This invention relates to a tether device for use in a retail environment in conjunction with a cable lock security device. The cable lock device includes a cable having a free end which extends outwardly away therefrom after the cable lock is secured onto an article of goods. The tether is configured to receive the free end inside a lock channel alternatively lock and unlock this free end with the tether. The tether is intended to be secured onto a separable portion of an article of goods, while the cable lock is intended to be secured onto another separable portion. Thus, in locking the cable lock and the tether together, the two separable portions of the article of goods are thereby rendered generally inseparable.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to anti-theft security devices. More particularly, this invention relates to a tether device for attachment to an end of a cable, wherein the cable is an element of a cable lock security device. Specifically, this invention relates to securing a tether device to a separable part of an article of goods, securing a cable lock security device to a different separable part of the article of goods, and locking an end of a cable extending from the cable lock security device to the tether to secure both parts of the article of goods.
2. Background Information
Various retail establishments use numerous types of theft deterrent systems and devices to discourage shoplifting. Many of these devices attach to the article to be protected by cables which wrap around the device or extend through portions of the device or are secured thereto in other manners. The cable lock security device will sound an alarm if the security device itself is tampered with, such as cutting the attachment cable. Also, the security device will carry an EAS tag which will actuate an alarm of a security gate that is usually located at the exit of the retail establishment. These security devices contain an alarm system which includes an audible alarm which emits a high pitched alarm sound through a speaker, such as a piezoelectric speaker, mounted in the security device. The alarm alerts store personnel that the article being protected thereby is being tampered with, as well as possible tampering of the security device itself.
While these cable lock-style security devices are extremely useful for securing monolithic one-piece articles such as leather jackets, there exists a class of articles which are generally comprised of two main portions which are removably secured together. Each portion is separately valuable in the market, thus a shoplifter need only separate and remove one of the portions to shoplift a valuable item. For example, a cordless drill typically includes a drill portion and a battery portion removably secured thereto, wherein both portions are separately valuable. If a standard style cable lock security device is secured to the drill portion around the handle, a shoplifter could disconnect the battery portion and steal only this unsecured portion, leaving the secured drill portion behind. A retail seller of the cordless drill may attempt to protect both portions. However, this necessitates securing a cable lock security device to both portions of the article, thus requiring twice the inventory of cable lock security devices. Inasmuch as these security devices represent a non-trivial expense to a retail seller and require time during check-out to remove, most sellers do not apply more than one cable lock security device to a particular article.
Thus, the need exists for a companion device such as a tether for use in combination with a cable lock security device, whereby the tether facilitates securing both portions of an article together, and whereby the tether device itself is secured to the cable lock security device. The tether needs to be inexpensive, such that a retail seller would incur a minimal cost to upgrade the existing cable lock style inventory to protect both portions of an article of goods. Furthermore, the tether may incorporate features which allow for locking and unlocking a portion of the cable lock device to the tether, preferably through a locking engagement with a free end of a cable used in the cable lock security device. Inasmuch as a key may be required to unlock the cable lock security device, the same key should also be used to unlock the tether. Alternatively, a new cable lock security device may be provided which includes an end of the cable secured to the cable lock and the other end permanently secured to the tether. In this embodiment, a sensor may be disposed in the tether to inform the cable lock via a circuit when the tether has been removed from the second article.

Method and apparatus for securing related products


A cylindrical keratoscope is provided with an improved structure for illuminating the rings disposed along the length of its bore by having the light-transmitting rings defined as the lands between a series of opaquely coated, incised circular grooves in the bore. A circular, fluorescent, light tube is disposed in an aluminum light box having a semi-toroidal concavity provided with a light-reflecting surface to direct or collimate the light from the tube toward the light-receiving base of the device.

Among the known illuminated ring devices employed in observing the topography of the corneal surface must be included the original 1880 disc of Placido and the keratometer of Kilmer disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,921 both of which used rather large hemispherical targets as well as the device of Knoll U.S. Pat. No. 3,248,162 which used a comparatively large diameter cylindrical target. An alternative to these large target devices is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,115 to Martin Gersten, Richard J. Mammone, and Joseph Zelvin. That device included a conical structure of translucent plastic having an opaquely coated hollow axial bore or passage whose diameter was only slightly larger than that of the object, typically the cornea of a patient's eye which was to be positioned adjacent to the bore at the cone's apical end. The opaque coating of the cylindrical bore was incised with a plurality of ring-shaped cuts to allow light which entered from a light box at the cone's base to illuminate the incised rings. An observer, or properly focused camera, looking into the bore's opposite end could acquire an image of the ring pattern appearing on, i.e., reflected from, the object. Variations in the radius of the rings in the pattern from circularity represent distortions of the curved surface.
While the aforementioned conical device has achieved a certain measure of success, the array of incandescent lamps in the lightbox which was required to provide sufficient illumination of the rings generated a considerable amount of heat. Also, the controlling the thickness of the opaque coating and the incising of the coating in the bore to define the light transmitting rings have proven to be difficult operations to control precisely; sometimes the coating would chip or be scratched off during processing or in the course of use. As a result, some rings were not precisely formed, and their images as reflected from the corneal surface were indistinct.


A power amplifier has an input terminal for receiving a signal to be amplified and an output terminal to which the amplified signal is passed, and comprises single stage which-, or a plurality of cascaded amplifier stages one of, which-, is formed from a plurality of amplifiers connected in parallel with their input ports interconnected and their output ports interconnected. Said one stage may be the last stage. In one arrangement said one stage comprises two or more amplifiers at least one of which is biased at class AB and at least another of which is biased at class C. Alternatively said one stage comprises two or more amplifiers at least one of which is biased at class AB and at least another of which may be switchably biased at class AB or class C.. Again, alternatively, the said one stage may comprise two or more amplifiers, each of which may be switchably biased at class AB or class C and the gates widths of which may be different. The amplifier stages may comprise bipolar junction transistors or field effect transistors. Means are preferably provided enabling the power to be divided to the input to each amplifier in said one stage and means enabling the outputs of each of said amplifiers to be combined. There may be provided between the power dividing point to the input of each of said amplifiers a matching circuit enabling phase shifting to compensate for the amplitude and phase response of each of said amplifiers. In said one stage there may be provided between the output ports of each of said amplifiers and the combining point a matching circuit enabling phase shifting to compensate for the amplitude and phase response of each of said amplifiers.

Current digital mobile communications systems require RF power amplifiers in the handset transmitter to have high efficiency; linearity not only at high output levels but also at low output levels. These stringent requirements arise from the need of the cellular system and to further increase the system transmission data rates and to expand the capacity.
In a portable handset for use in such system, a two or three stage power amplifier is normally used to power the transmitter--which is essential to determine the talk time and the size of the handset. In order to ensure that the battery lasts as long as possible in such a handset it is important to ensure that power consumption is minimised.
It is known that in a portable handset the power supply in the transmitter consumes 70%-80% of the battery power. It is evident therefore that a high efficiency power amplifier is important if the power consumption of the handset is to be reduced.
Normally a high output power is required for the power amplifier in the handset if the handset is at a position remote from the base station. However, the handsets will be often sufficiently close to a base section to allow operation of the amplifier at a medium or low output power level.
It is also important to maintain as high as possible the power and efficiency (PAE) for the amplifier at low and medium output levels. Again the higher linearity is required of the amplifier to reduce adjacent channel power (ACP) leakage over the whole power range--especially at high power levels.
There are contradictions in the way one achieves linearity, power and efficiency in a power amplifier design. If high linearity is required for a power amplifier it is usual to bias the amplifier at a high quiescent current such as class A. The efficiency therefore becomes low compared with class B or class C amplifiers. However, if a power amplifier is biased at a low quiescent current high efficiency for the amplifier can be achieved but the linearity of the device falls. It is usual in power amplifier design to make a trade off between efficiency, linearity and output power in conjunction with the biasing point, matching circuits and the like.
Various suggestions have been made (see bibliography and end of description)
To increase the PAE at low and high output power levels some have proposed a scheme with switch circuits. In this scheme the switch circuit and one or more amplifier circuits are introduced to improve amplifier efficiency. The first amplifier circuit is designed to achieve a high PAE at high output power levels whilst the second amplifier is designed for high PAE at low output power levels. Thus at different power levels different power amplifiers are used to amplify the input signal. Therefore the amplifier can obtain high PAE at low output power levels but unfortunately it cannot improve the linearity of the power amplifier at high output power levels.
Another approach to increase the efficiency was suggested earlier (see Sato). In this scheme the gate voltage of the amplifier is varied according to the output power levels. At low output power levels, bias current for the power amplifier is named to low to achieve high efficiency. At high output power levels bias current for the power amplifier is adjusted high to achieve high linearity. Unfortunately the power sensor and bias control circuits are required to realise the bias control function which again increases complexity of the power amplifier.


An operation/maintenance management method of an integrated system including a plurality of components or devices includes selecting an index and a period for evaluating the integrated system, acquiring prediction information for input information for use in computation of the index, creating a future prediction scenario by combining the input information, computing an evaluation index related to the scenario, and comparing and displaying evaluation index computation results related to a plurality of scenarios.

An integrated system including a plurality of components or devices such as an industrial plant including a gas turbine or an aircraft is required to systematically perform maintenance and upgrades in order to maintain a proper operation state and secure economic efficiency.
For example, Patent Document 1 describes that a state of an operating gas turbine is accurately identified on the basis of information related to the state of the operating gas turbine and a maintenance plan is set.

Operation/maintenance management method, program, and operation/maintenance management system


A method of fabricating a circuit board structure with concave conductive cylinders is provided. Firstly, a conductive layer is provided and a dielectric layer is formed on a surface of the conductive layer. Next, a plurality of vias is formed in the dielectric layer, where the vias are exposed on the surface of the conductive layer. A conductive material is then filled in the vias to form a plurality of conductive cylinders on the surface of the conductive layer, so that the tips of the conductive cylinders are exposed on a surface of the dielectric layer relatively far away from the conductive layer. The exposed tips of the conductive cylinders are removed, so that the height of the conductive cylinders is lower than the dielectric layer and the conductive cylinders sunk into the dielectric layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a circuit board structure and the fabricating method thereof, more specifically, the invention relates to a circuit board structure with concave conductive cylinders and the fabricating method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, conventional circuit boards used to carry and electrically connect a plurality of electronic elements are mainly formed with a plurality of interlayered patterned conductive layers and dielectric layers. The patterned conductive layers are defined and formed through patterning copper foil directly, or through copper electroplating upon copper foil to increase the thickness of conductive layer and then go through a patterning process. The dielectric layers are respectively disposed between these adjacent patterned conductive layers to insulate these patterned conductive layers. In addition, the interlayered patterned conductive layers are electrically connected to each other through conductive vias. In addition, various electronic elements (e.g. active elements or passive elements) may be further disposed on a surface of the circuit board, and through the internal circuit in the circuit board to realize electrical signal propagation.
FIG. 1 is a section view of a circuit board of prior arts. With reference to FIG. 1, a patterned conductive layer 120 of a circuit board 100 of prior arts is disposed on a dielectric layer 110, and the patterned conductive layer 120 has a plurality of pads 122. A patterned solder mask layer 130 is disposed on the dielectric layer 110 to cover a portion of the patterned conductive layer 120. The patterned solder mask layer 130 has a plurality of openings 132 to expose these pads 122. In addition, a plurality of solder balls 140 are respectively disposed on these pads 122 and are respectively electrically connected to these pads 122.
However, during the fabricating process of the circuit board 100 of prior arts, when the patterned solder mask layer 130 is formed, the locations of the openings 132 may not be accurately aligned to the pads 122, and drifts may occur accordingly. And therefore a portion of the pads 122 (with reference to the pads 122 on the right side of FIG. 1) are covered too much by the patterned solder mask layer 130. In addition, when an image transfers, light leaking, under exposure, less developing power or incomplete development may also lead to too small openings 132. Therefore, when the solder balls 140 are respectively formed on the pads 122, the contact area between a portion of the solder balls 140 (with reference to the solder balls on the right side of FIG. 1) and the corresponding pads 122 become small, therefore the bonding reliability between a portion of the solder balls 140 and the corresponding pads 122 is reduced.

Method for fabricating circuit board structure with concave conductive cylinders


Disclosed are an emotion classification information-based text-to-speech (TTS) method and device. The emotion classification information-based TTS method according to an embodiment of the present invention may, when emotion classification information is set in a received message, transmit metadata corresponding to the set emotion classification information to a speech synthesis engine and, when no emotion classification information is set in the received message, generate new emotion classification information through semantic analysis and context analysis of sentences in the received message and transmit the metadata to the speech synthesis engine. The speech synthesis engine may perform speech synthesis by carrying emotion classification information based on the transmitted metadata.

A conventional Text-To-Speech (TTS) processing outputs a text with a pre-stored voice. The primary purpose of the TTS processing is to transmit semantic contents, but recently there is emerging need that the TTS processing transmits not just semantic contents of a text but also interactive contents of the text to a counterpart, so that intent or emotion of a user actually sending the text is reflected in a voice output, thereby allowing interactive conversation with the actual text sender.

Emotion classification information-based text-to-speech (TTS) method and apparatus


A feeding control apparatus controls feeding times and durations in a feed yard in which a bulk supply of feed is stored at one end of the yard. The apparatus includes an electrified barrier that extends across the yard and a mechanism for advancing the barrier against the feed during feeding times and withdrawing it from the feed at other times. The movement of the barrier is under the control of a programmable timer. The feeding and withdrawn positions of the barrier are readily adjusted so that they can be advanced along the yard as the animals eat into the supply of feed.

It is common practice to feed cattle on hay in a feed yard. The hay, commonly supplied in large round bales, as loose hay or in square bales, is usually delivered to the yard in quantities that allow the cattle to eat continuously and to waste excess feed. Considerable labor is expended in moving hay from a storage site away from the animals to the feed yard.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a novel system and system components for controlling the feeding of animals in a feed yard so as significantly to reduce the labor time from that involved with conventional feeding techniques.


A device for automatically fixing bus bars and after-fixing bus bars on an insulating board includes a workpiece setting table, on which a bus bar plate and an insulating board are set, is moved towards an upper die and a lower die, which are provided with an insulating board holding section and a bridge cutting and bus bar fixing section. The upper die is moved downwardly and upwardly, so that the bridges are removed from the bus bar plate, and the insulating board is picked up. Thereafter, an insulating board holding board holding the insulating board is moved to the bridge cutting and bus bar fixing section. The upper die is moved downwardly and upwardly again, so that bus bars are fixed onto the insulating board. As the upper die moves downwardly and then upwardly, the bridges are removed from the bus bar plate, and the insulating board and the intermediate product are lifted. Under this condition, the holding board is moved toward the cut punch plate, and the upper die is moved again downwardly and then upwardly, so that the first-fixing group of bus bars are fixed onto the insulating board while the after-fixing group of bus bars are fixed onto the intermediate product, whereby an intermediate product and a complete product are newly formed.

This invention relates to a device for automatically fixing bus bars onto an insulating board, and more particularly to an apparatus that automatically performs cutting and fixing operations efficiently and without damaging the insulating board.
In a wiring junction box in an automobile, electrical conductors called "bus bars" are fixed onto an insulating board to form an electrical circuit. Heretofore, the bus bars are fixed onto the insulating board as follows:
As shown in FIG. 10, the bus bars are prepared as a bus bar plate (material) BP including a plurality of bus bars B, which are connected through bridges 2. Bridges 2 are cut and removed from the bus bar plate BP by using the punching section of a press, so that only the bus bars B remain. The bus bars B thus remaining are conveyed to a bus bar fixing station. An insulating board 3 has positioning grooves 59 in which the bus bars B are to be set. At the bus bar fixing station, the insulating board 3 is set over the bus bars B, and the bus bars B are fixed onto the insulating board 3 on a press.
In the above-described bus bar fixing operation, the insulating board 3 is manually set over the bus bars B. Accordingly, the bus bar fixing operation is low in work efficiency. In other words, heretofore no device is available that is able to perform the above-described series of manufacturing steps--the bridge cutting and removing step, the insulating board setting step, and the bus bar fixing step. Hence, there has been a strong demand for a device for automatically fixing bus bars onto an insulating board.
In order to set the insulating board 3 over the bus bars B, it is necessary to hold the insulating board 3 once. In this connection, a suction device may be employed for suctioning and retaining the insulating board, or the insulating board may be clamped with a plurality of cylinders. However, those methods are disadvantageous in that the insulating board is liable to be bent and deformed, which may make it impossible to fix the bus bars onto the insulating board. The insulating board is a thin plate of resin, and therefore it should be lifted and held with great care.
In an alternative arrangement, as shown in FIG. 16, the bus bars are similarly prepared as a bus bar plate (material) BP. The bus bars shown in FIG. 16 are so-called "after-fixing bus bars." The after-fixing bus bars are divided into a first-fixing group of bus bars BP1, which are firstly fixed onto the insulating board (to form a main circuit for instance), and an after-fixing group of bus bars BP2, which are coupled through bridges to the first-fixing group of bus bars (to form an auxiliary circuit for instance). The reason that the bus bars are divided into two groups and fixed on the insulating board separately in this arrangement is as follows:
In general, bus bars are arranged in a limited area on the insulating board to form electrical circuits; that is, it is necessary for the bus bars to use a minimum area on the insulating board. The bus bars are provided by blanking such that they form a predetermined pattern and have tabs at predetermined positions that are bent. Hence, it is necessary to provide a certain space between adjacent bus bars that is large enough to provide the tabs. In order to form electrical circuits with the bus bars of this type, it is necessary to use a large insulating board.
Among the bus bars, those that suffer from interference are separated so that they are fixed onto the insulating board at a different time from the time when the remaining are bus bars fixed. That is, the bus bars are not provided as one unit, and instead, they are divided into a plurality of groups that are fixed on the insulating board separately. This is the reason why the after-fixing bus bars have been proposed.
The after-fixing bus bars are fixed on the insulating board as follows: First, the bridges 2 are cut and removed from the bus bar plate BP with the punching section of a press, so that only bus bars B remain. The bus bars B thus remaining are conveyed to the bus bar fixing station. The insulating board 3 has positioning grooves 59 in which the bus bars B are to be set. At the bus bar fixing station, the insulating board is set over the bus bars B, and the bus bars B are fixed onto the insulating board on the press.
In the above-described punching operation, the bus bars of the bus bar plate are divided into the first-fixing group of bus bars and the after-fixing group of bus bars. As was described above, the after-fixing group of bus bars are provided outside of the first-fixing group of bus bars. Therefore, particular operations must be carried out. That is, it is necessary to rearrange the after-fixing group of bus bars and to take the bus bars thus rearranged in the first-fixing group of bus bars. However, heretofore, no device for automatically performing those operations is available, and the operations are carried out manually. In addition, the operator must set the insulating board over the bus bars thus rearranged. Hence, the conventional bus bar fixing operation is rather troublesome and suffers from poor work efficiency. This difficulty accompanying the after-fixing bus bars has been pointed out in the art; however, no suitable counter-measure has been proposed.

Device for fixing bus bars to insulating board


A metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor includes a source region having at least one source contact; a drain region having at least one drain contact; and a gate provided between the source region and the drain region, wherein the number of source contacts included in the source region is different from the number of drain contacts included in the source region.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device; and, more particularly, to a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor capable of preventing a saturation current variation.
Generally, a saturation current generated between a source and a drain of a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor is varied due to a temperature variation. That is, characteristics of an integrated circuit, such as a constant voltage generation circuit or a delay circuit, including the MOS transistor are changed due to the temperature variation. If the characteristics of the integrated circuit are excessively changed based on predetermined conditions such as temperature and pressure, the integrated circuit may not be normally operated.
Accordingly, during manufacturing steps, integrated circuits are tested at a severe temperature, e.g., −10° C. or 90° C., in order to screen out a defective circuit. Since the defective circuit cannot be used by users, it is desirable to produce a MOS transistor stably operated regardless of the temperature variation.
FIG. 1 is a schematic circuit diagram showing a conventional constant voltage generation circuit including conventional MOS transistors.
As shown, the conventional constant voltage generation circuit includes a first and a second n-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS) transistors M1 and M2; a first and a second p-type metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS) transistors M3 and M4; and a resistor R.
A source of the second NMOS transistor M2 is coupled to a ground GND. A gate of the second NMOS transistor M2 is coupled to a gate of the first NMOS transistor M1. The gate of the first NMOS transistor M1 is also coupled to a drain of the first NMOS transistor M1. A source of the first NMOS transistor M1 is coupled to a first terminal of the resistor R and a second terminal of the resistor R is connected to the ground GND.
Each source of the first PMOS transistor M3 and the second PMOS transistor M4 is connected to a power supply voltage VCC. Each gate of the first PMOS transistor M3 and the second PMOS transistor M4 is coupled to each other. A drain of the first PMOS transistor M3 and a drain of the second PMOS transistor M4 are respectively coupled to the drain of the first NMOS transistor M1 and the drain of the second NMOS transistor M4.
The first and the second PMOS transistors M3 and M4 are served as a current mirror circuit for operating the first and the second NMOS transistors M1 and M2. The MOS transistors M1 to M4 shown in FIG. 1 are served as a Widlar-type current mirror circuit for generating a constant voltage VR0.
Herein, it is noted that the resistor R is connected between the first NMOS transistor M1 and the ground GND. A role of the resistor R is described below.
FIG. 2 is a lay-out of each MOS transistor, e.g., M1, included in the conventional constant voltage generation circuit shown in FIG. 1.
As shown, the first NMOS transistor M1 includes a gate line 201, a source region 202 and a drain region 203.
Each of the source region 202 and the drain region 203 includes a plurality of contacts, e.g., a contact 204 included in the source region 202 and a contact 205 included in the drain region 203, for supplying a power and connecting internal elements. The gate line 201 also includes contacts, e.g., 206. Herein, it is noted that the number of contacts included in the source region 202 is same to the number of contacts included in the drain region 203.
Further, a size of the first NMOS transistor M1 is determined by a ratio of width to length. The length corresponds to a distance between the source region 202 and the drain region 203, and the width corresponds to a length of a tangent line between the gate line 201 and the source region 202 or the drain region 203.
Meanwhile, as above-mentioned, a saturation current of a conventional MOS transistor having a structure such as the lay-out shown in FIG. 2 can be abnormally changed due to the unstable temperature. Accordingly, the conventional constant voltage generation circuit having the conventional MOS transistor can operate abnormally.
Therefore, for compensating the change of the performance of the above constant voltage generation circuit, it is necessary that the resistor R is connected between the first NMOS transistor M1 and the ground GND. That is, for reducing the change of the characteristics caused by the temperature variation, the resistance of the resistor R and the size of the first NMOS transistor M1 are appropriately adjusted.

Metal oxide semiconductor transistor and method for manufacturing the same


An information processing apparatus includes: a processing unit configured to write setting data to be used for boot processing by BIOS (Basic Input Output System) in a predetermined area of a non-volatile memory in an order of changing, and execute the boot processing based on the setting data; a writing unit configured to write at least one tag in the predetermined area of the non-volatile memory at a predetermined timing during the boot processing, the tag corresponding to the timing; and an instruction unit configured to instruct the processing unit to execute the boot processing using setting data written before the tag in the predetermined area of the non-volatile memory.

Information processing apparatuses may cause system trouble, such as boot failure, following a change of the BIOS (Basic Input Output System) settings. Such system trouble following the setting change may be recovered by initializing the settings (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-81617 A, for example).
The initialized settings of the BIOS do not reflect user's customized settings. This therefore causes problems, such as a failure to initialize the peripherals that are to be initialized by the BIOS and a change of the procedure for initialization processing. To avoid these problems, another recovery method saves a snapshot of the settings when the system boots up without problems and recovers the system with the saved settings.

Information processing apparatus, control method, and program


An integrated Microelectromechanical Systems (“MEMS”) device (100). The MEMS device comprises a substrate (200, 300), a transition portion (118), and a differential inductor (1000, 1100, 1300). The transition portion is connected to and at least partially extends transversely away from a major surface of the substrate. The differential inductor is mechanically suspended above a major surface of the substrate at least partially by the transition portion. The differential inductor is also electrically connected to an electronic circuit external thereto by the transition portion. A first dielectric gap exists between the major surface of the substrate and the differential inductor.

1. Statement of the Technical Field
The inventive arrangements relate to Microelectromechanical System ("MEMS") and methods for forming the same, and more specifically to differential inductors for MEMS devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
MEMS is a technology of very small devices typically between 2 micrometers to 2 millimeters in size. The MEMS devices can include one or more components between 1 to 100 micrometers in size. Conventional MEMS devices are fabricated using molding techniques, plating techniques, wet etching techniques, and/or dry etching techniques. Various materials can be used to create the MEMS devices. Such materials include silicon, polymers, metals and ceramics.
Radio Frequency ("RF") filters typically occupy a relatively large amount of space in an RF system (i.e., >25%). As such, it has been desirable to miniaturize RF filters via MEMS technology. RF filters may comprise varactor devices, such as Gap Closing Actuator ("GCA") varactors. GCA varactors generally operate on the principle of electrostatic attraction between adjacent interdigitating fingers of a drive comb structure and a movable truss comb structure. That is, motion of the truss comb structure can be generated by developing a voltage difference between the drive comb structure and the truss comb structure. The voltages applied at comb structures are also seen at the interdigitating fingers, respectively. The resulting voltage difference generates an attractive force between the interdigitating fingers. If the generated electrostatic force between the fingers is sufficiently large to overcome the other forces operating on truss comb structure (such as a spring constant of a resilient component), the electrostatic force will cause the motion of the truss comb structure between a first interdigitated position (resting position at a zero voltage difference) and a second interdigitated position (position at a non-zero voltage difference) among a motion axis. Once the voltage difference is reduced to zero, a resilient component (e.g., a spring) restores the position of the truss comb structure to the first interdigitating position.
RF filters typically comprise RF inductors built using thin films disposed on the substrate (e.g., Silicon or Silicon Germanium). Such RF inductors are typically limited in their performance which is proportional to their Quality ("Q") factor. The limited performance of the RF inductors is a consequence of parasitic effects and dielectric losses from the substrate and is a function of frequency. As the frequency increases, more loss results due to coupling of the electric field through the substrate, instead of between the windings of the RF inductor.

Microelectromechanical systems comprising differential inductors and methods for making the same


In dictionary retrieval processing by the electronic dictionary, if a headword matching a retrieval object word is not stored in a built-in dictionary data, the retrieval object word is registered in the form of a network-dictionary retrieval object listing. If a network dictionary retrieval is performed through connection to the dictionary server, a dictionary storing the registered retrieval word is retrieved in the dictionary server, is transmitted to the electronic dictionary, and is displayed. When the displayed dictionary in the network dictionary retrieval is selected, dictionary data is retrieved from the target of the selected dictionary, the dictionary contents corresponding to the retrieval word retrieved in the dictionary server is transmitted to the user electronic dictionary and is displayed. When update of a dictionary is instructed, data of the dictionary is transmitted and downloaded into the dictionary server, and built-in dictionary data is thereby updated and stored.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic dictionary terminal, electronic dictionary server, and recording medium that update dictionary contents in the electronic dictionary terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various book-type dictionaries have generally been used, including English-Japanese dictionaries, Japanese-English dictionaries, and Japanese dictionaries, for example. In recent years, however, electronic dictionaries are widely used because of, for example, their portability, and word retrievability.
Electronic dictionaries can be categorized into various types, most of which have specifications unique to one another depending on, for example, the contents and the volume of built-in dictionaries, the size of an apparatus housing, and the size of display screen. These dictionaries are sold as models independent of each other.
To purchase an electronic dictionary, a user confirms specifications of individual models of such electronic dictionaries at stores, through catalogs, and/or in other ways to find a model suitable to the user's demand.
As such, the contents of such conventional electronic dictionaries are fixed in units of the model. For example, suppose a user purchased a student-dedicated model containing, for example, an "archaic word dictionary" in school days of the user; and having grown to an adult, the user needs to purchase a high-level dictionary, such as an "English-English dictionary." In this case, the user has to purchase a new higher-order model. This is a problem of making it extremely wasteful.

Electronic dictionary client connectable to an electronic dictionary server to search a dictionary on the electronic dictionary server


A high strength copper alloy of excellent bending processability containing Ni: 5-20 wt %, Sn: 0.5-3 wt %, Al: 0.5-5 wt %, Mg: 0.001-0.05 wt %, Cr: 0.001-0.1 wt %, Zn: 0.05-5 wt %, the balance of Cu and inevitable impurities, and having a tensile strength of from 80 to 120 kgf/mm.sup.2. Up to 0.2 wt % of one or more of Fe,Mn,Ti,Zr,P,In,Ta and Co can be added without a deleterious effect. The alloy is non-toxic and economical, as well as shows tensile strength and elongation at least comparable with beryllium-copper alloy and has excellent solderability and solder-resistant and heat resistant peelability. The alloy can be used suitably as materials for electric terminals, connectors, etc.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a high strength copper alloy of excellent bending processability. More specifically, it relates to a high strength copper alloy of excellent bending processability that is suitable for use in terminals, connectors, etc. used in electric and electronic equipment of air crafts and large computers, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, extremely high reliability is demanded for various properties of spring material for terminals, connectors, etc. used for electric and electronic equipment in aircrafts, large computers, etc. In particular, along with a recent trend of reduction in the size of electric and electronic equipment, it has been required to reduce the thickness of spring material used for such equipments. In order to compensate for the reduction in reliability caused by the reduction in the thickness, in view of the strength, more strength has now been demanded for the spring material (tensile strength of not less than 80 kgf/mm.sup.2).
It is known that beryllium-copper (Be-Cu) is a spring material having such high strength. Beryllium-copper having high tensile strength of about 100 kgf/mm.sup.2 and satisfactory bending processability is used as reliable material.
However, since beryllium and beryllium oxide are toxic to human bodies, various protection measures have to be taken when producing terminals, connectors, etc. made of beryllium-copper. Further, since beryllium is expensive, products made of beryllium-copper are also expensive. Further, the beryllium-copper involves a problem that solderability is not satisfactory.
On the other hand, high strength copper alloys which are safe and sanitary to human bodies and are comparable with beryllium-copper, C72700 Cu-9wt%Ni-6wt%Sn) and, Cu-4wt%Ti, etc. are known. All of these alloys have tensile strength of not less than 100 kgf/mm.sup.2. However, since the elongation property is lower as compared with that of beryllium-copper, cracks develop upon bending working. That is, since the bending processability is not satisfactory, they have not yet been used entirely as a substitute for beryllium-copper.

High strength copper-nickel-tin-zinc-aluminum alloy of excellent bending processability


A game apparatus includes a CPU and a main memory. The main memory stores a first character, is capable of storing a second character, and stores a first movement history being brought into association with the first character. The CPU acquires position information indicating a position in which the game apparatus exists, updates a first movement history on the basis of the position information, receives a second character and a second movement history being brought into association with the second character from another game apparatus, and performs processing of writing down a diary and giving a quiz by the character on the basis of at least one of the first character and the second character, and at least one of the first movement history and the second movement history.

1. Field
Example embodiments of the present invention relate to a storage medium storing an information processing program, an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and information processing system. More specifically, example embodiments of the present invention relate to a storage medium storing an information processing program, an information processing apparatus, an information processing method and an information processing system that perform information processing by utilizing position information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as a related art of such a kind, a game apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-745 (patent document 1) has been known. The game apparatus detects a current position of a player, and generates an event different depending on an area to which the detection result belongs.
However, in the related art of the patent document 1, a player who scarcely goes out hardly feels a change of the generated event, and a player who often goes out feel only the change within the moving range of himself or herself, so that the user cannot gain interest.

Storage medium storing information processing program, information processing apparatus, information processing method and information processing system


An article of footwear which includes an outer bottom assembly, the bottom assembly including an outsole and a reinforcement layer. A damping layer is positioned between the outsole and the reinforcement layer, and at least one flange connects the outsole to the reinforcement layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an article of footwear, such as a shoe, in particular a sports shoe, and more particularly a shoe intended for athletic events such as race walking.
2. Background Information
Footwear of the aforementioned type can be used in disciplines such as walking or running on flat or mountainous terrain, mountaineering, snowboarding, skiing, snowshoeing, roller skating, skateboarding, cycling, ball-playing sports, and the like.
An article of footwear, or shoe, can have a low upper, a high upper, or even a mid-upper. The shoe can also be relatively flexible or, conversely, more rigid. However, it is desirable for the shoe sole, in any case, to provide a certain comfort, as well as a certain precision in the transmission of sensory information or impulses related to support forces, whether transmitted to or received by the wearer.
In certain sports shoes, the outer bottom assembly includes an outsole and a reinforcement layer. The outsole generally includes rubber for an easier grip on the ground. A reinforcement layer of such outer bottom assembly contributes to connecting the bottom assembly to the upper of the shoe. This layer is generally inextensible or slightly extensible, which provides stability to the shape of the bottom assembly.
Shoes in which the outer bottom assembly includes an outsole and a reinforcement layer offer a good precision in the transmission of information or impulses. However, they are known not to provide adequate comfort, in the sense that the impulses are not always sufficiently damped. Moreover, certain areas of the outsole wear out quickly. Walking or running also appear to cause fatigue for the user.
Proposals have been made for structural modifications in such bottom assemblies, in particular to improve comfort.
For example, the document FR 2 685 173 proposes an outer bottom assembly that includes an outsole provided to contact the ground, a comfort layer arranged directly beneath the foot, as well as a reinforcement layer inserted between the outsole and the comfort layer.
The shoe according to the document FR 2 685 173 has improved comfort in comparison to the prior art. However, the precision in the transmission of information or impulses is sometimes insufficient, in the sense that the information and impulses are diffused in the bottom assembly. This is the case with point supports on rocks, for example. Moreover, it is noted once again that certain areas of the outsole wear out quickly. It appears here as well that walking causes fatigue for the user.


A system for selecting a golf ball comprises a ballistics data input configured to receive ballistics data for a plurality of golf balls and for a plurality of launch conditions; a material data input configured to receive material measurement data for each of the plurality of golf balls; a data structure generation module configured to generate a data structure for each of the plurality of golf balls based on the ballistics data and measurement data; an indexing module configured to index the data structures relative to each other; a interactive feedback module configured to solicit and receive launch monitor data and preferences; a modeling module configured to generate a performance model based on the launch monitor data and preferences; and a selection module configured to select one of the plurality of golf balls based on the index and the performance model.

1. Technical Field
The embodiments described herein generally relate to automated fitting techniques for golf equipment, and more particularly to an automated technique for selecting a golf ball.
2. Related Art
The golf ball industry has seen tremendous growth and technological advances in the manufacturing of golf balls since 1999. The introduction and adaptation of multiple piece solid core golf balls to the various world professional golf tours at that time has driven manufacturers to explore the limits of golf ball construction and performance. While these developments have seen much advancement, the industry has seen little advancement in the approach to optimally fitting a golfer with the correct golf ball for their game. The golf ball manufacturers each provide golfers with systems that recommend golf balls within their brand but none of these systems address the entire golf ball selection across brands and in an independent manner which unifies a golfer's playing characteristics and preferences with specific performance characteristics of golf balls.

Systems and methods for golf ball selection


When at user equipment UE transitions between radio access technology cells, at the transition a timer for controlling when the UE is to send a periodic location registration is reset. This avoids the UE being implicitly detached when it is unable/blocked in the packet-switched PS domain from performing a RAU but would be able to perform a LU, particularly when the UE is in PS/CS modes 1 or 2. Five different embodiments are detailed: the LU timer T3212 is reset with a value of time remaining in a tracking area update TAU timer T3412; T3212 is reset with an initial value for T3212; the RAU timer T3312 is reset with a value of time remaining in the TAU timer T3412; and the T3212 or T3312 reset is conditional on a value of time remaining in a PS backoff timer T3346 exceeding the value of time remaining in the TAU T3412.

When a user equipment (UE) is roaming among multiple cells using different radio access technologies (RATs, such as for example GSM, UTRAN and E-UTRAN/LTE) with idle state signaling reduction (ISR), the UE needs to perform some type of location registration to indicate the UE's availability to the relevant network cell, which is necessary for the cell to be able to page the UE such as for an incoming call.
There are various specific types for this location registration. Location registration is the more generic term which for example can be satisfied via a Tracking Area Update (TAU), a Routing Area Update (RAU), a combined TAU and RAU in the packet switched (PS) domain, and via Location Updating (LU) in the circuit switched (CS) domain. Location registration of a UE moving between different Location Areas (LA), Routing Areas (RA) and Tracking areas (TA) is therefore necessary, and even periodic location updating is necessary when the UE is not actively mobile. These periodic location registrations are controlled by dedicated timers; timer T3212 for the periodic LU, timer T3312 for the periodic RAU, and timer T3412 for the periodic TAU. Any of these may be generalized as a periodic location registration (LR) timer.
A problem arises if the UE is unable to perform its specific location registration. This may occur for example if the UEs access to network is barred, or if the network rejects the request from the UE with its back-off timer already set. In either case the UE is not allowed to perform its periodic location registration at the expiry of the relevant periodic update timer. When for whatever reason the UE fails to perform its periodic location registration on time, then once the relevant periodic location registration timer and implicit detach timer expires in the network, the core network entity will consider the UE no longer reachable and the core network (CN) will implicitly detach the UE. At this point, the UE becomes un-reachable for mobile terminating (MT) calls.
The general concept is shown at the timing diagram of FIG. 1. While its controlling LR timer is running the UE attempts to connect to the network to report its location registration. The timer expires without a LR update from this UE. The network also runs a similar timer for this particular UE and recognizes that it has received no location registration when that timer expires. Once the core network recognizes this it assumes the UE is no longer available (e.g., it assumes the UE has powered down or is not within range of any cell), and from that point onwards if there is an incoming call to the UE the core network does not know how it should route the call. No cell attempts to page the UE because the time for the UE to update its location registration has passed without a periodic update from the UE.


An image forming apparatus includes a fixing unit including a roller, a heating rotary member heating the roller, and a backup member forming a nip portion, a temperature detection unit detecting a temperature of the heating rotary member, and a control unit for controlling power so that the detected temperature is maintained at a target temperature, wherein a print job includes a first step in which the unfixed toner image is formed on the recording material, a second step in which fixing processing is executed, and a third step in which the fixing unit is cleaned, and wherein the third step is executed following the second step, and in the third step, while the target temperature is set higher than the target temperature in the second step, the roller and the heating rotary member are rotated in a state where no recording material is present at the nip portion.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrophotographic image forming apparatuses such as copying machines, printers, etc.
Description of the Related Art
Fixing devices are used in electrophotographic image forming apparatuses such as copying machines, printers, etc., and there is known a fixing device in which a fixing roller is heated from an outer peripheral surface side. In general, such a fixing device includes a fixing roller, a heating rotary member configured to be in contact with the fixing roller to heat the fixing roller, and a pressing roller configured to be in contact with the fixing roller to form a nip portion. While being conveyed, a recording material on which a toner image is formed is heated at the nip portion to fix the toner image onto the recording material. Examples of the heating rotary member of the fixing device include a heating rotary member including a cylindrical film and a heater into contact with an inner surface of the film, a heating rotary member including a heating roller containing a halogen heater, etc.
Meanwhile, in the fixing device, a phenomenon called "offset" sometimes occurs in which a part of toner on a recording material is transferred to the outer peripheral surface of the fixing roller. Hereinafter, toner that has been offset will be referred to as offset toner. As the fixing roller is rotated, the offset toner may be transferred onto a surface of the heating rotary member and accumulated on the surface of the heating rotary member. The accumulated toner may form into a mass and occasionally return to the surface of the fixing roller to contaminate a toner image on the recording material.
To solve such a problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-114583 discusses a fixing device in which the non-tackiness of a heating member (heating rotary member), i.e., an external heating member, with respect to toner on a recording material is set higher than the non-tackiness of a fixing roller. In the fixing device, the adhesive force between the offset toner and the fixing roller is stronger than the adhesive force between the offset toner and the heating member, so that the offset toner on the fixing roller does not adhere to the heating member and is likely to remain on the surface of the fixing roller. Thus, the offset toner on the surface of the fixing roller can be fixed onto the recording material and discharged as the fixing roller rotates.
However, it is not sometimes sufficient to give a mere difference between the non-tackiness of the external heating member and the non-tackiness of the fixing roller surface, and there still remains a problem that offset toner adheres to the external heating member.

Image forming apparatus which controls the transfer of toner to a heating member


A signal processing apparatus includes a signal transforming unit transforming a first sound signal obtained by dividing a sound signal represented by a time function and by the predetermined time width into a second sound signal represented by a frequency function; a calculating unit determining a third sound signal which has a reduced influence of the operation sound by using the second sound signal and a sound signal representing the operation sound; a correcting unit performing a correction, by setting a sound signal representing the target sound as a reference signal, on the third sound signal based on the reference signal; and a signal inverse transforming unit inverse-transforming a sound signal on which the correction is performed from the sound signal represented by the frequency function into the sound signal represented by the time function.

1. Field
The present application relates to a signal processing apparatus and an imaging apparatus which reduce a noise signal included in a sound signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a method of reducing a component based on a noise sound (noise component) from a sound signal in which a sound of target and a noise sound are mixed, it is generally performed to estimate the noise sound from the obtained sound signal and to subtract a signal of the estimated noise sound (referred to hereinafter as noise signal) from the sound signal (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-195955).
With the use of such a method, when the noise sound is previously obtained or the noise sound is formed of a periodical sound, an intensity of the noise sound and a timing at which the noise sound is included can be easily estimated, so that the noise signal can be appropriately reduced from the sound signal. However, if a sound generated when driven various mechanisms and the like inside an apparatus (referred to hereinafter as operation sound) is recognized as the noise sound, since a timing at which the aforementioned operation sound is generated is aperiodic, it is difficult to estimate the noise sound included in the sound signal. For this reason, a noise component called musical noise may be included in a sound signal after the noise signal is subtracted therefrom.

Signal processing apparatus and imaging apparatus


A display panel and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The display panel includes a substrate, a first inorganic layer, an organic layer, and a water absorption laminated layer. The display panel manufacturing method includes a substrate provided step, a first inorganic layer formation step, an organic layer formation step, a second inorganic layer formation step, and a water absorption laminated layer formation step.

In comparison with traditional liquid crystal displays (LCDs), display panels have advantages of light weight, wide viewing angles, fast response times, low temperature resistance, and high luminous efficiency. Therefore, in the display industry the display panels have been regarded as a next generation of new display technology, especially organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) can be flexible and formed on a flexible substrate, which is a unique advantage of the OLEDs. In order to realize this advantage (i.e., flexible display) of the OLED, a thin film encapsulation (TFE) technology is an essential core technology.
Moisture and oxygen existing in the external environment are the most fatal factors for the display panel. There are two ways to permeate the moisture and oxygen from the external environment. One is that the moisture and oxygen directly permeates through a TFE layer from a top to a bottom into the display panel. The second is that the moisture and oxygen permeate from a side of the TFE layer into the OLED.
A conventional display panel includes a glass substrate, an array substrate, a luminous layer, and a thin film encapsulation layer. The thin film encapsulation layer includes a first inorganic layer, an organic layer, and a second inorganic layer, which is a sandwich structure and is a relatively conventional TFE layer structure in the industry. A water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of this sandwich structure can achieve <5 E-4 g/m2/day. The first inorganic layer and the second inorganic layer are mainly used to prevent the external moisture and oxygen from permeating into the organic layer inside the display panel. Because a film texture of the organic layer is loose and porous, it does not have any ability to block moisture and oxygen. Therefore, the display panel has a poor performance of blocking moisture and oxygen.
In the prior art, the thin film encapsulation structure employs an aluminum oxide layer and a polypropylene (PP) layer to form a laminated layer. This laminated layer theoretically has a good performance of blocking moisture and oxygen. However, in an actual process production, the thin film encapsulation will encapsulate unavoidable foreign substances in the process, so the actual performance of blocking moisture and oxygen is often poor.
In U.S. Publication Patent No. 2015-0021565 and U.S. Publication Patent No. 2015-0048331, a thin film encapsulation layer includes a first inorganic layer, a first organic layer, a second inorganic layer, a second organic layer, and a third inorganic layer. The first inorganic layer is made of aluminum oxide. Main disadvantage of this structure of the thin film encapsulation layer is that the laminated structure of the inorganic layer and the organic layer is too thick, resulting in relatively poor bending resistance, so that the layers are often subjected to excessive stress, and it may even cause warpage of a lower luminous layer of the display panel, which is not conducive to a long-term development of the flexible display panel.

Display panel and manufacturing method thereof

WUHAN CHINA STAR OPTOELECTRONICS SEMICONDUCTOR DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A method for segmentation of a 3-D medical image uses an adaptive patient-specific atlas and an appearance model for 3-D Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) data. For segmentation of a medical image of a retina, In order to reconstruct the 3-D patient-specific retinal atlas, a 2-D slice of the 3-D image containing the macula mid-area is segmented first. A 2-D shape prior is built using a series of co-aligned training OCT images. The shape prior is then adapted to the first order appearance and second order spatial interaction MGRF model of the image data to be segmented. Once the macula mid-area is segmented into separate retinal layers this initial slice, the segmented layers' labels and their appearances are used to segment the adjacent slices. This step is iterated until the complete 3-D medical image is segmented.

There are approximately 415 million adults living with diabetes worldwide and approximately 642 million could be affected by 2040. Those affected are at risk for degraded vision due to diabetic retinopathy, in which damage to the blood vessels leads to fluid accumulation in the retinal layers. It is crucial to monitor and detect changes in the morphology and appearance of retinal layers in order to prevent loss of vision in diabetic patients. There are several medical imaging modalities that can be used to observe qualitative and quantitative anatomical features of the retina, such as fundus imaging and optical coherence tomography (OCT). Fundus imaging produces a 2-D representation of the retina where the reflected amount of light is represented by image intensities. Fundus imaging is limited in that it does not provide any indication of depth, i.e. the particular layers of retina where changes occur. OCT overcomes this limitation with the ability to noninvasively image internal tissue of the human body in cross section at micron resolutions through measuring the reflections of light waves. OCT is used heavily by ophthalmologists and optometrists for obtaining high-resolution images of the retina and anterior segment of the eye. The modality has found widespread application such as vascular plaque detection, lumen detection, and cancer detection.
A volumetric OCT scan includes of a set of A-scans representing reflectivity of retinal tissue as a function of depth beneath a single point on the surface. The juxtaposition of A-scans taken along a line across the surface provides a cross-sectional image or B-scan, a 2-D medical image. Volumetric OCT, a 3-D medical image, comprises an array of adjacent B-scans. To be able to quantify both the morphology and reflectivity of a certain layer of retina, a user must segment the volume into layers and extract the layer of interest from the volume. The typical method to extract the layer of interest is to use image editing software to manually delineate retinal layers. However, this method is time consuming, subjective, and dependent on the experience and skill of the individual performing the manual segmentation.
Several approaches to automatic segmentation have been proposed. Most can be classified as: 1) threshold methods, 2) level set based techniques, and 3) graph cut techniques. However, the existing techniques suffer from at least one of several limitations: 1) segmentation of retinal layers is derived from only a single B-scan (e.g., a cross section of the macula), 2) coarse segmentation of the retina into fewer than the approximately 12 layers that can be distinguished by OCT, and 3) long execution times, particularly for graph-based approaches, rendering the automatic segmentation techniques unsuitable for clinical use.

Atlas for automatic segmentation of retina layers from OCT images


A semiconductor device comprises on a surface of a first semiconductor layer of the first conduction type a second semiconductor layer of the first conduction type. A semiconductor base layer of the second conduction type is formed on the second semiconductor layer, and a semiconductor diffusion layer of the first conduction type is formed on a surface of the semiconductor base layer. A trench is formed from the surface of the semiconductor diffusion layer to a depth reaching the second semiconductor layer. A gate electrode is formed of a conductor film buried in the trench with a gate insulator interposed therebetween. The conductor film includes a first conductor film formed along the gate electrode to have a recess and a second conductor film formed to fill the recess.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a trench-gate semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known power semiconductor elements capable of achieving a low on resistance include a trench-gate MOS transistor and an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT).
A trench-gate, n-channel MOS transistor, for example, includes trenches formed in stripes or mesh such that they extend from an n-type source layer through a p-type base layer located below the source layer. A film of conductor such as polysilicon is buried with a gate insulator on a trench wall to form a gate electrode. Such the structure produces a power semiconductor element with a lower on resistance than that of the so-called planar gate type that includes a gate electrode formed on a gate insulator formed over a surface of the base layer.
In such the trench-gate structure, electric field concentration may easily arise at a corner of the bottom of the trench and this may cause deterioration of the breakdown voltage as a problem. When the trench width is reduced as fine patterning proceeds, the radius of curvature at the trench corner further decreases, and the degree of electric field concentration increases at the trench corner of the trench bottom. If the radius of curvature at the trench corner is small, current flows in a drift layer not uniformly, thereby increasing the drift resistance, resulting in increases in on resistance and power consumption in the element as a problem. Therefore, an anisotropic etching is applied to the trench bottom to round the trench bottom to form an almost reverse-tapered (flask-shaped) trench having an enlarged radius of curvature (see JP2001/244325A, paragraphs 0019-0022, FIG. 1 and so forth). This shape relieves the electric field at the trench bottom to improve the breakdown voltage and enables the drift layer to be thinned to the extent to reduce the drift resistance and thus reduce the on resistance.
When such the reverse-tapered trench is formed, a void may easily arise in the conductor film, or polysilicon film, configuring the gate electrode. The void causes no problem so long as it exists in the polysilicon film at the center. Rather, it reduces stresses due to fine pattering and contributes to prevention of occurrences of D-S leakage current. During crystallization of polysilicon proceeding in a heat treatment step executed after the formation of polysilicon, however, the void may migrate and come into contact with the gate insulator possibly. In this case, in the p-type base layer opposite to the void brought into contact with the gate insulator, an inverted layer is hardly formed even though the gate voltage is applied. In addition, in the drift layer below the base layer, an accumulation layer is hardly formed. Accordingly, this causes an increase in on resistance as a problem. The void easily occurs in the reverse-tapered trench though the same problem arises if a void occurs regardless of the trench shape.
Such the migration of the void may cause the following two problems associated with the reliability of the gate electrode. One is a problem found in a gate ruggedness test because an electric field concentrates on the gate insulator at a void edge (a boundary between the void and the polysilicon). Accordingly, the breakdown ruggedness lowers and reduces TDDB and ESD ruggedness. Another is a problem related to the above electric field concentration that facilitates charges to flow through the gate insulator. This causes a threshold voltage fluctuation due to a charge trap in the insulator in a high-temperature gate bias test.

Trench-gate MOS transistor composed of multiple conductors


A digital map enhancement system and a method performed by the system are disclosed for improving accuracy of pre-stored digital map data of a digital map to be utilized by a vehicle. The system determines a current position of the vehicle, and identifies, in the pre-stored digital map data, a mapped digital landmark representing a stationary landmark predicted to be in the vicinity of the current position of the vehicle, which mapped digital landmark includes a pre-stored position of the stationary landmark. The system detects the stationary landmark by one or more sensor devices on-board the vehicle, which are adapted for observing the surroundings of the vehicle, and determines a detected position of the stationary landmark based on the current position of the vehicle and the detection of the stationary landmark. The system updates the pre-stored position of the mapped digital landmark with the detected position of the stationary landmark.

In recent years, development of navigation systems based on e.g. GPS and digital maps has been, and increasingly is, growing rapidly. The accuracy of GPS receivers has improved, and at the same time, the road coverage of digital maps has been extended and bundled with large amounts of data about the road network, while its accuracy has improved. The accuracy and amount of information contained in digital maps is constantly evolving, offering a large amount of knowledge about the road network.
In addition to road network topography, digital maps may be able to carry large amounts of information describing the characteristics of the road, such as speed limit, number of lanes, curvature, slope, tunnels, lane dividers, traffic signs etc. Accordingly, digital maps may be useful to many in-vehicle applications, such as autonomous driving, active cruise control, vehicle energy management and/or collision mitigation, in that digital map information about the road being driven may be extracted, and potentially presented to the applications.
US 2008/0243378, for instance, discloses a navigation system for a vehicle, including a position sensor, other sensors such as a camera, laser scanner and/or radar, and a digital map comprising records of the vehicle's surrounding objects. The vehicle location is determined, subsequently supporting features such as enhanced driving directions, collision avoidance and/or automatic assisted driving.
However, although US 2008/0243378 enables positioning of the vehicle; in order to exploit the opportunities provided in current and future digital maps to support e.g. active safety applications, improved data accuracy is of most importance.

Method and system for improving accuracy of digital map data utilized by a vehicle


A fully differential amplifier slew rate boosting scheme for use with an amplifier having a closed-loop gain very near unity or less has the first plates of the compensation capacitors 50 and 52 conventionally coupled to internal high impedance gain nodes 40 and 42, but has the other plates of the compensation capacitors 50 and 52 unconventionally driven with the input signal IN+ and INxe2x88x92. The voltages appearing across the compensation capacitors 50 and 52 in response to changes in the input signal is significantly less than that achieved using conventional compensation architectures where the other plates of the compensation capacitors are coupled to ground. Since little current is now required to charge the compensation capacitors 50 and 52, the input stage tail current no longer limits the slew rate.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to operational amplifier (op-amp) slew rate boosting schemes, and more particularly to a technique to boost the slew rate of a fully differential op-amp which has a closed-loop gain that is unity or less.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fully differential folded cascode op-amps with a closed-loop gain that is unity or less are well known in the prior art. One such op-amp is illustrated in FIG. 1. The circuit of FIG. 1 includes input differential pair 20; transistors 22-25; output buffers 26 and 28; compensation capacitors 30 and 32; resistors 34 and 36; input resistors 44 and 45 (Ri); feedback resistors 46 and 47 (Rf); input nodes IN+ and INxe2x88x92; tail current source Itail; bias voltage Vbias; common mode feedback VCMF; and output nodes OUT+ and OUTxe2x88x92. The output buffers 26 and 28 are typically class AB buffers. The equations, which govern the operation of the op-amp, are also very well known and have been documented by Paul R. Gray and Robert G. Meyer in Analysis and Design of Analog Integrated Circuits, pp. 646xe2x80x94onward, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 3rd Edition. It has been shown that if the op-amp is to be made stable, one must control its unity gain crossing frequency. The conventional technique for controlling this unity gain crossing frequency is to use compensation capacitors 30 and 32 that couple nodes 40 and 42 to ground. The frequency where the open loop gain falls to unity for the op-amp is then defined as:                               f          unity                =                              G            m                                2                        π                                      xe2x80x83                                                  C              comp                                                          (        1        )
where Gm is the transconductance of the input stage 20 and is determined by the tail current Itail shared by the input stage 20 transistors, and Ccomp is the capacitance value for capacitors 30 and 32. Specifically, Gm is defined as:                     Gm        =                              qI            tail                                2                        kT                                              (        2        )
The slew rate (maximum rate of change in output voltage for large input signals) for the op-amp is defined as:                     Slewrate        =                              I            tail                                C            comp                                              (        3        )
where it is well known the compensation capacitance Ccomp must be set to a sufficiently large value in order to make the op-amp stable. Conventional op-amp compensation techniques provide a high small signal open loop voltage gain at a high output impedance at the op-amp gain node. This high output impedance in combination with the compensation capacitor then operates to place the dominant pole. When a conventional op-amp uses a compensation capacitor to achieve stability, all of the input stage tail current will flow into the compensation capacitor in response to a large step input voltage since one end of the compensation capacitor is coupled to the high impedance gain node while the opposite end of the compensation capacitor is coupled to an AC ground. The tail current will charge the compensation capacitor to achieve a slew rate defined by equation (3) above.
If more than two poles exist before the unity gain frequency funity is reached, the op-amp will be unstable. Specifically the compensation capacitors 30 and 32 operate to push the first dominant pole down to a low enough frequency such that the op-amp gain falls below unity before the second pole is reached. Setting the value of compensation capacitance Ccomp to achieve the above desired stability characteristics therefore also establishes the maximum slew rate for the op-amp as set forth in equation (3) above. It is, of course, desirable to have a very high slew rate. In view of the foregoing, it can be appreciated that achieving a very high slew rate requires reducing the value of the compensation capacitance Ccomp. Reducing the value of the compensation capacitance Ccomp however, makes the op-amp less stable since the first dominant pole will then be moved to a higher frequency as discussed herein before. The desired value of the compensation capacitance Ccomp and the desired high slew rate are therefore in direct conflict with one another.
One conventional technique used to address the direct conflict between the desired value of the compensation capacitance Ccomp and the desired high slew rate includes reducing the value of transconductance Gm associated with the input stage 20 by inserting resistors into the emitter paths of the input stage 20 transistors. A lower value for the compensation capacitance Ccomp can then be used to achieve amplifier stability as seen by equation (1) above, which also then increases the slew rate as seen by equation (3) above. This technique however, is problematic in that the emitter resistors added to the emitter paths of the input stage 20 transistors introduce additional noise that cannot be tolerated in specific applications such as when the op-amp is driving a load that is connected to ground in response to an input signal such as might be used to accommodate ADSL systems.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for a technique to boost the slew rate of fully differential amplifiers having a closed-loop gain of close to unity or less without introducing additional noise into the system.
The fully differential amplifier slew rate boosting scheme for use with an amplifier having a closed-loop gain very near unity or less has the first plates of the compensation capacitors conventionally coupled to internal high impedance gain nodes, but has the other plates of the compensation capacitors unconventionally driven with the input signal. The voltages appearing across the compensation capacitors in response to changes in the input signal is significantly less than that achieved using conventional compensation architectures where the other plates of the compensation capacitors are coupled to ground. Since little current is now required to charge the compensation capacitors, the input stage tail current no longer limits the slew rate.

Differential amplifier slew rate boosting scheme


The input device has a printed circuit board (5) to which a plurality of coils (L1-L8) has been fitted which, together with a capacitor (C2), each form a frequency-determining element of an oscillator (1). The coils (L1-L8) are arranged so as to be distributed along a path (K), which may also be a circular path. A movable magnet portion (M) can be displaced relative to the printed circuit board (5). At least one further stationary magnet portion (M1-M8) is mounted on the printed circuit board (5), which is opposite the movable magnet portion (M).

Many devices or objects of daily life are operated today by input apparatus such as for example electric switches, control levers, touchscreens, slide controls, keyboards and the like where feedback occurs via other sensory organs than the input. If, for example, a cursor on a monitor shall be controlled by a so-called mouse, input occurs by manual movement of the mouse whereas feedback occurs visually by viewing the monitor. If the volume of a radio shall be modified, today in many units a key is only held down, with the duration of pressing determining the degree of volume change. Here, the feedback occurs acoustically.
It is desirable to receive a direct haptic feedback on tactile entry, with tactile entry (force, displacement, direction) being available for haptic experience directly and not occurring only by a possibly time-delayed system, such as for example via a signal not directly associated with the entry.
Magnetically positioned input devices are suitable for this.
EP 1 223 541 B1 describes an input apparatus in the form of a remote control, in which for control of a cursor on a display screen a movable, adjustable portion with a first magnet mounted on it is displaced relative to a second stationary magnet and the resulting magnet field is measured by means of Hall sensors from which the position of the movable, adjustable portion can be determined. Due to the interaction of the two magnets, the adjustable portion in the absence of external forces is put into a predetermined position. Only by external force, for example by a finger of an operator, the adjustable portion can be displaced out of this rest position, with the force required for displacement being dependent on the position of the magnets to each other, so that the user receives a tactile or haptic feedback.
A third stationary magnet may also be provided so that the adjustable portion can be displaced between two rest positions, with displacement out of both rest positions each requiring an external force.
Further examples of input apparatus with magnets are known from the following documents:
DE 10117956 B4, DE 102005018275 A1,
DE 102007002189 A1, DE 202005019271 U1,
EP 0810544 A2, EP 1901005 A2,
JP 06318134 A, JP 2005004365 A,
U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,502 A, U.S. Pat. No. 7,187,360 B2,
U.S. Pat. No. 7,489,296 B2, U.S. 2002/0054012 A1,
U.S. 2002/0125977 A1, U.S. 2004/0252104 A1,
U.S. 2005/0068134 A1, U.S. 2006/0209019 A1,
WO 03/054782 A1, WO 2006/130723 A2,
WO 2006/131520 A1 and WO 2008/016386 A2.
Most of the above mentioned documents use Hall sensors, which measure magnetic flux density, from which a signal for the position of the movable magnet can be derived.
WO 00/70438 points out that the Hall sensors are quite expensive and can only measure magnetic flux density so that for detecting a direction of displacement of a magnet at least two Hall sensors are required. This document therefore suggests to use coils as sensors. If a magnet is displaced relative to the coil, voltage is induced in the coil, with a voltage impulse also permitting detection of the direction of motion since the voltage impulse depending on the direction of motion starts with a rising or falling edge.
Disadvantageous in this apparatus, however, is that only a displacement can be detected and no static condition.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,698,976 A describes an input device with a board out of magnetic material the surface of which in X and Y direction has a regular but different geometrical configuration in the form of elevations and recesses. A magnet can be displaced relative to said board and a sensor in the form of a coil is displaced together with the magnet. Due to the varying geometry on the board surface, the magnetic flux varies which is detected by the coil.


A nanoparticle-resin composition includes a nanoparticle, a silicone resin having a reactive functional group at its terminal end, and a compound selected from a silane group-containing compound, a silazane compound, or a combination including at least one of the foregoing. In addition, a nanoparticle-resin composite includes a silicone resin matrix including the cure product of a silicone resin having a reactive functional group at its terminal end, a plurality of nanoparticle clusters dispersed in the silicone resin matrix, and a buffer layer encapsulating the nanoparticle cluster. The buffer layer includes a compound selected from a silane group-containing compound, a silazane compound, or a combination including at least one of the foregoing compounds.

1. Field
This disclosure relates to a nanoparticle-resin composition, nanoparticle-resin composite, and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor nanoparticles, also referred to as quantum dots, are semiconductor materials with a nano-sized (generally <100 nm) dimensions and a crystalline structure, and can include from hundreds to thousands of atoms.
Since semiconductor nanoparticles are very small, they have a large surface area per unit volume, and also exhibit quantum confinement effects. Accordingly, they have unique physicochemical characteristics based on their size, that differ from inherent characteristics of corresponding bulk semiconductor materials.
Since optoelectronic properties of nanoparticles may be controlled by adjusting their size, the semiconductor nanoparticles remain the object of active research as applied to, for example, display devices and bio applications.
Moreover, the semiconductor nanoparticle does not contain a heavy metal, and therefore has other advantages such as environmental-friendliness and that it is safe for human contact. Therefore, there has been much interest in development of diverse technologies for synthesizing semiconductor nanoparticles exhibiting such characteristics and applicability to diverse areas of technology, by controlling the size, structure, uniformity, and so forth thereof.
Semiconductor nanoparticles, when used in a display device however, further require increased stability, luminous efficacy, color purity, lifetime, and other such properties.

Nanoparticle-resin composition, nanoparticle-resin composite, and method of making nanoparticle-resin composite


Systems and methods for detecting unused channels in a cognitive radio system are described. In one method, data is communicated on a particular channel for a secondary receiver. In addition, a set of channels is iteratively scanned by collecting samples for each channel and for each iteration of the scanning. Here, iterations of the scanning progressively removes channels from the set of channels based on the collected samples and updates states of the channels in the set based on the collected samples to obtain a set of candidate channels. In response to detecting a pre-determined condition, communications on the particular channel are precluded and at least one of the candidate channels is evaluated by collecting additional samples on each of the channels. Further, at least one of the candidate channels is selected based on the evaluation for utilization by the one or more secondary receivers for data communication.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to cognitive radio systems and methods and, more particularly, to spectrum sensing for cognitive radio.
2. Description of the Related Art
In cognitive radio (CR) networks, secondary users (SUs) are permitted to opportunistically access a licensed spectrum band or channel at times that the band or channel is not occupied by primary users (PUs). An important aspect of CR networks is the maintenance of the quality of service (QoS) of secondary transmissions while ensuring that that the secondary transmissions do not interfere with primary user (PU) transmissions on the licensed band. To avoid causing harmful interference to PUs, SUs should reliably detect the return of PUs and quickly evacuate from the spectrum band occupied by the SUs. However, to maintain QoS of secondary traffic, SUs should quickly switch to another empty spectrum band that is not utilized by any PUs.

Multiple stage hybrid spectrum sensing methods and systems for cognitive radio


A capacitor fabricated, within an integrated circuit, has at least two capacitive trenches extending within a dielectric material. A metal layer is produced which is embedded in the dielectric material. To form the capacitor, the dielectric material is etched, with etching stopped at the metal layer so as to form the trenches. A layer of conductive material forming the lower electrode of the capacitor is then deposited at least on the sidewalls of the trenches and in contact with the metal layer. A dielectric layer is then deposited within the trenches. A layer of conductive material forming the upper electrode of the capacitor is then deposited within the trenches.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to integrated circuits and, more particularly, to integrated circuits comprising at least one three-dimensional capacitor.
2. Description of Related Art
It is known to produce three-dimensional capacitors using an aluminum technology (reactive ion etching, RIE) or copper technology (Damascene).
The three-dimensional capacitor is conventionally obtained by depositing a capacitive metal-insulator-metal (MIM) stack in which the lower layer is a conductive material, for example TiN. The insulator is a dielectric material of any permittivity (low, medium or high) and the upper electrode is a conductive material, for example TiN, in trenches which are obtained after etching the intermetallic insulating or dielectric material. Such capacitive trenches have high access resistances, however, particularly at the external electrode which is referred to as the lower electrode. The capacitive value of the capacitor furthermore depends on the depth of the trenches. It moreover proves difficult to ensure good etching reproducibility from one batch of wafers to another, which results in a dispersion of the capacitive values of theoretically identical capacitors.

Method for fabricating an integrated circuit comprising a three-dimensional capacitor