources have not achieved current densities demonstrated in Spindt field emission source.
Therefore, there is a need for a field emission source capable of producing high current density that is more robust than conventional Spindt field emission devices.
There is also a need for a robust field emission device in which the gate current, threshold voltage and switching speed are comparable to conventional Spindt field emitter arrays.


According to an embodiment of the invention there may be provided a system for assigning lithographic mask inspection process parameters. The system may include a search module, a decision module and a memory module. The memory module may be configured to store an expected image expected to be formed on a photoresist during a lithographic process that involves illuminating the lithographic mask. The search module may be configured to search in the expected image for printable features. The decision module may be configured to assign a first lithographic mask inspection process parameter to lithographic mask areas related to printable features and assign a second lithographic mask inspection process parameter to at least some lithographic mask areas that are not associated with printable features. The second lithographic mask inspection process parameter may differ from the first lithographic mask inspection process parameter.

Lithographic masks are exposed during a lithographic process to radiation thereby forming patterns on a wafer.
A lithographic mask error may result in a large number of defective wafers.
On one hand there is a need to rigorously inspect lithographic masks as the cost associated with lithographic masks error is high.
On the other hand the inspection of the lithographic process should be relatively fast.
There is a growing need to provide accurate and fast methods for inspecting a lithographic mask.

System and method for printability based inspection


The present application relates to a novel method of stabilizing the molecular weight of alkoxylates and stable compositions. The polyoxyalkylene compounds have incorporated into them, from the time of reaction of the alkylene oxide, a free radical type inhibitor which significantly improves stability of both the polymer.

It is highly desirable to be able to produce polyoxyalkylene glycols to a variety of molecular weights. The lower molecular weight materials (200 mwu to 1,000 mwu) are liquids which are used in many varied applications areas, like fiber lubrication. Higher molecular weight materials (2,000 mwu to 6,000 mwu) are useful in the preparation of soil release polymers by the reaction with terephthalic acid and its esters. Ultra high molecular weight materials (over 10,000 mwu) are useful as waxes in many personal care applications.
All of these applications require that the polyoxyalkylene compound used (a) be capable of being produced on a repeated basis to a specified average molecular weight (i.e. have a reproducible molecular weight distribution) and (b) to be able to stand up to thermal and other degradations in the various applications in which they are used.
All polyoxyalkylene derivatives have a common feature, that is the presence of an ether bond derived from the reaction of ethylene or propylene oxide; EQU --CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 --O--CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 --O-- or --CH.sub.2 (CH.sub.3)CH--O--
We have found that these bonds in polymeric species are degraded not only during the polymerization reaction but also after the reaction is complete. The degradation is accelerated by the presence of oxygen. Polyoxyalkylene chains break down into lower molecular weight species, and much of the performance attributes are lost.
This degradation is a major concern for the ultra high molecular weight species. While it is known in the art, that in order to achieve high molecular weight species of polyoxyalkylene compounds, exotic catalysts have to be used. But it was not until this invention, that it was recognized that the degradation could be arrested by incorporation of stable free radical compounds, most importantly nitroxides.
Antioxidants are well known, but the "standard antioxidants" are ineffective in the prevention of this specific degradation. The use of stable free radical compounds has surprisingly been found to be effective in preventing degradation. A variety of "standard antioxidants" have been shown to inhibit or retard vinyl polymerization. The commonly used inhibitors appear to function by reacting in some manner with an initiator radical to yield a species of lower reactivity that results in a lower tendency to continue chain propagation. These "standard antioxidants", which are ineffective in our invention, include phenols, quinones, aromatic nitro and nitroso compounds, amines and thiol compounds.
Stable free radicals have been known for many years and exist in the patent literature, but have been used primarily, if not exclusively in the prevention of vinyl reactive systems. U.S. Pat. No. 4,670,131 issued to Ferrell discloses the use of stable free radical compounds in the prevention of polymerization of olefinic materials. This process relates to the reaction of a vinyl containing material to make a saturated higher molecular weight species. Clearly, this reaction has been understood in terms of free radical chemistry. Free radical inhibitors or scavengers inhibit or retard the polymerization of chain propagating reactions in vinyl monomer systems. The mechanism is thought to be a scavenger of the free radicals which form on the monomer. Since the free radical scavenger is stable, it reacts rapidly with free radicals of the monomer, which form in low concentrations.
In addition to abstraction, several compounds retard vinyl polymerization by radical addition which again produces a radical species which is not reactive toward the monomer. Quinone type inhibitors are probably the best example of this kind of inhibition mechanism.
It was not originally appreciated that the degradation process of polyoxyalkylene compounds was free radical like in nature, since the typical inhibitors like phenols, quinones, aromatic nitro and nitroso compounds, amines and thiol compounds were of no value in stabilizing the polyoxyalkylene products. We have discovered that in order to develop an inhibitor for polyoxyalkylene polymers, a different type of approach must be employed. Stable free radicals, such as NOVA INHIBITOR 469, (a nitroxide type stable free radical) provide such a system not only for the polyoxyalkylene compounds but also for derivatives like soil release polymers. These stable free radicals are far too stable to initiate polymerization, but their free electron is available to immediately react with any radical initiator, rendering the potential initiator totally inactive. This class of inhibitors has been found to effective in protecting polyoxyalkylene polymers from free radical type degradation which reduces molecular weight.
The desired reaction forming polyoxyalkylene polymers is represented generically as follows ##STR1##
During the reaction, most importantly in molecular weights in excess of 1000 MWU, the terminal hydroxyl group can eliminate producing terminal unsaturation. The terminal unsaturation has the following structure; EQU HO--(CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 O)(n-1)--CH.dbd.CH.sub.2
The continued polymerization of this compound to higher molecular weights is blocked by the conversion. We have surprisingly found that the inclusion of between 0.00000001 and 1.0 percent of a stable free radical into the diol prior to reaction will prevent the formation of the terminal unsaturated material allowing for the preparation of higher molecular weight more chemically pure polymers.
Additionally, the polyoxyalkylene chain can degrade into lower molecular weight products. This is observed particularly when aggressive conditions of temperature and catalyst concentrations are used in the polymerization reaction. ##STR2##
Inclusion of an effective inhibitory amount of stable free radical inhibits this reaction as well. The preferred stable free radical is a nitroxide.


A process for the preparation of ruthenium compounds of the formula {Ru(dienyl)2} wherein xe2x80x9cdienylxe2x80x9d represents a substituted pentadienyl or cycloheptadienyl group by reacting dichloro(2,7-dimethylocta-2,6-dien-1,8-diyl)-ruthenium with an appropriate diene in the presence of a primary or secondary alcohol capable of reducing Ru(IV) to Ru(II); and a carbonate of an alkaline material. These ruthenium compounds are useful as precursors of Ru catalysts.

The present invention relates to the preparation of ruthenium compounds useful as precursors of ruthenium catalysts. It concerns more particularly a process for the preparation of a ruthenium compound of formula
{Ru(dienyl)2}xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(I)
wherein xe2x80x9cdienylxe2x80x9d represents a substituted pentadienyl or cycloheptadienyl group.
A compound of the invention, bis(2,4-dimethyl-2,4-pentadienyl)-ruthenium or {Ru(DMPD)2}, is a known product useful for the preparation of a great number of ruthenium catalysts, in particular compounds useful in asymmetric catalysis. Although a prior synthesis of this compound has been described by L. Stahl et al. In Organometallics 1983, 2, 1229-1234, practical working of this known process showed that it is not useful for industrial exploitation as it provides the desired compound in low yields, below 40%
In order to overcome the limitation of the prior art process, the invention relates more particularly to a new process for the preparation of a ruthenium compound of formula
{Ru(dienyl)2}xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(I)
wherein xe2x80x9cdienylxe2x80x9d represents a substituted pentadienyl or cycloheptadienyl group, which process comprises reacting dichloro(2,7-dimethylocta-2,6-dien-1,8-diyl)-ruthenium with an appropriate diene in the presence of:
1) a primary or secondary alcohol capable of reducing Ru(IV) to Ru(II); and
2) a carbonate of an alkaline metal.
By xe2x80x9can appropriate dienexe2x80x9d it is meant here the diene which, for a particular compound (I), provides the corresponding dienyl group.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention the reaction is carried out in the presence of a catalytic amount of acetonitrile.
The process of the invention is particularly useful for preparing compounds (I) wherein xe2x80x9cdienylxe2x80x9d stands for a 2,4-dimethyl-2,4-pentadienyl, 2,3,4-trimethyl-2,4-pentadienyl, 2,4-dimethyl-1-oxa-2,4-pentadienyl or 2,4-cycloheptadienyl group.
Dichloro(2,7-dimethylocta-2,6-dien-1,8-diyl)-ruthenium, used as the starting compound in the process of the invention, is a known compound. Several synthesis of this compound have in fact been described, e.g. by L. Porri et al., Tetrahedron Lett. 1965, 4187-4189, D. N. Cox et al., Inorg. Chem. 1990, 29, 1360-1365 and J. G. Toerien et al., J. Chem Soc. Dalton Trans. 1991, 1563-1568. However, to our knowledge, there has never been any report or suggestion of the use of this known compound for the preparation of compounds of formula (I).
Primary or secondary alcohols suitable for use in the process of the invention include ethanol, methanol and isopropanol, amongst other. Preferably, ethanol will be used.
Carbonates of alkaline metals appropriate for the process of the invention include lithium, sodium, and potassium carbonates in particular. Preferably lithium carbonate will be used.
According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, dichloro(2,7-dimethylocta-2,6-dien-1,8-diyl)-ruthenium is reacted with 2,4-dimethyl-1,3-pentadiene, in the presence of ethanol, acetonitrile and lithium carbonate to provide bis(2,4-dimethyl-2,4-pentadienyl)-ruthenium or {Ru(DMPD)2}.
Unlike the prior art process, the process of the instant invention makes it possible to prepare compounds (I) in high yields, in many cases above 90%. It can be carried out in simple equipment and it does not require particular temperature or pressure conditions.

Process for the preparation of ruthenium compounds


The present invention discloses a Schottky diode. The Schottky diode comprises a cathode region, an anode region and a guard ring region. The anode region may comprise a metal Schottky contact. The guard ring region may comprise an outer guard ring and a plurality of inner guard stripes inside the outer guard ring. And wherein the inner guard stripe has a shallower junction depth than the outer guard ring.

When a metal layer contacts with a lightly doped semiconductor material, a contact effect comparable to a PN-junction appears. It is called the Schottky contact. This effect is used to make Schottky diode. When forward biased, a Schottky diode is in an "on" state and current flows through the diode. When the diode is reversely biased, a Schottky diode is in an "off" state and ideally current will not flow. However, Schottky diodes are not ideal, and thus will experience a small amount of reverse leakage current. Reverse leakage is detrimental to the performance of a circuit and results in a loss of power in the circuit. The breakdown voltage of a Schottky diode is the maximum amount of voltage that may be applied to the diode before the diode begins to breakdown. Accordingly, a Schottky diode for high-voltage applications with low reverse leakage current and high forward current drivability is desired.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional Schottky diode 100. The electrical field between the Schottky contact 12 and the semiconductor material 11 needs to be minimized for reducing reverse current and achieving higher breakdown voltage. Accordingly, the conventional high voltage Schottky diode 100 adopts deep and lightly doped P-type ring 15 as a guard ring region to reduce the high electrical field near the Schottky contact 12.
FIG. 2 shows a layout diagram of the conventional Schottky diode 100 as shown in FIG. 1. Cathode contact region 14 is laid at the edge of the diode 100 and the guard ring region 15 is laid out at the periphery of the metal Schottky contact 12. For the conventional Schottky diode 100, deep guard ring region 15 is required to substantially reduce the electric field near the metal Schottky contact. However, deep guard ring region 15 consumes large area, and the integrating density is poor.
Accordingly, improved devices are desired to address the above deficiencies.

Schottky diodes with dual guard ring regions and associated methods


Catalysts for the oxychlorination of ethylene to 1,2-dichloroethylene, comprising compounds of Cu and Mg supported on alumina, in which the copper content, expressed as Cu, is 2 to 8% by weight, the Mg/Cu atomic ratio is from 1.2 to 2.5, and the specific surface of the catalyst is from 30 to 130 m2/g.

The present invention relates to catalysts for the oxychlorination of ethylene to dichloroethane (DCE) capable of providing high conversion rates without sacrificing selectivity by working in a fluid bed at high temperatures, and to the process in which the catalysts are used.
Dichloroethane is an important intermediate product for the production of vinyl chloride and therefore of PVC, one of the most widely used plastic materials.
Various technologies are used in the oxychlorination reaction. The reactors can be of the fixed- or fluid-bed type, and air and/or oxygen can be used as oxidizer.
The fluid-bed process is preferred over the fixed-bed process because it offers several advantages: lower investment costs for the reactors (because they are not made of steel), an almost isothermal thermal profile without hot spots (therefore with high selectivity and limited ageing phenomena).
Fluid-bed processes use catalysts based on copper salts, preferably CuCl2, mixed with various promoters, such as salts of alkaline metals, alkaline earth metals, and rare earths. The supports are based on alumina or various aluminum silicates (attapulgite, montmorillonite, silica gels, clays, et cetera); alumina having a particle size suitable for good fluidization is generally preferred.
Catalysts must provide the following performance:
ensure the highest possible yield of dichloroethane by virtue of satisfactory selectivity and high activity (high conversion rates of the hydrochloric acid);
be able to work with good fluidization conditions, avoiding sticking (sticking of the particles, due to a polymeric form of CuCl2 with a low melting point); sticking can be avoided by reducing the ratio between HCl and ethylene, but clearly this inevitably reduces the dichloroethane yield;
avoid losses of active elements and promoters, which in addition to penalizing the catalytic activity are a problem for the pollution of the process effluent-water;
provide high flexibility, in that production can be adapted to high market demand; in this case it is necessary to have catalysts capable of working at higher temperatures without sacrificing selectivity and without an increased loss of active element and promoter.
Currently, the most competitive fluid-bed process is the one that uses oxygen as oxidizer: in such conditions, the reaction is performed with partial conversion and therefore with recycling of the unconverted ethylene and of the carbon oxides that are by-products in the oxychlorination reaction. This technology has some important advantages: conversion of the hydrochloric acid is substantially complete; the efficiency of the ethylene is on average higher that that obtained in the process in air (because the ethylene is fully converted); the emission of incondensable gases into the atmosphere (venting) is reduced drastically, since it is not necessary to eliminate from the cycle, as in the case of the air process, the nitrogen supplied together with the air.
This aspect is particularly important for environmental impact, thanks to the low emission of noxious chlorinated compounds into the environment; the vented output can be sent into the atmosphere without further expensive treatments. Another advantage is the elimination, with respect to the air process, of the section for absorbing and stripping the dichloroethane contained in the gases that leave the system.
An important parameter that can affect the yield of the reaction is the molar ratio of HCl/C2H4 in the mixture of the reacting gases entering the reactor: this ratio is not stoichiometric (2), but is close to the stoichiometric value in the air process (1.9-1.96) and is between 1.7 and 1.9 in the oxygen process since the concentration of the ethylene also comprises the ethylene that is fed back to the reactor with the recirculation gas.
In the air process, with high HCl/C2H4 ratios, selectivity is generally high, but the limit is represented by the conversion of the hydrochloric acid and by defluidization.
In the oxygen process with lower HCl/C2H4 molar ratios, conversion of the hydrochloric acid is facilitated, but unfortunately reactions of combustion to carbon oxides are also facilitated, and this leads to a loss of selectivity and therefore to a higher specific consumption of ethylene.
In order to compensate for this aspect, the temperature of the fluid bed is usually kept low (210-225xc2x0 C.): in this manner, the final yield of the reaction is higher than 98% molar (moles of DCE produced with respect to moles of ethylene fed). The specific productivity of the system is low.
This fact is in contrast with the current trend of technology: the DCE producer tends to increase the specific productivity of the system without resorting to onerous investments for new reactors. To do so, the flow-rate of reagents in input to the reactor is increased, consequently reducing the conversion of the reagents (especially of hydrochloric acid), and this entails a reduction in the yield of the process but also entails severe corrosion problems arising from the unconverted hydrochloric acid. To overcome this problem, the temperature of the fluid bed is increased, but this causes an increase in the combustion reactions and in forming of unwanted chlorinated byproducts, which is not compensated by the decrease in residence time.
Therefore, in the field there is the strongly felt need to have an oxychlorination catalyst that is capable of providing high selectivities at high temperatures ( greater than 230xc2x0 C.) both in the oxygen process and in the air process.
Various patents published in patent literature disclose catalysts that have high selectivities at high temperatures.
For example, application EP-A-582165 discloses a catalyst based on copper salts that comprises various promoters (salts of Mg, K and rare earths). The synergistic action of three promoters allegedly allows to obtain good selectivities.
The maximum working temperature is 240xc2x0 C.; the selectivity of ethylene to pure dichloroethane is 94.98% molar; the selectivity to combustion products is 3.86% molar. Selectivity to triane (1,1,2-trichloroethane, the most important chlorinated byproduct) is 0.71%. Catalytic tests are conducted in the conditions of the air process; no information is given regarding the oxygen process. The support impregnation method is xe2x80x9cwettedxe2x80x9d (i.e., the method of dry impregnation by using a volume of solution that is equal to, or smaller than, the porosity of the substrate is not used).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,227,548 discloses a catalyst that comprises cupric chloride and chlorides of Mg and K, which have the synergistic effect of reducing the combustion of ethylene to CO and CO2. The method of preparation used in the examples is wet impregnation; a catalyst with an Mg/Cu ratio of 0.3 is used.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,734 discloses a catalyst that comprises cupric chloride and chlorides of Mg and Cs supported on gamma alumina, in which the atomic ration of Mg/Cu is at least 0.3 and can reach 2.6, but preferably does not exceed 1.5 and more preferably 1.
The combined use of Mg and Cs chlorides is necessary to avoid dirtying the surface of the tubes used to cool the fluid bed.
The Cu content of the catalyst is preferably 5-6% by weight. This content is high: it facilitates sticking and unwanted reactions (combustions and abundant forming of 1,1,2-trichloroethane; the catalyst is prepared with the dry impregnation method, but without using acid solutions (for hydrochloric acid or other acids).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,230 discloses a catalyst that comprises cupric chloride and Mg chloride in an Mg/Cu ratio of 0.2-1.1, in which the Cu atoms are arranged more inside the particle of the catalyst than at its surface (the X/Y ratio, where X=Al/Cu in the catalyst and Y=Al/Cu at the surface is at least 1.4).
Preparation is performed by dry impregnation, by using acid solutions of salts of Cu and Mg for hydrochloric acids or other acids in a quantity of 1 equivalent per g-atom of Cu or by treating a catalyst that contains Cu of the commercial type with an acid solution of Mg chloride.
The Mg/Cu ratio is preferably 0.5-0.8:1.
The catalyst has good selectivity to DCE up to temperatures of 230xc2x0 C.
It has now been found surprisingly that it is possible to obtain catalysts for the fluid-bed oxychlorination of ethylene to 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) that are capable of providing a better performance (particularly selectivity at high temperatures) than hitherto known catalysts.
The catalysts according to the invention comprise a copper compound, preferably cupric chloride, in an amount expressed as Cu from 2 to 8% by is weight, and a magnesium compound, preferably the chloride, supported on alumina, and are characterized by:
an atomic ratio of Mg/Cu equal to, or greater than, 1.2, preferably between 1.3 and 2.5;
a distribution of the copper atoms more inside the particle of the catalyst than at the surface (layer of 20-30 xc3x85) and a higher distribution of the magnesium atoms at the surface (layer of 20-30 xc3x85) than inside the particle;
a specific surface of the catalyst of 30 to 130 m2/g, preferably 70 to 100 m2/g.
Moreover, it has been found that the use of gamma alumina containing less than 50 ppm of impurities derived from sodium compounds (expressed as Na), preferably less than 10 ppm, provides catalysts that are more stable (less crumbly), have high abrasion resistance, do not produce during reaction fines that would be lost through the cyclone separators and/or might deposit on the bed cooling tubes, thus hindering the heat exchange and accordingly the control of the reaction.

Catalysts for oxychlorination of ethylene to 1,2-dichloroethane


A method of sensing an output signal in a crossbar array is described. In the method, a selecting voltage is applied to a target memory element of the crossbar array. Also in the method, a non-selecting voltage is applied to non-target memory elements of the crossbar array. Further in the method, a target output that is associated with the target memory element is isolated, with sensing circuitry, from a sneak output based on a time delay between arrival of the target output and the sneak output and the target output is sensed.

Memory arrays are used to store data. A memory array may be made up of a number of memory elements. Data may be stored to memory elements by assigning logic values to the memory elements within the memory arrays. For example, the memory elements may be set to 0, 1, or combinations thereof to store data in a memory element of a memory array. Much time and effort has been expended in designing and implementing nanoscale memory arrays. In some examples the nanoscale memory arrays may be arranged in a crossbar array where a first number of conducting lines intersect a second number of conducting lines to form a grid where memory elements are placed at each intersection.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.

Sensing an output signal in a crossbar array based on a time delay between arrival of a target output and a sneak output

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP


Methods of manufacturing a semiconductor structure are disclosed including a deep trench isolation in which a channel stop is formed in the form of an embedded impurity region in the substrate prior to the deep trench etch and formation of transistor devices (FEOL processing) on the substrate. In this fashion, the FEOL processing thermal cycles can activate the impurity region. The deep trench isolations are then formed after FEOL processing. The method achieves the reduced cost of forming deep trench isolations after FEOL processing, and allows the practice of sharing of a collector level between devices to continue.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to semiconductor device fabrication, and more particularly, to methods of manufacturing a semiconductor structure including a deep trench isolation in which the channel stop is formed prior to deep trench etch.
2. Related Art
In semiconductor devices, a number of transistors are generated in very close proximity to one another and isolated from one another by insulating deep trenches. For example, NPN transistor devices are typically formed with a collector that runs laterally through a sub-collector and then up to a contact level. The collectors terminate in an n-type substrate about 2 um deep. In order to isolate the different NPN devices on the wafer, a deep trench isolation in the form of an annulus is formed about the device down into the substrate to isolate the sub-collector of each NPN device from adjacent sub-collectors of other devices.
In order for a deep trench to fully isolate a device, it must include a channel stop at a lower end thereof within the substrate. In particular, if a deep trench is formed in, for example, an N+ subcollector, it extends into a P− substrate thereunder. In this situation, a deep trench isolation may invert, i.e., attract electrons, such that current can leak around the bottom of the deep trench isolation, resulting in current flowing between adjacent sub-collectors. To prevent inversion, deep trench isolations are typically formed with a channel stop that includes a dopant type that matches the substrate to prevent the deep trench isolation from inverting. In the above example, the dopant type would be p-type (e.g., boron) to match the substrate.
One issue relative to formation of deep trench isolations is when to form them during the fabrication process. Conventionally, deep trench isolations are formed in a substrate and then covered during transistor device fabrication. For example, in conventional processing, the following steps are completed prior to device fabrication: etching of a deep trench, forming a channel stop in the bottom of the deep trench, and finally filling of the deep trench with a dielectric. Formation of a channel stop is completed after the deep trench is etched, for example, by using a p-type (e.g., boron) implant into the bottom of the deep trench. This process is advantageous because as processing proceeds through front-end-of-line (FEOL) fabrication, i.e., device formation and metallization, the implant is exposed to a number of thermal cycles that activate the channel stop. The annealing allows the sharing of collector level between the devices (e.g., SiGE NPNs) because the collectors of adjacent devices are isolated from each other by the deep trench isolation. Without the channel stop, the bottom of the deep trench isolation is inverted and the collectors are electrically tied together.
In more advanced processing, however, it has been found advantageous from a cost perspective to generate deep trench isolations at the end of FEOL fabrication, i.e., after device formation and metallization. This latter situation, however, does not provide the thermal cycles required to activate the dopant of the channel stop for the deep trench isolations. Accordingly, a conventional channel stop cannot be used with the low cost deep trench isolation processing. As a result, shared deep trench isolations cannot be used because of inversion shorts. If a conventional channel stop is to be used, it would require device-to-device spacing that is vastly enlarged because a P-well must be inserted between the deep trench isolations of each device to create the isolation. This situation is untenable. In addition, for improved transistor packing density, it remains advantageous to have one large subcollector shape with multiple devices inside a big shape. This structure is only effective if shared deep trench isolations can be used.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for a way to form a deep trench isolation at the end of FEOL processing.

Methods for forming channel stop for deep trench isolation prior to deep trench etch

International Business Machines Corporation


A charger for charging an electronic device includes a main body, a latching mechanism, and a number of connecting pins. The main body defines a receiving groove for receiving a part of the electronic device. An opening is defined in a bottom wall of the receiving groove. A receiving slot is defined in one of two opposite major sidewalls of the receiving groove. The latching mechanism is pivotally connected to the main body. The latching mechanism includes an abutting portion received in the opening, and a fastening portion extending upwardly from the abutting portion. A post protrudes from a top face of the abutting portion. The connecting pins are disposed at the fastening portion. The electronic device includes a number of connecting pins for electrically contacting the connecting pins of the charger, and an external protrusion for abutting against the post of the charger.

1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to electrical chargers and, more particularly, to an electrical charger typically used for charging a mobile electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
Nowadays, numerous types of chargers are used to charge a variety of mobile electronic devices (such as cellular phones, tablet computers, etc). One kind of charger includes a shell with a cavity. A part of the mobile electronic device is inserted into the cavity of the shell in order to charge the mobile electronic device. A latching mechanism is fastened at a bottom of the cavity of the shell. Connecting pins of the latching mechanism extend into an inside of the mobile electronic device, to electrically contact a charging circuit in the mobile electronic device and thereby charge the mobile electronic device. However, if a user inserts the mobile electronic device into the cavity of the shell in a wrong orientation, the mobile electronic device is liable to easily crush the connecting pins at the bottom of the cavity, and the connecting pins are liable to scratch an outer surface of the mobile electronic device simultaneously.
What is needed, therefore, is a charger which can overcome the limitations described.

Electrical charger for charging electronic device


A nonvolatile memory device includes memory cell blocks each configured to comprise memory cells erased by an erase voltage, supplied to a word line, and a bulk voltage supplied to a bulk, a bias voltage generator configured to generate a first erase voltage, having a first pulse width and a first amplitude, in order to perform the erase operation of the memory cells and a second erase voltage, having a second pulse width narrower than the first pulse width and a second amplitude lower than the first amplitude, in order to perform an additional erase operation if an unerased memory cell is detected after the erase operation is performed, and a bulk voltage generator configured to generate the bulk voltage.

Exemplary embodiments relate to a nonvolatile memory device and a method of operating the same and, more particularly, to a nonvolatile memory device and a method of operating the same, which can be applied to an erase operation of a memory cell.
A flash memory device is a representative nonvolatile memory device and is divided into a NOR type and a NAND type. The NOR type flash memory device is chiefly used to store a small amount of information at high speed. The NAND type flash memory device is chiefly used to store a large amount of information. Furthermore, the flash memory device performs a read operation for data output, a program operation for data input, and an erase operation for data erasure. In particular, the program operation and the erase operation of the NAND type flash memory device are executed by means of Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling of electrons which are generated in a tunnel insulating layer between the P-well well and the floating gate of a memory cell. That is, electrons are injected from the P-well to the floating gate of the memory cell via the tunnel insulating layer by means of FN tunneling, so that the program operation of the flash memory device is performed. In this program operation, electrons are injected into only the floating gates of selected ones of a plurality of memory cells included in a memory cell block. Furthermore, electrons within the floating gate of the memory cell are discharged toward the P-well by means of FN tunneling, so that the erase operation of the flash memory device is performed. In this erase operation, data stored in all the memory cells included in a selected one of a plurality of memory cell blocks is erased at the same time. That is, the erase operation is performed per memory cell block.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of memory cells and pass gates for illustrating the erase operation of a known flash memory device.
Referring to FIG. 1, during the erase operation, a bias voltage Vb of 0 V is supplied to a global word line GWL, and a bulk voltage VBK1 of 20 V is supplied to the P-wells of memory cells CA1 to CAn and CB1 to CBn (n is an integer). The sources and drains of the memory cells CA1 to CAn and CB1 to CBn become a floating state. Furthermore, a block selection signal BKSEL1 of a voltage (Vcc) level is inputted to the gate of an NMOS transistor NM1 coupled between the local word line WL1 and the global word line GWL of a selected (that is, to be erased) memory cell block A. Furthermore, a bulk voltage VBK2 of 0 V is supplied to the substrate (not shown) of the NMOS transistor NM1. The NMOS transistor NM1 is turned on in response to the block selection signal BKSEL1 and configured to couple the local word line WL1 to the global word line GWL. Consequently, the voltage of the local word line WL1 becomes 0 V, and a voltage difference of 20 V is generated between each of the control gates (not shown) of the memory cells CA1 to CAn, coupled to the local word line WL1, and each of the P-wells of the memory cells CA1 to CAn. Accordingly, the electrons of the floating gates of the memory cells CA1 to CAn are discharged toward the P-wells, so that the erase operation of the memory cell block A is performed.
Meanwhile, a block selection signal BKSEL2 of 0 V is supplied to the gate of an NMOS transistor NM2 coupled between the local word line WL2 and the global word line GWL of an unselected (that is, not to be erased) memory cell block B. Furthermore, a bulk voltage VBK2 of 0 V is supplied to the substrate of the NMOS transistor NM2. The NMOS transistor NM2 is turned off in response to the block selection signal BKSEL2 and configured to separate the local word line WL2 from the global word line GWL. Consequently, the local word line WL2 becomes a floating state. Next, the bulk voltage VBK1 of 20 V supplied to the P-wells of the memory cells CB1 to CBn is drained out to the local word line WL2 owing to a capacitive coupling phenomenon, so that the voltage level of the local word line WL2 is boosted up to about 19 V. Accordingly, a fine voltage difference of about 1 V is generated between the local word line WL2 and the P-wells of the memory cells CB1 to CBn, and thus electrons are not discharged from the floating gates of the memory cells CB1 to CBn. Consequently, during the time for which the erase operation of the memory cell block A is performed, the erase operation of the memory cell block B is not performed.
Meanwhile, with an increase in the number of erase/program cycles, a fast program phenomenon in which a threshold voltage exceeds a target voltage during the program operation or a slow erase phenomenon in which a threshold voltage is not sufficiently lowered below a target voltage during the erase operation is generated. This phenomenon is described in more detail below with reference to FIG. 2.
FIG. 2 is a characteristic graph illustrating a slow erase characteristic and a fast program characteristic according to the number of erase operations in a known art.
Referring to FIG. 2, although a program or erase operation is performed under the same conditions, a threshold voltage gradually becomes higher than a target voltage with an increase in the number of erase cycles after the program or erase operation. This phenomenon becomes worse because the amount of electrons trapped in a tunnel insulating layer between the floating gate of a memory cell and a semiconductor substrate is increased with an increase in the number of program/erase cycles. This means that the program operation is quickly performed or the erase operation is slowly performed.
Meanwhile, in order to discharge electrons accumulated in the floating gate toward the substrate during the erase operation, a high voltage has to be supplied to the substrate. With an increase in the voltage difference between the word line and the bulk of the substrate, the fast program and slow erase phenomena become worse.
FIG. 3 is a characteristic graph illustrating a slow erase characteristic and a fast program characteristic according to the levels of an erase voltage in a known art.
From FIG. 3, it can be seen that if an erase operation is performed in a state in which the voltage difference between the word line and the bulk is high (that is, in a high potential erase state), the fast program phenomenon and the slow erase phenomenon become worse. It can also be seen that if an erase operation is performed in the state in which the voltage difference between the word line and the bulk is relatively low (that is, in a low potential erase state), the fast program phenomenon and the slow erase phenomenon are minimized.
In order to prevent the fast program phenomenon and the slow erase phenomenon, the erase operation has to be performed in a state in which the voltage difference between the word line and the bulk is reduced. In this case, however, the time that it takes to perform the erase operation time is lengthened, and the erase operation may not be normally performed. After the erase operation, an erase verification operation is performed. In the case where the erase operation is not normally performed, a corresponding block is treated as an invalid block and is not used. In this case, there are problems in that the number of available blocks is reduced and the data storage capacity is reduced.

Nonvolatile memory device and method of operating the same


A carpenter's pencil sharpener is designed for cutting a point on a carpenter's pencil that defines a longitudinal axis and has a maximum width or dimension (MD) perpendicular to the longitudinal axis. The sharpener has a contouring portion defining a rotational axis, a pencil point contour surface and a blade. The sharpener also has a centering portion at least rotationally fixed to the contouring portion. The centering portion has a non-rotating, cylindrical, inner surface and an outer end defining an aperture for receiving the carpenter's pencil. The cylindrical surface has an inner diameter (ID) dimensioned to fit the maximum dimension (MD) of the carpenter's pencil, and is large enough to permit rotation of the carpenter's pencil within the cylindrical surface. The centering portion also has a length (L) generally parallel to the rotational axis and measured from the contouring portion to the outer end for maintaining the carpenter's pencil parallel to the axis. With this configuration, radial motion of the carpenter's pencil relative to the rotational axis is limited when the carpenter's pencil is rotated within the inner surface.

The need for a sharpening device designed for the sharpening of a carpenter's pencil has long been well known, as sharpening has generally required the use of a knife to accommodate the odd shape of the pencil. The difficulty of sharpening this style of pencil with such a sharpening device without leaving wood on the broad sides of the rectangular pencil lead has long presented a major obstacle. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,903 a sharpener is presented with dual rotary cutter assemblies arranged to cut two curves in the point. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,759,129 and 4,918,816 four cutters and associated gearing are similarly used to achieve the desired sharpening effect on a carpenter's pencil. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,081,010 a cutting blade is driven around the pencil in a complicated "eccentric" motion by means of cams to achieve the required pencil point shaping. All of these references, however, require complex configurations with many parts such as blades, gears and motors.
One solution is presented by U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,293 issued to Donaldson. Donaldson discloses the use of a curved or bent blade which enables the blade to more closely form an ideal contour of the carpenter's pencil as it is rotated. The curved or bent blade removes enough wood to expose a good writing pencil tip but not too much wood resulting in a weak tip that could break with little pressure.
The sharpener from the '293 patent uses a snap-fit, rotatable centering collar that is attached to a housing that also has a concave-cone surface that holds the blade. The centering collar has a hole that is sized to match octagonal edges of the non-circular pencil, completely fixing the pencil within the centering collar so that the centering collar rotates with the pencil. The centering collar maintains the pencil at a centered position for sharpening. Otherwise a misalignment of pencil to blade and cone surface can cause lead breaks and jamming.
Another similar solution that copies the '293 design is presented by U.S. Pat. No. 6,571,480 issued to Qui that presents a more complicated, rotatable centering collar that is also rotatably attached to a blade housing. The collar is locked in a chamber of the sharpener by a separate removable plastic clip that is prone to breaking when removing the clip to clean the sharpener.
However, because a moving part, the rotatable centering collar, is required, the sharpener will not work if something (e.g. dust or debris) jams the collar so that it cannot rotate. In addition, because the centering collar is a separate part that requires it own molding/manufacturing process and then an assembly process for attachment to the main housing, it adds relatively significant production cost. Thus, another more economical alternative solution may be desired.
Another problem with carpenter's pencil sharpeners is that while the sharpener cuts well when the grain of the wood on the pencil is parallel to the blade, when the blade is cutting the pencil crossgrain, it takes more force to rotate the pencil on the blade, and the straight edge of the blade often binds, causing choppiness (jumping of the pencil on the blade) leading to frequent breaks and jams. Thus, a carpenter's pencil sharpener that cuts well, no matter the direction of the wood grain on the carpenter's pencil, is desired.


A power interchange system for interchanging electric energy between a battery and an electric grid is provided The power interchange system includes a rectifier unit for converting alternating current of the electric grid into direct current for charging the battery; a grid measurement device for measuring an electric parameter of the electric grid, and a controller unit for adjusting the direct current for the charging the battery as a function of the electric parameter of the electric grid. Moreover a method for interchanging electric energy between a battery and an electric grid is provided.

For example, the power interchange system for interchanging electric energy between a battery and an electric grid is a battery charger for electrical cars.
A car battery charger for electrical cars generally includes a single or three phase grid transformer, a rectifier unit for converting alternating current into direct current for charging the battery and an electronic control for controlling the direct current for the charging the battery.

Power interchange system for interchanging electric energy between a battery and an electric grid, method for interchanging electric energy between a battery and an electric grid and application of the power interchange system


A small diameter shield tunnel is constructed by using a shield machine and assembling within a tail portion of the machine a set of three 120.degree. arcuate segments into a segment ring. An annular seal device is axially movably provided between the outer periphery of the segment ring and the inner periphery of a tail skin plate defining the tail portion of the machine. A back-filling material is charged into an annular gap formed between the outer peripheral surface of the segment ring and natural soil surrounding the segment ring. The back-filling material within the annular gap is compressed by the seal device which is caused to move between the inner peripheral surface of the tail skin plate and the outer peripheral surface of the segment ring, in the axial direction of the tunnel, away from a face where excavation of natural soil is carried out mechanically.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shield tunneling method for constructing a small diameter tunnel with an inside diameter which is typically on the order of 1.5 m or less, by assembling a set of three 120.degree. arcuate segments into a so-called segment ring. The present invention also pertains to a shield machine for carrying out the method.
2. Statement of the Related Art
For constructing a small diameter tunnel with an inside diameter on the order of 1.5 m or less, it is known to use a shield machine for either manually or mechanically excavating the ground face in front of the shield machine, substantially under unpressurized condition, to assemble within the shield machine a set of three 120.degree. arcuate segments into a so-called segment ring, and to connect back-filling pipes with grout holes extending through the wall of the segments for charging a back-filling material, e.g. rounded gravels, grout or the like, into a so-called tail void which is an annular gap defined between the outer periphery of the segment ring and the surrounding soil. In this connection, reference may be had to U.K. Patent Specification Nos. 1,276,618; 1,288,393 and 1,288,394.
In the case of a shield tunneling method using the 120.degree. arcuate segments as mentioned above, in order to allow an assembly within the shield machine of a set of segments into a segment ring, it is necessary for the radial dimension of the tail void to be at least about one half of the thickness of the segment, and to be typically as large as the segment thickness. Then, unlike in a conventional method wherein a segment ring is formed of four or more segments, it is of particular importance to uniformly charge the back-filling material into the tail void, and to achieve a sufficient hardening of the charged material therein.
When the shield tunneling method is carried out in a poor ground, it is generally necessary to remove the underground water around the face in order to prevent collapse of the face. To this end, it is a conventional practice to take various auxiliary measures together, such as chemical grouting method, pneumatic method, dewatering method or the like, either of which calls for complicated works thereby leading to a prolonged working period and a resultant increase in the working cost.
In a conventional shield tunneling method, particularly when the work is to be conducted in the poor ground, an earth pressure balancing method is sometimes used together wherein mud making agents are supplied to the face to balance the resulting force with the pressure applied to the face. The earth pressure balancing method is often advantageous in that, as compared with the above-mentioned auxiliary measures, it is far economical and yet allows the required work to be performed in a facilitated manner. However, it has been generally considered difficult to apply the earth pressure balancing method in combination with the small-diameter shield tunneling method using the 120.degree. arcuate segments. This difficulty is closely related to the unique arrangement inherent to the small-diameter shield tunneling method wherein the tail void has a substantial radial dimension. That is, after the back-filling material has been charged into the tail void, the back-filling material often exhibits a problematic tendency to collapse prior to completion of its hardening, which is mainly due to a substantial amount of mud making agent with a high water content, and which more or less results in that the required grouting function of the back-filling material cannot be sufficiently achieved.

Shield tunneling method and shield machine therefor