A large, box-like polygonal tank for storing liquefied gas on land or on ground based structures (GBS) and a method of constructing the tank. The tank is comprised of an internal, truss-braced, rigid frame, having a cover on the frame for containing the stored liquid within the tank. The internal, truss-braced frame allows the interior of the tank to be contiguous throughout while compensating for the dynamic loads caused by the xe2x80x9csloshingxe2x80x9d of stored liquid which, in turn, is due to the short excitation periods cause by seismic activity or the like.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to liquefied gas storage tanks and in one aspect relates to a tank especially adapted for storing cryogenic liquefied gases (e.g., liquefied natural gas (xe2x80x9cLNGxe2x80x9d)) at cryogenic temperatures at near atmospheric pressures in areas susceptible to earthquake activity.
2. Background
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is typically stored in double walled tanks or containers. The inner tank provides the primary containment for the LNG while the outer shell holds the insulation in place and protects the inner tank and the insulation from the adverse effects of the environment. Sometimes, the outer tank is also designed to provide a secondary containment of LNG and associated gas vapor in case the inner tank fails. Typical sizes of onshore tanks at import or export terminals range from 50,000 to 100,000 cubic meters although tanks as large as 200,000 cubic meters have been built or are under construction.
Two distinct types of tank construction are widely used for storing LNG at onshore locations. The first of these comprise a flat-bottomed, cylindrical, self-standing tank which typically uses a 9% nickel steel for the inner tank and carbon steel, 9% nickel steel, or reinforced/prestressed concrete for the outer shell. The second type is a membrane tank wherein a thin (e.g. 1.2 mm thick) metallic membrane is installed within a cylindrical concrete structure which, in turn, is built either below or above grade on the ground. A layer of insulation is interposed between the stainless steel or Invar membrane and the load bearing concrete cylindrical walls and flat floor.
Recently, radical changes have been proposed in the construction of LNG terminals, especially import terminals. One such proposal involves the building of the terminal a short distance offshore where the LNG will be off-loaded from a transport vessel, stored, retrieved, and regasified before it is piped to shore for sale or use. Possibly one of the more promising of this type of terminals is one where the LNG storage tanks and regasification equipment will be installed on gravity base, box-shaped, barge-like structures (GBS) similar to certain concrete gravity structures now installed on the seafloor and being used as platforms for producing petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico.
Unfortunately, neither cylindrical tanks nor membrane tanks are considered as being particularly attractive for use in storing LNG on GBS terminals. Cylindrical tanks take up too much room on the GBS in relation to the volume of LNG which can be stored therein and are difficult and expensive to construct on such. Further the size of such tanks must be limited (e.g. 50,000 cubic meters) so that the GBS structures can be fabricated economically with readily available fabrication facilities. This necessitates a multiplicity of storage units to satisfy particular storage requirements which is not desirable from cost and operational safety considerations.
A membrane-type tank system, on the other hand, can be built inside the GBS to provide a relatively large storage volume. However, a membrane-type tank requires a sequential construction schedule wherein the outer concrete structure has to be completely built before the insulation and the membrane can be installed within a cavity within the outer structure. This normally requires a long construction period which adds substantially to the costs. Further, membrane-type tanks are designed by principles known as xe2x80x9cexperimental designxe2x80x9d wherein the guarantee of satisfactory performance of a particular tank and its safety are based on historical experience and laboratory studies rather than on rigorous demonstration by analysis and quantified experience. Where new shapes and sizes are required or when different environmental and/or seismic loading conditions are to be encountered, the satisfactory performance of membrane-type tanks at various LNG levels is difficult to insure.
Accordingly, a tank system is needed for near offshore storage of LNG which alleviates the above-discussed disadvantages of both cylindrical tanks and membrane-type tanks. Such a tank is a polygonal-shaped, box-like, structure which can be fitted into a space within a steel or concrete GBS and which is capable of storing large volumes (e.g. 100,000 cubic meters and larger) of LNG at cryogenic temperatures. The tank should also perform safely at various LNG levels in areas where seismic activity (e.g. earthquakes) is encountered and where such activity may induce liquid sloshing and associated dynamic loads within the tank.
Similar box-shaped, polygonal tanks have been used for storing LNG aboard sea-going, transport vessels. One such tank, popularly known as the xe2x80x9cConchxe2x80x9d tank, (e.g. see U.S Pat. No. 2,982,441) has been built from 9% nickel steel or aluminum alloys. In its original design as proposed by the above referenced patent, the tank is constructed of six plate panels (i.e. the four sides, the top or roof, and the bottom or floor of the tank) which are reinforced or xe2x80x9cstiffenedxe2x80x9d only by horizontal beams and stiffeners or the like. According to the inventors, vertical stiffening is deliberately omitted in order to eliminate or reduce thermal stresses due to thermal gradients in the vertical direction as the volume of LNG in tank changes.
In the xe2x80x9cConchxe2x80x9d tank, horizontal tie rods may be provided (a) at the corners at the vertical interfaces of the walls to strengthen the corners; and/or (b) as connections between the opposite faces of the walls to lessen the panels deflections. Nonetheless, horizontally-stiffened wall panels and two-way stiffened floor and roof plate panels, as embodied in the above referenced patent, basically provide the structural strength and stability for the tank. The original tanks built with this concept are reported to be less than 10,000 cubic meter in capacity.
When the Conch design (as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,982,441) is extended to larger tanks, a design similar to FIG. 1 can be expected (i.e. a known, prior-art, prismatic tank developed by IHI Co., Inc. of Tokyo, Japan). Modern materials and design methods do not restrict provision of vertical stiffening by consideration of thermal gradient as the liquid level of LNG changes. Consequently, the illustrated prismatic tank consists of wall plate panels that are stiffened by both horizontal and vertical beams/stiffeners. But even for a relatively small size of 23,500 cubic meters, to achieve satisfactory strength and stiffness during construction handling and operational use, the xe2x80x9cConchxe2x80x9d tank must be provided with intermediate stiffened panel bulkheads and diaphragms, as illustrated by a vertical bulkhead in each of the length and width directions of the IHI tank. This type of design is believed to be good only for tanks having a relatively small storage capacity.
A larger tank suitable for use on a modern terminal and designed in accordance with the prior art would need still more bulkheads to support the roof structure and to provide structural strength and stability of the tank in operational use (e.g. see FIG. 2). Accordingly, a typical large storage tank might in effect be considered as consisting of several of the smaller Conch-type tanks aligned wherein a common wall between adjacent tanks forms a horizontal or transverse bulkhead within the overall storage volume of the complete storage system.
For applications on ships and other transport vessels, the bulkheads within the tanks not only provide strength and stability for a relatively large, storage tank but also reduce the dynamic loads on the tank due to any sloshing of the LNG within the tank caused by movement of the floating vessel during transport. The dynamic excitation of the storage tank due to the oscillatory motion of the ship caused by wind and wave action, has relatively large periods (e.g. 6-12 seconds). Fundamental periods of liquid sloshing within small cells created by bulkheads within the tank are relatively small thus avoiding resonance and amplification of sloshing loads. While the bulkhead construction makes such tanks suited for the marine transportation of LNG, it has certain drawbacks when applied to onshore or bottom-supported storage (e.g. GBS), primarily because in these environments, the dynamic excitation caused by seismic activity (e.g. earthquakes, etc.) is of much shorter periods (e.g. xc2xd to 1 second).
Due to the closeness of the fundamental periods of sloshing waves in small constrained spaces and the predominantly xe2x80x9cshortxe2x80x9d excitation periods caused by seismic activity, the relative xe2x80x9cshortxe2x80x9d dimensions of the individual compartments formed by the bulkheads in a storage tank become highly detrimental when sloshing in the tank occurs due to seismic activity. Accordingly, it is desirable for the storage space within a land-based LNG tank or a tank installed on a GBS which, in turn, is installed on the sea bottom, to be long and unimpeded since such open space helps to reduce the dynamic loads caused by the shorter excitation periods which will be encountered should any seismic, activity occur. Further, the large number of compartments, which are typically formed within the tank by the bulkheads, require multiple cryogenic pumping and handling systems for filling and emptying the tank and multiple penetrations and connections through the roof, which, in turn, lead to increased capital and operating costs as well as increasing the safety hazards normally involved with the storage and handling of LNG.
The present invention provides a large, box-like polygonal tank for storing liquefied gas which is especially adapted for use on land or in combination with bottom-supported offshore structure such as gravity-based structures (GBS) and a method of constructing the tank. xe2x80x9cBox-like tankxe2x80x9d, as used herein, is intended to refer to a polygonal tank having two end walls, side walls, a top, and a bottom. Basically, the tank is comprised of (a) an internal, two-way truss frame structure, i.e., trusses in vertical planes, aligned in and crises-crossing along longitudinal (i.e., along the length) and transverse (i.e., along the width directions) and (b) a cover, sealingly enclosing the frame, for containing the stored liquid within the tank.
The internal, truss-frame is comprised of a plurality of vertical, elongated supports and horizontal, elongated supports, connected at their respective ends to form a box-like frame which, in turn, has tubular and non-tubular beams, column and brace members secured therein to provide additional strength and stability along the length and width directions of the truss frame. A plurality of stiffened or unstiffened plates (e.g. 9% nickel-steel, aluminum, aluminum alloys, etc.) are secured to the outside of box-like frame to form the cover for the tank.
Many different arrangements of the beams, columns and braces can be devised to achieve the desired strength and stiffness of a truss frame as illustrated by the use of trusses on bridges and other civil structures. For the tank of the present invention, the truss frame construction in the longitudinal and transverse directions may not be identical, or even similar. Rather, the trusses in the two directions are designed to provide the specific strength and stiffness required for the over all dynamic loads caused by seismic activity, the need to support the large roof structure and the loads due to the unavoidable unevenness of the floor. In the preferred embodiment of this invention, suitable for areas of moderate seismic activity, the internal truss structure may be provided only in the transverse direction with no truss(es) in the longitudinal direction.
More specifically, the large, box-like polygonal storage tank of the preferred embodiment of the present invention is comprised of two substantially identical end sections and none, one, or a plurality of intermediate sections. All of the intermediate sections have basically the same construction and each is comprised of a rigid frame which, in turn, is formed of at least two vertical, elongated supports and at least two horizontal, elongated supports, connected at their respective ends. Additional supports, beams, columns and brace members are secured within said frame to provide additional strength and stability to the frame. A plurality of plates are secured to the outside of said frame which form the cover or containment walls of said tank when the respective sections are assembled.
By using a box-like internal truss frame to provide the primary support for the tank, the interior of the tank will be effectively contiguous throughout without any encumbrances provided by any bulkheads or the like. This permits the relatively long interior of the present tank to avoid resonance conditions during sloshing under the substantially different dynamic loading caused by seismic activity as opposed to the loading which occurs due to the motion of a sea-going vessel.


An apparatus comprising a first circuit and a second circuit. The first circuit may be configured to store input data in response to a write pointer and present output data in response to a read pointer. The second circuit may be configured to generate a control signal in response to the write pointer, the read pointer and a type of an information packet containing the input data.

A conventional method for coupling devices that operate at different speeds (or asynchronously from each other) is to use a first-in, first-out (FIFO) memory. To prevent an overflow condition (i.e., where incoming data is written over unread data), the distance between read and write pointers is monitored and data input stopped when the FIFO is almost full (i.e., the write pointer is within a predetermined threshold of the read pointer).
In a serial advanced technology attachment (Serial-ATA) application, a FIFO is used to receive different size information packets from another device. When the FIFO detects an almost full condition, a HOLD is sent to the transmitter. Upon receiving the HOLD, the transmitter stops sending the current information packet until told to begin again by the receiver.
Conventional Serial-ATA devices have receive FIFOs sized large enough so that non-data FIS type payloads can be written without nearing the overflow threshold. However, the large FIFOs require more silicon, thus increasing the cost of the devices.


A wrap-around car wash structure comprising two staggered, vertical brushes. Each brush is mounted on a carriage which slides along a bifurcated boom pivotally mounted on a support base. The boom and carriages start in an extended position wherein the brushes are near the center of the wash lane; the booms swing in toward the sides of the lane as the brushes' carriages are pulled inwardly by reversible power cylinders. A control mechanism on at least one of the booms promptly reverses the power cylinder as the brush clears the side of the vehicle regardless of the width of the vehicle and the degree to which it has displaced the boom toward the side of the wash lane.

It is well known to support a pair of car wash brushes having substantially vertical axes of rotation on booms or "knuckles" which can pivot about vertical axes of rotation adjacent to a car wash lane to engage and scrub the front sides and rear surfaces of a vehicle. It is typical to use a power cylinder which urges the brushes to the outermost or extended positions wherein they are closer to the center line of the wash lane and on appropriate command deactivate the cylinders and allow gravity to move the brushes back toward a retracted position on the boom or knuckle while the vehicle is passing between them. If the brushes are to engage and follow the rear surface of the vehicle it is necessary to reactivate the cylinder to urge the brushes toward the extended or outermost positions as soon as the vehicle is far enough forward to clear the brushes and allow them to move back out toward the center of the wash lane. It is particularly problematical to program the initiation of the outward re-extension of the brushes to boom or knuckle angle since vehicles of different width displace at least one of the booms or knuckles to a different extent as they pass between the wrap around brushes.

Wrap-around brush system for conveyor car wash


A light emitting device filament includes a substrate, a plurality of light emitting diodes, two electrode pads, and a plurality of connection lines. The substrate includes a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The substrate extending in a first direction and having a width in a second direction. The plurality of light emitting diodes is disposed on the first surface of the substrate. The two electrode pads are disposed on the substrate. The plurality of connection lines electrically connects the plurality of light emitting diodes and the two electrode pads. The plurality of connection lines includes a first connection line and a second connection line. The first connection line, the second connection line, or both are formed in a direction inclined or curved with respect to the first direction or the second direction.

Conventionally, a light bulb employing a filament as its light source is being used. The light bulb is being gradually replaced with a light emitting device, such as a light emitting diode, as the light bulb has low light amount and high power consumption. When the light emitting device is used, the light emitting device can be made to use the shape and the look of a conventional filament bulb for a decorative purpose. In other words, the light emitting device may be designed to have the same shape as a conventional filament bulb.
However, in the case where the light source having the same shape as the conventional filament bulb is manufactured using the light emitting device, the light emitting device may not work properly when the filament is bent.


In a discharge process of the solid body actuator (2), a current that discharges the solid body actuator (2) loaded with electrical energy is detected. A switching element (6) is switched from an open position to a closed position to short circuit the solid body actuator (2) for removal of electrical energy from the solid body actuator (2) through the switching element (6) depending on the current falling below a threshold of the current, wherein the magnitude of the threshold is specified.

Increasingly stringent legal requirements relating to the permissible pollutant present emissions of internal combustion engines which are arranged in motor vehicles make it necessary to perform various measures by means of which the pollutant emissions are lowered. A starting point here is to lower the fuel emissions generated during the combustion process of the air/fuel mixture. In particular, the formation of soot is heavily dependent on the preparation of the air/fuel mixture in the respective cylinder of the internal combustion engine. In order to achieve very good preparation of the mixture, fuel is increasingly metered under very high pressure. In the case of diesel internal combustion engines, the fuel pressures are up to 2000 bar. For such applications, injection valves in which a solid body actuator is embodied as a piezo-actuator are becoming increasingly established. Piezo-actuators are defined by very short response times. Such injection valves are in this way suitable under certain circumstances for repeatedly metering fuel within a working cycle of a cylinder of the internal combustion engine.
Particularly good preparation of the mixture can be achieved if one or more pre-injections, which are also referred to as pilot injections, take place before a main injection, wherein under certain circumstances, a very small fuel quantity is to be metered for the individual pre-injection. Precise control of the injection valve is very important, in particular, for these cases.
An important role is assigned to the charging and discharging of the piezo-actuator in the context of the precise control of the injection valve. Rapid charging and discharging of the piezo-actuator is highly significant in particular in the case of intentional use of pilot injections.
DE 10 2005 040 531 A1 discloses a control device with a power source which is provided for controlling a piezo-actuator, wherein the power source can be coupled to the piezo-actuator in such a way that it can discharge the piezo-actuator, and wherein said control device has a power output stage for charging and discharging the piezo-actuator, which power output stage is electrically parallel to the power source.

Method and device for controlling a solid body actuator


A refrigerant-transporting hose including an elastic tube through which a refrigerant is transported, the elastic tube including a tubular resinous layer formed of a resinous composition, the resinous composition containing as a major component thereof a polyamide resin produced by reaction of hexamethylene diamine and an aliphatic dicarboxylic acid compound having from eight to sixteen carbon atoms. The resinous composition may contain as a major component thereof a mixture of saponified ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer and a polyamide resin produced by reaction of hexamethylene diamine and an aliphatic dicarboxylic acid compound having from eight to sixteen carbon atoms.

Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a refrigerant-transporting hose and particularly to such hoses for use as piping of car coolers, air conditioners and the like which are employed in automotive vehicles.
Discussion of the Prior Art
Referring to FIG. 5, there is shown a conventional hose for transporting or conducting a refrigerant such as flon gas. The hose has a three-laminated or -layered structure consisting of an inner and an outer rubber tube 101, 103 and a reinforcing fiber layer 102 interposed between the inner and outer tubes 101, 103. The inner tube 101 is formed of acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR), chlorosulfonated polyethylene rubber (CSM) or the like, the reinforcing layer 102 is formed of polyester fiber or the like, and the outer tube 103 is formed of ethylene propylene diene rubber (EPDM), chloroprene rubber (CR) or the like. Reference numerals 115 designate spiking holes formed through the outer rubber tube 103 to communicate the reinforcing fiber layer 102 with outside space. The spiking holes 115 serve to relieve a fraction of the refrigerant which has permeated the inner rubber tube 101, into the outside space, thereby preventing the hose from being swollen due to the refrigerant gas otherwise trapped between the intermediate fiber layer 102 and the inner and/or outer rubber layers 101, 103. Thus, the hose is free from the problem of separation or peeling of each of the three laminates (two tubes and one layer) from the others due to the trapped refrigerant gas.
Since the hose as a whole is formed of rubber materials except for the reinforcing fiber layer 102, the hose has a high flexibility. Accordingly, the hose can be handled with ease, for example in providing a refrigerant-using device with piping. On the other hand, rubber materials have a comparatively high gas permeability, that is, a comparatively low gas impermeability. Thus, the rubber hose suffers from the problem of progressive leakage of the refrigerant gas conveyed therethrough. Therefore, it is necessary to often charge the refrigerant-using device with the refrigerant for compensating for lost fractions to maintain an optimum cooling capacity of the device. It goes without saying that that is very troublesome.
Recently, there is a tendency that refrigerant discharged from the compressor of a cooling system for an automotive engine has raised temperature, which tendency results from raised speed of rotation of the engine. There is also a tendency that ambient air around an engine has increased temperature, which tendency results from small-sized engine room. Thus, it is required that refrigerant-transporting hoses have an excellent heat resistance. However, the above-mentioned conventional rubber hose has the problem that cracks are likely to be produced in the inner rubber tube if the hose is used at raised temperature for a long period of time. That is, the hose does not have a reliable quality. In the case where hoses are formed of a rubber with a high heat resistance, such rubber has an unsatisfactory gas impermeability, resulting in the hoses produced with a low gas impermeability even as compared with the above-mentioned conventional hose.
As is apparent from the foregoing, the conventional hose is satisfactory with regard to flexibility, but unsatisfactory with regard to gas impermeability or heat resistance.
In the background described above, it has been proposed to form the inner tube of a hose of nylon 6, a resin material which is excellent in gas impermeability and heat resistance. However, the material has a high regidity, and when used for producing hoses the material extremely lowers the flexibility of the hoses. Thus, nylon 6 is not suitable for practical use. In the case where a resin with a lower rigidity, such as nylon 6-66 copolymer and nylon 6-12 copolymer, is used to impove the flexibility of hoses, such resins have a melting point considerably lower than nylon 6 and do not satisfy the requirement of sufficient heat resistance.
Thus, there has not been provided a refrigerant-transporting hose which is satisfactory all with regard to gas impermeability, flexibility and heat resistance.


A composition is disclosed, comprising a polycarbonate resin, an inorganic infrared shielding additive, and carbon black, wherein an article prepared from the composition has the inorganic infrared shielding additive present at about 0.01 to about 1.0 grams per square meter, and carbon black present at about 0.001 to about 2.0 grams per square meter. The article prepared from the composition meets at least one scale requirement for European Norm EN 169 and/or EN 171, and is useful for preparing infrared shielding protective eyewear with low haze.

This disclosure relates to polycarbonate compositions, and in particular to polycarbonate compositions having infrared (IR) absorbance, methods of manufacture, and uses thereof.
Polycarbonates are useful for applications in which good impact strength, low haze, and high transparency are desired. On such application for which polycarbonates are suitable is protective eyewear, including that designed to limit ocular exposure to potentially damaging radiation. Included in this category is protective eyewear for applications such as, for example, welding, foundry work, glassblowing, and other similar types of hot work, wherein a range of moderate to high intensity infrared radiation is present. Standards, such as European Norms EN 166, EN 169, and EN 171, have been developed as guidelines for the performance of materials and articles for eyewear for protection from infrared radiation, which block the transmission of an amount of the radiation. Both EN 169, which describes requirements for filters for welding and related techniques, and EN 171, which describes requirements for personal eye protection using infrared filters, include different scales identified by number, that correspond to requirements for acceptable amounts of transmittable radiation. The requirements are to the amounts of infrared radiation, and visible and/or ultraviolet radiation, that are allowable for transmission through the protective eyewear. Protective eyewear can be designed according to these individual scale requirements to provide the user of the eyewear with an acceptable level of exposure for a specific application.
To prepare protective eyewear protection for use in the infrared region, also referred to as the IR region (780 to 2000 nanometers) and that meet these standards, additives that absorb and/or dissipate infrared radiation can be added to polycarbonates. Organic infrared shielding additives derived from polycyclic aromatic amines and salts, such as N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis-(p-di-n-butylaminophenyl)-p-phenylenediamine and N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis-(p-di-n-butylaminophenyl)-p-benzoquinone-bis-(immonium-hexafluoroantimonate), can provide absorbance in the infrared; however, such compounds generally lack the thermal and oxidative stability needed to withstand extrusion and molding conditions without decomposition.
What is needed therefore, is a polycarbonate composition that meets at least one of the series requirements of one or both of European Norms EN169 and EN171, and is suitable for use in protective eyewear.
A suitable composition desirably is thermally and oxidatively stable, has good impact strength, and suitable level of haze.

Polycarbonate compositions having infrared absorbance, method of manufacture, and articles prepared therefrom


According to an example aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method comprising: calculating a head-related transfer function for a user, the calculation based at least in part on gathered data comprising at least video material and at least one supplemental image, the at least one supplemental image comprising an image of a transparent measurement device superimposed over at least one biological detail of an user, and transmitting said head-related transfer function.

The purpose of audio monitoring is to evaluate audio presentations in a neutral way to ensure good translation to other reproduction systems. The head and outer ear shapes with head movements, the main localization mechanisms of our auditory system, provide our wonderful ability to localize sound sources and enable loudspeaker monitoring to work. Headphones break the link to these natural mechanisms we have acquired over our lifetime. Because of these reasons on-ear and in-ear headphones have not been the best choice for monitoring. Normal headphones make it difficult to set levels, pan sound locations and equalise important sources, like the human voice or tonal instruments, because headphones do not have well-controlled frequency responses in the midrange and headphone-to-headphone sound character variation is large. This matter is complicated by individual differences between persons. What you hear on headphones can be quite different from what the other persons hear, even with the same set of headphones. These characteristics are entirely different in comparison to good in-room monitoring loudspeaker systems. Work done using good loudspeaker monitoring systems translates precisely to other loudspeakers and sounds the same for all listeners, and also works well on headphone reproduction.
To allow for monitoring using headphones, new solutions are needed. The present disclosure aims to provide a reliable path to enable stereo, surround and immersive audio monitoring using headphones. In embodiments of the present disclosure, calculations on how a user's head, external ear and upper body affect and colour audio arriving from any given direction. This effect is called the Head-Related Transfer Function (HRTF). At least some of the embodiments of the present disclosure provide the user's unique personal HRTF in the SOFA file format. The SOFA (Spatially Oriented Format for Acoustics) file format has been standardized by the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and is widely accepted and supported by audio software.
There are methods of offering HRTFs that use data not uniquely measured from the person in question. Such data may come from a mannequin or a dummy head. Typically, these solutions do not result in the best quality, i.e. the generated HRTF does not match the user anatomy very well. It is understood that a poor quality HRTF is not useful for the user and can actually result in lower fidelity, such as HRTFs including sound colourations and localization inaccuracy as well as localization errors.
There is also data available in databases and originally measured from totally different persons. Previous methods have comprised devices for selecting the best match in such databases. Such selection is usually based on measuring a set of dimensions in the person, such as the size of the head and dimensions of the ear, commonly called anthropometrics. Anthropometric data of the target person can be matched to data from other persons in a database, with the intention of finding the best match. The assumption is that this would result in selecting a HRTF most likely to create correct presentation of audio for the given person. Unfortunately, such methods do not show very good performance in reality. Often problems with unwanted coloration, localization errors and lack or creating good externalization are seen, but this typically does not result in reliable rendering as there are still significant individual differences and perfect selection methods do not exist yet.
The present invention aims to solve the problems as well as the drawbacks of the solutions presented herein as well as providing advantageous effects as disclosed herein.

System and method for generating head-related transfer function


A Chip on Flexible Printed Circuit (COF) type semiconductor package may include a flexible film, a semiconductor IC chip on the flexible film, and a heating pad on the flexible film.

1. Field
Example embodiments may relate to a semiconductor package, and more particularly to a Chip On Flexible Printed Circuit type semiconductor package.
2. Description of the Related Art
As higher operating scale downed integrated circuit (IC) drivers configured to drive Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) panels may be needed, a variety of semiconductor packages have been developed. In general, Tape Carrier Package (TCP), Chip On Glass (COG), and Chip On Flexible Printed Circuit (COF) may be semiconductor type packages used to drive the LCD panels. Since the 1980's, the TCP type semiconductor package has been used to drive high resolution monitors. The TCP type semiconductor package has been one of the favored semiconductor packages used in the LCD field. However, the TCP type semiconductor package may have higher costs associated with production and/or the productivity of the TCP type semiconductor package may not be as high.
Accordingly, the TCP type semiconductor package has been replaced with the COF type semiconductor as the package of choice, and applications for the COF type semiconductor package have increased in the LCD field. The COF type semiconductor package has been introduced as LCD IC drivers to correspond with scale downed and/or higher operating speed IC drivers.
Recently, to realize higher resolution display devices, for example, LCD panels, a driving load of the IC driver may be increased as driving frequency of TVs and monitors have increased from 60 Hz to 120 Hz.

Chip on flexible printed circuit type semiconductor package


Systems and methods for refueling aircraft in flight are disclosed herein. An aerial refueling system in accordance with one aspect of the invention includes a movable aerial refueling boom configured to be carried by an aerial refueling aircraft. The system can also include two or more actuators operably coupled to the boom to control motion of the boom relative to the refueling aircraft. In several embodiments, the boom does not include any boom aerodynamic control surfaces to control motion of the boom relative to the refueling aircraft.

In-flight refueling (or air-to-air refueling) is an important method for extending the range of aircraft traveling long distances over areas having no feasible landing or refueling points. Although in-flight refueling is a relatively common operation, especially for military aircraft, the aircraft to be refueled (e.g., the receiver aircraft) must be precisely positioned relative to the tanker aircraft in order to provide safe engagement while the fuel is dispensed to the receiver aircraft. The requirement for precise relative spatial positioning of the two rapidly moving aircraft makes in-flight refueling a challenging operation.
There are currently two primary systems for in-flight refueling. One is a hose and drogue system in which a refueling hose having a drogue disposed at one end is trailed behind the tanker aircraft and is engaged by the receiver aircraft. Another system is a boom refueling system. The boom refueling system typically includes a rigid boom extending from the tanker aircraft, with a probe and nozzle at its distal end. The boom also includes boom aerodynamic control surfaces or airfoils (e.g., ruddevators, horizontal and vertical surfaces, and/or flow control surfaces) controlled by a boom operator stationed on the tanker aircraft. The boom aerodynamic control surfaces allow the operator to maneuver the boom with respect to the receiver aircraft. Accordingly, the receiver aircraft is first maneuvered into an in-flight refueling position below and aft of the tanker aircraft. The boom operator then controls the boom aerodynamic control surfaces to position the boom and mate the refueling nozzle with a refueling connection on the receiver aircraft.
In order to accommodate the inevitable relative motion between the tanker aircraft and the receiver aircraft, the refueling boom must be movable, both vertically and laterally. One drawback with using the boom aerodynamic control surfaces to control movement of the boom is that the effectiveness of the aerodynamic control surfaces can be reduced significantly during certain operating conditions (e.g., large lateral deflections and at high Mach numbers). Accordingly, the size of the refueling envelope can be limited. Another drawback associated with boom aerodynamic control surfaces is that such structures require extensive wind tunnel testing and control system development to ensure that the control surfaces provide adequate control of the refueling boom at a variety of operating conditions. Still another drawback with boom aerodynamic control surfaces is that such structures can potentially contact the receiver aircraft during refueling and cause significant damage to the receiver aircraft, the tanker aircraft, and/or the refueling boom itself.

Systems and methods for controlling an aerial refueling device


A method for improving starting of an engine that may be repeatedly stopped and started is presented. In one example, the method adjusts a desired engine speed to at least two levels during engine speed run-up from cranking to engine idle speed. The method may improve vehicle launch for stop/start vehicles.

An engine coupled to an automatic transmission may be stopped and restarted to conserve fuel during conditions of low engine torque demand. If the engine is started while the transmission is in neutral, the speed of the engine at restart may not be of much concern so long as engine starting speed is somewhat repeatable. However, if the engine is started while the transmission is in gear, the torque transmitted by the engine to the transmission during engine run-up from crank to idle speed may be objectionable to the driver if more than a desired amount of engine torque is transferred from the engine to the transmission during engine restart. Additionally, if the driver requests torque from the engine to accelerate a vehicle shortly after an engine is started in gear, delivery of engine torque to the vehicle wheels may not be smooth and may be objectionable to the driver.
The inventors herein have recognized the above-mentioned disadvantages of restarting an engine coupled to a transmission that is in gear and have developed a method for starting an engine coupled to a transmission, comprising: cranking the engine from stop; releasing an off-going clutch of the transmission to downshift the transmission during engine speed run-up from cranking to idle speed; and applying an on-coming clutch of the transmission in response to a reduction of a transmission input torque brought about via the off-going clutch.
Torque that is transmitted from an engine and output from a transmission during engine starting may be controlled via starting the engine in a first gear that is applied by a first transmission clutch (e.g., the off-going clutch). In particular, starting the engine while the transmission is in a higher gear having a lower gear ratio (e.g. fourth gear having a ratio of 1:1) may limit the amount of engine torque that is transmitted through the transmission to wheels of a vehicle. Further, the transmission may be shifted to a second lower gear having a higher gear ratio (e.g., first gear having a ratio of 3:1) that is applied by a second transmission clutch (e.g., the on-coming clutch) when a driver requests that the engine accelerate or launch a vehicle from stop. Shifting the transmission to a lower gear having a higher gear ratio may improve vehicle launch. In addition, the torque transfer from the engine to the vehicle wheels may be improved by applying the on-coming clutch as torque across the off-going clutch is decreased. In this way, torque can be transferred from one gear set to the next gear set such that torque may flow through the transmission without a substantial torque decrease at the vehicle wheels during the downshift, thereby improving vehicle launch.
The present description may provide several advantages. Specifically, the approach may improve vehicle launch for engines that are automatically stopped and restarted. Further, the approach may improve vehicle emissions since the engine may be started in a more repeatable manner. Further still, the approach may improve vehicle drivability by improving the way torque is transmitted from the engine to vehicle wheels.
The above advantages and other advantages, and features of the present description will be readily apparent from the following Detailed Description when taken alone or in connection with the accompanying drawings.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.


The CAMEL standard allows a roaming user to have his call or any other telephony service, say SMS and GPRS, controlled and services provided from his home network. The invention allows infrastructure triggers to be intercepted at the roaming network so that the roaming network can identify the roamer and make use of the triggers to provide services. This is possible irrespective of whether the roamer's home network supports the infrastructure.

The present invention relates to a cellular network infrastructure for use in support of inbound roaming users and, more particularly, but not exclusively to the use of the CAMEL infrastructure, specifically intended for support of outbound roamers, to support inbound roamers.
The GSM CAMEL (Customized Applications for Mobile Network Enhanced Logic) standard is a standard for a cellular network infrastructure, which is aimed at providing services for outbound roamers. CAMEL works where both the home or HPMN (home public mobile network) and visited or VPMN (visited public mobile network) networks have installed CAMEL infrastructure, have a signed CAMEL roaming agreement between them, and have gone through the CAMEL integration process within their respective networks.
Upgrading network infrastructure to CAMEL involves the introduction or modification of several network components and is an intensive and expensive effort. One-by-one integration of the infrastructure and ongoing support for CAMEL roaming agreements provides an additional and significant cost for the operator. Currently, most of the roaming agreements between operators lack CAMEL capabilities, although CAMEL is gradually being introduced to more and more networks.
Another issue is that even if CAMEL is available, what it does is gives exclusive support to the home network to manage the roaming user and eliminates VPMN control almost totally from its inbound roaming subscriber once CAMEL has been activated. Thus, for example: if an inbound roamer for whom CAMEL services are available makes a dialing error, the only network that can play any part in fixing it is the HPMN, and in the vast majority of cases no fixing of the error in fact occurs. In many respects the VPMN has more ways to fix the dialing error since it knows of local numbering plans and the like.
CAMEL is a standard with an implementation which covers a core network and allows for support for outbound roamers specifically. Two CAMEL networks make an agreement between them and the result is integration of the networks, in the sense that outbound roamers on either of the networks who have come from the other network are provided with service support from their home network.
In all GSM networks, regardless of CAMEL support, the mobile telephones issue a location update trigger upon arriving at the VLR of the roaming network. Consequently, a user profile is sent from the home network to the roaming VLR. The operation to transfer the user profile in the roaming case is exactly the same as that which goes on in the national network when a user moves to another location. That is to say, triggers are used to transfer the user profile from the home location register HLR to the visitor location register VLR.
CAMEL, in addition, enables call control triggers, among other triggers, issued by the roaming network, to reach the home network not only during location update events. The CAMEL triggers allow the home network to take charge of the call and the home network is able to control the call with all the signaling necessary as if the roaming telephone is at the home network. Newer phases of CAMEL (such as phase 3) support not only call control, but SMS (short messaging service) and GPRS (general packet radio service) control. Triggers for MO (Mobile Originated) SMS and GPRS sessions initiated by roamers may be sent to the home network, which is be able to control the SMS/GPRS session (e.g. redirect, block if no credit, etc.). Using the present embodiments, the SMS and GPRS triggers can also be intercepted and dealt with by platform 14.
As mentioned above, putting the home network in charge can have disadvantages. For example there is the issue of knowing the local numbering plan and there are also well known national shortcodes, such as the numbers for the emergency services. A roamer from say the UK who is visiting the US would normally reach the US emergency services if he were to dial *911. However if Camel were in operation then his call to *911 in the US would go first to his UK operator who may not recognize the code at all, or at best would recognize after a delay and reroute the call.
There is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, a roaming system devoid of the above limitations.

Cellular network infrastructure as support for inbound roaming users


According to one embodiment, a semiconductor device includes a switching element and a diode provided on a substrate. The switching element includes a first semiconductor layer, a drain region, a source region, a channel region, a gate insulating film, and a gate electrode. The diode includes a second semiconductor layer, an anode region, and a cathode region.

In a switching device connected to an inductive load such as a coil, when the gate is OFF, a current flows through the body diode (parasitic diode) of the switching device due to energy accumulated in the inductive load. This may operate a thyristor that is parasitic in the switching device, a substrate on which the switching device is formed, and another device formed on the same substrate; and may cause breaking of the other device.

Switching element and a diode being connected to a power source and an inductive load


Mitigating electrostatic discharge damage when fabricating a 3-D integrated circuit package, wherein in one embodiment when a second tier die is placed in contact with a first tier die, conductive bumps near the perimeter of the second tier die that are electrically coupled to the substrate of the second tier die make contact with corresponding conductive bumps on the first tier die that are electrically coupled to the substrate of first tier die before other signal conductive bumps and power conductive bumps on the second tier and first tier dice make electrical contact.

In some integrated circuit stacked die packaging, such as 3D or TSS (Through Silicon Stacking) integrated circuit packaging, two or more dice (chips) are stacked on top of each other. For example, a first tier die may be bonded to a package substrate, and a second tier die may be bonded on top of the first tier die. Conductive bumps on the bottom of the second tier die are electrically coupled to conductive bumps on the top of the first tier die. This electrical coupling may be realized by soldering. The first tier and second tier dice may be positioned relative to each other so that their active sides are facing each other. As another example, the active side of the second tier die may be on top, where through-silicon vias provide electrical connection between the active side of the second tier die and the bottom side having the conductive bumps. Additional dice may be stacked on top of the second tier die.
When bonding one die to another die, as one die first comes into electrical contact with the other die, there may be an electrostatic discharge (ESD), which may damage the integrated circuits disposed therein. Although in many applications ESD protection may be provided at the circuit level, in the case of TSS packaged integrated circuits, it is desirable to reduce or eliminate the amount of circuit level ESD protection between the different integrated circuit tiers so as not to introduce parasitic capacitances. Also, current methods to reduce the likelihood of ESD events, such as grounding a die or ionizing the surrounding air, may not be as effective in TSS packaging technology in comparison to single die integrated circuit packaging. Accordingly, it is desirable to reduce the risk of ESD damage when manufacturing TSS packaged integrated circuits without introducing additional ESD circuits.

Reducing susceptibility to electrostatic discharge damage during die-to-die bonding for 3-D packaged integrated circuits


There is provided a method for making a rich web application searchable, one embodiment comprising providing companion content in a format searchable by a web search engine, loading the companion content in a web browser, calling a rich web application using the companion content, loading the rich web application in the web browser, and launching a data bridge interfacing the rich web application and the companion content. The method may further comprise retrieving a data feed for the rich web application, located in the companion content. In one embodiment, a system configured to make a rich web application searchable comprises a content storage, companion content in a format searchable by a web search engine, a data feed for the rich web application included in the companion content, and a data bridge interfacing the rich web application with the companion content.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to accessing web content. More particularly, the present invention relates to searching web content.
2. Background Art
Packet networks, like the Internet for instance, have increasingly become a resource of choice for those seeking access to information. Initially, the information being provided over these networks typically took the form of relatively static data, and the formatting languages developed to facilitate information exchange were optimized for presentation of such data. One of these languages, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), was used extensively in the design of early web pages. Partly as a result of its pervasiveness as a format in early web design, search engines developed to assist network users in retrieving desired content were designed to optimize retrieval of HTML data, and most retain that emphasis today.
As the user base of packet networks has broadened to include sophisticated vendors and consumers, however, greater importance has been placed on those networks as sources of advertising and entertainment. Savvy and increasingly demanding consumers desire to access frequently updated information, and have increasingly lofty expectations of the richness of packet network provided entertainment. Advertisers, seeking to meet these enhanced consumer expectations, have found the conventional HTML format too constraining. As a result, more and more web content is being developed using formats more enabling of the dynamic, rich media experience preferred by web users. Embedded graphics applications such as Flash and Silverlight, for example, have made it possible for advertisers to provide the dynamic graphical web content demanded by consumers.
Although advertisers have invested substantial resources in providing the type of rich media content desired by the consumers they seek to attract, those consumers may be unaware of the presence of that content, and be unable to search for it using one of the popular search engines. As mentioned, most search engines were designed to survey and index the traditional web infrastructure comprising HTML data. Consequently, those search engines may not recognize, or be able to retrieve, web content formatted to provide dynamic graphical content or other types of rich media applications. As a result, a web user entering a search query in a standard web search engine, has a high probability of retrieving largely static HTML data content, and a much lower likelihood of retrieving dynamic graphical web content from a Flash web page, for example. Thus, despite the efforts of advertisers and the preferences of consumers, limitations in conventional web search technologies render much of the dynamic graphical web content, as well as other rich media applications such as web plug-ins, largely invisible to those seeking them out.
One conventional approach to overcoming the problem of searching for dynamic graphical web content and other rich media applications is shown in FIG. 1, which requires the hosting of complementary web sites. FIG. 1 shows a diagram of a conventional communication system corresponding to a conventional web search. As shown in FIG. 1, communication system 100 includes client computer 102 communicating with web search engine 104 to perform a search for content available through packet network 106. A portion of the available content accessible through packet network 106 resides on content storage 110. Content storage 110 holds dynamic graphical web content 112, which when loaded by client computer 102, results in client computer 102 calling remote data feed 122, using data link 114. Content storage 110 also hosts companion content 116, which is formatted to be searchable by search engine 104.
In communication system 100 of FIG. 1, dynamic graphical web content 112 and remote data feed 122, which may correspond to a Flash web site and Flash feed, for example, are not searchable by web search engine 104. As a result, a search of packet network 106, using web search engine 104, for content corresponding to dynamic graphical web content 112, cannot retrieve dynamic graphical web content 112, or information contained in data feed 122, as indicated by broken communication links 118a and 118b. In order to make dynamic graphical web content 112 discoverable by client computer 102, the sponsor of that content must additionally provide companion content 116, which duplicates some of the information provided by dynamic graphical content 112 in a format searchable by search engine 104, for instance as an HTML web site. Companion content 116 may also provide a link (not shown in FIG. 1), allowing client computer 102 to navigate to dynamic graphical web content 112, for example.
The conventional solution represented by FIG. 1, while not making dynamic graphical web content 112 searchable by web search engine 104, does allow a user of client computer 102 to obtain information about dynamic graphical web content 112 from companion content 110, or to be redirected to the otherwise invisible content. This solution is significantly incomplete, however, because web search engine 104 remains unable to supply client computer 102 with information about dynamic components provided by remote data feed 122. In addition, the solution of FIG. 1 entails significant disadvantages flowing from the need to support a duplication of complementary web sites, which include the resource commitments required to maintain dual sites, as well as the problem of harmonizing of the sites, so that updates to one are appropriately reflected in the other.
In short, in many web searches performed today, a query entered into a search engine fails to retrieve dynamic graphical web content relevant to the search criteria, because that content is effectively invisible to commonly utilized web search engines, as described in relation to FIG. 1. As a result, those seeking to make dynamic graphical web content easier for web search engine users to locate, may resort to providing dual, complementary web sites. Today, in conventional systems, a first site comprises a format that enables presentation of dynamic graphical content, but is not searchable by most search engines; and, a second site is supported to complement the preferred site and comprise a non-preferred format selected because it is searchable by most search engines. However, this conventional solution imposes disadvantages associated with the need to maintain two sites concurrently, and the burden of harmonizing the content of those sites in order to avoid user confusion due to inconsistencies in the content of the different sites.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing a more efficient, reliable and robust solution for making dynamic graphical web content and other rich web applications searchable by widely available web search engines.

Method and system for making dynamic graphical web content searchable


An automotive anti-theft device holds the brakes of the vehicle locked when the vehicle is parked, but does not interfere with the operation of the brakes when the vehicle is in operation. A locking bar is welded onto the brake pedal lever and extends towards the firewall. A locking post protrudes lateralyl from a free end of a bar. A locking mechanism is fixed onto the firewall to receive the locking bar when the brake pedal lever is fully depressed. The locking mechanism is contained in a heavy duty enclosure and has at least one pair of spring loaded locking jaws that are rotatably mounted within the enclosure and are positioned to engage and capture the post on the locking bar. A ratchet member is selectively actuable between unlock and lock positions. A lock cylinder is mounted in the dash and is key lockable in first and second positions that correspond to the open and closed position of the locking mechanism. A linkage mechanically connects the lock cylinder with the lock mechanism ratchet, and has a casing over the linkage between the cylinder and the locking mechanism to prevent tampering.

This invention is directed to an automotive security system, and is more particularly directed to an anti-theft device that holds a vehicle's brakes locked when the vehicle is parked, but does not interfere with normal use of the brakes while driving.
Because of the widespread occurrence of car thefts, a number of automotive security devices have been proposed for inhibiting unauthorized use of the automobile. All modern vehicles now have an ignition lock that locks the steering column when the key is removed. However, steering column locks deter only the casual thief and can be defeated in a few seconds by a professional thief. Other automotive locking systems that have been proposed include locking gas line shut-offs, and locking ignition system interrupters. These systems are also easy for the professional thief to defeat. Moreover, they provide no security from the professional thief who may simply tow the vehicle.
One typical security device that has been proposed recently has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,192. That system locks both the parking brakes and the service brakes by pulling up on a handle that is attached to the steering column. However, as this arrangement appears directly behind the steering column, its presence is obvious to any professional car thief and, therefore, can be easily defeated.

Automotive, anti-theft device for brakes


Apparatuses and methods are provided for determining coordinates of simultaneous touches on a touch sensor pad. A touch sensor pad includes a first plurality of resistive sensor strips on a first resistive sheet and a second plurality of resistive sensor strips on a second resistive sheet. A user touches the touch sensor pad at multiple locations simultaneously. A controller of the touch sensor pad determines coordinates of each of the multiple locations of touch independently of other touches. To determine coordinates for a touch, the controller identifies a first strip of the first plurality of resistive sensor strips of the first resistive sheet making contact with a second strip of the second plurality of resistive sensor strips of the second resistive sheet in response to the touch. The controller measures voltages of the strips to determine coordinates of the touch and measures resistance shifts in the strips due to touches to determine contact area of the touch which correlates to the types of objects causing the touch and the pressure of the touch.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to touch sensor pads, and in particular, to determining coordinates of simultaneous touches on a touch sensor pad.
2. Statement of the Problem
It is common to use touch sensor pads to receive information from a user. For example, it is common for retail stores to have a touch sensor pad that captures a buyer's signature as the buyer moves a stylus over the touch sensor pad. Touch sensor pads are also used on personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet PCs, notebook computers and other computing devices for inputting data into the devices. For example, a PDA or tablet PC may allow a user to write or draw on a touch screen of the device using a stylus, and the touch sensor pad captures information regarding the user input. Other devices may display a graphical user interface (GUI) on a touch sensor screen, and allow the user to manipulate a software application by touching one or more objects displayed on the touch sensor screen.
One common type of touch sensor pad is constructed from two sheets of conductive materials facing one another other and each having a resistive coating on one side. FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art touch sensor pad 100. A first resistive sheet 110 has terminals 112 and 114 disposed on top and bottom ends of first resistive sheet 110. Terminal 112 is connected to a controller 130 through wire 150, and terminal 114 is connected to controller 130 through wire 152.
A second resistive sheet 120 has terminals 122 and 124 disposed on left and right ends of second resistive sheet 120. Terminal 122 is connected to controller 130 through wire 140, and terminal 124 is connected to controller 130 through wire 142. The conductive surfaces of first resistive sheet 110 and second resistive sheet 120 are disposed facing each other and spaced apart by regularly spaced insulator dots or spacers (not shown), which keep the sheets separated at rest. When the surface of touch sensor pad 100 is touched, the location of the touch point is determined by controller 130.
To determine the location of a touch point, a voltage is applied between terminals 112 and 114 to set up a voltage gradient along linearly resistive first resistive sheet 110. The location where a user touches touch sensor pad 100 causes a connection between first resistive layer 110 and second resistive sheet 120. As a result of the connection, the voltage potential of second resistive sheet 120 rises to the voltage at the touch point on first resistive sheet 110, and can be read from terminals 122 and 124 by controller 130. The measured voltage determines a coordinate in a first dimension (e.g., a y coordinate). The process is then repeated by applying a voltage between terminals 122 and 124 to set up a voltage gradient across second resistive sheet 120, and first resistive sheet 110 is left un-energized. The voltage potential on first resistive layer 110 rises to the voltage at the touch point on the second resistive sheet 120, and can be read from terminals 112 and 114 by controller 130 to determine a coordinate in a second dimension (e.g., an x coordinate).
It is a problem to have a touch sensor pad 100 that can resolve the location of multiple simultaneous touches with a high degree of accuracy. FIG. 2 illustrates a close up view of first resistive sheet 110 of FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 2, a voltage gradient 210 is applied between terminals 112 and 114. Assume a user simultaneously touches touch sensor pad 100 at touch point 220 and touch point 222. Because both touch points 220 and 222 will make a connection between first resistive sheet 110 and second resistive sheet 120 (not visible in FIG. 2), the voltage potential of second resistive sheet 120 will rise to an average of the voltage at touch points 220 and 222. As a result, controller 130 will determine a single touch point 230 which is an average of the positions of touch points 220 and 222. This results in an input error determined by touch sensor pad 100.
The above described input error can occur when a user intentionally touches two points simultaneously, or when a user inadvertently touches touch sensor pad 100 at two points simultaneously, such as with a stylus and their palm. Additionally, it is a problem to determine which touch points are coming from a relatively sharp object (e.g., a pen, pencil, stylus, etc.), a finger, or a resting hand. Determining the type of object contacting touch sensor pad 100 may be useful in determining an action to perform based on the type of object contacting touch sensor pad 100, such as a button press, handwriting recognition, typing, etc.

Method and apparatus for determining coordinates of simultaneous touches on a touch sensor pad


A miner's personal gas alarm can be mounted in a helmet powered by a rechargeable battery for a light or be self-contained. A visual indicator will generate an alarm when the concentration of gas detected by the gas sensor triggers an alarm condition. An audio alarm can also be generated by the alarm condition. The gas sensor is a non-dispersive infrared (“NDIR”) gas sensor. When the gas sensor detects methane, the alarm condition is triggered by either an abnormally high rate of increase of methane concentration level or by an elevated concentration of methane that is above approximately 500 ppm and substantially below a lower explosion limit of methane (e.g., approximately 10,000 ppm), and the gas sensor is recalibrated whenever the sample concentration of methane falls below an ambient threshold level of methane.

The NDIR technique utilizing characteristic absorption bands of gases in the infrared has been widely used for decades in the gas analyzer industry for detection of these gases. Such gas analyzers utilize the principle that various gases exhibit substantial absorption at specific wavelengths in the infrared radiation spectrum. The term "non-dispersive" as used herein refers to the apparatus used, typically a narrow-band optical or infrared transmission filter instead of a dispersive element such as a prism or diffraction grating, for isolating for the purpose of measurement the radiation in a particular wavelength band that coincides with a strong absorption band of a gas to be measured. The NDIR technique has long been considered as one of the best methods for gas measurement. In addition to being highly specific, NDIR gas sensors are also very sensitive, relatively stable and easy to operate and maintain. In contrast to NDIR gas sensors, the majority of other types of gas sensors today are in principle interactive. Interactive gas sensors are less reliable, short-lived and generally nonspecific, and in some cases can be poisoned or saturated into a nonfunctional or irrecoverable state.
Despite the fact that interactive gas sensors are mostly unreliable and that the NDIR gas measurement technique is one of the best there is, NDIR gas sensors still have not enjoyed widespread high volume usage to date. There are three main reasons for this.
First, there are several applications in existence today that would require a very large number of gas sensors typically running into millions of units. One of the most outstanding examples is a personal methane (CH4) sensor worn or carried by a miner working underground in mines for detecting concentrations of gas approaching explosion limit levels when a so-called "methane pocket" is encountered and opened up during coal excavations. Since methane is odorless, there is no way for miners working underground to be warned of this deadly situation when a "methane pocket" is opened up without a personal methane sensor. If miners continue to excavate coal deposits and thus generate sparks as usual without heeding this dangerous working environment, an explosion can eventually be triggered underground when the lowest explosion limit (LEL) of methane is quickly reached.
A parallel situation might also exist when miners encounter an underground "water reservoir" while excavating (coal or otherwise). In such a situation, unless miners can by some means heed this potential flooding danger, thereby stopping work and evacuating the work site immediately, flooding could take place if miners continue to excavate and unknowingly open up a "water reservoir." When flooding actually takes place, not only the workers working in the immediate area can face drowning, workers in neighboring sites can also be drowned. Furthermore, flooding of part or all of underground working tunnels and the subsequent necessary cleanup operations can impose a very large financial burden upon the affected mine. It is highly unlikely that the opening up of an underground "water reservoir" is very sudden and leads to immediate flooding of the work site without any early warning. Rather, it is far more likely that cracks leading to a "water reservoir" are first exposed during the excavating operation. In addition to small amounts of water seeping out which could be unnoticed, a large amount of water vapor from the underground reservoir will rush out into the atmosphere of the immediate work site. The amount of water vapor in the air at the immediate work site would rise very suddenly without any apparent reasons. If miners are equipped with a sensitive personal Dew Point (water vapor) sensor, this sudden rise in water vapor pressure in the air where they work can be detected. If the rate of water vapor pressure increase in the air is detected to exceed a certain high and unexplainable level, miners can then be immediately warned of the danger of encountering an underground "water reservoir" and they should stop work promptly, evacuating the work site and notifying the authorities above ground for an immediate investigation.
But gas sensors to be deployed in such applications, namely methane and dew point (water vapor) sensors, must be extraordinarily reliable. However, just about all gas sensors ever designed and manufactured to date, irrespective of what technology is being employed, invariably have significant output drifts over time. For this reason, sensor maintenance cost concerns render today's NDIR gas sensors unqualified to be used in such an application since they all require re-calibration maintenance service every six months to a year without exception in order for them to stay accurate over time as effective alarms.
The second reason why today's NDIR gas sensors do not enjoy widespread high volume usage has to do with their size. At present they are typically several inches in length, width and height dimensions, and such dimension are generally considered to be too big. Even if such sensors overcome their output drift reliability problem, which so far they have not, their physical dimensions remain a significant impediment to their utilization and must be drastically reduced to gain usefulness as underground warning devices in mines. Although the size of NDIR gas sensors has indeed been greatly reduced to just a couple of inches in all three dimensions in the last few years, they still are too big, and they have to be further reduced, preferably to just thumb-sized scales, in order to remove their size hindrance in the currently discussed high volume usage application.
The third and final reason why NDIR gas sensors do not enjoy widespread high volume usage is their unit production cost which has been too high for the application discussed above. About four decades ago, an NDIR gas sensor (e.g. medical CO2) was sold for more than $10,000.00 each. By the early 1990's, the unit selling price for an NDIR gas sensor (e.g. CO2) dropped to less than $500.00. Today the unit selling price of an NDIR gas sensor (e.g. CO2) goes for about $200.00, reflecting the fact that the unit production cost for such a sensor has dropped to just around $50.00 or less. But even this relatively low and reasonable unit production cost today is still too high for the above discussed application. For this application the unit production cost for an NDIR methane or dew point (water vapor) gas sensor has to be under US$10.00.
Since the three main reasons why NDIR gas sensors do not enjoy widespread high volume usages today, particularly for the application of protecting miners working underground from deadly methane explosions and/or flooding, are still not under control for elimination or remedy as conjectured in the discussion above, an object of the present invention is to eliminate these three reasons altogether. The current invention will render the outputs of NDIR gas sensors stable over time, will reduce these sensors to a very small size and finally will reduce the unit production cost of these NDIR gas sensors to just a few US dollars. The current invention is particularly well-suited for use in the application of producing methane and dew point sensors for use underground in mines for eliminating the danger of future methane explosions and/or flooding.

Methane and water vapor gas sensors integrated into a personal miner's alarm


A steer-by-wire steering system for a motor vehicle with a steerable front wheel axle that has two steerable wheels. The front wheel axle includes a single wheel drive which, by means of a drive controller, individually drives wheel drives which are associated with the steerable wheels. The drive controller has a controller which determines a target speed for the left-hand wheel and a target speed for the right-hand wheel in accordance with an accelerator pedal angle and a rotational angle of a steering shaft, and which limits the target speeds to a slip-limited speed. The drive controller individually drives the wheel drives in such a way that the difference between the target speed and the actual speed for each steerable wheel is minimal.

In steer-by-wire steering systems, the position of the steered wheels is not connected directly to the steering input means, for example a steering wheel. There is a connection between the steering wheel and the steered wheels by means of electrical signals. The driver's steering request is tapped by a steering angle sensor and the position of the steered wheels is controlled in accordance with the driver's steering request by means of a steering actuator.
In order to avoid unstable driving situations such as oversteering or under-steering, so-called "torque vectoring" is known in which a drive torque is distributed between a left-hand vehicle wheel and a right-hand vehicle wheel by means of a specially designed differential gear, in order in this way to counteract the understeering or oversteering. Therefore, if a wheel is braked in an unstable driving situation while the drive force is being conducted to the wheel which has the greatest reduction in yawing moment, that is to say if understeering occurs, the control system applies more drive force to the wheel on the outside of the bend via a separate clutch, so that the vehicle is "pushed" into the bend. Undesired slipping of the vehicle wheels may occur during travel. Longitudinal slip arises owing to the spinning or locking of the vehicle wheels and has a direct effect on the wear of the tires. The term "slip" is understood to mean the state when during acceleration or braking of the vehicle the wheel circumferential speed differs from the speed of the vehicle.
DE 10 2013 011 883 A1 discloses a method in which a target steering angle is calculated by means of a steering wheel rotational angle and an actual steering angle is made available by the vehicle wheels. The determination of the wheel drive torques for the left-hand wheel and right-hand wheel is carried out here in such a way that the difference between the target steering angle and the actual steering angle is made smaller. This solution proves disadvantageous because the spinning of the wheels is not taken into account.
Patent document EP 2 611 661 B1 discloses a torque vectoring method in which the torque control value of the two wheels results from the yaw rate of the vehicle, the steering angle and the longitudinal slip of the two wheels.
Thus a need exists for a steer-by-wire steering system of a motor vehicle with an individual wheel drive on the front axle in which slipping of the vehicle wheels can be prevented by means of torque vectoring. Furthermore, a method for avoiding slip by means of torque vectoring is to be disclosed.

Steer-by-wire steering system with torque vectoring and integrated anti-slip control


A device for quantifying the degassing of a piece of equipment placed in a vacuum chamber includes a metal blade made from a ferromagnetic material including a fixed end and a free end, the blade being provided with a cooling device and a device for measuring an intrinsic temperature of the blade; an electromagnet for exciting the blade; and a measurement sensor for measuring the excitation of the free end of the blade connected to a device for acquiring measurements and for calculating at least one oscillation frequency of the free end of the blade, the acquisition and calculation device being connected to a device for calculating a surface density of a mass deposited on the blade.

During degassing tests of equipment under vacuum, it is desirable to be able to check the end of the passive or active degassing of the equipment in order to decide on the advisability of terminating or extending the duration of the test, or to check that the equipment desorption rate has reached an acceptable level. Checking the end of degassing generally consists in ensuring that the mass of particles degassed by the equipment and collected on a given surface indicated by the dedicated measurement sensor no longer varies over time despite the persistence of the vacuum. The only apparatus known for such measurements is the quartz crystal microbalance, which measures the mass of a deposit on the quartz crystal from the resulting change in the quartz resonance frequency. The measurement taken is very precise, but the data that the quartz crystal microbalance serves to obtain are only satisfactory if the mass of the deposit collected is very low, typically less than about a hundred micrograms per cm2, so that when a clearly identified substance is deposited as a uniformly ordered layer, it is possible to determine the thickness of the deposit therefrom. The determination of the deposit thickness is only important in the context of the semiconductor industry which must take deposit thicknesses into consideration during metallization, oxidation or epitaxy processes, for example. In this case, the deposit thickness never exceeds a few hundred Angströms. On the contrary, during degassing tests under thermal vacuum, this thickness evaluation is less important and it is more advantageous to quantify the mass of pollutant deposited per unit area at various points of the system under test. For equipment undergoing high degassing under thermal vacuum, such as solar panels, for example, this apparatus is saturated too rapidly due to its high sensitivity. It is then necessary to regenerate it very often by evaporating the deposit collected. The operational limitations engendered by these frequent regenerations make the microbalance unsuitable for most thermal vacuum tests, and especially for those dedicated to the degassing of equipment releasing adhesives and solvents, because they can generate deposits with an order of magnitude evaluated in tens of milligrams per cm2.

Device for quantifying the degassing of a piece of equipment arranged in a vacuum chamber


A heterobipolar transistor (HBT) for high-speed BiCMOS applications is provided in which the collector resistance, Rc, is lowered by providing a buried refractory metal silicide layer underneath the shallow trench isolation region on the subcollector of the device. Specifically, the HBT of the present invention includes a substrate including at least a subcollector; a buried refractory metal silicide layer located on the subcollector; and a shallow trench isolation region located on a surface of the buried refractory metal silicide layer. The present invention also provides a method of fabricating such a HBT. The method includes forming a buried refractory metal silicide underneath the shallow trench isolation region on the subcollector of the device.

Bipolar transistors are electronic devices with two p-n junctions that are in close proximity to each other. A typical bipolar transistor has three device regions: an emitter, a collector, and a base disposed between the emitter and the collector. Ideally, the two p-n junctions, i.e., the emitter-base and collector-base junctions, are in a single layer of semiconductor material separated by a specific distance. Modulation of the current flow in one p-n junction by changing the bias of the nearby junction is called "bipolar-transistor action."
If the emitter and collector are doped n-type and the base is doped p-type, the device is an "NPN" transistor. Alternatively, if the opposite doping configuration is used, the device is a "PNP" transistor. Because the mobility of minority carriers, i.e., electrons, in the base region of NPN transistors is higher than that of holes in the base of PNP transistors, higher-frequency operation and higher-speed performances can be obtained with NPN transistor devices. Therefore, NPN transistors comprise the majority of bipolar transistors used to build integrated circuits.
As the vertical dimensions of the bipolar transistor are scaled more and more, serious device operational limitations have been encountered. One actively studied approach to overcome these limitations is to build transistors with emitter materials whose band gaps are larger than the band gaps of the material used in the base. Such structures are called 'heterojunction' transistors.
Heterostructures comprising heterojunctions can be used for both majority carrier and minority carrier devices. Among majority carrier devices, heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) in which the emitter is formed of silicon (Si) and the base of a silicon-germanium (SiGe) alloy have recently been developed. The SiGe alloy (often expressed simply as silicon-germanium) is narrower in band gap than silicon.
The advanced silicon-germanium bipolar and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) technology uses a SiGe base in the heterojunction bipolar transistor. In the high-frequency (such as multi-GHz) regime, conventional compound semiconductors such as GaAs and InP currently dominate the market for high-speed wired and wireless communications. SiGe BiCMOS promises not only a comparable performance to GaAs in devices such as power amplifiers, but also a substantial cost reduction due to the integration of heterojunction bipolar transistors with standard CMOS, yielding the so-called "system on a chip."
For high-performance NPN HBT fabrication, a low collector resistance, Rc, is needed. Currently, Rc comes mainly from the subcollector that is a heavily n-doped Si, and is 8 ohms/square. The n+ subcollector is almost the highest manufacturable-doped Si for low resistance. Double collector layout designs are known which can be used to lower Rc. Despite lower Rc, double collector layout designs increase the collector-to-base capacitance, Ccb, and lower the NPN areas. Thus, the double collector layout design has its limitation in improving NPN performance.
In view of the drawbacks mentioned with prior art HBTs, there is still a need for providing a HBT that has low collector resistance without trading off Ccb and NPN area as is the case with prior art double collector layout designs. Additionally, there is a need for providing such a HBT in which the normal BiCMOS process flow is minimally disturbed.

Method of collector formation in BiCMOS technology

International Business Machines Corporation


A method for treatment of a matter which contains moisturized or liquified lactoferrin which has been isolated from mammalian milk, processed mammalian milk and by-products in mammalian milk-processing, without losing the physiological activities of lactoferrin, which comprises adjusting pH of said moisturized or liquefied lactoferrin contained in said matter within an acidic range between 2.0 and 6.0 both inclusive by adding acid or aqueous solution of acid when the pH of said moisturized or liquefied lactoferrin is out of said pH range, and heating said matter in the range from 60.degree. C. to 130.degree. C. for a span of time which may assure 60% or more of undenaturization rate of lactoferrin.

Lactoferrin is known as an iron-binding protein distributed in tear, saliva, peripheral blood, milk and the like. It has been known that lactoferrin has various physiological activities, for example, antibacterial activity against harmful bacteria (B. J. Nonnecke, and K. L. Smith; Journal of Dairy Science; Vol. 67, p. 3; 1984), activity for promoting iron absorption by the intestine (G. B. Fransson et al; Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition; Vol. 2, p. 693; 1983), anti-flammatory activity (J. V. Bannister et al; Biochimica et Biophysica Acta; Vol. 715, p. 116; 1982) and so on.
Therefore addition of lactoferrin to foods, processed foods, medicines, cosmetics and the like is desirable.
However, lactoferrin is unstable to heating at near neutral pH, and heat treatment of lactoferrin may result in denaturation of lactoferrin. It is reported that the physiological activities of lactoferrin are almost lost by heating at 62.5.degree. C. for 30 minutes, and complete denaturation is achieved by heating at 70.degree. C. for 15 minutes (J. E. Ford et al; Journal of Pediatrics, Vol. 90, page 29; 1977). In this connection, a typical condition of traditional thermal sterilization of milk is heating at 63.degree. C. for 30 minutes.
It is often necessary to heat foods, feeds, medicines and cosmetics for pasteurization, sterilization, or cooking, however, sufficient thermal treatment could not be applied to lactoferrin or matters containing lactoferrin as an ingredient for utilizing its physiological activities.
The inventors of the present invention have exerted their efforts to develop a method for heat treatment of lactoferrin or matters containing lactoferrin without losing its physiological activities, and have found that when lactoferrin or matters containing lactoferrin are heated under acidic conditions, its physiological activities such as antibacterial activity, iron-binding activity and antigenicity are scarcely affected. This invention is based on this discovery.

Method for heat treatment of lactoferrin without losing physiological activities thereof