Embodiments of the invention provide a spin rinse dry (SRD) chamber for a semiconductor processing system. The SRD chamber includes a selectively rotatable substrate support member having an upper substrate receiving surface formed thereon, and a selectively rotatable shield member positioned above the upper substrate receiving surface, the rotatable shield member having a substantially planar lower surface that may be selectively positioned proximate the upper substrate. Embodiments of the invention further provide a method for rinsing semiconductor substrates, including the steps of positioning the substrate on a substrate support member, positioning a shield member having a substantially planar lower surface in a processing position above the substrate such that the substantially planar lower surface is in parallel orientation with an upper surface of the substrate, and flowing a fluid solution into a processing region defined by the upper surface of the substrate and the substantially planar lower surface via a fluid aperture in the substantially planar lower surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to semiconductor plating and other wet processing systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sub-quarter micron multilevel metallization is a key technology for the next generation of very large scale integration (VLSI) and ultra large scale integration (ULSI). The multilevel interconnects that lie at the heart of these integration technologies generally possess high aspect ratio features, including contacts, vias, lines, plugs, and other features. Therefore, reliable formation of these features is critical to the success of VLSI and ULSI, as well as to the continued effort to increase integrated circuit density, quality, and reliability on individual substrates. As such, there is a substantial amount of ongoing effort being directed to improving the formation of void-free sub-quarter micron features having high aspect ratios, i.e., features having a height to width ratio of about 4:1 or greater.
Elemental aluminum (Al) and aluminum alloys have conventionally been used as conductive materials to form lines, plugs, and other features in integrated circuit semiconductor processing techniques, as a result of aluminum""s low resistivity, superior adhesion to silicon dioxide (SiO2) substrates, ease of patterning, desirable electromigration characteristics, and relatively high purity available at moderate costs. However, as circuit densities increase and the size of conductive features therein decreases, conductive materials having a lower resistivity than aluminum may be desirable. Therefore, copper and copper alloys are becoming choice metals for filling sub-quarter micron and smaller high aspect ratio interconnect features in integrated circuits, as copper and copper alloys have a lower resistivity than aluminum, and therefore, generate better resistance/capacitance time delay characteristics. Additionally, copper and copper alloys generally offer improved electromigration characteristics over aluminum.
However, a challenge with using copper in integrated circuit fabrication is that copper is not easily deposited into high aspect ratio features with conventional semiconductor processing techniques. For example, physical vapor deposition (PVD) techniques may be used to deposit copper, however, PVD copper deposition is known to encounter difficulty in obtaining adequate bottom fill in high aspect ratio features. Additionally, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) may be used to deposit copper, however, CVD suffers from relatively low deposition rates, and therefore low throughput, in addition to using precursors that are difficult to manage. Additionally, copper is difficult to pattern with conventional semiconductor processing techniques, and therefore, copper must generally be deposited directly into features, where conventional aluminum deposition techniques allowed for deposition and patterning of the conductive features. In view of these difficulties, electroless and electroplating deposition methods have become an attractive option for depositing metal, specifically copper, onto semiconductor substrates and into high aspect ratio features.
Electroless and electroplating methods generally include a substrate plating step followed by a substrate rinse and dry step. The plating step generally includes flowing a plating solution over the surface of the substrate in order to deposit a desired metal layer on the surface of the substrate. Once the desired metal layer is formed on the substrate surface, the substrate surface is generally rinsed and dried to remove any excess material or plating solution therefrom. The rinsing process generally includes flowing a rinsing fluid onto the surface of the substrate while the substrate is rotated on a support member. The rinsing fluid is urged radially outward by the rotation of the substrate, and therefore, the rinsing fluid operates to sweep away or rinse off any excess material or plating solution on the substrate surface. Once the rinsing process is complete, the substrate is generally rotated at a high rate of speed in order to remove any excess rinsing solution from the surface of the substrate. However, conventional spin rinse dry (SRD) apparatuses and methods generally do not provide fluid management capability, i.e., conventional apparatuses generally flow rinsing fluids across the surface of the substrate and then discard the fluid as waste. Further, conventional SRDs generally offer no control over the fluid dynamics as the fluid passes over the substrate surface.
Therefore, there exists a need for a method and apparatus for cleaning and/or rinsing substrates in a semiconductor processing system, wherein the method and apparatus includes the ability to control fluid dynamics and to minimize fluid waste.
Embodiments of the invention generally provide an apparatus and method for rinsing and drying a substrate. One embodiment of the invention provides a spin rinse dry chamber for a semiconductor processing system. The SRD chamber includes a processing enclosure having a selectively rotatable substrate support member positioned therein. The substrate support member includes an upper substrate receiving surface formed thereon. The SRD chamber further includes a selectively rotatable shield member positioned above the upper substrate receiving surface within the SRD chamber. The rotatable shield member generally includes a substantially planar lower surface that may be selectively positioned proximate the upper surface of the substrate.
Embodiments of the invention further provide a semiconductor processing apparatus having a substrate support member positioned within a processing enclosure, the substrate support member having an upper substrate receiving surface formed thereon. The processing enclosure further includes a disk shaped shield member positioned therein above the substrate receiving surface. The disk shaped shield member generally includes a substantially planar lower surface positioned in a substantially parallel orientation with the upper substrate receiving surface.
Embodiments of the invention further provide a method for rinsing semiconductor substrates, including the steps of positioning the substrate on a substrate support member, and positioning a shield member having a substantially planar lower surface in a processing position above the substrate such that the substantially planar lower surface is in parallel orientation with an upper surface of the substrate. The method further includes flowing a fluid solution into a minimized processing volume defined by the upper surface of the substrate and the substantially planar lower surface. The fluid may be communicated to the processing volume via a fluid aperture formed into the substantially planar lower surface.

Apparatus and method for rinsing substrates


A method for enhancing the clinical responsiveness to an anti-inflammatory therapy in a patient afflicted with an inflammatory condition, comprising administering an oligonucleotide having the sequence 5′-Xm-CG-Yn-3′ in an effective amount to said patient, and wherein X is A, T, C or G; Y is A, T, C or G; m=1-40; n=1-40 and wherein at least one CG dinucleotide is unmethylated. The invention also encompasses the use of such an oligonucleotide for the manufacture of a medicament for enhancing steroid efficacy in the treatment of a patient afflicted with an inflammatory condition.

Inflammation can be defined as an immunologic response to injury or irritation, characterized by local mobilization of white blood cells and antibodies, swelling, and fluid accumulation. This is a response that is identical whether the injurious agent is a pathogenic organism, foreign body, ischemia, physical trauma, ionizing radiation, electrical energy or extremes of temperature. Although a defense and repair mechanism of the body, the reactions produced during inflammation may be harmful and develop into e.g. chronic inflammation, hypersensitivity reactions, systemic or local inflammatory diseases. An inflammatory disease is in this context defined as a disease characterized by inflammation. Examples include, but are not limited to, allergic conditions, asthma, allergic rhinitis, inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn's disease and related conditions), multiple sclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), rheumatoid arthritis, and cardiovascular diseases with an inflammatory component.
Allergy is a complex process in which environmental antigens induce clinically adverse reactions.
Asthma can be understood as a basically allergic disease of the lung and its tissues. The asthma inducing antigens, called allergens, typically elicit a specific IgE response and, although in most cases the allergens themselves have little or no intrinsic toxicity, they induce pathology when the IgE response in turn elicits an IgE-dependent or T cell-dependent hypersensitivity reaction.
Hypersensitivity reactions can be local or systemic and typically occur within minutes after allergen exposure in individuals who have previously been sensitized to the respective allergen.
The hypersensitivity reaction of allergy develops when the allergen is recognized by IgE antibodies bound to specific receptors on the surface of effector cells, such as mast cells, basophils, or eosinophils, which cause the activation of the effector cells and the release of mediators that produce the acute signs and symptoms of the reactions. Allergic diseases include asthma, allergic rhinitis (hay fever), atopic dermatitis, and anaphylaxis.
Asthma is thought to arise as a result of interactions between multiple genetic and environmental factors and is characterized by three major features: 1) intermittent and reversible airway obstruction caused by bronchoconstriction, increased mucus production, and thickening of the walls of the airways that leads to a narrowing of the airways, 2) airway hyperresponsiveness, and 3) airway inflammation. Certain cells are critical to the inflammatory reaction of asthma and they include T cells and antigen presenting cells, B cells that produce IgE, and mast cells, basophils, eosinophils, and other cells that bind IgE. These effector cells accumulate at the site of allergic reaction in the airways and release toxic products that contribute to the acute pathology and eventually to tissue destruction related to the disorder. Other resident cells, such as smooth muscle cells, lung epithelial cells, mucus-producing cells, and nerve cells may also be abnormal in individuals with asthma and may contribute to its pathology. While the airway obstruction of asthma, presenting clinically as an intermittent wheeze and shortness of breath, is generally the most pressing symptom of the disease requiring immediate treatment, the inflammation and tissue destruction associated with the disease can lead to irreversible changes that eventually makes asthma a chronic and disabling disorder requiring long-term management.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary (or airways) disease (COPD) is a condition defined physiologically as airflow obstruction that generally results from a mixture of emphysema and peripheral airway obstruction due to chronic bronchitis. Emphysema is characterized by destruction of alveolar walls leading to abnormal enlargement of the air spaces of the lung. Chronic bronchitis is defined clinically as the presence of chronic productive cough for three months in each of two successive years In COPD, airflow obstruction is usually progressive and is only partially reversible. By far the most important risk factor for development of COPD is cigarette smoking, although the disease does also occur in non-smokers.
Chronic inflammation of the airways is a key pathological feature of COPD. The inflammatory cell population comprises increased numbers of macrophages, neutrophils and CD8+ lymphocytes.
Inhaled irritants such as cigarette smoke activate macrophages resident in the respiratory tract as well as epithelial cells leading to release of chemokines (e. g., interleukin-8) and other chemotactic factors which act to increase the neutrophil/monocyte trafficking from the blood into lung tissue, and airways. Neutrophils and monocytes recruited into the airways can release a variety of potentially damaging mediators such as proteolytic enzymes and reactive oxygen species. Matrix degradation and emphysema, with airway wall thickening, surfactant dysfunction and mucus hypersecretion are all potential sequelae of this inflammatory response that lead to impaired airflow and gas exchange.
In both asthma and COPD, although resident cells of the lungs play important parts in disease induction, the movement of inflammatory cells into respiratory tissues can be considered a prerequisite for the late-phase and chronic pathologies of these diseases. Members of the PP2C family of serine/threonine protein phosphotases have recently been shown to be important in the intracellular signalling pathways related to the reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton and cell mobility (Koh et al., Current Biology 12,317-321, 2002).
In patients with active inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the objective is to achieve clinical remission. For ulcerative colitis (UC), oral or rectal aminosalicylates are widely used, and in more severe flares, corticoids and occasionally cyclosporine. In active Crohn's disease, corticosteroids represent the main treatment; budesonide being one of the most preferred, as this steroid is better tolerated than prednisone. However, failure to respond, acutely or chronically, to glucocorticoid therapy is a common indication for surgery in IBD, with as many as 50% of patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and approximately 20% of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) requiring surgery in their lifetime as a result of poor response to glucocorticoids. In clinical practice, patients refractory or intolerant to steroids, immunomodulators such as for example infliximab (Remicade®), can be considered.
Asthma is usually easy to manage and inhaled corticosteroids are the most effective medications currently available to treat symptomatic asthma. However, approximately 5% of asthma patients are not controlled even on high doses of inhaled corticosteroids. Difficult therapy-resistant asthma may be defined as poorly controlled asthma in terms of chronic symptoms, episodic exacerbations, persistent and variable airways obstruction despite the use of high doses of inhaled steroids. Consequently, the disease management of asthma—in particular severe and steroid-resistant asthma—remains a real and daily challenge in the clinic.
Nevertheless, considerable progress has been made in development of drugs for asthma. There have however been few advances in the treatment of other bronchial inflammatory disorders such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). New therapeutic approaches to prevent disease progression are urgently needed, as the inflammatory response in COPD is essentially steroid-resistant.
As with the previously mentioned inflammatory diseases, a proportion of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients do not respond adequately to corticosteroids therapy. Likewise, as seen with the other indications, RA patients can be divided on clinical grounds into corticosteroid sensitive (CS) and corticosteroid resistant (CR) subgroups. The underlying mechanism involved in the CS and CR phenomena in patients with RA remain unknown but are of considerable therapeutic interest.
Overall there is an obvious need to address the need of patients that appear unresponsive to conventional steroid therapies or indeed are treatment resistant to a more general spectrum of medications.
Further aims underlying the invention, as well as their associated solutions, will become apparent upon study of the present description, examples and claims.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Composition and method for the prevention, treatment and/or alleviation of an inflammatory disease


An information handling system includes a processor having access to a system memory. The system is operable to detect a thermal alert and identify an associated portion of system memory. The system may then modify memory allocation information used by an operating system to allocate system memory. When the thermal alert indicates a rising memory module temperature that exceeds a specified threshold, the modification of the memory allocation information causes the memory to appear to be more “distant” from the system processor(s) and thereby allocated less preferentially than other memory. If the temperature continues to rise beyond a higher threshold, a second modification of the memory allocation information is performed to simulate a “hot eject” of the memory module. As the memory module cools, the memory allocation information can be restored to simulate a hot add of the memory module and to restore the proximity of the memory module.

As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
One type of information handling system is a server, which is a processor-based network device that manages network resources. As examples, a file server is dedicated to storing files, a print server manages one or more printers, a network server manages network traffic, and a database server processes database queries. A Web server services Internet World Wide Web pages.
A server may be implemented as a "stand alone" or monolithic servers in which a single chassis contains a single set of processing resources and an associated set of I/O resources. A multiprocessor monolithic server may, for example, include two or more processors that share access to a common system memory and a common set of peripheral devices including persistent storage resources, network interface resources, graphical display resources, and so forth. In other implementations, some of the I/O resources available to the server are provided as external components. Persistent storage, for example, may be provided to a monolithic server as an external box.
In more recent years, servers have been implemented as "blade servers." Blade servers are so named because they employ server blades, which are thin, modular electronic circuit boards containing one or more microprocessors, memory, and other server hardware and firmware. Blade servers, which are sometimes referred to as a high-density servers, typically include a space saving, rack-based chassis that accepts multiple server blades. Blade servers are often used in clusters of servers dedicated to a single task. For example, a blade server may function as a web server by servicing web-based requests addressed to one or more universal resource locators (URLs). In this implementation, the blade server may route individual requests to different server blades within the blade server based on factors including the current loading of individual blades and the locality of information required to respond to a request, all in a manner that is transparent to the user.
Power management and power conservation is an increasingly important consideration in the design and implementation of all information handling systems in general and server system especially. Power consumption is not only costly, but it also generates heat that must be dissipated to maintain performance parameters as well as the electrical and mechanical integrity of the server. Traditional thermal management efforts have tended to focus on techniques for performance "throttling" by, for example, slowing the speed of the system clock, reducing the number of instructions processed per unit of time interval, reducing the operating voltages, and so forth. While traditional thermal management techniques have utility, they tend to have a negative performance impact that is generally undesirable.

Thermal control of memory modules using proximity information


A new and distinct cultivar of Coreopsis plant named ‘Tweety’, characterized by its bright yellow-colored flowers, medium green-colored, deeply-dissected foliage having thread-like segments, low to moderate growth vigor, well-branched, upright-mounded, compact growth habit, is disclosed.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Coreopsis plant botanically known as Coreopsis verticillata and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name 'Tweety'. The new cultivar originated from an open pollination in 2005 in a controlled nursery location in Boskoop, The Netherlands between unknown male and female Coreopsis verticillata plants. The new cultivar was selected in 2007 in the nursery location in Boskoop, The Netherlands from the seedling results of the open pollination.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal stem cuttings since 2007 in Boskoop, The Netherlands has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.


New temporary bonding methods and articles formed from those methods are provided. The methods comprise bonding a device wafer to a carrier wafer or substrate only at their outer perimeters in order to assist in protecting the device wafer and its device sites during subsequent processing and handling. The edge bonds formed by this method are chemically and thermally resistant, but can also be softened, dissolved, or mechanically disrupted to allow the wafers to be easily separated with very low forces and at or near room temperature at the appropriate stage in the fabrication process.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is broadly concerned with novel temporary wafer bonding methods that can support a device wafer on a carrier substrate during wafer thinning and other backside processing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Integrated circuits, power semiconductors, light-emitting diodes, photonic circuits, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), embedded passive arrays, packaging interposers, and a host of other silicon- and compound semiconductor-based microdevices are produced collectively in arrays on wafer substrates ranging from 1-12 inches in diameter. The devices are then separated into individual devices or dies that are packaged to allow practical interfacing with the macroscopic environment, for example, by interconnection with a printed wiring board. It has become increasingly popular to construct the device package on or around the die while it is still part of the wafer array. This practice, which is referred to as wafer-level packaging, reduces overall packaging costs and allows a higher interconnection density to be achieved between the device and its microelectronic environment than with more traditional packages that usually have outside dimensions several times larger than the actual device.
Until recently, interconnection schemes have generally been confined to two dimensions, meaning the electrical connections between the device and the corresponding board or packaging surface to which it is mounted have all been placed in a horizontal, or x-y, plane. The microelectronics industry has now recognized that significant increases in device interconnection density and corresponding reductions in signal delay (as a result of shortening the distance between electrical connection points) can be achieved by stacking and interconnecting devices vertically, that is, in the z-direction. Two common requirements for device stacking are: (1) thinning of the device in the through-wafer direction from the backside; and (2) subsequently forming through-wafer electrical connections, commonly referred to as through-silicon-vias or "TSVs," that terminate on the backside of the device. For that matter, semiconductor device thinning has now become a standard practice even when devices are not packaged in a stacked configuration because it facilitates heat dissipation and allows a much smaller form factor to be achieved with compact electronic products such as cellular telephones.
There is growing interest in thinning semiconductor devices to less than 100 microns to reduce their profiles, especially when they or the corresponding packages in which they reside are stacked, and to simplify the formation of backside electrical connections on the devices. Silicon wafers used in high-volume integrated circuit production are typically 200 or 300 mm in diameter and have a through-wafer thickness of about 750 microns. Without thinning, it would be nearly impossible to form backside electrical contacts that connect with front-side circuitry by passing the connections through the wafer. Highly efficient thinning processes for semiconductor-grade silicon and compound semiconductors based on mechanical grinding (back-grinding) and polishing as well as chemical etching are now in commercial use. These processes allow device wafer thickness to be reduced to less than 100 microns in a few minutes while maintaining precise control over cross-wafer thickness uniformity.
Device wafers that have been thinned to less than 100 microns, and especially those thinned to less than 60 microns, are extremely fragile and must be supported over their full dimensions to prevent cracking and breakage. Various wafer wands and chucks have been developed for transferring ultra-thin device wafers, but the problem still exists of how to support the wafers during back-grinding and TSV-formation processes that include steps such as chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP), lithography, etching, deposition, annealing, and cleaning, because these steps impose high thermal and mechanical stresses on the device wafer as it is being thinned or after thinning. An increasingly popular approach to ultra-thin wafer handling involves mounting the full-thickness device wafer face down to a rigid carrier with a polymeric adhesive. It is then thinned and processed from the backside. The fully processed, ultra-thin wafer is then removed, or debonded, from the carrier by thermal, thermomechanical, or chemical processes after the backside processing has been completed.
Common carrier materials include silicon (e.g., a blank device wafer), soda lime glass, borosilicate glass, sapphire, and various metals and ceramics. The carriers may be square or rectangular but are more commonly round and are sized to match the device wafer so that the bonded assembly can be handled in conventional processing tools and cassettes. Sometimes the carriers are perforated to speed the debonding process when a liquid chemical agent is used to dissolve or decompose the polymeric adhesive as the means for release.
The polymeric adhesives used for temporary wafer bonding are typically applied by spin coating or spray coating from solution or laminating as dry-film tapes. Spin- and spray-applied adhesives are increasingly preferred because they form coatings with higher thickness uniformity than tapes can provide. Higher thickness uniformity translates into greater control over cross-wafer thickness uniformity after thinning. The polymeric adhesives exhibit high bonding strength to the device wafer and the carrier.
The polymeric adhesive may be spin-applied onto the device wafer, the carrier, or both, depending on the thickness and coating planarity (flatness) that is required. The coated wafer is baked to remove all of the coating solvent from the polymeric adhesive layer. The coated wafer and carrier are then placed in contact in a heated mechanical press for bonding. Sufficient temperature and pressure are applied to cause the adhesive to flow and fill into the device wafer structural features and achieve intimate contact with all areas of the device wafer and carrier surfaces.
Debonding of a device wafer from the carrier following backside processing is typically performed in one of four ways:
(1) Chemical—The bonded wafer stack is immersed in, or sprayed with, a solvent or chemical agent to dissolve or decompose the polymeric adhesive.
(2) Photo-Decomposition—The bonded wafer stack is irradiated with a light source through a transparent carrier to photo-decompose the adhesive boundary layer that is adjacent to the carrier. The carrier can then be separated from the stack, and the balance of the polymeric adhesive is peeled from the device wafer while it is held on a chuck.
(3) Thermo-Mechanical—The bonded wafer stack is heated above the softening temperature of the polymeric adhesive, and the device wafer is then slid or pulled away from the carrier while being supported with a full-wafer holding chuck.
(4) Thermal Decomposition—The bonded wafer stack is heated above the decomposition temperature of the polymeric adhesive, causing it to volatilize and lose adhesion to the device wafer and carrier.
Each of these debonding methods has drawbacks that seriously limit its use in a production environment. For example, chemical debonding by dissolving the polymeric adhesive is a slow process because the solvent must diffuse over large distances through the viscous polymer medium to effect release. That is, the solvent must diffuse from the edge of the bonded substrates, or from a perforation in the carrier, into the local region of the adhesive. In either case, the minimum distance required for solvent diffusion and penetration is at least 3-5 mm and can be much more, even with perforations to increase solvent contact with the adhesive layer. Treatment times of several hours, even at elevated temperatures (>60° C.), are usually required for debonding to occur, meaning wafer throughput will be low.
Photo-decomposition is likewise a slow process because the entire bonded substrate cannot be exposed at one time. Instead, the exposing light source, which is usually a laser having beam cross-section of only a few millimeters, must be focused on a small area at a time to deliver sufficient energy for decomposition of the adhesive bond line to occur. The beam is then scanned (or rastered) across the substrate in a serial fashion to debond the entire surface, which leads to long debonding times.
While thermo-mechanical (TM) debonding can be performed typically in a few minutes, it has other limitations that can reduce device yield. Backside processes for temporarily bonded device wafers often involve working temperatures higher than 200° C. or even 300° C. The polymeric adhesives used for TM debonding must neither decompose nor soften excessively at or near the working temperature, otherwise, debonding would occur prematurely. As a result, the adhesives are normally designed to soften sufficiently at 20-50° C. above the working temperature for debonding to occur. The high temperature required for debonding imposes significant stresses on the bonded pair as a result of thermal expansion. At the same time, the high mechanical force required to move the device wafer away from the carrier by a sliding, lifting, or twisting motion creates additional stress that can cause the device wafer to break or produces damage within the microscopic circuitry of individual devices, which leads to device failure and yield loss.
Thermal decomposition (TD) debonding is also prone to wafer breakage. Gases are produced when the polymeric adhesive is decomposed, and these gases can become trapped between the device wafer and the carrier before the bulk of the adhesive has been removed. The accumulation of trapped gases can cause the thin device wafer to blister and crack or even rupture. Another problem with TD debonding is that polymer decomposition is often accompanied by the formation of intractable, carbonized residues that cannot be removed from the device wafer by common cleaning procedures.
The limitations of these prior art debonding methods for polymeric adhesives have created the need for new modes of carrier-assisted thin wafer handling that provide high wafer throughput and reduce or eliminate the chances for device wafer breakage and internal device damage.

Article including a device wafer reversibly mountable to a carrier substrate


An aeration duct apparatus has a plurality of aeration tubes connected together by hollow connectors, each hollow connector defining at least three connection ports. Each aeration tube is connected at each tube end thereof to one of the connection ports, and each connection port is connected to a tube end such that the connected aeration tubes and hollow connectors form a substantially rigid structure. A transition duct is connected to one of the aeration tubes at an inside end thereof and is adapted at an outside end thereof for attachment to a fan. The aeration tubes and transition duct are configured such that air can flow from the fan through the transition duct into each aeration tube and out through a perforated area of walls of the aeration tubes.

Aeration systems are used to prevent spoilage in stored grain, and to reduce the moisture content of the grain. Such systems include a perforated duct located inside the bin, and a fan directing air into the duct, out through the perforations and up through the grain and out through a vent in the roof of the bin. The fan and perforated duct area are sized to provide the desired airflow for the height and volume of grain in the bin. The perforated duct area must be large enough to provide sufficient open spaces so that the required volume of air can flow through the perforations without developing excessive back-pressure.
Providing sufficient perforated area in flat bottom bins is not usually a problem as the duct can be provided by a perforated floor area, or by a horizontal perforated tube or tube network if more perforated area is required resting on the bin. Such systems are also readily placed in flat bottom bins which have access doors at ground level to allow personnel to enter to manually empty the bin.
Hopper bottom bins have a cone shaped floor sloping to a central discharge chute so that all the grain flows down the floor to the chute, and no manual removal is required as in a flat floor bin.
Since the floor of a hopper bottom bin slopes, the length of a horizontal tube network in the hopper is limited. To provide added perforated wall area, vertical tubes with concentric perforated inner and outer walls are commonly used, such as the "Rocket™" vertical aeration systems sold by Edwards Grain Guard of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. A transition duct extends through the sloped floor to connect the fan outside the bin to the tube which extends upward in the center of the bin, and air flows out the perforated sides and out the open bottom and upward through the grain in the bin. Grain flows downward along the outer walls and also down through the open center of the tube along the inner walls.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,568,297 to Pierson et al. discloses an aeration duct for a hopper bottom bin that has a pyramid frame in the center of the bin with legs attachable to the sloped floor of the hopper bottom, and sloping concave perforated walls attached to the legs. An air stream is directed into the interior of the frame, and moves out into the grain through the perforated walls.
Canadian Patent Application Number 2,707,941 of Assie discloses an aeration duct for a hopper bottom bin that comprises an enclosed box with an open bottom and louvered top that extends across the cone at the bottom of the bin. Air is directed into the enclosure and then out the open bottom and the louvers along the length of the box and up through the grain.
A problem with hopper bin aeration duct systems is the difficulty of installing them in existing bins. Such hopper bins typically have the discharge opening at the bottom, and a only a relatively small access opening in the sloping floor or the wall above the floor. For example the conventional Rocket™ system must be installed before the bin is installed on the hopper. To address this limitation the manufacturer has developed a Retro Rocket™ where the pieces can fit through the available access holes and be assembled inside the bin. Pierson also claims to be able to install his system in existing bins.


A golf cup assembly is disclosed. The golf cup has a lower cylinder assembly having a cylindrical housing and a transverse member positioned within the interior of the cylindrical housing. A generally cylindrical sleeve depends from and is supported by the transverse member and is adapted to receive and support a flagpole. An upper cylinder has a sidewall adapted to slidably engage the upper portion of the lower cylinder assembly and extends above the upper rim of the lower cylinder housing. The overall assembly has a means for securing the upper cylinder to the lower cylinder assembly. Preferably, the upper cylinder is plastic and the lower cylinder assembly is metal.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the golf cup, which is the device that sits within the golf hole. The device serves a number of duties: 1) the golf cup supports the flag pole vertically within the center of the hole to clearly identify the location of the hole to golfers who are a substantial distance from the hole; 2) the golf cup prevents the soil which forms the golf hole from collapsing inwardly; 3) the golf cup is often colored white to make the hole more visible and thus make putting more convenient for golfers who are near the hole; and 4) the golf cup serves as a resting place for balls that are successfully putted into the hole and is often recognized for the tone that it produces when the ball drops into it.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Ordinary golf cups contain three common features: 1) an outer cylinder (approximately four and a quarter inches in diameter) that provides visibility to the golfer and prevents the soil surrounding the hole from collapsing inwardly; 2) a flagpole support cylinder that sits coaxially within the lower half of the outer cylinder and provides a snug fit with the flag pole to keep the flagpole vertical; and 3) a tapered bottom feature that sits within the mid-portion of the outer cylinder and connects the outer cylinder to the flagpole support cylinder. The tapered bottom feature supports the golf ball once putted into the hole and guides the pole into the flagpole support cylinder.
The flagpole support cylinder and the bottom piece of the flagpole (commonly referred to as the xe2x80x9cferrulexe2x80x9d) are exposed to a great deal of xe2x80x9cwear and tearxe2x80x9d. There is a great deal of dirt and sand in the environment in which they exist and the wind on the flag and repeated flagpole removal and replacement create a powerful abrasive force between the two devices. Therefore, golf cups that are constructed out of metal are commonly considered to last much longer due to their greater resistance against this abrasive force.
However, metals are not naturally white and thus must be painted in order to sustain visibility. A chipped, rusty, or mis-colored cup can create a negative impression of a golf course and its greens keeper. For this reason, some greens keepers prefer to use white plastic cups due to their lower cost and natural white finish, which cannot be xe2x80x9cchippedxe2x80x9d away from the outer cylinder by the flagpole. While plastic cups are less expensive and easier to maintain, metal cups are more traditional, last longer, and produce the cherished xe2x80x9cball-dropxe2x80x9d tone that many golfers and greens keepers demand. For these reasons, many greens keepers are forced to switch back and forth between cup styles, depending on what their golfers currently favor. As is the case with both common metal and plastic cups, when a feature becomes worn or defaced, the entire cup must be refinished or discarded.
Typically, there are two sizes of golf cups that a greens keeper must procure and use. One is for practice putting greens and the other is for greens used in regular play. The golf cup used on regular greens is generally several inches deeper that the golf cup used on practice putting greens. The deeper cup is necessary on regular greens, because the golf cup must support the flag and flagpole. In order to provide the required stability to support the flagpole, the golf cup used on regular greens must have a greater exterior surface area than the golf cup used on practice greens.
It is the object of this invention to provide a golf cup that utilizes numerous parts.
It is the object of this invention is to provide a golf cup that utilizes numerous parts that are replaceable.
Another object of this invention is to provide a golf cup that utilizes numerous parts that are made from different materials, using the material which best suits the part of the cup where it is being used.
Another object of this invention is to provide a golf cup that can be dismantled and assembled using no tools other than the human hand.
Another object of this invention is to create a golf cup that appeals to greens keepers who normally use plastic cups and to greens keepers who normally use metal cups.
Another object of this invention is to create a golf cup that successfully possesses the popular features of both metal and plastic golf cups.
Another object of this invention is to create a golf cup that creates a pleasing tone when the golf ball drops into it.
It is the object of this invention to create a golf cup that lasts a long time while sustaining high visibility without high expense or continual and time consuming maintenance.
These and other objects of the invention are achieved by creating a golf cup that has two separate outer cylinder features, an upper cylinder to provide visibility and a lower cylinder to provide stability. In the preferred embodiment, the lower cylinder, the tapered bottom feature, and the flagpole support cylinder are created out of metal to provide a long lasting cup that produces the favorable ball-drop tone. The upper cylinder is created out of plastic to provide high visibility, low cost, and ease of replacement. The upper cylinder is connected to the lower cylinder via, for example, a snap fit that can be applied and removed without the aid of tools. The fastening technique or means can be designed as described herein, or by numerous other means including, but not limited to, a twist-locking snap fit, a screw or other fastener fit, a glue bond, a friction fit, a press fit, the use of straps, clamps, clips, or ties, a tongue-and-groove mechanism, a cam groove system, a threaded assembly, a latch or the like. The resulting device will provide the durability, strength, tradition, sound, and stability of a metal cup with the visibility, ease of maintenance, and cost-effectiveness of a plastic cup.


Compositions useful in the treatment of disturbances of appetite, disturbances of mood, or both, nicotine withdrawal associated as well as experienced by individuals after discontinuing tobacco use as methods of use therefor. The compositions include serotoninergic drugs, such as d-fenfluramine and fluoxetine.

Discontinuing the use of nicotine is extremely difficult for many smokers; approximately 70% of those who seek help in formal treatment programs are no longer abstinent twelve months later. Jaffe, J. (1980) In: The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, p. 535-584, A. G. Gilman, L. Goodman and A. Gilman eds., MacMillan Col, N.Y. Nicotine withdrawal causes symptoms that are most intense 48-72 hours after smoking is discontinued; they include increased anxiety, hostility and depression, as well as reduction in subjective vigor and impairment in concentration. D. K. Hatsukami et al. (1984) Psychopharmacology, 84:231-236. Subsequently, the withdrawn smoker experiences the absence of nicotine's reinforcing properties: muscle relaxation, reduction of irritability, facilitation of alertness, and suppression of appetite.
The ex-smoker is also at risk for weight gain, the most reliably demonstrated behavioral consequence of smoking cessation. J. D. Matarazzo (1984) In: Psychology and Health, Vol. 3, p. 7-43, B. L. Hammonds and C. J. Scheirer (Eds.) Amer. Psych. Ass'n, Washington, D.C. In a majority of rats and humans, the weight gain is generated primarily by increased consumption of high-carbohydrate foods. N. E. Grunberg, 1982, Addictive Behaviors, 7:317-331; N. E. Grunberg et al., 1984, Psychopharmacology, 83:93-98; N. E. Grunberg et al., 1985, Psychopharmacology, 87:198-203.
Because of the adverse effects of smoking on health and the difficulty so many smokers encounter in giving up smoking, it would be very useful to have an effective smoking cessation method.

Compositions for treating tobacco withdrawal symptoms and methods for their use


A mixing implement includes a body having a mixing portion and a connecting portion, the connecting portion having an upper shaft receiving opening formed therein and a side opening that leads to the shaft receiving opening, the shaft receiving opening having a drive pin receiving recess, the side opening and the drive pin receiving recess located substantially diametrically opposite each other with the side opening at a height corresponding to at least part of the drive pin receiving recess. A retainer is movably coupled with the connecting portion through the side opening and biased into an inward position in which an inner portion of the retainer is normally positioned within the shaft receiving opening, the retainer movable to an outward position in which the inner portion of the retainer is at least partially retracted from the shaft receiving opening.

Mixers are used to mix and blend a variety of materials such as food products. The mixers typically include a removable mixing implement that is attachable to a rotatable and/or orbitable output shaft of the mixer. Mixing implements may come in various sizes and shapes and include agitators such as whips, dough hooks, beaters, etc. The mixing implements are typically removably coupled to the output shaft to enable the mixing implements to be removed or replaced for cleaning, repair, use of a different type of mixing implement, etc.
One common type of attachment arrangement for mixing implements is a bayonet style connection. Alternative attachment arrangements are described in U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2002/0181322 A1. While the attachment arrangements in U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2002/0181322 A1 are useful, in some cases it may be difficult to adapt such arrangements to smaller size mixers and smaller size mixing implements due to size and space limitations on smaller mixing implements and/or mixer shafts.

Mixer, mixing implement and associated attachment mechanism


Provided in some embodiment is a thermocouple system that includes a printed circuit board having a terminal component connection to couple to a connector of a terminal component, a temperature sensing component connection to couple to a connector of a temperature sensing component, a signal plane thermally coupled to the terminal component connection, and a thermal plane thermally coupled to the temperature sensing component connection and electrically isolated from the terminal component connection and the signal plane. The surface area of the thermal plane overlaps a substantial portion of a surface area of the signal plane.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to temperature sensing systems, and more particularly to printed circuit boards for use with thermocouples and similar devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Thermocouples are often employed as temperature sensors to acquire temperature measurements in a number of test and measurement environments. For example, a thermocouple may be placed inside of a heating or cooling chamber to assess and determine a temperature inside the chamber. Thermocouples measure the temperature difference between two points, not absolute temperature. To measure a single temperature one of two of the junctions of the thermocouple (e.g., the cold junction—typically located near a device reading the thermocouple) is maintained at a known reference temperature, and the other of the two junctions (e.g., the hot junction) is provided at the location for sensing temperature. By determining the relative temperature difference between the hot and cold junctions and using a known or estimated reference temperature at the cold junction, a temperature at the hot junction can be determined. That is, the unknown temperature at the hot junction is determined based on a known/estimated cold junction temperature and a relative difference in temperature between the hot and cold junctions.
Determining the actual temperature at the cold junction is not always possible or practical. For example, it may be difficult or impractical to assess a cold junction temperature at each of a plurality of input terminals of a terminal block each coupled to a thermocouple. Often, applications provide a best estimate of the cold junction temperature by using a thermally sensitive device, such as a thermistor, to measure the temperature of the input connections at or near one or more terminals coupled to thermocouples. For example, where leads of a thermocouple are connected to a terminal block on a printed circuit board (PCB), a thermistor may be placed on the PCB at or near the terminal block to estimate the cold junction temperature at the terminal block. In some instances, a single thermally sensitive device may be used to estimate a single cold junction temperature for multiple terminals located near the thermally sensitive device. For example, a single thermistor may be placed adjacent a row of terminal connectors, and measurements from the single thermistor may be used to assess and estimate a cold junction temperature at all of the terminal blocks near the thermistor. Based on the temperature estimates at the thermistor, the cold junction temperature and associated voltage at the cold junction can be estimated, and the appropriate correction applied to determine a corresponding sensed temperature at the hot junction. This is known as cold junction compensation.
Unfortunately, the cold junction temperature determined using thermally sensitive devices as described above may be inaccurate by several degrees or more. For example, a temperature gradient may exist across several terminals such that the cold junction temperature at one terminal is not the same as the cold junction temp at another terminal and/or the nearby thermally sensitive device (e.g., thermistor). As a result, using the cold junction temperature acquired via the thermally sensitive device may be inaccurate for some or all of the terminals. Often, the cold junction temperature is increasingly inaccurate for terminal bocks that are located farther away from the thermally sensitive device due to temperature gradients between the thermally sensitive device and the terminal blocks. It will be appreciated that using such an inaccurate cold junction temperature may result in inaccurate cold junction compensation and, thus, in inaccurate assessments of the temperature at the hot junction.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a technique for acquiring accurate cold junction temperature information for thermocouples.


A method for the control of a color alternating display panel having a written state and an extinguished state arranged in rows and columns, the rows forming at least two sets. A sustaining signal is applied to the rows. This sustaining signal generates discharges in the cells that are written in. The sets are addressed. An addressing operation consisting of a semi-selective operation followed by a selective operation. After a semi-selective operation pertaining to the first set, a preconditioning write operation is performed on the cells of one row of the second set, aimed at ionizing the panel. Application in particular to plasma panels.

This method can be applied especially to color plasma panels displaying a large number of half-tones and having a large size (more than one meter diagonal) for television applications.
Plasma panels work on the principle of an electrical discharge in gases. They comprise two insulating slabs each bearing at least one array of electrodes and mutually demarcating a gas-filled space. The slabs are joined to each other in such a way that the arrays of electrodes are substantially orthogonal, one representing rows and the other columns. Each intersection of electrodes defines a cell to which there corresponds a small gaseous space. A given cell is turned on by the selection of two crossed electrodes to which, at a given instant, appropriate voltage are applied so that, between these electrodes, the potential difference prompts a discharge in the gas and a light emission. The cells are positioned in rows and columns.
To obtain a color panel, strips of luminophore materials that correspond to the green, red and blue colors and are excitable by ultraviolet radiation are deposited and a gas is used, emitting ultraviolet rays during the discharge. A system of barriers between the strips is used for the physical demarcation of the cells of the panel and to limit the phenomena of the diffusion of one color over another. A video pixel consists of a triplet of cells (one red, one green and one blue).
The discharges in a plasma display panel are initiated properly if the gaseous medium in which they occur is ionized. The display panels that are being developed presently for these television applications are so-called alternating plasma panels. In these panels, the electrodes that bear the slabs are insulated from the discharge gas by a dielectric layer, generally based on magnesia.
A sustaining signal formed by a succession of square-wave signals is permanently applied to all the rows. This has the effect of maintaining each cell in the state assigned to it during an addressing phase. The addressing, which consists either of the selective lighting up or the selective extinguishing of the cells of the panel, is done in sets of one or more rows and each row is scanned several times during the period of display of an image or an image cycle.
It turns out to be the case that these color plasma display panels, in part because of the nature of the gas mixture and in part because of the technology, show difficulties in the lighting up of certain cells according to a probabilistic relationship. The gaseous mixture of the color panels is generally a mixture of neon and xenon with about 10% of xenon. This mixture distributes the ionization poorly.
During the addressing phase, certain cells are not lit up when they should be lit up, or they take more time to get lit up and, during the sustaining phase, the lighting up is not done or takes place randomly or in a deferred manner. The image displayed therefore has defects.
With regard to the structure of the panel, the cells are demarcated by barriers that have a role of confinement, i.e. they are designed firstly to prevent the discharges from propagating towards the neighboring cells which should not be lit up and secondly to prevent the ultraviolet radiation created by a discharge in a given cell from exciting the luminophores of neighboring cells and generating a lack of saturation of the colors. These confinement barriers are not appropriate for the diffusion of ionization even if their height is smaller than the spacing between the two slabs and even if they extend along a single array of electrodes.
The nature of the dielectric layer in contact with the gas mixture has the specific feature of possessing a high coefficient of secondary emission assisting in the starting of the discharge but this effect is not sufficient to resolve this problem of ionization.
In monochromatic alternating plasma display panels, this problem of ionization does not arise if, all around the panel in a frame concealed from the observer, there are provided conditioning cells that are permanently lit according to specified voltage levels and a specified chronology.
Within these cells, discharges are constantly initiated, furthering the ionization of all the gas contained in the space demarcated by the slabs. These conditioning cells are efficient even if the panel is a large-sized panel. It must be remembered that, in monochromatic panels, the gas mixture is generally neon and argon with about 0.2% of argon and its role in the diffusion of the ionization is important.
The transposition of these conditioning cells outside a useful zone in a color alternating plasma panel brings practically no improvement to this problem of ionization.
There also exist direct current plasma panels in which the electrodes are in contact with the gas mixture. Each cell is partitioned off, and the problem of ionization is even more crucial. This problem has been resolved only by placing, beside each useful cell 1 that can be seen by the observer, a conditioning cell 2 masked from the observer. The lighting up of a conditioning cell 2 precedes that of a neighboring useful cell 1. One conditioning cell is generally provided for two useful cells. A cross-section of a panel of this kind is presented in FIG. 1. The two slabs bear the reference 10a, 10b. Each of them bears an array of useful electrodes 11a, 11b. Each intersection of useful electrodes 11a, 11b defines a useful cell 1. Partition walls 3 firstly separate two neighboring useful cells 1 and secondly have a brace function to ensure the efficient positioning of the slabs 10a, 10b. Each useful cell 1 is the neighbor of a conditioning cell 2. It is separated therefrom by a barrier 4 whose height is smaller, in part, than the distance between the two slabs 10a, 10b. A conditioning cell 2 is defined by the intersection of one of the electrodes 11a which is used also to define a useful cell 1 and a conditioning electrode 5.
A diagrammatic view has been shown of a conditioning discharge 6 that occurs in the conditioning cell 2 and precedes a useful discharge 7 that occurs in the useful cell 1 to the right. The conditioning discharge 6 is concealed from the observer (represented diagrammatically by an eye) for the slab 10b facing the observer carries a black matrix 8 to form a shield against the conditioning discharges 6. The conditioning discharge 6 initiates the useful discharge by pre-ionizing the gas mixture contained between the two slabs 10a, 10b.
This structure with conditioning cells requires an array of electrodes and additional electronic circuits. It gives rise to greater electrical consumption and makes a greater amount of electrical power available.
Another drawback is that the minimum pitch between two useful cells 1 separated by a conditioning cell 2 is dictated by the size of this conditioning cell 2. Space is lost.
From the viewpoint of advantages, since the conditioning discharges are masked with respect to the observer, they introduce no inconvenient luminous background that would reduce the contrast.
Another advantage is that the addressing of the conditioning cells is separated from that of the useful cells, thus making it possible to avoid using the time devoted to the addressing of the useful cells for the addressing of the conditioning cells. It must be borne in mind that the greater the number of rows of the panel the smaller should be the amount of time devoted to the processing of a row or the greater should be the number of rows processed at the same time.
Since the problem of ionization encountered in the color alternating plasma display panels is not as crucial as in panels that have direct-current type operation, it does not seem to be necessary to introduce the conditioning cells into the vicinity of each useful cell because of all the technological and electronic complications that they give rise to.
It has been proposed, in the alternating color plasma display panels described in the patent application EP-A1-0 549 275, filed by FUJITSU, to provide for a non-selective ionizing phase before each addressing phase. This means that this phase is applied simultaneously to all the rows.
FIG. 2 provides a diagrammatic view of the processing operations applied to all the rows of a display panel of this kind.
During an image cycle which is the time needed to display an image, all the rows are simultaneously ionized and then addressed and then sustained. These three phases of ionizing, addressing, and sustaining form one cycle and several cycles are repeated during an image cycle. So as to make it possible to display the half-tones, the sustaining phases of the different cycles have different durations.
This phase of ionization consists of various operations to light up all the cells of the panel, these lighting-up operations alternating with various operations of extinguishing all the cells of the panel.
In the drawing, the ionization phase is represented by hatches, the addressing phase by strokes and the sustaining phase by dots.
Apart from the fact that the cycle time is extended, these ionization phases create a relatively strong luminous background on the screen, the contrast between the lit cells and the extinguished cells being about 100.
In the color alternating plasma display panels in which the scanning operations are interlaced, it is not possible to position this non-selective ionization phase simultaneously on all the rows since the addressing and sustaining phases are temporally mixed with each other. At a given instant, not all the rows are processed in the same way.

Method for controlling an alternating plasma display panel incorporating ionization


A support device and method for fixing a bearing on a bearing shield of a housing of an electric machine. Rotatably mounted in the support device is a rotor with a shaft. The support device is substantially flat and comprises a plurality of fastening openings that are grouped about a central opening. The support device comprises at least one design break point that acts to provide a local limit to the excess stress in the material of the support device.

As a rule, air-cooled generators for applications in the automotive sector are mounted by means of a locating bearing in a first bearing plate (A bearing plate) and a floating bearing in a second bearing plate (B bearing plate). A ball bearing which is used as a bearing is fixed axially here between a bearing plate and a support plate. As a result of the generally present bearing play, oscillations of the rotor occur as overall body in the axial direction. This phenomenon which is also called rotor bouncing occurs as a rule between 100 Hz and 500 Hz and is generally associated with very high mechanical loadings in the generator on various components.
DE 44 03 957 A1 relates to a flange bearing. Said flange bearing serves to receive a prong shaft of the winch or the pick-up drum of a harvester or of another correspondingly equipped agricultural machine. The flange bearing comprises a bearing body which is divided on one side and the outer casing of which has a cylindrical center section. The latter is adjoined by sections which are beveled conically on both sides. The bearing body is provided with a web which permits positionally accurate insertion of the bearings into the receptacle of a winch star and at the same time serves as antirotation safeguard. The bearing halves are connected elastically to one another by an integral hinge, a cutout being provided in an adjacent manner to the integral hinge, which cutout facilitates the widening of the bearing body, which is produced from a robust plastic, during mounting and dismantling. This solution concerns a hinge which can be bent more easily on account of the lower rigidity at a notched point.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,431,032 discloses a cylindrical bearing housing which has a milled slot as viewed in the axial direction. As a result, internal stresses which are produced are dissipated, such as residual stresses which are produced during casting. Deformation of the bearing housing is possible as a result of the slot.
DE 10 2004 053 078 A1 relates to a bearing arrangement. The latter comprises a bearing carrier which is connected to a bearing which is preferably configured as an antifriction bearing. In one of its bearing rings, the bearing has a groove which extends in the circumferential direction. At least one projection which is arranged on the bearing carrier and extends in the radial direction engages into said groove. At a circumferential point, the bearing carrier has a slot which extends substantially in the radial direction.
Finally, WO 03/081750 A1 discloses a generator for a vehicle, the generator comprising a support plate which has a slot which extends in the radial direction. Said slot which extends in the radial direction serves as tolerance compensation means. According to this solution, any stresses which possibly occur during the screwing connection of the support plate are dissipated, since a deformation of the material of the support plate is possible as a result of the slot and accordingly a dissipation of the stresses can take place.


A method for enhancing a LNG production train that includes connected train components. The method may include steps of: constructing an integrated surveillance system for monitoring operation of the train components; using the integrated surveillance system to measure and record operational data and event data related to, respectively, the operation and a failure event of the train components over a historical operating period; performing a correlation analysis that calculates a correlation between the occurrences of the failure event and the operational data; given results of the correlation analysis, deriving a prognostic rule that indicates a likelihood of the failure event occurring based on values of the operating parameters of the operational data; applying the prognostic rule to current values of the operating parameters and determining therefrom the likelihood of the failure event occurring; determining an advisory related to the determined likelihood of the failure event occurring; and issuing the advisory.

The invention of the present application generally relates to methods and system for producing liquefied natural gas and, more particularly, to methods and systems for enhancing performance of natural gas liquefaction plants used to produce liquefied natural gas.
As will be appreciated, many large, naturally occurring reserves of natural gas are located in remote areas of the world. As one of the cleanest burning fossil fuels, this gas has considerable value if it can be economically transported to market. Where the gas reserves are found in reasonable proximity to a market, the gas is typically produced and then transported to market through submerged land-based pipelines. However, when gas is produced in locations where laying a pipeline is infeasible or economically prohibitive, other techniques must be used for getting this gas to market.
A commonly used technique for non-pipeline transport of gas involves liquefying the gas at or near the production site and then transporting the liquefied natural gas (also "LNG") to market in specially-designed storage tanks aboard transport vessels. The cryogenic liquefaction of natural gas is routinely practiced as a means of converting natural gas into a more convenient form for transportation and storage. Such liquefaction reduces the volume of the natural gas by about 600-fold and results in a product which can be stored and transported at near atmospheric pressure. To do this, the natural gas is cooled and condensed to a liquid state to produce LNG. Such LNG is typically transported at substantially atmospheric pressure and at temperatures of about −151° C. (−240° F.) to −162° C. (−260° F.), thereby significantly increasing the amount of gas which can be stored in a particular storage tank on a transport vessel. Once an LNG transport vessel reaches its destination, the LNG is typically off-loaded into other storage tanks from which the LNG can then be revaporized as needed and transported as a gas to end users through pipelines or the like. LNG has become an increasingly popular method of transporting natural gas to major energy-consuming customers.
Processing plants used to liquefy natural gas, which may be referred to herein as "liquefaction plants", are typically built in stages as the supply of feed gas, i.e. natural gas, and the quantity of gas contracted for sale, increases. One traditional method of configuring a liquefaction plant is to build up the site in several sequential increments, or parallel "LNG production trains". Each stage of construction may consist of a separate, stand-alone production train, which, in turn, is comprised of all the individual processing units or steps necessary to liquefy a stream of feed gas into LNG and send it on to storage. Each production train may function as an independent production facility. Production train size can depend heavily upon the extent of the resource, technology and equipment used within the train, the available funds for investment in the project development, and market conditions.
Operability and profitability of LNG plants during its life depends on gaining effective operational intelligence and then converting that into business intelligence. Establishing the process per design recommendations and/or controlling the process beyond design exposure due to varying operational dynamics presents a significant challenge for process engineers and, as will be appreciated, maintaining the plant at near optimal conditions is difficult. Thermodynamics and hydraulics constitute an important role in determining the gas-liquid ratio for optimized LNG production. Any imbalances can lead to significant energy and material losses. The associated cost of high specific energy consumed by refrigeration systems and/or the generation of excess flash gas in cryogenic processes can be considerable. In trying to optimize or enhance production efficiency and limit these costs, conventional systems have failed to connect upstream process dynamics to downstream effects. As an example, the pressure drop associated with a partially fouled heat exchanger is often not linked to the increased power consumption of the downstream booster compressor. Further, in conventional systems, critical equipment is given much attention in terms of maintaining reliability and availability at an assets level, while performance losses and the impact those losses have on the overall process have generally been overlooked.
Due to the increase in LNG demand seen in recent years, greater emphasis is now being placed on efficiency and performance of liquefaction plants in order to reduce the cost of the delivered gas. Methods and systems that offer such optimized or enhanced operation would be commercially valuable, particularly as they address the several shortcomings found in conventional systems in use today.

Methods and systems for enhancing production of liquefied natural gas


The present invention provides a compound semiconductor light emitting device including: an Si—Al substrate; protection layers formed on top and bottom surfaces of the Si—Al substrate; and a p-type semiconductor layer, an active layer, and an n-type semiconductor layer which are sequentially stacked on the protection layer formed on the top surface of the Si—Al substrate, and a method for manufacturing the same.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compound semiconductor light emitting device and a method for manufacturing the same; and, more particularly, to a compound semiconductor light emitting device including a protection layer on the surface of a Si—Al substrate, and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A GaN-based semiconductor, which is expressed as AlxGayIn(1-x-y)N(0≦x≦1, 0≦y≦1, 0≦x+y≦1), has been used for a blue or green LED(Light Emitting Diode) as a compound semiconductor appropriate for light emission in blue and ultraviolet regions. A generally used GaN-based LED includes an n-type GaN-based semiconductor layer, an active layer, a p-type GaN-based semiconductor layer and two electrodes(n-side electrode and p-side electrode) which are sequentially grown on a sapphire substrate. Since the sapphire substrate used as a growth substrate is made of insulating material, the two electrodes are horizontally arranged.
Since in the GaN-based LED having such a horizontal structure, both of the two electrodes are positioned at an upper part of the LED, the LED should have a wide area. In addition, a transparent electrode for current spreading and the n-side electrode are disposed close to each other, which makes the LED vulnerable to defect caused by static electricity.
Instead of the GaN-based LED with the horizontal structure having the disadvantage, a vertical GaN-based LED is recently used which uses a conductive SiC substrate as a growth substrate of a GaN-based semiconductor. However, this has a disadvantage in that the high-cost SiC substrate is used.
Another vertical GaN-based LED is manufactured through a bonding process of a conductive substrate and a separation process of a sapphire substrate. For example, Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 10-2004-0058479 discloses a vertical GaN-based LED including a conductive substrate such as an Si substrate bonded to a GaN-based semiconductor layer by a conductive adhesion layer.
However, in the case of the conventional vertical GaN-based LED manufactured through the bonding process of the conductive substrate such as the Si substrate and the separation process of the sapphire substrate, there is caused a defect such as a crack in the GaN-based semiconductor layer when separating the sapphire substrate through laser irradiation. This is because CTE(Coefficient of Thermal Expansion)(approximately 2.6 ppm/K) of Si that is material of the conductive substrate is much lower than CTE(6 to 7 ppm/K) of the sapphire substrate.
More specifically, if the conductive substrate made of Si is bonded to the GaN-based semiconductor layer at a temperature of approximately 200 to 400° C. and then cooled at a room temperature, the conductive substrate contracts slightly, while the sapphire substrate contracts considerably. As a result, a large tensile stress is applied to the sapphire substrate to thereby warp the conductive substrate and the sapphire substrate. If the sapphire substrate is separated through laser irradiation in a warped state due to the tensile stress, mechanical impact is applied to an interface between the sapphire substrate and the GaN-based semiconductor layer to thereby cause a lot of cracks in the GaN-based semiconductor layer.
Therefore, an Si—Al substrate having a similar CTE to that of the sapphire substrate is recently used instead of the Si substrate as the conductive substrate, thereby obtaining a high-quality vertical semiconductor light emitting device which reduces the generation of crack.
However, in the case when the Si—Al substrate is used, Al of the Si—Al substrate is easily etched due to attack of chemicals such as acid and alkali used in a process of manufacturing a light emitting device to thereby generate severe unevenness on the surface of the Si—Al substrate, which causes an error that the GaN-based semiconductor layer is peeling off which is bonded to the Si—Al substrate.

Semiconductor light emitting device including substrate having protection layers providing protection against chemicals and method for manufacturing the same


Field isolation structures and methods of forming field isolation structures are described. In one implementation, the method includes etching a trench within a monocrystalline silicon substrate. The trench has sidewalls and a base, with the base comprising monocrystalline silicon. A dielectric material is formed on the sidewalls of the trench. Epitaxial monocrystalline silicon is grown from the base of the trench and over at least a portion of the dielectric material. An insulating layer is formed over the epitaxial monocrystalline silicon. According to one implementation, the invention includes a field isolation structure formed within a monocrystalline silicon comprising substrate. The field isolation structure includes a trench having sidewalls. A dielectric material is received on the sidewalls within the trench. Monocrystalline silicon is received within the trench between the dielectric material of the sidewalls. An insulating layer is received over the monocrystalline silicon within the trench. Additional implementations are contemplated.

This invention relates to field isolation structures and to methods of forming field isolation structures.
In semiconductor wafer fabrication, isolation of adjacent devices has often been accomplished by forming thick oxide regions between the adjacent devices using a local oxidation of silicon method (often referred to as LOCOS) or by forming trench isolation regions between the adjacent devices. As critical dimensions get smaller and smaller in ever increasing density geometries, the width of the isolation regions formed between adjacent devices has decreased. Accordingly, the isolation effect provided by such isolation regions has also decreased. At some point, the isolation is decreased enough that the potential of source-drain regions of adjacent devices, which are electrically isolated by such isolation regions, begins to be adversely effected. For example, as the degree of isolation decreases, the threshold/turn-on voltages of adjacent devices may be effected, adversely impacting the operation of such devices.
Methods exist wherein conductively doped polysilicon is deposited within isolation trenches as isolation material. In one such process, a trench is formed within a bulk substrate, and then the sidewalls and base of the trench are thermally oxidized. After the oxidation has been completed, the base of the trench is etched, and then conductively doped polysilicon is deposited within the trench as isolation material. In another such process, the base of the trench is not etched, and the conductively doped polysilicon is deposited over the oxide which covers the base of the trench.
Although such methods of forming trench isolation regions are useful, such methods also have shortcomings. For example, when the conductively doped polysilicon is provided by deposition, the processing generally requires an additional step wherein excess polysilicon which has been formed outside the trench is removed. Additionally, when conductively doped polysilicon is provided within a trench to form an isolation region between an n-type region and a p-type region, due to non-ideal PN junction formation, current leakage tends to occur between the n-type region and the p-type region.
The present invention was principally motivated in overcoming the above identified issues. However, the invention is in no way so limited, and is only limited by the accompanying claims as literally worded and appropriately interpreted in accordance with the Doctrine of Equivalents.
Field isolation structures and methods of forming field isolation structures are described. In one implementation, a method includes etching a trench within a monocrystalline silicon substrate. The trench has sidewalls and a base, with the base comprising monocrystalline silicon. A dielectric material is formed on the sidewalls of the trench. Epitaxial monocrystalline silicon is grown from the base of the trench and over at least a portion of the dielectric, material. An insulating layer is formed over the epitaxial monocrystalline silicon.
According to one implementation, the invention includes a field isolation structure formed within a semiconductor substrate. The field isolation structure includes a monocrystalline silicon comprising substrate. A trench having sidewalls is formed within the monocrystalline silicon comprising substrate. A dielectric material is received on the sidewalls within the trench. Monocrystalline silicon is received within the trench between the dielectric material of the sidewalls. An insulating layer is received over the monocrystalline silicon within the trench.

Methods of forming field isolation structures


The present invention relates to a process for the production of paper from a suspension containing cellulosic fibres, and optional fillers, comprising adding to the suspension drainage and retention aids comprising a cationic organic polymer and anionic microparticulate material, forming and dewatering the suspension on a wire, wherein the cationic organic polymer has a non-aromatic hydrophobic group. The invention further relates to a cationic vinyl addition polymer comprising in polymerized form at least one non-cationic monomer having a non-aromatic hydrophobic group and at least one cationic monomer.

In the papermaking art, an aqueous suspension containing cellulosic fibres, and optional fillers and additives, referred to as stock, is fed into a headbox which ejects the stock onto a forming wire. Water is drained from the stock through the forming wire so that a wet web of paper is formed on the wire, and the web is further dewatered and dried in the drying section of the paper machine. Water obtained by dewatering the stock, referred to as white water, which usually contains fine particles, e.g. fine fibres, fillers and additives, is usually recirculated in the papermaking process. Drainage and retention aids are conventionally introduced into the stock in order to facilitate drainage and increase adsorption of fine particles onto the cellulosic fibres so that they are retained with the fibres on the wire. Cationic organic polymers like cationic starch and cationic acrylamide-based polymers are widely used as drainage and retention aids. These polymers can be used alone but more frequently they are used in combination with other polymers and/or with anionic microparticulate materials such as, for example, anionic inorganic particles like colloidal silica and bentonite.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,980,025; 5,368,833; 5,603,805; 5,607,552; and 5,858,174; as well as International Patent Application No. WO 97/18351 disclose the use of cationic and amphoteric acrylamide-based polymers and anionic inorganic particles as stock additives in papermaking. These additives are among the most efficient drainage and retention aids now in use. Similar systems are disclosed in European Patent Application No. 805,234.


Polyquinoline copolymers and mixtures of polyquinoline homopolymers and copolymers having unique properties are provided. The copolymers can include random copolymers, block copolymers, and tri-block copolymers.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,187 disclosed a polymeric composition consisting of recurring, substituted quinoline groups, as well as methods of preparing such polymers. U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,187 is incorporated herein by this reference. As is described in the patent, polyquinoline homopolymers can be prepared from the reaction of (a) a type AA compound, an aromatic amino carbonyl containing two sets of ortho-amino carbonyl functions attached to an aromatic nucleus, selected from the group of type AA compounds consisting of structures represented by the formulas: ##STR1## wherein R is hydrogen or aryl, and the Ar, Ar', and Ar" are aryl groups, with (b) a type BB compound, a bis methylene ketone compound, selected from the group of type BB compounds consisting of the structures represented by the formulas: ##STR2## wherein R is hydrogen or aryl, R' is aryl, and Ar" and Ar"' are aryl groups.
Subsequently, it has been reported in the literature (J. K. Stille, Macromolecules, 1981, 14, 870-880) that related polyquinoline polymers can be prepared from the reaction of a compound selected from the group of type AB compounds consisting of aromatic compounds containing one set of ortho-amino carbonyl functions, as well as one methylene ketone function attached to an aromatic nucleus, selected from the group of type AB compounds consisting of structures represented by the formulas: ##STR3## wherein R is hydrogen or aryl, R' is Aryl, and Ar', Ar" and Ar"" are aryl groups.
The methods disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,187, and in the above-described literature reference, relate to preparation of a variety of polyquinoline polymers with varying physical properties. Most of the aforementioned polymers are homopolymers; i.e., most are polymers containing regularly recurring monomer units which can be represented schematically as: ##STR4## wherein D represents a recurring monomer unit. In such polymers, the monomer units usually consist of at least one quinoline moiety, with or without substituents, connected to two identical, adjacent, monomer units. Most of the homopolymers are prepared by allowing a single type AA compound to react with an equimolar amount of a single type BB compound, or alternatively, are from the reaction of a single type AB compound.
Some of the polyquinoline homopolymers previously disclosed or reported in the literature are rigid-rod polyquinoline polymers. Rigid-rod polymers are defined as having a rigid-rod backbone formed from a plurality of monomer units joined together by parallel, covalent bonds, such as carbon-carbon covalent bonds, such that the longitudinal axis of all the covalent bonds between the monomer units is substantially parallel, resulting in a polymer backbone that is linear and substantially straight. Rigid-rod polyquinolines consist of quinoline units, with or without substituents, connected in an extended polymer chain through covalent bonds, such as in the following catenations: ##STR5## wherein X and Y represent direct covalent bonds to adjacent quinoline units, or X and Y may be any groups which permit a substantially linear linkage to adjacent quinoline groups. For example, X and Y may be 1,4-phenylene or 4,4'-biphenyl. All polyquinoline homopolymers which are not included in the class of rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymers are referred to as non-rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymers.
The particular type AA, type BB, and type AB compounds employed as starting materials for the preparation of any particular polyquinoline homopolymer determines whether the resulting polymer is a rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymer or a non-rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymer. Thus, precursors to polyquinoline polymers are divided between compounds which can be precursors for rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymers, or compounds which cannot be precursors for rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymers A compound which can be a precursor for a rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymer is referred to as a "rigid-rod precursor compound," i.e., a rigid-rod type AA compound, a rigid-rod type BB compound, or a rigid-rod type AB compound. Similarly, a compound which cannot be a precursor for a rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymer is referred to as a "non-rigid-rod precursor compound," i.e., a non-rigid-rod type AA compound, a non-rigid-rod type BB compound, or a non-rigid-rod type AB compound. It should be noted that certain specific combinations of rigid-rod precursor compounds result in the production of non-rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymers, e.g.: ##STR6## where the substituent Ph is defined herein as a phenyl group (C.sub.6 H.sub.5).
According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,187, rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymers can be prepared only by allowing a single, rigid-rod type AA compound to react with an equimolar amount of a single, rigid-rod type BB compound. Any other combination of type AA and type BB compounds in which at least one of the compounds is a non-rigid-rod compound results in formation of a non-rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymer. In a similar fashion, use of a rigid-rod type AB compound results in a rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymer, while use of a non-rigid-rod type AB compound yields a non-rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymer.
A variety of both rigid-rod and non-rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymers can be prepared according to the methods disclosed in both U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,187 and the above-described literature reference. Such homopolymers exhibit a wide range of physical properties. The contrast between rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymers and non-rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymers is especially notable. Most rigid-rod polyquinoline polymers are soluble only in strong acid solvents, exhibit remarkably high melting and decomposition temperatures and cannot be melt processed. In contrast, some non-rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymers are soluble in common organic solvents, exhibit glass transition temperatures which are notably lower than for rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymers, and can be melt processed into fibers, etc.
The number of different polyquinoline polymers which can be attained is limited by the number of type AA, type BB, and type AB compounds. Furthermore, the range of physical properties attainable with polyquinoline homopolymers is limited by the number of homopolymers which can be prepared. For example, rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymers are expected to be especially useful in applications necessitating superior mechanical strength. However, the utility of rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymers may be greatly limited by the difficulty in processing such materials: no rigid-rod polyquinoline homopolymers are known which can be processed from common organic solvents or which can be melt processed.
It is desirable, therefore, to provide (1) polyquinoline polymers other than homopolymers which can be utilized to prepare high quality, high temperature resistant molding and laminating resins, adhesive compositions, films, and fibers; (2) polyquinoline polymers which exhibit chemical and physical properties not attainable with polyquinoline homopolymers; (3) methods for preparing copolymers of polyquinoline polymers; (4) methods for preparing multi-block polyquinoline copolymers; (5) methods for preparing tri-block polyquinoline copolymers; (6) and methods for preparing mixtures of polyquinoline polymers.

Colorado State University Research Foundation