Embodiments of the disclosure provide an integrated circuit (IC) structure with a niobium-based silicide layer. An IC structure according to the disclosure includes a transistor on a substrate, the transistor including a gate structure above the substrate and a source/drain (S/D) region on the substrate adjacent the gate structure. A niobium-based silicide layer is on at least an upper surface the S/D region of the transistor, and extends across substantially an entire width of the S/D region. An S/D contact to the S/D region is in contact with the niobium-based silicide layer.

In the microelectronics industry as well as in other industries involving construction of microscopic structures, there is a continued desire to reduce the size of structural features and microelectronic devices and/or to provide a greater amount of circuitry for a given chip size. Miniaturization in general allows for increased performance (more processing per clock cycle and less heat generated) at lower power levels and lower cost. Present technology is at atomic level scaling of certain micro-devices such as logic gates, bipolar junction transistors (BJTs), FETs, and capacitors. Circuit chips with hundreds of millions of such devices are common.
Circuit fabricators are currently seeking to reduce the two-dimensional area occupied by device components, e.g., to reduce two dimensional area and power consumption. As circuit components continue to shrink, greater numbers of devices may be formed in close proximity. As device density continues to increase, forming materials to ensure reliable operation of transistors has proven to be a technical challenge. In some cases, materials chosen to improve the performance of some transistor types will negatively affect the performance of other transistor types. In certain cases, the polarity of a transistor may dictate whether a particular material improves or degrades transistor operation. Varying the materials in a transistor based on polarity may increase the number of masks and/or intermediate steps needed to form an IC structure.

Integrated circuit structure with niobium-based silicide layer and methods to form same


This invention concerns environmental noise monitoring, and more particularly a system and method for environmental noise monitoring. The environmental noise monitoring system comprises three or more sound level transducers arranged apart from each other in an environment containing one or more noise sources. Each transducer is arranged to pick up sounds arriving from all directions and to transduce the sounds into electrical signals. The sound level and direction measuring equipment includes signal samplers connected to respective transducers to receive electrical signals representing environmental sounds and to sample the electrical signals. A computer processor is further provided to perform cross correlation calculations to generate a cross correlation function for each pair of sampled signals. The processor identifies local maxima in the cross correlation functions, estimates the angle of arrival of the sound associated with a local maximum and the sound pressure level associated with the maximum, and uses the estimates of the angles from all cross correlation functions to identify a source of noise in a particular direction and the level of noise from that source, and then identifies additional sources of noise in different directions and the levels of noise from those sources. Noise levels from sources in particular directions may be accumulated, displayed and saved for reference.

Monitoring environmental noise, for instance in the vicinity of factories or mines, usually requires the installation of sound level measuring equipment. Monitoring may be required over relatively long periods of time, for instance from a few days to several months. It is usual to connect a recording device, or noise logger, to the sound level measuring equipment and to leave it unattended to generate a record of the levels of environmental noise measured by the equipment.
Where a person attends the equipment, all characteristics, including the sources and directions of noise, can be recorded by the person in addition to the levels. However, it is generally considered impractical to have a person attending noise monitoring over relatively long periods of time.
There have been limited experiments to record noise levels using a dummy human head, in an attempt to allow listeners to later judge the direction of recorded sounds. However, these experiments have been unsuccessful to date, and the proposal appears to be impractical due to the both the difficulties of leaving a dummy human head unattended, and the time required for post processing of any sound level data collected.
Sound intensity monitors indicate a resultant sound intensity taking into account all noise sources at a particular point in time. Accordingly, if two equivalent noise sources are positioned on opposite sides of a sound intensity monitor, the resultant sound intensity would be zero. While these devices do provide a form of directional indication, they have not been found suitable for environmental noise monitoring.
Similarly, a directional microphone can indicate the sound signal arising from a specific direction but generally cannot be calibrated to produce an accurate measurement of the sound level arising from that direction.
In principle, a microphone with a parabolic reflector could be calibrated to produce an accurate measurement of the sound level of noise arising from a particular direction. However, any such microphone and reflector would need to be continuously rotated in a substantially horizontal plane to detect sound from all directions. Additionally, the size of the reflector would need to be comparable with the longest wavelength to be detected, and for sound at frequencies down to 100 Hz would result in a reflector with dimensions in excess of 3 meters. Such a system has obvious practical difficulties.


A transmission having four planetary gearsets, and shafts and shift elements. Sun gear of gearset (P1) couples shaft (5), which couples ring gear of gearset (P3) and is connectable via clutch (58) to shaft (8), which couples carrier of gearset (P2) and is connectable via clutch (78) to shaft (7), which couples sun gears of gearsets (P3, P4). Carrier of gearset (P1) couples the drive shaft, which couples ring gear of gearset (P2). Sun gear of gearset (P2) couples shaft (9), which is connectable via clutch (39) to shaft (3), which couples carrier of gearset (P3) and is connectable to housing (G) via brake (03). Carrier and ring gear of gearset (P4) couple, respectively output shaft and shaft (4), which is connectable to housing (G) via brake (04). The output shaft is connectable via clutch (26) to shaft (6), which couples ring gear of gearset (P1).

According to the prior art, multi-stage transmissions of a planetary design, in particular for motor vehicles, comprise planetary gear sets that are shifted using friction elements or shift elements such as clutches and brakes, and typically are connected to a start-up element, such as a hydrodynamic torque converter or a fluid coupling, that is subject to a slip effect and is provided optionally with a lock-up clutch.
Such a multi-stage transmission is known, for example, from the applicant's DE 199 49 507 A1, according to which two non-shiftable front-mounted gear sets are provided on the drive shaft that generate two rotational speeds on the output side and which, in addition to acting on the rotational speed of the drive shaft, can be selectively meshed with a shiftable double planetary gear set acting on the output shaft by selective engagement of the shift elements that are used such that only one of the two currently actuated shift elements must be engaged or disengaged to shift from one gear to the next higher or lower gear.
By using five shift elements, seven forward gears are obtained; by using six shift elements, nine or ten forward gears are obtained.
Furthermore, a nine-speed multi-stage transmission is known from DE 29 36 969 A1; it comprises eight shift elements and four planetary gear sets, wherein one planetary gear set serves as a front-mounted gear set and the main gearing includes a Simpson set and a further planetary gear set serving as reverse gearing.
Further multi-stage transmissions are known, for example, from the applicant's DE 10 2005 010 210 A1 and DE 10 2006 006 637 A1.
Automatically shiftable vehicle transmissions of a planetary design are already generally described numerous times in the prior art and are continually undergoing further development and improvement. These transmissions should have a relatively simple design, in particular requiring a low number of shift elements, and minimize the need for double shifting, i.e. engaging and disengaging two shift elements, when sequential shifting is performed, thereby ensuring that only one shift element is ever switched when shifting is performed in defined groups of gears.
The applicant's document DE 10 2008 000 428 A1 discloses a multi-stage transmission of a planetary design that includes an input shaft and an output shaft which are disposed in a housing. The known transmission includes at least four planetary gear sets which are designated in the following as the first, second, third, and fourth planetary gear sets, at least eight rotatable shafts which are designated in the following as the drive shaft, output shaft, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth shafts, and at least six shift elements comprising brakes and clutches, the selected engagement of which produces different transmission ratios between the input shaft and the output shaft, such that, preferably, nine forward gears and one reverse gear can be obtained.
The first and second planetary gear sets, which are preferably designed as minus planetary gear sets, i.e., having a negative stationary transmission ratio, form a shiftable front-mounted gear set, wherein the third and fourth planetary gear sets form a main gear set.
In the known multi-stage transmission, the carriers of the first and second planetary gear sets are coupled together via the fourth shaft, which is connected to an element of the main gear set, the ring gear of the first planetary gear set is coupled to the sun gear of the second planetary gear set via the eighth shaft, which is detachably connectable to the drive shaft via a first clutch, and the sun gear of the first planetary gear set can be coupled via a first brake to a housing of the transmission by means of the third shaft, and is detachably connectable to the drive shaft via a second clutch, wherein the ring gear of the second planetary gear set can be coupled via a second brake to a housing of the transmission by means of the fifth shaft. In addition, the seventh shaft is permanently connected to at least one element of the main gear set, and can be coupled via a third brake to the housing of the transmission, wherein the sixth shaft is permanently connected to at least one further element of the main gear set and is detachably connectable via a third clutch to the drive shaft; the output shaft is permanently connected to at least one further element of the main gear set.
In the known transmission, the fourth shaft is preferably permanently connected to the ring gear of the third planetary gear set, wherein the sixth shaft is permanently connected to the ring gear of the fourth planetary gear set and to the carrier of the third planetary gear set, and is detachably connectable, via the third clutch, to the drive shaft. Furthermore, the seventh shaft is permanently connected to the sun gears of the third and fourth planetary gear sets, and can be coupled, via the third brake, to a housing of the transmission. In this case, the output drive is produced via the output shaft, which is permanently connected to the carrier of the fourth planetary gear set. Furthermore, the third and fourth planetary gear sets can be combined or reduced to a Ravigneaux set having a common carrier and a common ring gear.


Techniques and devices use cascaded optical polarization devices having modulated optical retardation to control optical polarization of light and can be configured for polarization scrambling. Uniform rate scrambling and quasi-uniform rate scrambling modes are provided in described devices and rate-additive designs based on multiple cascaded devices are also disclosed to achieve high-speed scrambling.

This patent document relates to techniques and optical devices that control or manipulate optical polarization of light.
Optical polarization, or state of polarization (SOP), is an important property of light that can impact or affect a wide range of optical and photonic devices. In optical communications, for example, as the bit rate per wavelength channel increases from 10 giga bit per second (Gbps) to 40 Gbps, 100 Gbps, and beyond, polarization issues become increasingly critical. In particular, the time-varying polarization mode dispersion (PMD), polarization dependent loss (PDL), and state of polarization (SOP) can cause the bitwidth to spread and signal level to fluctuate with time, and may increase the system's bit-error-rate (BER). Therefore, performance tests of an optical communication system against these polarization-related parameters PMD, PDL, and SOP can be desirable for assuring the healthy operation of high speed fiber optic communication systems. A polarization scrambling device for changing SOP at a controllable speed to reach all possible SOPs can be used to test the performance of the high speed fiber optic communication systems against rapid SOP variations.

Polarization scrambling based on cascaded optical polarization devices having modulated optical retardation


A Phase-change optical recording media includes a recording film that causes reversible phase-change between a crystalline phase and an amorphous phase on irradiation with light, and an interface film formed in contact with at least one surface of the recording film and containing Hf (hafnium), O (oxygen) and N (nitrogen).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a phase-change optical recording media in which reversible change of atomic arrangement in a recording film between crystalline and amorphous phases is brought about by irradiating the recording film with a light beam so as to record information.
2. Description of the Related Art
(Principle of Phase-Change Optical Recording Media)
A phase-change optical recording media, which uses a phase-change optical recording film that causes a reversible phase-change between crystalline and amorphous phases on irradiation with a light beam, operates according to the following principle. A write operation is performed by heating the region irradiated with a light beam to temperatures higher than the melting point of the film to melt that region, followed by rapidly cooling to make atomic arrangement in that region amorphous. An erase operation is performed by retaining for at least a prescribed time the region irradiated with the light beam within a temperature range from the crystallization temperature or more to the melting point or less. In this operation, if the region is crystalline in the initial state, it remains crystalline, and if the region is amorphous in the initial state, it is crystallized (solid-phase erasing mode). Depending on a material for the recording film, a method of heating the vicinity of an amorphous region in the recording film to the melting point or more to melt that region and then slowly cooling and crystallizing that region (melt erasing mode) may be adopted. A read operation (reproducing) is performed by converting the intensity of a reflected beam into the intensity of an electric signal utilizing the phenomenon that the intensity of a beam reflected from an amorphous region is different from that of a beam reflected from a crystalline region, followed by subjecting the electric signal to analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion.
It should noted that write and read operations can be performed by utilizing a transition between a metastable crystalline phase and a stable crystalline phase as in martensite or a transition between metastable crystalline phases as well as the phase-change between the crystalline and amorphous phases noted above.
(Methods for Increasing Density)
Two methods described below may be used to increase the amount of information that can be recorded in a single recording media, i.e., the recording capacity.
One of the methods is to reduce the pitch of recording marks in the track direction. However, when the pitch of recording marks is significantly reduced, it reaches a level that is smaller than the size of a read beam. In such a case, two recording marks may be temporarily included in a read beam spot. If the recording marks are sufficiently separated from each other, a read signal is significantly modulated to have high amplitude. However, if the recording marks are close to each other, the signal has low amplitude, with the result that an error is easily generated in converting the signal into digital data.
The other method is to reduce the track pitch. This method enables to increase the recording density without being significantly subjected to degradation of signal intensity, unlike the case of reducing the mark pitch. However, a problem with this method is that, in such geometry that the track pitch is equal to or smaller than the size of a light beam, a so-called cross-erase may be caused in which the information in a certain track is degraded when a write or erase operation is performed on the adjacent track.
The possible causes of the cross-erase are as follows. First, the recording mark on a certain track is directly irradiated with the outer peripheral portion of a laser beam applied to the adjacent track. Second, heat generated in the write operation to the adjacent track flows into the track in question to raise the temperature of the mark on the particular track and to deform the mark. These problems must be solved in order to increase the density of the phase-change optical recording media. Also, in order to suppress probability of read error for small recording marks to a low level, it is desirable that the recording marks be formed in a manner to have a smooth contour so as to suppress a noise component as much as possible.
(Increase in Capacity by Using a Multi-layer Media)
Another technique for increasing the capacity involves stacking a plurality of information layers each including a phase-change optical recording film (see, for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2000-322770). The media in which two information layers are stacked so that a read or write operation can be performed on one side of the media is called a single-sided, dual-layer media or simply a dual-layer media. Two single-sided, dual-layer media may further be stacked to obtain double-sided, quadruple-layer media to further increase the capacity. In the single-sided, dual-layer media, a first information layer (referred to as L0 hereinafter) closer to the light incident plane must have a transmittance of at least about 50%. This is because it becomes important to prevent light from being attenuated in the L0 layer more markedly than required, when a second information layer (referred to as L1 hereinafter) which is remote from the light incident plane is accessed. To achieve this, the phase-change optical recording film in the L0 layer must be as very thin as 10 nm or less. Such a thin phase-change optical recording film increases the retention time required for crystallization, resulting in generation of non-erased bits, i.e., decrease in an erase rate, at a normal write speed.
As one of the measures for this problem, it is known to be effective to substitute Sn for a part of a GeSbTe recording film (see Proceedings of the 12th Symposium on Phase-Change Optical Information Storage PCOS 2000, pp. 36-41). Similarly, it is known to be effective to substitute Bi, In, Sn, or Pb for a part of the GeSbTe recording film (see Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-232941). However, such improvement as modification in the composition of the recording film is insufficient to compensate for a reduced crystallization speed accompanied by decrease in the thickness of the recording film. Accordingly, it has been proposed to provide, for example, a germanium nitride (GeN) film which serves as an interface film effective for accelerating crystallization at an interface with the recording film (see Proceedings of the 12th Symposium on Phase-Change Optical Information Storage PCOS 2000, pp. 36-41, mentioned above). However, it has been found from studies made by the present inventors that cross-erase occurs with the combination of a thin recording film of 10 nm or less and a conventional interface film such as GeN, making it impossible to reduce the track pitch effectively. Further, it has been found that the use of silicon carbide (SiC) which has been reported to exhibit a function of accelerating crystallization as an interface film results in a great extinction coefficient at the wavelength of 405 nm for a blue-violet laser (LD) used in next-generation high-density optical disks, leading to a very heavy optical loss. It has also been found that an interface film formed of germanium nitride (GeN) or silicon nitride (SiNx) brings about an optical loss.
On the other hand, a media without the interface film can suppress crystallization of a melted portion to minimize the occurrence of cross-erase. However, such a media has been found to have a very insufficient erase rate. Further, in the L1 layer, a write or erase operation must be performed using a laser beam having an intensity reduced to half as a result of passage through the L0 layer. This requires the sensitivity of the media to be increased. Therefore, it is also important to reduce the optical loss in the interface film or dielectric film in order to increase the availability of a laser beam.
(Method for High-speed Recording)
High-speed recording is another requirement for phase-change optical recording. When a movie is being recorded, for example, if the recording can be completed in a time shorter than the actual viewing time, it is possible to easily accomplish a so-called time shift function that enables an audience to view previous video during dubbing of a distributed media or during broadcast recording. Here, one of factors hindering a high-speed operation in phase-change recording is a problem of an insufficient erase rate. That is, when an erase beam with a relatively low power level is used for crystallization during overwriting, a certain amount of information may remain without being erased. This problem occurs because a recording mark passes through a laser spot at high speed, and thus the recording mark cannot be retained for a sufficient time under a temperature range within which crystallization is enabled, so that a certain amount of information may remain.
As an improvement to facilitate crystallization so as to increase erase speed, it has been disclosed to provide an interface film formed of a material such as GeN in contact with the recording film (see Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 11-213446). However, when making experiments using the material disclosed in this document as an interface film, the inventors found that a melted portion is partly recrystallized during recording, which means that a larger area must be melted in order to produce a recording mark of a required size. Since the use of such an interface film leads melt of an area larger than necessary, the occurrence of cross-erase is facilitated, which produces adverse effects in view of high-density recording. In other words, when recording is performed with a laser power within a range permitted in view of cross-erase, the width of a recording mark formed is reduced, leading to a problem of reduction in carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR). On the other hand, it has been found that a media without any interface film can suppress recrystallization of the melted portion and thus can suppress cross-erase, but provides a very insufficient erase rate. Therefore, a novel interface film which can suppress recrystallization of a melted portion during recording while increasing the crystallization speed in erasing is demanded.
(Film Design for Phase-change Optical Recording Media)
With phase-change optical recording media, as previously described, an amorphous mark which is data is written in a desired portion of the recording film by irradiation with a laser pulse, and data is erased by irradiating the amorphous mark with a laser beam so as to crystallize the mark. In the former operation, the amorphous mark is formed by rapidly cooling the portion irradiated with the laser beam. In the latter operation, the amorphous portion is crystallized by slowly cooling the portion irradiated with the laser beam. Further, if the recording film has a high absorbance, a write or erase operation can be performed at a low laser power. Conversely, if the recording film has a low absorbance, a high laser power is required to perform a write or erase operation. The absorbance of the recording film is determined by the optical characteristics of the media formed of a multilayer film. Furthermore, even with similar absorbance, the media can be a rapid or slow cooling structure or can produce anisotropy of thermal characteristics between the in-plane direction and the sectional direction.
That is, optical and thermal designs are mainly considered for the film design for the phase-change optical recording media. The optical design requires the optical characteristics of each thin film. The thermal design requires thermal characteristics including the melting point, latent heat of melting, and crystallization temperature of each thin film. The optical constants of a thin film can be measured using an ellipsometer. Whereas, several studies have indicated that the thermal characteristics of thin films of the order of nanometers are different from those of a bulk. However, it has been impossible to systematically measure the thermal characteristics of thin films while eliminating the influences of other factors. Thus, empirical parameters have been required to correct measurements of thermal characteristics of thin films. In particular, there have been almost no methods for measuring the interface heat resistance between thin films of the order of nanometers.
(Interface Film Material)
As materials which has a function of accelerating crystallization and can be used as interface films, other than GeN, materials comprising an oxide such as Ta2O5 into which a carbide or a nitride is mixed have been disclosed (see Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2003-67974). The oxide such as Ta2O5 is intended to be used as sulfur-free protective film material. These materials have been examined in order to principally improve current DVDs using a laser with a wavelength λ of 650 nm. However, these materials are opaque at a wavelength λ of 405 nm for next-generation blue-violet LDs, and incur a heavy optical loss. Thus, the materials are inappropriate for use in next-generation high-density media. Further, as described above, GeN, initially proposed as the interface film, is also opaque and incurs a heavy optical loss at the wavelength of next-generation blue-violet LDs. Thus, the currently disclosed techniques do not provide any interface film materials which are optically transparent at the wavelength of blue-violet LDs and which provide a function of accelerating crystallization.
On the other hand, it has been reported that a cap layer such as AlOxNy, HfOxNy, Si3N4 and In—SnOx used together with a so-called eutectic recording film can effectively improve overwriting (OW) characteristics (A. E. T. Kuiper et al., Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 82 (2003), p. 1383). The arrangement of the cap layer is almost similar to that of the interface film. However, the recording film used in this document is formed of a eutectic material and uses a technique for erasing data by applying a laser beam to a portion where the data has been written thereby melting that portion (so-called melt erase). Accordingly, the cap layer is provided to suppress the diffusion of sulfur (S) in ZnS—SiO2, serving as a protective film, into the recording film. Further, this document discloses only the data on In—SnOx (so-called ITO), and does not disclose whether other materials can suppress the diffusion of sulfur (S). Furthermore, although the document discloses data indicating that the cap layer improves the OW characteristics, the document discusses the data on the cap layer consisting of SiC and does not disclose any data on the aforementioned materials that would be effectively used as a cap layer. Thus, the document only suggests that the optimum material be selected for the cap layer. Moreover, industrial applications require not only appropriate material and composition of the cap layer but also the detailed description of manufacturing conditions. Therefore, the document does not disclose any completed techniques.
As described above, Sic is known to exhibit a higher absorbance than the GeN or Ta2O5-based material at the wavelength λ of 405 nm for blue-violet LDs used for next-generation optical disks. Thus, if SiC is used as an interface film in an optical disk using a blue-violet LD, it would lower the sensitivity. In addition, if SiC is used as an interface film in the L0 layer of a single-sided dual-layer media, it would lead to decrease in transmittance.
(Material System for Recording Film)
As described above, since the eutectic recording film uses the melt erase mode, the cap layer to the eutectic recording film is not expected to provide the crystallization acceleration function. Thus, the details of the film material and structure thereof have not been examined. Further, since the eutectic recording film uses the melt erase mode, it is very difficult to carry out so-called land/groove recording in which information is written to and read from both land (L) and groove (G). This is very disadvantageous for an increase in recording density.
On the other hand, a so-called pseudo-binary recording film material such as Ge2Sb2Te5 can cause phase change from amorphous state to crystalline state at a high-speed in a solid state (solid-phase erase mode), without using the melt erase mode. However, a thin recording film requires a relatively long time for crystallization. Consequently, it is essential to use an interface film having a crystallization acceleration function by which the land/groove recording can be realized.
A data erase process carried out with a eutectic recording film is completely different from that carried out with a recording film of a pseudo-binary system in terms of phenomenon. Thus, the properties required for the cap layer are different from the functions required for the interface film represented by the crystallization acceleration function. Therefore, in order to find a suitable interface film material, it is necessary not only to select an appropriate film material but also to examine the structure and composition of the film material in detail.


A vehicular driving support apparatus capable of causing a host vehicle to perform a following run with respect to a specific vehicle selected as a followed vehicle determines the possibility of intersection between the host vehicle and another vehicle, and stops the following run if the possibility of intersection becomes greater than or equal to a predetermined value.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicular driving support apparatus and driving support method capable of causing a host vehicle to follow a specific vehicle (hereinafter also referred to as a "following run"). More particularly, the invention relates to a vehicular driving support apparatus and driving support method capable of stopping the following run of the host vehicle if the possibility of intersection with another vehicle reaches or exceeds a predetermined value.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 11-13507 and No. 11-20499, as for example, describe an apparatus or system in which, in order to cause a host vehicle to follow a preceding vehicle (followed vehicle), a following run control is performed through the use of information acquired via the vehicle-to-vehicle communication between the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle instead of or in addition to the information regarding the following distance from the host vehicle to the preceding vehicle detected by a radar or the like.
In the field of vehicle-to-vehicle communication, an apparatus or system is known which acquires vehicular information regarding position, velocity and the like transmitted from nearby vehicles, and determines the possibility of intersection of the host vehicle with any one of the nearby vehicles on the basis of the vehicular information, and, in the case of high possibility of intersection, executes a control for avoiding a collision in some way (e.g., providing information to the driver).
However, the possibility of intersection with another vehicle and, more particularly, the risk of collision with a crossing vehicle are ignored in the aforementioned following run control.
That is, in a case where the likelihood of collision with another vehicle is high if the following vehicle continues to proceed in the same manner, it is dangerous for the following vehicle to proceed as is without taking some sort of precautionary action avoid collision.

Vehicular driving support apparatus and driving support method


Systems and methods are disclosed for computing network operations. For example, methods may include receiving, at a computing device located within a private network, a message sent from a server located outside of the private network, the message including an observable; invoking, within the private network, a search of data associated with the private network to obtain a search result that includes data matching the observable; aggregating, within the private network, data from the search result that matches the observable to obtain a report that includes an indication of the observable, a count of occurrences of the observable, and identification of one or more components associated with the observable; and transmitting the report to the server.

Computing networks can be large and complex, consisting of many thousands of hardware and software components. Maintaining and operating a large network can present many challenges. One challenge is maintaining the security of a computing network in the presence of fast evolving network security threats (e.g., malware) that are endemic to the Internet. Network security threats that are not addressed can cause down-time for components or otherwise degrade performance of components within a computing network.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Aggregating network security data for export


An endless papermakers belt which is formed from a length of woven fabrics having its ends joined together to form the endless belt. The fabric has joining loops at each end of the fabric which are formed entirely from and are a linear continuation of the original woven fabric.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the joining of woven fabrics to render them endless. More particularly, the invention related to joining papermakers to render them as an endless belt on the papermaking equipment. Most particularly, the present invention relates to joining woven papermakers dryer fabrics by interleaving complementary projections and recesses on each end of the fabric and inserting a retaining means into a channel formed in the cross machine direction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to join woven fabrics in order to render them endless. Likewise, it has been known to join woven fabrics through the use of complementary projections and recesses which are interleaved to define a channel into which a retaining means is inserted. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the prior art has developed a number of techniques for producing the complementary projections and recesses which are interleaved and a number of techniques for producing the cross machine direction channel(s) into which the retaining means is/are inserted. It has been recognized by the art that the join area should, to the extent possible, duplicate the weave pattern, caliper, permeability and interstice configuration of the fabric. Efforts to accomplish such a seam configuration have produced techniques in which yarns are woven back into the fabric in an effort to create complementary ends having a substantially uniform construction with that of the remainder of fabric. In addition, techniques have been developed for folding the end of the fabric back and forming interleaving projections.
In all of the known prior art techniques, the process may be labor intensive and/or produce a seam which does not have the same caliper as the remainder of the fabric or does not share other fabric characteristics with the remainder of the fabric.
As a result of the above, efforts were undertaken to produce a join area which, except for the retaining means, was formed entirely from the fabric as woven. In addition, the efforts were directed toward preserving the fabric construction, caliper and operating characteristics throughout the seam area. Still further, it was concluded that the desired seam would not require a doubling or folding back of the fabric end.

Woven papermakers fabric having a unibody seam and method for making the same


A method for identifying a mechanical impedance of an electromagnetic load may include generating a waveform signal for driving an electromagnetic load, the waveform signal comprising a first tone at a first driving frequency and a second tone at a second driving frequency. The method may also include during driving of the electromagnetic load by the waveform signal or a signal derived therefrom, receiving a current signal representative of a current associated with the electromagnetic load and a back electromotive force signal representative of a back electromotive force associated with the electromagnetic load. The method may further include determining amplitude and phase information of the current signal responsive to the first tone and second tone, determining amplitude and phase information of the back electromotive force signal responsive to the first tone and second tone, and identifying parameters of the mechanical impedance of the electromagnetic load based on the amplitude and phase information of the current signal and the amplitude and phase information of the back electromotive force signal.

Vibro-haptic transducers, for example linear resonant actuators (LRAs), are widely used in portable devices such as mobile phones to generate vibrational feedback to a user. Vibro-haptic feedback in various forms creates different feelings of touch to a user's skin, and may play increasing roles in human-machine interactions for modern devices.
An LRA may be modelled as a mass-spring electro-mechanical vibration system. When driven with appropriately designed or controlled driving signals, an LRA may generate certain desired forms of vibrations. For example, a sharp and clear-cut vibration pattern on a user's finger may be used to create a sensation that mimics a mechanical button click. This clear-cut vibration may then be used as a virtual switch to replace mechanical buttons.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a vibro-haptic system in a device 100. Device 100 may comprise a controller 101 configured to control a signal applied to an amplifier 102. Amplifier 102 may then drive a haptic transducer 103 based on the signal. Controller 101 may be triggered by a trigger to output to the signal. The trigger may for example comprise a pressure or force sensor on a screen or virtual button of device 100.
Among the various forms of vibro-haptic feedback, tonal vibrations of sustained duration may play an important role to notify the user of the device of certain predefined events, such as incoming calls or messages, emergency alerts, and timer warnings, etc. In order to generate tonal vibration notifications efficiently, it may be desirable to operate the haptic actuator at its resonance frequency.
The resonance frequency f0 of a haptic transducer may be approximately estimated as:
                              f          0                =                  1                      2                        π                                                      C                                M                                                                        (        1        )            where C is the compliance of the spring system, and M is the equivalent moving mass, which may be determined based on both the actual moving part in the haptic transducer and the mass of the portable device holding the haptic transducer.
Due to sample-to-sample variations in individual haptic transducers, mobile device assembly variations, temporal component changes caused by aging, and use conditions such as various different strengths of a user gripping of the device, the vibration resonance of the haptic transducer may vary from time to time.
FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a linear resonant actuator (LRA) modelled as a linear system. LRAs are non-linear components that may behave differently depending on, for example, the voltage levels applied, the operating temperature, and the frequency of operation. However, these components may be modelled as linear components within certain conditions. In this example, the LRA is modelled as a third order system having electrical and mechanical elements. In particular, Re and Le are the DC resistance and coil inductance of the coil-magnet system, respectively; and Bl is the magnetic force factor of the coil. The driving amplifier outputs the voltage waveform V(t) with the output impedance Ro. The terminal voltage VT(t) may be sensed across the terminals of the haptic transducer. The mass-spring system 201 moves with velocity u(t).
In a system having an electromagnetic load such as an LRA, it may be desirable to determine the parameters that define an impedance of the electromagnetic load. Knowledge of such parameters may allow for optimization of playback of signals (e.g., playback of haptic waveforms) to the electromagnetic load. In addition, determination of electromagnetic load impedance may be valuable as it may allow for adapting of a playback signal to allow the playback signal to track changing parameters of the electromagnetic load.
An electromagnetic load such as an LRA may be characterized by its impedance ZLra as seen as the sum of a coil impedance Zcoil and a mechanical impedance Zmech:ZLra=Zcoil+Zmech  (2)
Coil impedance Zcoil may in turn comprise a direct current (DC) resistance Re in series with an inductance Le:Zcoil=Re+sLe  (3)
Mechanical impedance Zmech may be defined by three parameters including a resistance at resonance RES, an angular resonant frequency ω0 (e.g., ω0=2πf0), and a quality factor q. Or equivalently, mechanical impedance Zmech may be defined by three parameters including the resistance at resonance RES, a capacitance CMES representing an electrical capacitance representative of an equivalent moving mass M of the spring system of haptic transducer, and inductance LCES representative of a compliance C of the spring system. The relationship among these quantities may be given by the following equations, in which s is the Laplace transform variable:
                              Z                      m                        e                        c                        h                          =                              R                          E                                                                                S                                                                                1                                  q                                                                                ω                    0                                                                            s                                      1              +                                                1                                      q                                                                                ω                      0                                                                                s                            +                                                1                                      q                                                                                ω                      0                                                                                s                  2                                                                                (        4        )                                q        =                                                            R                                  E                                    S                                                                              (                                      B                                        l                                    )                                2                                                                                (                                  M                  C                                )                                            1                2                                              =                                                    R                                                                                E                                                                                S                                                                                (                                                      C                                          M                                            E                                            S                                                                            L                                          C                                            E                                            S                                                                      )                                            1                2                                                                        (        5        )                                          ω          0                =                  1                                                    C                                  M                                    E                                    S                                                                          L                                  C                                    E                                    S                                                                                (        6        )
Traditional approaches for driving an LRA at resonance rely on detecting a time difference between zero crossings of the LRA's back electromotive force (back-EMF) and the load current or voltage. Such difference may then be used to adjust a period of a signal driven to the LRA. One disadvantage of this approach is its sensitivity to noise because all of the noise power is essentially aliased by an effective sampling rate at approximately two times the resonance frequency. Such approach may also suffer from slow convergence if a loop filter is used to reduce sensitivity to noise, because as a rule of thumb, bandwidth of the loop filter should be one-tenth of the effective sampling rate (or less). Further, using such approaches and LRA may be tri-stated at zero crossing events in order to allow a reading of back-EMF, which may result in a loss of drive duty cycle (e.g., maximum power from a driving amplifier may not be delivered to the LRA).
Existing approaches to determining a complex impedance may include using broadband noise to excite a system having an electromagnetic load. For example, using existing approaches, a Fast Fourier Transform of current and voltage waveforms associated with the electromagnetic load may be performed to determine impedance.

Identifying mechanical impedance of an electromagnetic load using a two-tone stimulus


An advertisement system and method are provided for inserting into an end user communication message a background reference to an advertisement. In some embodiments, the background reference causes an advertisement image to be tiled, or watermarked, across an end user screen behind the text of an e-mail message or public posting. A message server inserts the background reference after receiving a message originally sent from an end user originator and before sending the message to be delivered to an end user recipient. When necessary, the message server will convert at least a portion of the message into a proper format, such as HTML, before inserting the background reference to an advertisement, which is preferably selected in accordance with end user recipient demographic information and/or ad exposure statistics. The advertisement itself, often a graphical file, is preferably not transmitted with the message, but is typically stored at the message server or other location remote from the end user recipient. Preferably, the message server maintains and refer to records on each end user recipient to allow for selective enablement of background reference insertion and overwriting based upon end user preferences. According to various "non-web" example embodiments, the message server transmits an SMTP, POP3 or NNTP message with an HTML portion for a respective HTML-compatible client. In other "web-based" example embodiments, the message server transmits the entire message in HTML to be used as a stand-alone web page or as a portion of a larger page employing frames or tables.

The present invention relates generally to the field of advertising systems, and more particularly to the field of Internet advertising.
The worldwide network of computers connected through the Transmission Control Protocol/internet Protocol (TCP/IP) communications standard, commonly known as the Internet, has seen explosive growth during the last several years. This growth has been fueled in part by the introduction and widespread use of so-called "web" browsers, which allow for simple graphical user interface (GUI) access to network servers, which support documents formatted as so-called web pages. The World Wide Web (WWW), or "web", is a collection of servers on the Internet that utilize a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is an application protocol that provides users access to files (which can be in different formats such as text, graphics, images, sound, video, etc.) using a Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), which is an information management standard for providing platform-independent and application-independent documents that retain formatting, indexing, and linking information. SGML provides a grammar-like mechanism for users to define the structure of their documents and the tags they will use to denote the structure in individual documents. The page description language known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is an application of SGML. HTML provides basic document formatting of text and images and allows the developer to specify hyperlinks, or "links," to other servers and files. Use of an HTML-compliant client, such as a web browser, involves specification of an address via a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Upon such specification, the client makes a TCP/IP request to the server identified in the URL and receives a "web page" (namely, a document formatted according to HTML) in return.
Electronic mail (E-mail) is another important part of online activity. Conventional e-mail is the exchange of text messages and computer files over a communications network, such as a local area network or the Internet, usually between computers or terminals. Routing of e-mail on the Internet is typically accomplished through the use of a protocol for sending messages called the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP). Multipurpose Internet mail extensions (MIME) extend SMTP to permit data, such as video, sound, and binary files, to be transmitted by Internet e-mail without having to be translated by the e-mail client into ASCII format. This is accomplished by the use of MIME types, which describe the contents of a document. A MIME-compliant client application sending a file, such as one of various conventional e-mail programs, assigns a MIME type to the file. The receiving application, which must also be MIME-compliant, refers to a standardized list of documents that are organized into MIME types and subtypes to interpret the content of the file. MIME is part of HTTP, and both web browsers and HTTP servers use MIME to interpret e-mail files they send and receive. Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) is a recent version of a standard protocol for receiving e-mail. POP3 is a client-server protocol in which e-mail is received and held in a mailbox for a user by a network server. Periodically, the end user checks the mailbox on the network server and downloads any e-mail. An alternative protocol is Interactive Mail Access Protocol (IMAP), according to which a user views e-mail at the server as though it was on the user's computer, and an e-mail message deleted locally is still on the server. Thus, POP3 can be thought of as a "store-and-forward" service, while IMAP can be thought of as a remote file server. Therefore, an e-mail message is typically sent with SMTP, and after a network server receives the e-mail message on the end user recipient's behalf, the e-mail message is typically read by the end user using POP3 or IMAP.
In addition to older basic e-mail systems, including basic ASCII e-mail clients using SMTP and POP3, some enhanced e-mail clients, such as Eudora Pro Email v. 4.0, display HTML portions of messages according to HTML formatting contained in the e-mail message bodies. Also, web-based e-mail systems, such as are currently offered by Hotmail.TM. and Yahoo.TM., are accessible through web browsers. In those systems, e-mail messages are formatted into web pages, or portions thereof, for formatted viewing control through web browsers. Thus, plain text e-mail messages received by those web based e-mail systems are converted into web pages for viewing by web browsers.
Shared public message networks include Usenet Newsgroups, Internet Relay Chat, Fidonet, RIME, ILINK, and a host of others. Public message networks also include public message areas in proprietary online systems. Most are normally set up according to separate general interest categories (e.g., "conferences," "forums," or "newsgroups"), subjects within those categories (e.g., "subjects," "topics," or "threads"), and finally individual messages or postings within each subject, typically arranged chronologically, as well as according to earlier messages to which they respond. Also included in this category of public messaging are instant messaging programs, which allow users to communicate publically with other users in real time. These conferences typically are carried by many online systems regionally, around the country, or even around the world. Newsgroups also have an Internet protocol which governs their transmission called network news transfer protocol (NNTP). As with e-mail clients, public messages are also accessible through web browsers, enhanced public messaging clients capable of displaying HTML formatting, and basic ASCII clients.
The recent growth of information applications on international public packet-switched computer networks, such as the Internet, suggests that public computer networks have the potential to establish a new kind of open marketplace for goods and services. As web pages, discussion forums and e-mail communications are used more nationally and internationally, it is highly desired that manufacturers and merchants be able to non-offensively advertise their goods and services to users during their regular course of Internet activity. With only limited success, such advertising has been done through the use of images as well as text transferred over the Internet. Advertisements transferred over the Internet often, but not always, make use of trademarks. A "trademark" is a word, design, color, sound, smell, etc., or any combination thereof, used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify their goods and/or services and distinguish them from others. In general, advertisements include most types of communications promoting goods and/or services of organizations or individuals, as well as promoting the organizations or individuals themselves. Entities with access to potential viewers of advertisements often charge a fee to other entities interested in advertising themselves and/or their goods and/or services.
On the Internet, as in more traditional venues of advertising, such as billboards, TV commercials, products, etc., most advertisements (ads) include promotional material intended to be used to interest consumers with particular goods or services. Currently, one primary way to advertise on the Internet is through ad banners, which often contain static or animated images, with or without trademarks, and normally advantageously function as hyperlinks to advertisement owner web pages. Unfortunately, banner ads often disappear with scrolling by the user and take up precious screen space. Furthermore, because of typically large graphical content, banner advertisements are often slow in downloading. As a result, users often move down a web page or to another web page and do not wait for advertisements to complete the downloading process if text or other content is displayed before, or simultaneously with, the advertisements, thereby clearly diminishing the impact of the advertisements. If text or other content is displayed only after an advertisement is completely downloaded, users may become very frustrated with the owner of the advertisement if the wait time is prolonged. Interstitial displays, such as splash screens which appear in between web page requests and before a web page is actually delivered, also provide advertisement opportunities, but they are often extremely brief, thereby greatly lessening their effect.
Others have addressed the problem of getting advertisements to an end user through the use of screensavers, such as a product commercialized by PointCast, Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,549 to Reilly, et al. Although the screensaver program approach does appear to be capable of communicating advertisements to some users, there are clearly disadvantages to displaying these advertisements in an area outside of the normal user work area during times of inactivity when a user may typically not be looking at the display. In addition, the extra steps required to install and update such software can be too complicated or cumbersome for some users. Advertisers also have used broadcast e-mails and public postings to send advertisement messages from themselves containing plain text, as well as HTML formatting for more effective display. In general, e-mail messages and public postings containing hyperlinks pointing to additional information are also known, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,793. Unfortunately, users often immediately delete unsolicited e-mail messages, as well as those sent from unknown senders.
Outside the Internet, top of mind awareness (TOMA) advertising acquaints the public with advertisers' brand-names, logos, trademarks, etc., through selective infiltration and saturation in the market. The purpose of such advertising is not to compel immediate purchase, but to enhance public awareness of the availability of the product from a particular manufacturer or merchant, so that when shoppers are at the retail markets to make purchases, they will recognize brands and immediately have higher perceived values of those products in relation to like products by other manufacturers or merchants. The key to a TOMA campaign is repetition since the more times that an individual is exposed to a particular brand-name, logo, trademark, etc., the more likely that individual will buy a particular product when making a buying decision in the future. Unfortunately, on the Internet, TOMA advertising is rarely accomplished successfully since, as discussed above, most conventional Internet advertising methods often result in very limited exposure to users. This conclusion is evidenced by the attention brokerage system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,210, which actually teaches a method of compensating users for paying attention to advertisements on the Internet.
There is, therefore, a need for an advertising system for addressing these and other needs and problems.


A device for opening envelopes which comprises a rotatable shaft having an elongate recess in line with the axis of the shaft. A first cutting blade is located on the top edge of the recess and a second cutting blade is secured to a base which supports the shaft. The first and second blades are positioned such that they co-act in a shearing action on rotation of the shaft. To open an envelope, the edge of the envelope is positioned within the recess and the shaft is rotated causing the blades to co-act resulting in a sliver being cut from the envelope.

In many office environments, a large amount of the correspondence is done through letters. As a result, in every working day businesses and firms receive a large amount of mail which is often opened using a conventional letter opener. As there are often such large amounts of envelopes to be opened, this can become a time consuming process.
Two fundamental problems exist in attempting to devise a more efficient device for opening letters. Firstly, it is imperative that the contents are in no way damaged as the envelope is opened and therefore it is preferable that the envelope is opened by making a cut at the edge of the envelope or very close to the edge. The second problem associated with opening envelopes is that paper is a particularly fibrous material which makes it very difficult to cut when the paper is not in tension.
The traditional or knife like letter opener is able to overcome these two fundamental problems because the cutting blade of the letter opener is inserted into the envelope. The envelope is then opened by pulling the blade along an edge of the envelope thereby putting the paper at the edge in tension thus making it easier to cut. The problem with this method is that it cannot be done in a single action as the blade has to be carefully inserted then pulled.
A more efficient action to open an envelope would be if a fine sliver could be effectively guillotined off the edge of the envelope However, problems still exist with using a guillotine in that it is almost impossible to cut a very fine sliver of the edge of the envelope without first carefully lining up the envelope underneath the guillotine. Also, the paper has a tendency to buckle between the cooperating blades of the guillotine unless the blades are extremely accurately positioned as the paper at the cutting edge is not in tension.


A main portion of a first word line extends in a direction connecting one diffusion region to the other diffusion region of an access transistor and is located between memory cells, and diverging portions of the first word line alternately extend from both sides of the main portion of the first word line to corresponding adjacent memory cells. A bit line extends in a direction perpendicular to the direction connecting one diffusion region to the other diffusion region, and a second word line extends along the diverging portion of the first word line. When stored data is to be read out from a memory cell, a positive voltage is applied to one first word line corresponding to the memory cell whose data is to be read out, and a zero voltage is applied to the remaining first word lines. Furthermore, a zero voltage is applied to one second word line corresponding to the memory cell whose data is to be read out, and a negative voltage which cancels the positive voltage applied to the first word line is applied to the remaining second word lines.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device called a DRAM and a method of operating the semiconductor memory device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 shows a conventional stacked capacitor DRAM having a folded bit line arrangement. For the illustrative convenience, some of repetitive patterns are omitted in FIG. 1. In the DRAM, one memory cell is constituted by one access transistor 11 and one storage capacitor 12, and a word line WL1 serves as the gate electrode of the access transistor 11 in a memory cell X.
A storage node electrode 15 of the storage capacitor 12 is in contact with an n.sup.+ -type diffusion region 13 serving as one of the source and drain of the access transistor 11 through a contact hole 14. A bit line BL2 is in contact with an n.sup.+ -type diffusion region 16 serving as the other of the source and drain of the access transistor 11 through a contact hole 17 in the memory cell X.
In this prior art, as is apparent from FIG. 1, bit lines BL0, BL1, BL2, . . . extend in a direction connecting the diffusion regions 13 and 16, i.e., a y direction in FIG. 1, and word lines WL0, WL1, WL2, WL3, . . . extend in an x direction perpendicular to the y direction.
Since the memory device of the prior art has the folded bit line arrangement, portions of the word lines WL1 . . . located between the diffusion regions 13 and 16 and extending in the x direction are located on field insulation layers 21 between the memory cells adjacent to each other in the y direction. Therefore, the portions of the word lines WL1 . . . between the diffusion regions 13 and 16 serve as so-called select word line portions 22, and the portions of the word lines WL1 . . . on the field insulation layers 21 serve as so-called non-select word line portions 23.
When the two non-select word line portions 23 extend and are located between the memory cells adjacent to each other in the I direction as described above, not only the widths of the non-select word line portions 23 but the interval between the non-select word line portions 23 are required in the y direction. That is, since the lines and spaces of the non-select word line portions 23 are required in the Z direction, the sides of the memory cells cannot be easily decreased in length in the y direction.
In addition, since the bit lines BL2 . . . extend in the I direction, the bit lines BL2 . . . pass over the contact holes 14. For this reason, the storage capacitors 12 cannot be formed in the upper layer of the bit lines BL2 . . . , and the area of each of the storage capacitors 12 may be restricted with respect to the area of the corresponding memory cell. Due to the above reasons, in the prior art shown in FIG. 1, a memory cell area cannot be easily decreased, and a high integration level cannot be realized.
Note that an open bit line arrangement has no so-called non-select word line portion. However, in the folded bit line arrangement, stored data of a memory cell is output to only one of a pair of bit lines adjacent to each other, and no stored data is output to the other of the pair of bit lines. For this reason, the folded bit line arrangement has the following advantage and the like. That is, noise in a common mode is canceled by differentially operating a sense amplifier, and the sensitivity of the sense amplifier can be improved. However, the open bit line arrangement does not have the above advantages. Therefore, the open bit line arrangement cannot be employed.

Semiconductor memory device having crossed word lines, and method of operating same


A method, for preventing the intelligible voice recording is provided. The voice of a subject or interlocutor is recorded for a given time interval thereby providing a voice recording. The voice recording is cut into shorter time interval segments thereby providing a set of voice recording segments. The set of voice recording segments is mixed in a randomly rearranged order. The mixed set of voice recording segments is spliced into a single randomly mixed voice recording. Emitting the randomly mixed voice recording during speaking of the subject or interlocutor prevents the intelligible recording of the voice of the subject or interlocutor.

Voice recording jammers or audio jammers otherwise known as audio blockers are devices that protect sensitive or confidential conversations in a room from being recorded by an analog or digital recording device such as covert listening devices, bugs, wires and the like. The generally accepted standard range of audible frequencies for humans is 20 Hz to 20 KHz, although the range of frequencies individuals hear is greatly influenced by environmental factors. Ultrasonic sound or ultrasound refers to anything above the frequencies of audible sound, and nominally includes anything over 20 KHz. Infrasound is sound that is lower in frequency than 20 Hz, beneath the limit of human hearing. Various audio jammers can generate frequencies that fall into the normal range, the ultrasonic range and/or the infrasound range.
Audio jammers can generate white noise to distort the voice recording or suppresses the operation of the recorders by radiating noise interference. Most conventional devices suppress audio recording by generating a noise or a speech-similar audible as the interlocutors speak which interferes with the recording of the interlocutors' voice.
Ultrasonic jammers create an inaudible powerful barrier to the microphones in voice recorders including smartphones preventing them from properly recording as the interference from the ultrasonic frequency turns the conversation into unintelligible noise.

Method for preventing intelligible voice recordings