A writing method for a magnetic memory cell which has a magnetic free stack layer with a bi-directional easy axis. A magnetic X axis and a magnetic Y axis are taken as reference directions, and the bi-directional easy axis is substantially on the magnetic X axis. The method includes applying a first magnetic field in a first direction of the magnetic Y axis. Then, a second magnetic field added onto the first magnetic field is applied in a first direction of the magnetic X axis. Next, the application of the first magnetic field is terminated. Thereafter, a third magnetic field is applied on the magnetic Y axis in a second direction opposite to the first direction. The second magnetic field is terminated and the third magnetic field is terminated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a writing method for a magnetic memory cell and a magnetic memory array structure.
2. Description of Related Art
Magnetic memories, such as magnetic random access memories (MRAMs), are non-volatile memories combining attributes of non-volatility, high density, high read and write speed, radiation resistance, and so on. Through magnetization directions of magnetic materials in neighboring tunnel barrier layers, the magnitude of magneto-resistance arisen from parallel or anti-parallel orientation is determined, and data 0 or 1 can be stored in the MRAM cells. Writing data into a selected magnetic memory cell is generally accomplished by passing currents through two current lines e.g. a bit line (BL) and a write word line (WWL) which intersect at the selected magnetic memory cell and induce a magnetic field. Simultaneously, through adjusting the magnetization direction of a free layer, the magneto-resistance is changed. Besides, when recalling the stored data, the current flows into the selected magnetic memory cell unit, and the resistance of the cell is detected to determine the digital value of the stored data.
FIG. 1 depicts a basic structure of a magnetic memory cell. Please refer to FIG. 1. Transverse current lines 100 and 102 with an adequate current flowing there through are required for accessing the magnetic memory cell. The current lines 100 and 102 may be described as the WWL and the BL based on the operating manner, such that the memory cells in a two-dimensional array can be controlled, respectively.
As the currents flow into the two conductive lines, the magnetic field with two directions is generated. Thereby, the magnetic field having the desired magnitude and direction can be applied to a magnetic memory cell 104. The magnetic memory cell 104 has a stack-layered structure including a magnetic pinned layer having a fixed magnetization or a fixed total magnetic moment in a predetermined direction. The data can be recalled based on the magnitude of the magneto-resistance. In addition, the data stored in the memory cell can be read out through output electrodes 106 and 108. Other details of the magnetic memory will not be provided hereinafter as they may be deduced by those of ordinary skill in the art.
FIG. 2 depicts a memory mechanism of a magnetic memory. As shown in FIG. 2, a magnetic pinned layer 104a has a fixed magnetic moment direction 107. A magnetic free layer 104c is disposed over the magnetic pinned layer 104a and is isolated therefrom by a barrier layer 104b sandwiched in between. The magnetic free layer 104c has a magnetic moment direction 108a or 108b. Since the magnetic moment direction 107 is parallel to the magnetic moment direction 108a, the magneto-resistance generated thereby represents the data "0", for example. On the contrary, the magnetic moment direction 107 and the magnetic moment direction 108b are anti-parallel, and thus the magneto-resistance generated thereby refers to the data "1", for example.
In general, the single-layered magnetic free layer 104c as shown in FIG. 2 may give rise to access errors. In order to avert disturbance caused by the adjacent memory cells when the data are written, a triple-layered free layer with a ferromagnetic (FM) layer/non-magnetic (M) metal layer/ferromagnetic (FM) layer structure is conventionally adopted as a solution to replace the single-layered FM material and to form a magnetic free stack layer 166 whose structure is indicated in FIG. 3. Anti-parallel FM metal layers 150 and 154 are respectively disposed on and under an M metal layer 152, and thereby a confined magnetic line is constituted. An underlying magnetic pinned stack layer 168 is isolated from the magnetic free stack layer 166 by a tunnel barrier (T) layer 156. The magnetic pinned stack layer 168 includes a top pinned (TP) layer 158, an M metal layer 160, and a bottom pinned (BP) layer 162. The TP layer and the BP layer both have a fixed magnetization. In addition, a base layer 164 e.g. an antiferromagnetic layer is disposed at the bottom.
In the triple-layered magnetic free stack layer 166, a magnetic anisotropic axis i.e. an easy axis is inclined at an angle of 45 degree with respect to both the BL and the WWL. Thereby, the BL and the WWL are capable of sequentially applying a magnetic field to the free stack layer 166 at 45 degrees from the easy axis, so as to rotate the magnetization of the free stack layer 166. The data stored in the memory cell are determined by the two magnetization directions of the FM metal layer 154 and the BP layer 158.
Further, it has been proposed in the related art to rotate the magnetization of the free layer in a toggle mode operation other than replacing the free layer having the single-layered free layer with the free layer having the triple-layered structure. FIG. 4 depicts an effect induced by an applied magnetic field on a triple-layered structure. Referring to FIG. 4, a thick arrow represents the applied magnetic field, and the length of the thick arrow denotes the magnitude of said applied magnetic field. Two thin arrows refer to two magnetization directions of the top FM layer and the bottom FM layer in the free stack layer. As the applied magnetic field is subtle, the two magnetization directions remain unchanged. When the applied magnetic field is increased to a certain magnitude, the two magnetization directions form an opening angle. And, when the applied magnetic field is excessively large, the two magnetization directions are drawn to the same direction as that of the applied magnetic field. The toggle mode operation complies with the second condition described above.
FIG. 5 depicts a time sequence of an applied magnetic field in a toggle mode. Referring to FIG. 5, H1 and H2 represent two directions of the applied magnetic fields at a 45 degree angle with respect to a direction of the easy axis, while two arrows in an ellipse indicate the two magnetization directions. At a time t0, the two magnetization directions are in the direction as the direction of the easy axis in the absence of the applied magnetic fields. Thereafter, H1 and H2 begin to rotate according to the time sequence illustrated in FIG. 5, and the total magnetic fields at different times (t1˜t3) are obtained. The two magnetization directions are then rotated. At a time t4, the application of the magnetic field is terminated. Here, the two magnetization directions are rotated once. That is to say, the data stored in the memory cell are modified through a write-in operation.
Moreover, since the write-in current is relatively high in the toggle mode operation, the related art has also brought up a bias field design. FIG. 6 is a schematic view depicting a reduction in an operating current according to the related art. Referring to the left graph in FIG. 6, the basic architecture of the memory cell is similar to that depicted in FIG. 3. The main difference lies in that a total magnetic moment 180 of the BP layer 162 is increased with respect to a total magnetic moment 182 of the TP layer 158. The total magnetic moment 180 is increased in thickness, for example. Since the total magnetic moments 180 and 182 are not balanced, a fringe magnetic field is generated, and a bias field 184 is applied to the free stack layer 166. Thereby, a toggle operating region in a first quadrant moves to a zero field, resulting in a small writing field 186. And because the required write-in magnetic field is small, the write-in current for generating the magnetic field can then be reduced.
The conventional operating modes have improved the write-in mechanism by which the data are written into the corresponding magnetic memory cell. However, the write-in method proposed by the related art can be merely performed on one magnetic memory cell, and the easy axis of the magnetic memory cell is pre-tilted in a 45 degree direction. Therefore, as the currents flow into the two write-in current lines, the direction of the magnetic field generated thereby is oriented at a 45 degree angle to the direction of the easy axis. If the direction of the easy axis is deflected during the fabrication of the magnetic memory cell, and if an excessive bias field is applied, some of the magnetic memory cells, in which the data stored not to be changed may be switched and may result in change. In view of the foregoing, optimizing the write-in efficiency and preventing an abnormal write-in operation are vital in the MRAM industry.

Writing method for magnetic memory cell and magnetic memory array structure

Industrial Technology Research Institute


The embodiments of via mask splitting methods for double patterning technology described enable via patterning to align to a metal layer underneath or overlying to reduce overlay error and to increase via landing. If adjacent vias violate the G0-mask-split-rule for space or pitch (or both) between vias, the mask assignment of end vias are given higher priority to ensure good landing of end vias, since they are at higher risk of mislanding. The metal correlated via mask splitting methods enable better via performance, such as lower via resistance, and higher via yield.

Double patterning is a technology developed for lithography to enhance the feature density. Typically, for forming features of integrated circuits on wafers, lithography technology is used which involves applying a photo resist and defining patterns on the photo resist. The patterns in the patterned photo resist are first defined in a lithography mask, and are implemented either by the transparent portions or by the opaque portions in the lithography mask. The patterns in the photo resist are then transferred to the manufactured features.
With the increasing down-scaling of integrated circuits, the optical proximity effect posts an increasingly greater problem. When two separate features are too close to each other, the space and/or pitch between the features could be beyond the resolution limit of the light source. To solve such a problem, double patterning technology is one solution. The closely located features are separated into two masks of a same double-patterning mask set, with both masks used to pattern the layer. In each of the double-patterning masks, the distances between features are increased over the distances between features in a single mask, and hence, the resolution limit can be overcome.

Method for metal correlated via split for double patterning

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A projector includes a liquid-cooling device configured to cool down an optical element, an optical element holding member that is constructed to allow cooling liquid to flow in and out and holds the optical element; a liquid pumping unit that circulate cooling liquid; a liquid storage unit that is constructed to allow cooling liquid to flow in and out and temporarily stores cooling liquid therein; and a plurality of liquid circulation members that connect the optical element holding member, the liquid pumping unit, and the liquid storage unit and define a flow channel of the cooling liquid, and the liquid pumping unit, the liquid storage unit, and the optical element holding member are arranged along a circulation direction of the cooling liquid along the flow path in order of the liquid pumping unit, the liquid storage unit, and the optical element holding member.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a projector.
2. Related Art
In the related art, a projector is provided with a construction for cooling down an optical element using cooling liquid, in order to cool down effectively the optical element such as a liquid crystal panel (refer to JP-A-2007-41412).
The projector disclosed in JP-A-2007-41412 includes an optical element holding member that is constructed to allow cooling liquid to flow in and out and holds an optical element, a liquid pumping unit which forcibly circulates the cooling liquid, and a plurality of liquid circulation members which connect the respective units and form a ring-shaped flow path to circulate the cooling liquid. The optical element is cooled down by exchanging heat with the cooling liquid circulating along the ring-shaped flow path through the optical element holding member.
However, since the liquid pumping unit is constructed as a so-called pump, the cooling liquid is intermittently pumped from the liquid pumping unit at a predetermined frequency. That is, pulsation occurs in the cooling liquid pumped from the liquid pumping unit.
In the projector disclosed in JP-A-2007-41412, the cooling liquid pumped from the liquid pumping unit directly flows into the optical element holding member through the liquid circulation members. In other words, the pulsating cooling liquid directly flows into the optical element holding member.
When the pulsating cooling liquid flows into the optical element holding member, the pulsation of the cooling liquid spreads to the optical element holding member or the optical element. Therefore, it is difficult to secure stably the image quality of a projected image.

Liquid-cooling device including liquid pumping unit and liquid storage unit and projector including liquid-cooling device


A viewfinder assembly mounting system includes a mounting hole formed at least in one of a camera body and a base barrel in a direction of an optical axis, a viewfinder assembly provided with a guide hole corresponding to the mounting hole of the base barrel; and a guide member inserted and coupled to the mounting hole and the guide hole in the direction of the optical axis. The guide member is either a strobe guide member or a viewfinder lens guide member for respectively guiding a motion of the strobe and the viewfinder lens in a direction of an optical axis by synchronizing with the barrel.

The Present invention relates to a camera and, more particularly, to a viewfinder mounting system for mounting a viewfinder assembly to a base barrel or a camera body.
Generally, a zoom camera of high zoom power includes a photographing camera lens and a finder lens that often create a difference in the field of view in association with a zooming operation according to the location difference between them.
To reduce such a difference in the field of view, the viewfinder assembly is often mounted onto the camera after adjusting positioning of the finder lens by moving in upward, downward, right and/or left directions. At this point, the viewfinder assembly is usually mounted to the camera by conventional screws.
However, when the viewfinder is mounted to the camera by such screws, the difference of the field of view is often aggravated, deteriorating the quality and/or function of the camera.
In addition, the use of screws makes it difficult to reduce the size of the camera as a space for mounting the screws is required.
Furthermore, the viewfinder mounting system using such screws deteriorates the productivity as the number of assembly parts is increased.
Therefore, the present invention has been made in an effort to solve the above-described problems.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a viewfinder fixing or mounting system that can improve the assembly process by preventing misalignment or distortion in the alignment thereby reducing the difference in the field of view of the viewfinder with respect to the photographing camera lens, and also reducing the number of parts by minimizing the number of screws and/or parts used for mounting the viewfinder.
To achieve the above and other objectives, the present invention provides a viewfinder assembly mounting system for a camera, comprising: a base barrel including a mounting hole formed therein in a direction of an optical axis of the camera or the viewfinder assembly, the base barrel being mounted to a camera body; a viewfinder assembly including a first guide hole disposed therein and corresponding to the mounting hole of the base barrel; a strobe including a second guide hole disposed therein between the mounting hole and the first guide hole when the strobe is received within the viewfinder assembly; and, a guide member coupled to the mounting hole of the base barrel in the direction of the optical axis after passing through the first and second guide holes.
Preferably, the guide member is a strobe guide member for guiding a motion of the strobe in the direction of the optical axis by synchronizing with, that is, in association with a movement of the barrel.
According to another aspect, the present invention provides a viewfinder mounting system for a camera, comprising: a base barrel including at least one mounting hole formed therein in a direction of an optical axis of the camera, the base barrel being mounted to a camera body; a viewfinder assembly including at least one guide hole corresponding to the mounting hole of the base barrel; and at least one guide member inserted and coupled to the mounting hole and the guide hole in the direction of the optical axis.
Preferably, the guide member is a viewfinder lens guide member for guiding a motion of the viewfinder lens in a direction of an optical axis by synchronizing with the barrel.
According to another aspect, the present invention provides a viewfinder mounting system for a camera, comprising: a camera body including a mounting hole formed therein in a direction of an optical axis; a base barrel being mounted to the camera body; a viewfinder assembly including a guide hole corresponding to the mounting hole of the camera body; and a guide member inserted and coupled to the mounting hole and the guide hole in the direction of the optical axis.
Preferably, the guide member is a viewfinder lens guide member for guiding a motion of the viewfinder lens in a direction of an optical axis by synchronizing with the barrel.

Viewfinder mounting structure for camera


In a network of autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, an alert may be triggered when one of the vehicles switches from autonomous to manual mode. The alert may be communicated to nearby autonomous vehicles so that drivers of those vehicles may become aware of a potentially unpredictable manual driver nearby. Drivers of autonomous vehicles who may have become disengaged (e.g., sleeping, reading, talking, etc.) during autonomous driving may become re-engaged upon noticing the alert. A re-engaged driver may choose to switch his/her own vehicle from autonomous to manual mode in order to appropriately react to an unpredictable nearby manual driver. In additional or alternative embodiments, the alert may be triggered or intensified when indications of impairment of a nearby driver or malfunction of a nearby vehicle are detected.

Individuals have been operating vehicles as a means of transportation for decades. Recently, more and more vehicles have incorporated autonomous or semi-autonomous features, allowing a vehicle to operate with little to no input from an operator or passenger of the vehicle. When a vehicle is in an autonomous or semi-autonomous mode, an operator or passenger may be free to carry on with other activities unrelated to the operation of the vehicle. For instance, an operator or passenger may accomplish other tasks during the operation of the vehicle, such as working, reading, or talking on the phone. Vehicle operators or passengers may even, for example, sleep, watch a movie, or play a game as the vehicle operates autonomously. However, in some instances, manual operation may be more appropriate even for a vehicle with sophisticated autonomous or semi-autonomous features.

STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY


A monitoring device for measuring one or more physiological parameters of a medical patient can include a finger clip sensor connected to a monitor. A placement indicator helps the patient to properly position the sensor. The monitor can display a message alerting the patient to reposition the sensor. The device can delay measurement until the sensor is properly positioned.

Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure herein relates generally to patient monitoring with non-invasive physiological sensors. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to devices and methods for aiding a patient in positioning the physiological sensor for more accurate results.
Description of the Related Art
The standard of care in caregiver environments includes patient monitoring through spectroscopic analysis using, for example, a pulse oximeter. Devices capable of spectroscopic analysis generally include a light source(s) transmitting optical radiation into or reflecting off a measurement site, such as, body tissue carrying pulsing blood. After attenuation by tissue and fluids of the measurement site, a photodetection device(s) detects the attenuated light and outputs a detector signal(s) responsive to the detected attenuated light. A signal processing device(s) process the detector(s) signal(s) and outputs a measurement indicative of a blood constituent of interest, such as glucose, oxygen, met hemoglobin, total hemoglobin, other physiological parameters, or other data or combinations of data useful in determining a state or trend of wellness of a patient.
In noninvasive devices and methods, a sensor is often adapted to position a finger proximate the light source and light detector. For example, noninvasive sensors often include a clothespin-shaped housing that includes a contoured bed conforming generally to the shape of a finger. The contoured bed can help position and stabilize the finger for measurement.


Telecommunications service providers are increasingly relying on third party applications developed in accordance with industry standard application programming interfaces (API's). In order to decouple the connection between the standard API's and the telecommunications network, the present invention creates a translation layer or open services gateway (OSG). The open services gateway enables an application written to conform to an industry standard API to be used despite changes in the underlying network. The OSG encapsulates the commands from the API's in a TCP/IP packet which is formatted in accordance with a generic data interface specification for an intelligent network services control point. In this manner there is no hard-coded coupling between open standard API's and the telecommunications network. Additionally, the intelligent network services control point can perform important interference monitoring functions.

In the current telecommunications environment many standards organizations such as 3GPP, 3GPP2, Parlay and Sun Microsystems' Jain® technology initiative have been busy developing various open standards-based services architectures and API's in order to permit more efficient development and integration of new and innovative telecommunications applications. For example, the Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) controls (trunking) gateways that interconnect the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) with packet networks and for controlling (residential) gateways that function as network interfaces for customer premise located equipment (e.g., phones with an RJ-11 jack). Thus, service creators are interested in developing services based on the standard open API's.
Currently, gateways between third party applications and the underlying telecommunications network use either hard-coded API to Network Protocol mappings or have been implemented directly on top of the Network Elements themselves.
It would be desirable to have a system and method that could implement standard API's without having to specifically code the mapping to the underlying Network Protocols.
Further it would be desirable to have a system and method to implement standard API's without having to implement them directly on top of the Network Elements themselves.
It is desirable to have a means to implement standard API's that are decoupled from the underlying signaling network.

Method and system for implementing standard applications on an intelligent network service control point through an open services gateway


Flame retardant polyesters obtainable by reacting an aromatic or aliphatic dicarboxylic acid and/or ester of anhydride thereof, with an aliphatic polyol or mixtures thereof and with melamine, are provided. Methods of making said polyesters are also provided.

Melamine and melamine cyanurate are well-known flame retardant compounds conventionally used as an additive to polymers and polymeric blends.
However, melamine and melamine cyanurate are solid and therefore not easy to use. If melamine is used as an additive in polymeric blends, melamine will settle out of the system due to its solid particles. In spray-rigid foam systems, for instance, the melamine solid particles will clog the spray gun nozzle.
Some liquid flame retardants, such as halogen-containing or phosphorous-containing chemicals, can be used as additives; however, halogen- or phosphorous-containing chemicals are toxic, corrosive and generally more expensive than melamine and melamine cyanurate, whereas melamine is a non-halogen, non-phosphorous, non-toxic, non-corrosive and generally less expensive chemical.
JP 1495362 describes a fire-retardant polyester obtained by thermally polymerizing thermoplastic polyester forming monomers with added melamine and cyanuric acid; the process makes use of an equi-molar amount of cyanuric acid and melamine, thereby forming a complex compound which is melamine cyanurate complex; the resulting mixture is polymerized in the presence water at 200-300° C. to provide a polyester containing melamine cyanurate uniformly and finely dispersed in the polyester. Since melamine is totally neutralized by cyanuric acid, therefore, there is no —NH2 group to react onto the polymer backbone, whereby solid melamine cyanurate acts as an additive in the polyester.
EP 376 380 relates to an aromatic polymer with a liquid-crystalline behavior including one or more tri-functional triazine units. The described process contemplates reacting aromatic polyester forming monomers and adding a triazine when the polymer reaches the desired degree of polymerization. It is disclosed that the addition of a small amount of triazine (melamine) can improve the mechanical properties and thermal shock resistance of the obtained liquid-crystal high molecular weight polymer.
WO 2014/135712 describes a process for preparing a high molecular weight polyester which comprises reacting a dicarboxylic acid and a diol in the presence of a triazine derivative. The concentration of triazine derivative, which is determined by the concentration of nitrogen atoms, is generally from 1,000 ppm to 10,000 ppm with a preferred concentration of from 1,000 ppm to 2,500 ppm. The addition of a small amount of melamine derivatives is described as suitable to improve high molecular weight polymer crystallization rate.
An object of the present invention is to provide a polyester (polyol) having flame-retardant properties, wherein melamine is synthetized onto the polyester backbone.
Another object of the invention is to provide a novel polyester which is suitable to react with isocyanate to form polyurethane or polyisucyanurate that can be used, among the others, for rigid foam, spray foam, flexible foam, cast elastomers, TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane), adhesives, coatings, sealants, fiber applications, in order to obtain flame retardancy.

Flame retardant and auto-catalytic polyesters for polyurethanes


A system includes a computer including a processor and a memory, the memory including instructions executable by the processor to detect a service controller connected to a vehicle, upon authenticating the service controller, receive an operation mode for a vehicle component from the service controller, and actuate the vehicle component within operating limits based on the operation mode.

Vehicles can be operated by a user to perform a specific task. The tasks include, e.g., moving the user to a destination, testing a vehicle component, repairing a vehicle component, etc. However, a vehicle may require different users to perform the different tasks. It is a problem to securely control vehicle components for specific tasks performed by multiple users.


A hydraulic hose holder comprises a vertically extending standard having a mounting plate, an arched clamping plate, arched resilient insert conforming to the clamping plate, and a circular disc. The arched clamping plate is secured to the mounting plate by screw jacks. The resilient insert is located between the mounting plate and the clamping plate. The resilient insert is provided with a circular opening having a series of radially extending slots. Each of the radially extending slots is provided with an enlarged opening for holding a hydraulic hoses or an electrical line. The hoses and electrical lines snap into the enlarged openings through the slots. The circular disc is placed in the circular opening trapping the hydraulic hoses and electrical lines in the enlarged openings.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a hydraulic hose holder that prevents chaffing of the hydraulic hoses by movement of an agricultural implement relative to the tractor.
Hydraulic hose holders and electrical line holders for agricultural implements are well known in the art. The hoses and lines must be secured to prevent chaffing causing breakage. The hoses and lines have been secured in place by holders having clamps that are pivotally aligned with the vertical pivot axis of the agricultural implement.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a hydraulic hose holder that prevents chaffing of the hydraulic hoses by movement of an agricultural implement relative to the tractor.
The hydraulic hose holder of the present invention comprises a vertically extending standard that is aligned with the vertical pivot axis of the agricultural implement. The vertical standard is provided with a horizontal mounting plate. An arched clamping plate is secured to the mounting plate by screw jacks. A resilient insert is located between the mounting plate and the clamping plate. The resilient insert is provided with a circular opening having a series of radially extending slots. Some of the slots are designed for hydraulic hoses and some of the slots are designed for electrical lines. Each of the radially extending slots is provided with an enlarged opening for holding the respective hydraulic hoses or electrical line. The hoses and electrical lines snap into the enlarged pending. A circular disc is placed in the circular opening trapping the hydraulic hoses and electrical lines in the enlarged openings. The circular disc has a first portion and a second portion that is secured to the first portion by a fastener.
The hose holder of the present invention provides a simple method of routing and securing hydraulic hoses and electrical lines to a resilient insert. The hoses and lines are then clamped in place preventing their movement and undue chaffing.

Hydraulic hose holder for an agricultural implement


A method for controlling dosage application during irradiation of a moveable target volume in a body with an energy beam by scanning the target volume includes, before irradiating an i-th grid position, determining a dosage during the irradiation process using the movement data, wherein the dosage already contains the i-th grid position during irradiation of the previous grid positions (1<=k<i). Depending on the determined dosage that already contains the i-th grid position during the irradiation of the previous grid positions (1<=k<i), a compensation value for the i-th grid position is calculated, and depending on the compensation value and on the nominal particle fluence for the i-th grid position, a compensated particle fluence (Fikomp) is calculated for the i-th grid position in order to irradiate the i-th grid position with the compensated particle fluence (Fikomp).

Tumors are generally treated using resection, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, or a combination of these methods. In radiation therapy, the aim of the treatment is to obtain a high local tumor dose while minimizing the harmful effects on the surrounding normal tissue. To this end, the energy or dose deposition is controlled to conform to the shape of the tumor to the extent possible. Recently, good therapy results have been obtained through irradiation with ions instead of photons since the energy or dose deposition as a function of the penetration depth has a sharp maximum (called Bragg peak). One such method is known as passive beam application, where the beam is shaped by a specially adapted collimator. Alternatively, however, it is also possible to focus the ion beam precisely and to scan the tumor three-dimensionally with a needle-fine beam, a so-called "pencil beam" (raster scanning method, spot scanning method, continuous scanning method). In the raster scanning method, the beam remains on at a grid position for a defined period of time and is kept on while it is shifted to the next grid position. In contrast, in the spot scanning method, the beam is switched off between grid positions. In the continuous scanning method, the beam is moved continuously over the grid positions without remaining stationary on them.
Aside from protons, other ions, especially carbon ions, are currently used. At times, neon ions are also employed. The use of these ions provides a higher relative biological effectiveness (RBE) for the inactivation of cells as compared to photons. Due to its dependence on the dose level, on the type of tissue and, above all, on the particle type and particle energy, the RBE in the deep tumor area is generally higher than in the entry channel, and thus provides an additional therapeutic benefit.
In recent years, the Applicant, in cooperation with the University of Heidelberg, the German Cancer Research Center and the Dresden-Rossendorf Research Center, has achieved considerable clinical success with raster scanning irradiation using carbon ions and dedicated radiation planning. The advantages of this method are the virtual elimination of the need for absorber materials to prevent the generation of secondary particles and, above all, the good conformity of the generated dose distributions as compared to passive beam application, especially proximal to the tumor.
Initially, the tumors mainly treated were tumors in the region of the cranial base and along the spinal column, whose motion can be reduced to a negligible minimum through stereotactic fixation. However, plans for a broader clinical application of the raster scanning method in various therapy centers envisage to irradiate also other tumors with ion beams, in particular carbon ion beams, using the raster scanning method. Tumors in the torso area of the body, however, are subject to more motion, especially due to the patient's breathing, which causes the entire rib cage and parts of the abdomen to move and change shape, and sometimes even because of the heartbeat of the patient. When moving tumors or, in general, moving target volumes are treated using a scanning method, one is faced with the challenge that this motion can have an adverse effect on the homogeneity of the energy deposition. Experiments with phantoms have shown that during application of a scanned beam, overdosage and underdosage may occur in the target volume, so that a simple enlargement of the target volume by the magnitude of the motion, as is employed in the case of passive beam application, does not allow optimal treatment.
In order to correct the influence of the motion during application of a scanned beam, at present, fractional irradiation making use of safety margins, multiple radiation (called "rescanning"), irradiation with motion-phase-dependent interruptions (called "gating"), motion-compensated irradiation with active beam adaptation (called "tracking"), or combinations of the aforementioned methods/techniques are being studied and used in pre-clinical trials. During motion-compensated irradiation with active beam adaptation (tracking), the beam position is continuously adjusted to the motion of the tumor. In this process, the lateral position of the beam with respect to the beam direction and the range of the particles are continuously adjusted to the motion of the tumor. In this connection, reference is made to the dissertation of S. O. Grötzinger "Volume Conformal Irradiation of Moving Target Volumes with scanned ion beams," Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, 2004, and to that of C. Bert, "Bestrahlungsplanung für bewegte Zielvolumina in der Tumortherapie mit gescanntem Kohlenstoffstrahl," (Irradiation Planning for Moving Target Volumes in Tumor Therapy with a Scanned Ion Beam), Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, 2006, both of which are hereby incorporated herein in their entirety by reference. In any case, the motion-compensated raster-scanned ion beam application is known per se to those skilled in the field of particle-beam tumor therapy.
Thus, if no countermeasures ("motion mitigation") are taken, the treatment of moving tumors with a scanned particle beam can in principle lead to dose errors due to the interaction of dynamic irradiation and moving anatomy. Even if the aforementioned methods are used, such as active beam adaptation (tracking), the path of the particle beam in the tissue may change despite the adaptation of the beam, for example when the motion of the tumor cannot be described by a pure translation. In fact, this is often the case since a motion of, for example, the rib cage may include rotational components and/or tissue deformations. Although active beam adaptation (tracking) allows the position of the Bragg peak, and thus the major portion of the particle dose, to be moved to the anatomically correct position, the change in beam path results in a change in the dose contribution to the remaining tissue, especially in the proximal region; i.e., upstream of the grid position where the Bragg peak is present. This results in local underdosage and overdosage as compared to planned dose deposition, which may be disadvantageous. In treatment simulations based on measured lung tumor data, the inventors found that, without considering the described dose changes, the dose coverage is significantly poorer as compared to simulated irradiation of a hypothetically stationary lung tumor (static irradiation, where no dose changes occur).
German Patent Application DE 10 2005 063 220 A1 describes measures for improving the time course of an irradiation which, however, are capable of being further improved with respect to the problems mentioned above.

Method and device for controlling dosage application during irradiation

GSI HELMHOLTZZENTRUM FUER SCHWERIONENFORSCHUNG GMBH


A method of forming fine patterns includes forming pillars arrayed in rows and columns on an underlying layer and forming a spacer layer on the underlying layer to cover the pillars. Portions of the spacer layer respectively covering the pillars arrayed in each row or in each column are in contact with each other to provide first interstitial spaces disposed between the pillars arrayed in a diagonal direction between a row direction and a column direction as well as to provide cleavages at corners of each of the first interstitial spaces in a plan view. A healing layer is formed on the spacer layer to fill the cleavages of the first interstitial spaces. The healing layer is formed to provide second interstitial spaces respectively located in the first interstitial spaces as well as to include a polymer material.

1. Technical Field
Various embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to semiconductor technologies and, more particularly, to methods of forming fine patterns.
2. Related Art
With the rapid growth of the semiconductor industry, a lot of effort has been focused on integrating more patterns in a limited area of a semiconductor substrate. That is, attempts to increase the integration density of semiconductor devices have typically focused in forming finer patterns. Various techniques have been proposed for forming fine patterns having a nano-scale critical dimension (CD), for example, from a size of about a few nanometers to about several tens of nanometers.
In the event that the fine patterns of the semiconductor devices are formed using only a photolithography process, there may be some limitations in forming the fine patterns due to image resolution limits of photolithography apparatuses used in the photolithography process. The image resolution limits of photolithography apparatuses may be due to the wavelengths of lights generated from light sources used in the photolithography apparatuses and to the resolution limit of existing optical systems used in the photolithography apparatuses. Recently, a double patterning technology (DPT) or a spacer patterning technology (SPT) has been proposed to overcome the resolution limits of the lithography apparatuses and to realize even more fine patterns.


An example system for operation in a borehole in a hydrocarbon-bearing rock formation includes a logging tool for detecting one or more conditions in the borehole. The logging tool includes a tool body and a 4D printed sensing element. The 4D printed sensing element includes a 3D printed shape-memory material configured to alter in at least one spatial dimension in response to one or more stimuli, thereby generating a data signal. The example system includes a data recording device in communication with the logging tool to receive and record one or more data signals transmitted from the logging tool.

In onshore or offshore oil or gas well operations, logging and measuring tools may be used to measure borehole or rock formation properties. The measured and recorded data (that is, a log) may indicate important information, such as cave-ins, presence or swelling of shale (fine-grained, sedimentary rock that may include mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments), borehole geometry, or other underground conditions within the borehole. Drilling crews may use such logs to assess (for example, to quantify) one or more conditions of the borehole, for example, to assess borehole stability. Logs may also be used for determining the volume of an open hole for planning cementing operations, as well as for detecting casing deformation, bending, fractures, holes, scale deposition, paraffin build-up, and inner wall corrosion within a rock formation.

Logging tool with 4D printed sensing system


A method of producing a CO2 adsorbent and CO2 adsorbents. The method including the steps of: (a) producing a mixture of at least one calcium salt and at least one metal support cation in at least one solvent; (b) drying the mixture to produce a solid containing a calcium metal salt; and (c) calcining the dried solid to produce a sorbent of calcium oxide dispersed in a porous metal support.

Global warming due to the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere is a public concern. This, combined with the possible introduction of commercial incentives to limit greenhouse gases, particularly atmospheric carbon, CO2 control technologies are in demand. Electricity and heat generation account for 41% of the total CO2 emissions in 2005, and the demand will be doubled by 2030 according to the World Energy Outlook projects. One method to reduce CO2 emissions by power generation sectors of industry is the use of non-carbon power generation, such as by hydropower and nuclear power generation. However, fossil fuels currently are the most important sources of world electricity and heat generation, providing 70% of the generation. This is particularly so for coal, which supplied 39% of the electricity generation in 2005, and which is sufficiently abundant to be used for the next 130 years at the coal production rates of 2007. This suggests that clean coal technology, which includes the process known as CO2 capture and storage (CCS), is likely to be an important part of the solution to reduce CO2 emissions.
Under a CCS system, CO2 is captured from coal power plants and then transported and stored rather than being emitted to the atmosphere. There are a range of factors affecting the application of CCS and two important ones are the technical maturity and costs. The CO2 capture process is the most expensive component in most CCS systems. Therefore it is critical to develop low-cost CO2 capture technologies to make the commercialization of CCS possible. In fact, in order for the CO2 capture technologies to be widely adopted, they must ideally bring economic gain rather than loss.
One alternative is the development of new systems of power generation with in-situ CO2 capture. In these systems, CO2 capture materials are used under high temperatures. Examples of such systems include the zero emission coal technology proposed by the Zero-Emission Coal Alliance (ZECA) with a claimed efficiency of 68%, and the Japanese Hydrogen Production by Reaction Integrated Novel Gasification process (HyPr-RING) with a claimed plant efficiency of over 53%. In these systems, the CO2 capture material plays a very important role in enhancing the overall efficiency of the systems. When coal or natural gas is gasified (reformed) together with the CO2 capture material, high purity hydrogen is produced while CO2 is captured in the material. Then, the hydrogen, free of CO2, may be used a source of carbon-free energy to generate power. These and other techniques are referred to as advanced zero emission power (AZEP) generation technologies.
Another particularly important use of a CO2 capture material would be in sorption-enhanced steam methane reforming (SE-SMR). In SE-SMR, natural gas is reformed with pressurised steam and oxygen in a reforming reactor to produce synthesis gas (CO+H2). If a CO2 capture material is also added into the reactor, high purity hydrogen will be generated, and the H2 may then be used separately as a source of energy.
A further important application of a CO2 capture material is in CO2 separation from a gas mixture. When the gas mixture is passed through a reactor bed of CO2 capture material, CO2 will be captured by the material while the rest of the mixture will exit the reactor (assuming the other gases in the mixture do not react with the material). Thus, the application of the capture material in post-combustion capture of CO2 in the flue gas of coal-fired power plants is possible. Obviously, other uses for a CO2 capture material can be envisaged.
From a commercial perspective, the CO2 capture material should ideally (a) be sufficiently robust that it can be recycled numerous times without any appreciable loss of performance in terms of its CO2 capture and liberation abilities (known as reversibility), (b) have a fast reaction rate, and (c) have a high capture capacity. Some suitable sorbents for CO2 capture at high temperature have been identified in the art to be Li2ZrO3/Li4SiO4 and CaO. CaO is cheap and widely available which makes it very attractive.
Indeed, CaO has been identified to be thermodynamically one of the most suitable materials for CO2 capture at high temperatures (eg in the range of about 300° C. to about 700° C.) due to its fast reaction rate and high capture capacity at those conditions. Additionally, it can be used either on its own or in combination with other minerals, where CaO is the main component. The reactions involved in the CO2 capture process can be described by equations (1) and (2).CaO+CO2→CaCO3(CO2 capture by CaO-carbonation/adsorption)  (1)CaCO3→CaO and CO2(release of CO2 from CaCO3-calcination/desorption)  (2)
However, the CO2 capture capacity and reversibility of CaO and CaO-based materials reduces after a few carbonation/calcination cycles. This is believed to be due to the CaCO3 undergoing sintering at the high temperature required for calcination. Sintering is a phenomenon where the CaCO3 crystals adhere to each other and results in a decrease in reaction surface area of the sorbent, which results in lower capture capacity for CO2 in the next carbonation cycle.
It would be desirable for the problems with the currently available CO2 capture materials, and particularly CaO systems, to be avoided or at least alleviated or ameliorated.
Reference to any prior art in the specification is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgment or any form of suggestion that this prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in Australia or any other jurisdiction or that this prior art could reasonably be expected to be ascertained, understood and regarded as relevant by a person skilled in the art.


A marker for use in playing lotto games such as bingo is made from a transparent rigid material having a flat bottom surface and a convex upper surface. The marker is sized to cover the indicia on the bingo card and to magnify the indicia thereunder. The marker has a convexly curved downwardly facing shoulder extending between the upper surface and bottom surface. The upper surface, shoulder and bottom surface form a continuous curvilinear surface which provides a magnified view free from double images.

Transparent markers for board games such as bingo or other lotto-type games are desirable because the markers, when placed on the number of other visible indicia, do not hide or obscure the covered number. It is desirable to have the called numbers remain visible, particularly for people who play more than one card simultaneously. Many people play a great number of cards at a time. The people who simultaneously play numerous cards still like to see the called numbers through the card for various reasons. If they are not sure a number was called on one of their boards, they can double check another one of their boards and at a glance verify if any of the same numbers are covered by the same marker. This verification would be impossible in certain situations where a lot of numbers have been called and the pace of the Bingo game is quick. A player does not have time to lift each and every marker in an attempt to find if a particular number was called.
Secondly, if the player's card happens to win, the player does not have to lift the markers to call out the numbers to confirm the winning card and, if the player is wrong, only the incorrectly placed marker needs to be removed.
Bingo games are particularly attractive to retired and other elderly people who might have less than perfect eyesight or hand dexterity. Even though many bingo cards have large numbers, some of the participants may want additional aids to see the numbers. As such, what is needed is a transparent marker which magnifies the numbers or other game indicia that is covered by the marker. Furthermore, the markers must be constructed to be easily picked up and otherwise handled. Furthermore, what is needed is markers that have different colored tints in which one tint is used to indicate uncalled numbers and a different tint is used to indicate that the number underneath has been called.


A flexible display device is disclosed. The flexible display device includes a first body, a second body, a flexible display, a first rack, a second rack, a first gear, and a second gear. The first gear and the second gear rotate in conjunction with each other. The flexible display is divided into a first region and a second region, and the second rack forms a continuous loop together with the second region of the flexible display. Accordingly, when the second body slides with respect to the first body, tension can be stably applied to the flexible display, and the flexible display is prevented from being loosened.

With the development of flexible displays that can be bent while displaying image information thereon, research and development has been underway to provide a foldable device by applying a flexible display to a device having two bodies and a folding structure (for example, a hinge unit). In such a foldable device, since the flexible display may be disposed to completely cover the two bodies and the folding structure, a relatively large-sized display can be implemented in the device.
As another example of a device using a flexible display, rollable devices having a structure in which a display is rolled up and unrolled have been studied and developed. In such rollable devices, as the flexible display is rolled, the total size or area of the entire display can be reduced. On the contrary, as the flexible display is unrolled, the total size or area of the entire display can be increased.
As still another example of a device using a flexible display, there is a device in which as two bodies slide with respect to each other, a flexible display having a U-shape due to a curved middle portion thereof is deformed such that a surface area of the flexible display seen from any one side thereof changes.
In the device in which two bodies slide with respect to each other, if non-uniform tension is applied to the flexible display when the flexible display is deformed, the flexible display may be partially twisted or loosened.
In addition, such a device in which the two bodies slide with respect to each other may be generally kept for a relatively long time with the middle portion of the flexible display forming a U-shape. However, after the device has been kept for a relatively long time in such a state, when a user wants to deform the flexible device, the middle portion of the flexible display forming a U-shape may not be fully spread out, and a flat portion of the flexible display may not be completely curved into a U-shape. This deficiency may be because of plastic deformation occurring in a part of the flexible display, springback, and/or elasticity of the flexible display.
Accordingly, considering such characteristics of the flexible display caused by the deformation thereof, development of a flexible display device that works accurately and stably is required.


An inspection device is provided in which X-rays are radiated in a fan-like shape with respect to an extension direction of steel cords, are transmitted through a conveyor belt, and reach an X-ray line sensor. A control device makes an X-ray generator and the X-ray line sensor move in a fixed relative position at a certain speed within a certain movement range in a direction parallel with a plane and orthogonal to an extension direction of the steel cords. The control device generates two-dimensional image information on the basis of an X-ray transmission signal obtained each time the X-ray generator and the X-ray line sensor move a unit amount equal to a pixel pitch of the X-ray line sensor. The control device detects measurement information relating to the conveyor belt and the steel cords on the basis of the obtained two-dimensional image information.

A known conveyor belt used in a conveyor belt device for transporting a target object to be conveyed includes a reinforcing layer including a plurality of steel cords aligned spaced apart from one another and a rubber layer that covers the reinforcing layer.
In manufacturing such a conveyor belt, the dimensions relating to the positions of the steel cords are required to be measured.
Examples of such dimensions include the cord pitch, i.e., the interval between steel cords, the distance between end cords, i.e., the interval between the steel cords positioned at both ends of the conveyor belt in the width direction, and the edge rubber width, i.e., the distance from the end surface of the conveyor belt in the width direction to the outer circumferential surface of the steel cord located adjacent to the end surface.
In the related art, the cross sections of the conveyor belt located at both ends of the conveyor belt in the longitudinal direction are measured by hand for these dimensions using calipers and/or a ruler after the conveyor belt is manufactured.
Thus, the dimensions at the intermediate portion of the conveyor belt in the longitudinal direction is unable to be measured during manufacture of the conveyor belt, and there is a demand for an enhancement in the measurement of dimensions of a conveyor belt.
Japan Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-143252 describes a device configured to radiate X-rays at a rubber material embedded with steel cords, form a visual image from the transmitted X-rays on a fluorescent screen, image the visual image with a camera, and detect the arrangement of the steel cords.
Japan Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2015-81857 describes a device configured to radiate X-rays at a conveyor belt, detect the transmitted X-rays with a line sensor extending in the direction orthogonal to the extension direction of the steel cords, generate an X-ray transmission image, and obtain the thickness of the rubber layer on the basis of the luminance of the X-ray transmission image.
However, in the device of Japan Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-143252, there is room for enhancement in ensuring measurement accuracy in imaging a visual image using a fluorescent screen.
Additionally, the device of Japan Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2015-81857 is configured to measure only the thickness of the rubber layer and not the dimensions relating to the positions of the steel cords, such as the cord pitch, the distance between end cords, and the edge rubber width.


An image reader includes a transparent plate (1) having end portions (1a and 1b) that are chamfered in a direction in which a document is carried thereon. The transparent plate (1) has recess portions (11a and 11b) formed in a lower surface thereof, and a housing (4) is engaged into the recess portions of the transparent plate. The image reader can prevent such a document as a check or banknote from being jammed, can be easily assembled and improve the reliability of the carrying of the document, and enables higher-speed reading.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a prior art image reader disclosed in Japanese patent publication No.2768866, for example. In the figure, reference numeral 8 denotes a document whose image is being captured, reference numeral 7 denotes a photoelectric conversion unit having a photoelectric transducer 6 aligned in a line, reference numeral 3 denotes a line light source for uniformly applying light to the document 8, reference numeral 2 denotes a plurality of light emitting elements arranged in a line on a substrate for light source, the plurality of light emitting elements consisting of a light emitting diode (LED) chip, for example, reference numeral 14 denotes a transparent plate located under the document 8, the transparent plate consisting of a glass plate, for example, and having a rugged portion used for improving a deflection of the amount of light, reference numeral 5 denotes an optical system (e.g., a rod lens array) located above the photoelectric transducer 6, for converting light and shade information formed on the document 8 into an erect image having the same size as the light and shade information, and reference numeral 4 denotes a housing for housing the photoelectric conversion unit 7, the line light source 3, the transparent plate 14, and the optical system 5, the housing constituting the image reader.
Next, a description will be made as to an operation of the prior art image reader.
The document 8 is carried on the transparent plate 14 and is uniformly irradiated with light emitted out of the light source 3. Light reflected from the document 8 is then formed into an erect image having the same size as the object on the photoelectric transducer unit 6 by the optical system 5 (e.g., a rod lens array) fixedly held in the housing 4, and is then amplified after converted into an electrical signal. Thus a photoelectric-converted output is acquired. The image reader of FIG. 1 can be a facsimile apparatus supporting documents having a size such as A4, in which reading speed is relatively slow and only one direction in which documents are carried is allowed. The prior art image reader assumes that the document whose image is being captured rarely has a bend or broken part.
FIGS. 2(a) to 2(c) are cross-sectional enlarged views each showing a positional relationship between the housing 4 and transparent plate 14 of the prior art image reader. FIG. 2(a) presents a case where the transparent plate 14 is placed at a higher level than the housing 4, FIG. 2(b) presents an ideal case where the transparent plate 14 is placed at the same level as the housing 4, and FIG. 2(c) presents a case where the transparent plate 14 is placed at a lower level than the housing 4. Arrows in FIGS. 2(a) to 2(c) indicate a direction in which the document is carried, and reference numeral 9 denotes a roller for carrying the document 8 while pressing the document 8 towards the transparent plate 14. When there is a difference between the housing 4 and the transparent plate 14 with respect to the direction in which the document is carried, as shown in FIG. 2(a) or 2(c), the head of the document can be jammed and the carrying of the document cannot be carried out well, as shown by reference numerals 8b and 8d. Furthermore, it is actually very difficult to provide an ideal configuration in which the transparent plate 14 is placed at the same level as the housing 4 as shown in FIG. 2(b), and the roller 9 can support only one direction in which the document is carried, the direction being designated by the arrows of FIGS. 2(a) to 2(c). Actually, in the configuration as shown in FIG. 2(a) in which the transparent plate 14 is placed at a higher level than the housing 4, the document is inserted into the image reader such that its head comes into contact with the upper surface of the transparent plate 14, so that the document can be smoothly carried without occurrence of a paper jam of the head of the document.
In recent years, image readers for reading, as the document 8, a check, a vote card for horse racing, or the like have been manufactured based on such a prior art image reader. Such an image reader requires about twice or more speedup as compared with facsimile apparatuses, bidirectional carrying of documents including carrying of documents in a direction in which a wrong inserted document is returned, and a structure that offers stable carrying of documents without occurrence of a paper jam. Image readers for capturing an image of a banknote 80 as the document 8 have recently begun hitting the market, and, when the image of the banknote 80 cannot be captured well because it has a bend or broken part or when a document (including a forged banknote) other than the banknote is inserted, require bidirectional carrying of documents including carrying of documents in a direction in which the inserted banknote 80 is returned.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing another prior art image reader. In the figure, reference numerals 10a, 10b, 11a and 11b denote carrying rollers, reference numerals 12a and 12b denote document carrying guides, reference numeral 13 denotes a resin, and reference numeral 15 denotes a document guide.
Because the prior art image reader for capturing the image of the banknote 80 requires at least 5-times or more speedup as compared with facsimile apparatuses, the document guide 15 is disposed on the transparent plate 14, as shown in FIG. 3, instead of the roller 9 used for document carrying, and the image reader is so constructed as to carry the banknote 80 floating apart from the transparent plate 14 along the document carrying guides 12a and 12b arranged before and behind the transparent plate 14 by using the carrying rollers 10a, 10b, 11a and 11b that are arranged before and behind the document guides 12 and 15.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of another prior art image reader for reading information carried by light passing through a banknote. The image reader of FIG. 4 applies light to the banknote by using a transmission-type light source 17 instead of the light source of FIG. 3, and then reads information carried by the light passing through the banknote. The prior art image reader of FIG. 4 differs from that of FIG. 3 in only the position of the light source, and carries out a reading operation in the same way that the image reader of FIG. 3 does.
Because when there is a difference between the transparent plate 14 and either of the document carrying guides 12a and 12b the banknote 80 that is a document can be blocked or broken by the difference, it is necessary to attach the document carrying guides 12a and 12b to the housing so that they are arranged before and behind the transparent plate 14 by filling gaps between the transparent plate 14 and the document carrying guides 12a and 12b with the resin 13 of normal temperature curing type or the like and with a high degree of accuracy so that there is no difference between the transparent plate 14 and each of the document carrying guides 12a and 12b. It is necessary to take countermeasures to prevent the document carrying guides 12a and 12b from becoming misaligned so that a difference is caused between the transparent plate 14 and either of the document carrying guides 12a and 12b due to a decrease in the adhesive force of the resin 13 according to a heat that occurs in operating environments while the image reader is operating, and to prevent a crack from occurring in the resin 13. It is also necessary to design and assemble the image reader in consideration of the influence of the difference among the thermal expansions of the transparent plate 14, the document carrying guides 12a and 12b, and the housing 4 due to the difference among the temperatures of locations where they are placed, respectively, and it is further necessary to select a material suitable for the resin 13 and to examine a method of curing the material into the resin.
In case where the transparent plate 14 is a glass plate, for example, the transparent plate 14 can have a thickness allowance of about ±0.2 mm. In case where each of the document carrying guides 12a and 12b is a molded object that consists of polycarbonate or the like, each of the document carrying guides 12a and 12b can have a height allowance of about ±0.3 mm. It is therefore necessary to adjust the height of each assembled image reader, to install all the components in the housing in consideration of the parallelism and flatness of each of those components and with difficult manual operations, and to attach the document carrying guides to the housing by filling gaps between the transparent plate and the document carrying guides with the resin 13. Therefore, a problem encountered with such an image reader is that the reliability of the image reader is reduced when a paper jam occurs, and it is necessary to always position a person who performs maintenance when a paper jam occurs near the image reader. Another problem is that when a banknote is carried at a high speed in such an image reader, the image reader cannot always capture the image of the banknote at a high speed because the banknote might go off course due to a wind force.
Old banknotes can have many small cuttings and these small cuttings can become motes and, when the gaps between the transparent plate 14 and the document carrying guides 12a and 12b are not adequately filled with the resin 13 and/or when cracks appear in the resin 13, can enter the housing 14 from the gap between the housing 14 and the transparent plate 14 via the gaps between the transparent plate 14 and the document carrying guides 12a and 12b and/or the cracks in the resin. When motes then adhere to the optical system 5 or the photoelectric transducer 6, a malfunction occurs in the image reader. Therefore, the prior art image reader requires complete overall bonding sealing so that there is no gap between the transparent plate 14 and the housing 4 and no crack appears in the resin 13.
As previously mentioned, a problem with a prior art image reader constructed as mentioned above is that in order to capture an image of such a document as a check or banknote, it is necessary to prevent the document from being jammed in bidirectional carrying of the document, and particularly it is necessary to design and assemble the image reader so that there is no difference between each of the document carrying guides 12a and 12b and the transparent plate 14 when the image reader is used for capturing an image of a banknote.
Another problem is that the reading speed of reading the banknote cannot be raised to solve the problem associated with the carrying of the banknote that the assembly of the image reader is difficult and the reliability of the image reader is low, and it is difficult to completely seal the housing 4 with the transparent plate 14 to prevent small cuttings from entering the housing 4.
The present invention is proposed to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an image reader that can prevent such a document as a check or banknote from being jammed, that can be easily assembled and improve the reliability of carrying, and that enables higher-speed reading.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an image reader that can prevent motes from invading a housing from space between a transparent plate and the housing, and can be easily assembled.


A resonant converter apparatus includes a plurality of resonant converters connected in parallel, and a control module outputting a pulse width modulation (PWM) control signal to the resonant converters. The control module includes a voltage control loop and a circuit control loop. The voltage control loop compares the sensed output voltage with a predetermined reference voltage, and outputs a PWM control signal to one of the resonant converters so the output voltage of the one converter is equal to the predetermined reference voltage. The current control loop uses the sensed output current of the one converter as a reference current, compares the reference current with the sensed output current from each of the other resonant converters, generates a frequency adjusting variable, and calculates the individual PWM control signal for each of the other converters so the output currents of the plurality of converters are the same.

Nowadays, high power converter apparatus may employ two or more resonant converters connected in parallel to deliver high output current, which has advantages for maintenance, and the reliability of the apparatus may be improved by using parallel redundancy. Although a plurality of resonant converters connected in parallel may output the same current by using the symmetrical layout, it is difficult to obtain a completely symmetrical layout because there are some inherent differences between circuit layouts, and thus there is always current difference between the converters. It results in low efficiency and thermal loss of the apparatus, and the loss for the converter outputting high current may be large. The inventors hereof have recognized a need for a scheme keeping the balance of the output currents of the plurality of resonant converters connected in parallel.

Multiple resonant converter apparatus and control method


The loop bandwidth of a PLL is adjusted based on a difference between the output signal of the PLL and the PLL reference signal. In an embodiment, the DC open loop gain and natural frequency of the PLL are adjusted based on the phase difference between the output signal and the reference signal, so that the loop bandwidth of the PLL is increased when the phase difference is outside a programmable range and is decreased when the phase difference is within the programmable range.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure generally relates to electronic devices and more particularly to electronic devices having a phase lock loop.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices typically employ at least one phase lock loop (PLL) to synchronize an output signal of the PLL with a reference signal. The PLL uses a feedback loop to adjust the frequency and phase of the output signal until they are in a deterministic relationship with the frequency and phase of the reference signal.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.

Phase lock loop with adaptive loop bandwidth


An airfoil, a fan assembly and an unducted contra-rotating fan engine include fabricating at least one airfoil including a suction and a pressure side coupled together at a leading and a trailing edge and extending therebetween. The airfoil includes a plurality of chord sections having a chord length. The airfoil including a tip profile defining a reducing slope extending from the leading edge at the tip portion along at least a portion of the chord length. The tip profile is configured to reduce the high unsteady pressure near the tip portion of the airfoil.

Embodiments presented herein relate generally to aerodynamic surfaces configured for noise reduction, and more specifically to configuration of a tip portion on an aerodynamic surface, such as an airfoil, for noise reduction.
At least some known machines including aerodynamic surfaces such as, but not limited to, wind turbines, aircraft airframes, aircraft engines, gas turbine engines and steam turbine engines, include a plurality of stationary and/or rotating airfoils which are subject to impinging wakes and vortices generated from an upstream object, such as an upstream bladerow or an input unsteady airflow. The upstream generated wakes and vortices are channeled downstream where they may impinge on the leading edge of downstream airfoils. In one instance, the wake flow impingement, from an upstream object, on the downstream airfoils moving relative to each other is a dominant source of aerodynamic noise and aeromechanical loading generated in turbomachinery applications.
Of particular interest are unducted, contra-rotating engines which have been developed such as the GE 36 engine, frequently referred to as an unducted fan (UDF) or propfan engine. In some known unducted contra-rotating engines, noise may be generated by an upstream rotating airfoil's wake impinging on a leading edge of a contra-rotating airfoil located downstream. In other known instances, noise may be generated by an upstream stator component's wake impinging on a leading edge of a rotating airfoil downstream from the component.
Noise generated by aircraft engines may be constrained by international and local regulations, thereby creating a need to balance fuel efficiency and emissions with noise pollution. A dominant source of aerodynamic noise and aeromechanical loading generated in turbomachinery applications is the interaction of wakes from upstream bladerows on downstream bladerows or vanes moving relative to each other. As previously indicated, examples include fan wakes and vortices interacting with downstream contra-rotating fan blades, whereby open rotor noise may be generated by the forward-aft rotor interaction. In addition, of interest is turbomachinery noise from stator vane wakes impinging on downstream rotor blades. The impinging wake flow on the airfoil's leading edge may result in an increase in noise radiated from the turbomachinery, as well as a potential increase in aeromechanical loading on the bladerow. At least some known methods of reducing the noise generated by these unsteady wake flows impinging on airfoils include increasing the distance between the upstream object or airfoil and the downstream airfoil. This increased distance mixes the wake flow and thus reduces the amplitude of the wake flow forcing unsteady motion of the tip vortex of the downstream airfoil. However, increasing the distance between an upstream object, such as another airfoil, and the downstream airfoil may increases the size, weight, and cost of the engine, and thereby reduce the efficiency and performance of the engine.

Airfoils including tip profile for noise reduction and method for fabricating same


A power converter operable to draw an input current that is in phase with an input voltage of the power converter and proportional to a voltage of the input voltage of the power converter includes a drive switch, a waveform generator, and a current shaping circuit. The drive switch is connected between an input inductor and ground and draws current through the input inductor when turned on. The current shaping circuit provides an on-time of the drive switch for a next cycle of the drive switch as a function of an input current decay time, a switching period of the waveform generator, and an output voltage of the power converter. The waveform generator is responsive to the on-time provided by the current shaping circuit for selectively turning the drive switch on and off to cycle the drive switch as a function of the received on-time.

This invention relates generally to power factor corrected power converters that work in the transition or discontinuous mode. More particularly, the invention relates to reducing total harmonic distortion and input current phase variation in such power converters.
Transition mode power converters have the desirable property that the current through the inductor after every switching cycle returns back to zero, so as to allow zero-current and zero-voltage switching of the main switch. While in theory the current of a power converter operating in the transition mode with a constant on-time switching scheme is always proportional to and in phase with the input voltage, practical limitations deteriorate the performance which results in a total-harmonic-distortion (THD) value that is unacceptable in certain applications.
One reason for the deviation from theoretical perfect behavior is that many transition mode controllers clamp the maximum switching frequency of the converter to limit the switching losses. As a result, the converter is not able to maintain the transition mode switching conditions and starts to work in the discontinuous switching mode where the average input current using a constant on-time switching scheme is not proportional to the input voltage.
Some transition mode controllers allow very high switching frequencies to improve the THD of the input current. This improves the THD at the cost of reduced efficiency due to increased driving and switching losses. However, the THD of the input current is still negatively affected close to the polarity changes of the input voltage. As a result of the small input voltage, the stored energy in the inductor becomes very small and is not able to commutate the boost diode due to the parasitic capacitances of the switching node.
Another technique for improving THD and input current phase matching is implementing a current mode controller, which automatically increases the on-time of the main switch close to the zero-crossing of the input voltage to follow the current reference, storing sufficient energy in the inductor to commutate the diode. A shortcoming of this method is that the average input current over one switching cycle needs to be sensed, which increases the cost and complexity for the control and current sensing.

Input current shaping for transition and discontinuous mode power converter


Display systems and methods for configuring such display systems are disclosed. A display system may include a display and a monitoring processor in communication with the display. The monitoring processor may be configured to monitor a status of a device and present the status of the device on the display. The display system may also include a control processor in communication with the display. The control processor may be configured to operate independently with respect to the monitoring processor. The control processor may be further configured to process a user input and facilitate control of the device based on the user input received.

Electronic displays (may be simply referred to as displays) are devices configured to present images and/or text electronically. Modern aircraft use displays to present flight information. A pilot, for example, may use one or more displays referred to as synoptic display(s) to monitor the status of various devices onboard an aircraft.
For safety reasons, synoptic displays are typically provided only with the abilities to display the status information, and are prohibited from serving as interfaces for controlling the devices onboard the aircraft. Separate control panels are typically provided as control interfaces, and as the number of devices increases, the number of control panels may increase accordingly, leading to crowded flight decks.


Some embodiments provide a method for transmitting a downlink control channel in at least one block of resources. The downlink control channel comprises a set of resource element groups. The method may be executed by a transmitting node, e.g., an eNB. The transmitting node first determines whether to transmit the downlink control channel using localized or distributed transmission. Responsive to determining to use localized transmission, the transmitting node performs the transmission such that all resource element groups in the set that are comprised in the same block of resources are mapped to the same antenna port, and the antenna port depends on which subset of resource element groups in the block of resources are used for the downlink control channel.

3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology is a mobile broadband wireless communication technology in which transmissions from base stations (referred to as eNBs) to mobile stations (referred to as user equipment (UE)) are sent using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). OFDM splits the signal into multiple parallel subcarriers in frequency. The basic unit of transmission in LTE is a resource block (RB) which in its most common configuration consists of 12 subcarriers and 7 OFDM symbols (one slot). A unit of one subcarrier and 1 OFDM symbol is referred to as a resource element (RE) see FIG. 1. Thus, an RB consists of 84 REs. An LTE radio subframe is composed of multiple resource blocks in frequency with the number of RBs determining the bandwidth of the system and two slots in time, see FIG. 2. Furthermore, the two RBs in a subframe that are adjacent in time are denoted as an RB pair.
In the time domain, LTE downlink transmissions are organized into radio frames of 10 ms, each radio frame consisting of ten equally-sized subframes of length Tsubframe=1 ms.
The signal transmitted by the eNB in a downlink (the link carrying transmissions from the eNB to the UE) subframe may be transmitted from multiple antennas and the signal may be received at a UE that has multiple antennas. The radio channel distorts the transmitted signals from the multiple antenna ports. In order to demodulate any transmissions on the downlink, a UE relies on reference signals (RS) that are transmitted on the downlink. The RS consists of a collection of reference symbols and these reference symbols and their position in the time-frequency grid are known to the UE and hence can be used to determine channel estimates by measuring the effect of the radio channel on these symbols.
It should be noted in this context that the channel a UE measures is not necessarily from a particular physical transmit antenna element at the eNB to the UEs receiver antenna element, since the UE bases the measurement on a transmitted RS and the channel it measures depends on how the particular RS is transmitted from the multiple physical antenna elements at the eNB. Therefore, the concept of an antenna port is introduced, where an antenna port is a virtual antenna that is associated with an RS.
In 3GPP TS 36.211, an antenna port is defined such that the channel over which a symbol on the antenna port is conveyed can be inferred from the channel over which another symbol on the same antenna port is conveyed. This definition also applies to the present disclosure.
A UE measures the channel from an antenna port to the receiver antenna element using the RS associated with that antenna port. Which physical transmit antenna element, or group of elements that are actually used for the transmission of this RS is transparent and also irrelevant for the UE; the transmission on an antenna port may use a single physical antenna element or a combination of signals from multiple antenna elements. Hence, the precoding or mapping to physical antenna elements that was applied by the eNB is transparently included in the effective channel that the UE measures from the antenna port.
An example of utilization of multiple antenna elements is the use of transmit precoding to direct the transmitted energy towards one particular receiving UE, by using all available antenna elements for transmission to transmit the same message, but where individual phase and possibly amplitude weights are applied at each transmit antenna element. This is sometimes denoted UE-specific precoding and the RS in this case is denoted UE-specific RS. If the UE-specific RS in the RB is precoded with the same UE-specific precoding as the data, then the transmission is performed using a single virtual antenna, i.e. a single antenna port, and the UE need only to perform channel estimation using this single UE-specific RS and use it as a reference for demodulating the data in this RB. In other words, the UE does not need to know the precoding vector that was applied by the eNB when transmitting the data. Selecting and adapting the precoding vector is typically left to the implementation, and is thus not described in standard specifications.
The UE-specific RS are transmitted only when data is transmitted to a UE in the subframe, otherwise they are not present. In LTE, UE-specific RS are included as part of the RBs that are allocated to a UE for reception of user data. Examples of UE-specific reference signals in LTE can be found in FIG. 3 where for example all RE denoted R7 contains modulated reference symbols belonging to one "RS". Hence, what is known as an RS is a collection reference symbols transmitted in a set of distributed REs.
Another type of reference signals are those that can be used by all UEs and thus have wide cell area coverage. One example of these is the common reference signals (CRS) that are used by UEs for various purposes including channel estimation and mobility measurements. These CRS are defined so that they occupy certain pre-defined REs within all the subframes in the system bandwidth irrespectively of whether there is any data being sent to users in a subframe or not. These CRS are shown as "reference symbols" in FIG. 2.
Messages transmitted over the radio link to users can be broadly classified as control messages or data messages. Control messages are used to facilitate the proper operation of the system as well as proper operation of each UE within the system. Control messages could include commands to control functions such as the transmitted power from a UE, signaling of RBs within which the data is to be received by the UE or transmitted from the UE and so on. Examples of control messages are the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) which for example carry scheduling information and power control messages, the physical HARQ indicator channel (PHICH), which carries ACK/NACK in response to a previous uplink transmission and the physical broadcast channel (PBCH) which carries system information.
In LTE Rel-10, control messages are demodulated using the CRS (except for the R-PDCCH, see below), hence they have a wide cell coverage to reach all UEs in the cell without having knowledge about their position. The first one to four OFDM symbols, depending on the configuration, in a subframe are reserved for control information, see FIG. 2. Control messages could be categorized into those types of messages that need to be sent only to one UE (UE-specific control) and those that need to be sent to all UEs or some subset of UEs numbering more than one (common control) within the cell being covered by the eNB
It shall be noted in this context that in future LTE releases, there will be new carrier types which may not have a PDCCH transmission or transmission of CRS.
Control messages of PDCCH type are transmitted in multiples of units called control channel elements (CCEs) where the modulated symbols of each CCE maps to 36 REs. A PDCCH may have an aggregation level (AL) of 1, 2, 4 or 8 CCEs to allow for link adaptation of the control message. Thus, the term "aggregation level" is used in this disclosure to refer to the number of CCEs that form a PDCCH. Furthermore, the 36 modulated symbols of each CCE is mapped to 9 resource element groups (REG) consisting of 4 RE each. These REG are distributed over the whole bandwidth to provide frequency diversity for a CCE, see FIG. 4. Hence, a PDCCH, which consists of up to 8 CCEs, spans the entire system bandwidth in the first n={1, 2, 3 or 4} OFDM symbols, depending on the configuration value of n.
After channel coding, scrambling, modulation and interleaving of the control information, the modulated symbols are mapped to the resource elements in the control region. In total there are NCCE CCEs available for all the PDCCH to be transmitted in the subframe and the number NCCE varies from subframe to subframe depending on the number of control symbols n, the number of antenna ports associated with CRS and the configured number of HARQ indicator channels (PHICH).
As the number of control symbols n is indicated by the control format indicator channel (PCFICH) in every subframe, the value of NCCE varies from subframe to subframe, the terminal needs to blindly determine the position and the number of CCEs used for its PDCCH. Also, a UE need to blindly search and detect if the control channel is valid for it, without knowing the CCE aggregation level beforehand, which can be a computationally intensive decoding task due to the large value of NCCE. Therefore, some restrictions have been introduced in the number of possible blind decodings a terminal needs to go through. For instance, the CCEs are numbered and CCE aggregation levels of size K can only start on CCE numbers evenly divisible by K, see FIG. 5.
The set of CCEs where a terminal needs to blindly decode and search for a valid PDCCH is called a search space. This is the set of CCEs on a AL a terminal should monitor for scheduling assignments or other control information, see example in FIG. 6. In each subframe and on each AL, a terminal will attempt to decode all the PDCCHs that can be formed from the CCEs in its search space. If the CRC checks, then the content of the PDCCH is assumed to be valid for the terminal and it further processes the received information. Often, two or more terminals will have overlapping search spaces and the network has to select one of them for scheduling and transmission of the control channel. When this happens, the non-scheduled terminals are said to be blocked. The search spaces vary pseudo-randomly from subframe to subframe to minimize the probability of blocking.
A search space is further divided to a common and a terminal (UE)-specific part. In the common search space, the PDCCH containing information to all or a group of terminals is transmitted (paging, system information etc). If carrier aggregation is used, a terminal will find the common search space present on the primary component carrier (PCC) only. The common search space is restricted to aggregation levels 4 and 8 to give sufficient channel code protection for all terminals in the cell. Since it is a broadcast channel, link adaptation can not be used. The m8 and m4 first PDCCH (with lowest CCE number) in an AL of 8 or 4 respectively belong to the common search space. For efficient use of the CCEs in the system, the remaining search space is terminal specific at each aggregation level.
A CCE consists of 36 QPSK modulated symbols that map to the 36 RE unique for this CCE. To maximize the diversity and interference randomization, interleaving of all the CCEs is used before a cell specific cyclic shift and mapping to REs, see the processing steps in FIG. 7. Note that in most cases some CCEs are empty during transmission due to the PDCCH location restriction to terminal search spaces and aggregation levels. The empty CCEs are included in same the interleaving process and mapping to RE as any other PDCCH to maintain the search space structure. Empty CCE are set to zero power and this power can instead be used by non-empty CCEs to further enhance the link performance of the PDCCH transmission.
Furthermore, to enable the use of 4 antenna TX diversity, a group of 4 adjacent QPSK symbols in a CCE is mapped to 4 adjacent RE, denoted a RE group (REG). Hence, the CCE interleaving is quadruplex (group of 4) based and the mapping process has a granularity of 1 REG and one CCE corresponds to 9 REGs (=36 RE).
Transmission of the physical downlink shared data channel (PDSCH) to UEs, is using the RE in a RB pair that are not used for control messages or RS. The PDSCH can either be transmitted using the UE-specific reference symbols or the CRS as a demodulation reference, depending on the configured transmission mode. The use of UE-specific RS allows a multi-antenna eNB to optimize the transmission using pre-coding of both data and reference signals being transmitted from the multiple antennas so that the received signal energy increases at the UE. Consequently, the channel estimation performance is improved and the data rate of the transmission may be increased.
In Rel-10 of LTE a relay control channel was also defined, denoted R-PDCCH, for transmitting control information from eNB to relay nodes. The R-PDCCH is placed in the data region, hence, similar to a PDSCH transmission. The transmission of the R-PDCCH can either be configured to use CRS to provide wide cell coverage, or relay node (RN) specific reference signals to improve the link performance towards a particular RN by precoding, similar to the enhancement of the PDSCH transmission with UE-specific RS. The UE-specific RS is in the latter case used also for the R-PDCCH transmission. The R-PDCCH occupies a number of configured RB pairs in the system bandwidth and is thus frequency multiplexed with the PDSCH transmissions in the remaining RB pairs, see FIG. 8.
In LTE Rel.11 discussions, attention has turned to adopting the same principle of UE-specific transmission as for the PDSCH and the R-PDCCH also for control channels (including PDCCH, PHICH, PCFICH, and PBCH) by allowing the transmission of generic control messages to a UE using such transmissions to be based on UE-specific reference signals. This means that precoding gains can be achieved also for the control channels, thereby achieving an extended or enhanced control channel. Another benefit is that different RB pairs configured for the extended control channel can be configured in different cells or different transmission points within a cell. Thereby, intercell interference coordination between extended control channels may be achieved. This frequency coordination is not possible with the PDCCH since the PDCCH spans the whole bandwidth. FIG. 9 shows an extended or enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH) which, similarly to the CCE in the PDCCH, is divided into multiple groups and mapped to one of the RB pairs configured for enhanced control channels, here denoted enhanced control regions.
Note that in FIG. 9, the enhanced control region does not start at OFDM symbol zero, to accommodate simultaneous transmission of a PDCCH in the subframe. However, as mentioned above, there may be carrier types in future LTE releases that do not have a PDCCH, in which case the enhanced control region could start from OFDM symbol zero within the subframe.
Even if the enhanced control channel enables UE-specific precoding and also possibly localized transmission (within one RB pair) as illustrated in FIG. 9, it may in some cases be useful to be able to transmit an enhanced control channel in a broadcasted, wide-area coverage fashion. This is useful if the eNB does not have reliable information to perform precoding towards a certain UE. In this case a wide-area coverage transmission is more robust, although the precoding gain is lost. Another case when broadcast and wide-area transmission is useful is when the particular control message is intended for more than one UE. In this case, UE-specific precoding cannot be used. An example of this is the transmission of common control information using ePDCCH (i.e. in the common search space). Yet another case where wideband transmission is useful is when subband precoding is utilized. Since the UE estimates the channel in each RB pair individually, the eNB can choose different precoding vectors in the different RB pairs, if the eNB has such information that the preferred precoding vectors are different in different parts of the frequency band. In any of these cases, a distributed transmission may be used, see FIG. 10, where the eREG belonging to the same ePDCCH are distributed over the enhanced control regions.
Thus, there is a need for mechanisms for providing both localized and distributed transmission of downlink control information in an efficient and flexible way.

Methods and arrangements for transmitting and receiving control information