A method of treating a subject and preventing in a subject age-dependent basal forebrain cholinergic dysfunction related neurodegenerative disorders, comprising: administering a lipid composition comprising a therapeutically effective amount of highly enriched 1-acyl chains/2-docosahexaenoic acid containing molecular species of highly pure phospholipids to promote survival of aged basal forebrain cholinergic neurons, the phospholipids selected from the group consisting of phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylethanolamine, and phosphatidyl-monomethylethanolamine. A composition for treating a subject and preventing in a subject age-dependent basal forebrain cholinergic dysfunction related neurodegenerative disorders, the composition comprising: a lipid composition comprising: a therapeutically effective amount of highly enriched 1-acyl chains/2-docosahexaenoic acid containing molecular species of highly pure phospholipids to promote survival of aged basal forebrain cholinergic neurons, the phospholipids selected from the group consisting of phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylethanolamine, and phosphatidyl-monomethylethanolamine. A process for preparing a lipid composition comprising a therapeutically amount of natural source-based highly enriched 1-acyl chains/2-docosahexaenoic acid containing molecular species of highly pure phosphatidylserine to promote survival of aged basal forebrain cholinergic neurons; the process comprising: purifying a natural source-based phosphatidylcholine by silica chromatography; obtaining a related lysophosphatidylserine species by phospholipase A2 catalysis of transphosphatidylated natural source-based phosphatidylserine species; acylating the lysophosphatidylserine species with natural docosahexaenoic acid to form 1-acyl chains/2-docosahexaenoic acid containing phosphatidylserine species; and purifying the 1-acyl cgains/2-docosahexaenoic acid containing phosphatidylserine species by silica chromatography.

Docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3; DHA) is an abundant component in the brain phospholipids. It plays an important role in prenatal brain development and maintenance of normal brain function. The brain DHA deficiency can reduce normal levels of neural membrane DHA molecular species of phospholipids, leading to markedly influencing optimal learning and memory [Fedorova, et. al., An n-3 fatty acid deficiency impairs rat spatial learning in the Barnes maze, Behav. Neurosci., 123, 196 (2009)] and causing neuronal apoptosis [Kim, et. al., Inhibition of neuronal apoptosis by polyunsaturated fatty acids, J. Mol. Neurosci. 16, 223 (2001)].
It has been demonstrated that the maintenance of normal levels of neural membrane DHA phosphatidylserine and DHA plasmalogen phosphatidylethanolamine species [Favrelere, et. al., Age-related changes in ethanolamine phospholipid fatty acid levels in rat frontal cortex and hippocampus, Neurobiol. Aging 21, 653 (2001); McGahon, et. al., Age-related changes in synaptic function: analysis of the effect of dietary supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids, Neuroscience 94, 305 (1999)] is essential for keeping normal membrane function [Glomset, Role of docosahexaenoic acid in neuronal plasma membrane. Sci. STKE, page 6, (2006); Salem et. al., Mechanisms of action of docosahexaenoic acid in the nervous system, Lipids 36, 945 (2001)]. Continuous supply of DHA into the brain and unique metabolism of DHA in relation to its incorporation into neural membrane phospholipids plays an important role in maintaining both neural membrane fluidity and gap junction coupling capacity, in order to keep normal expression of neurotrophin receptors and effective retrograde transport of the NGF-neurotrophin receptor complexes from cerebral cortex and hippocampus to basal forebrain [Kim, Novel metabolism of docosahexaenoic acid in neural cells, J. Biol. Chem. 282, 18661 (2007); Champeol-Potokar, et. al., Docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3) enrichment of membrane phospholipids increases gap junction coupling capacity in cultured astrocytes, Euro. J. Neurosci. 24, 3084 (2006); Farooqui, et, al., Biochemical aspects of neurodegeneration in human brain: involvement of neural membrane phospholipids and phospholipase A2, Neurochemical Res. 29, 1961 (2004)] in order to inhibit neuronal apoptosis because an important neurotransmitter acetylcholine is synthesized mainly in basal forebrain cholinergic neurons [Terry and Buccafusco, The cholinergic hypothesis of age and Alzheimer's disease-related cognitive deficits: Recent challenges and their implications for novel drug development. The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 306, 821 (2003); Auld, et. al., Nerve growth factor induces prolonged acetylcholine release from cultured basal forebrain neurons: differentiation between neuromodulatory and neurotrophinc influences, J. Neurosci. 21, 3375 (2001)]. It has been reported that acetylcholine synthesis, choline acetyltransferase activity and expression of p-75 neurotrophin receptor in patients with Alzheimer's disease have been found to be markedly reduced at least 40%, compared with controls [Sims, et. al., Presynaptic cholinergic dysfunction in patients with dementia, J. Neurochem. 40, 503 (2006); Mufson, et al., Loss of basal forebrain P75NTR immunoreactivity in subjects with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. J. Comparative Neurology 443, 136 (2002)].
The following scheme shows the pathway of biosynthesis and metabolism of an important neurotransmitter acetylcholine in neurons:

The mechanism of the current drugs for treatment of age-dependent cholinergic dysfunction related neurodegenerative disorders is to inhibit the activity of acetylcholinesterase, in order to decrease further degradation of acetylcholine in the brain [Grutzendler and Morris, Cholinesterase inhibitors for Alzheimer's disease, Drugs 61, 41 (2001)], rather than to promote neuronal survival. Because age-dependent neurodegenerative diseases are a progressive disorder, the cure becomes much more difficult or even impossible if the prevention and treatment start at a later stage of the diseases. However, an ideal drug used for such disorders should enable to both simultaneously delay or halt the underlying pathological process and improve memory and other clinical deficits.
The study further indicates that neuronal apoptosis under adverse conditions can be prevented by DHA enrichment in a phosphatidylserine (PS)—dependent manner, and depletion of DHA from neuronal tissues can influence biosynthesis and accumulation of PS [Kim, et. al., Substrate preference in phosphatidylserine biosynthesis for docosahexaenoic acid containing species, Biochemistry, 43, 1030 (2004)]. Furthermore, it is also important to point out that the provision of docosapentaenoic acid (22:5n-6; DPA) in place of DHA is sufficient neither for fully supporting PS accumulation nor for neuronal survival [Kim, et. al., Effects of docosahexaenoic acid on neuronal apoptosis, Lipids 38, 453 (2003); Lim et. al., An extraordinary degree of structural specificity is required in neural phospholipids for optimal brain function: n-6 docosapentaenoic acid substitution for docosahexaenoic acid leads to a loss in spatial task performance, J. Neurochem. 95, 848 (2007)].
It is clear that DHA positively modulates biosynthesis and accumulation of neural membrane DHA PS species, promoting neuronal survival. Rising the level of PS by DHA enrichment can be observed only in neural cells, representing a unique mechanism for expending DHA PS and PS pools in mammalian neurons, in order to inhibit neuronal apoptosis [Hamilton, et. al., n-3 fatty acid deficiency decreases phosphatidylserine accumulation selectively in neuronal tissues, Lipids, 35, 863 (2000); Guo, et. al., Neuronal specific increase of phosphatidylserine by docosahexaenoic acid, J. Mol. Neurosci. 33, 67 (2007)].
In summary, a DHA deficient diet can cause brain DHA deficiency, especially in aging adults. Effective supply of DHA to brain tissues in order to keep normal levels of DHA or to reverse abnormal levels of neural membrane DHA PS is of vital importance in the prevention and treatment of age-dependent neurodegenerative disorders [Kim, et. al., Inhibition of neuronal apoptosis by docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3). J. Biol. Chem. 275, 35215 (2000); Kim, Biochemical and biological functions of docosahexaenoic acid in the nervous system: modulation by ethanol, Chem. Phys Lipids, 153, 34 (2008); Editor's Choice, DHA Increases PS to Promote Neuronal Survival, Sci. STKE, 2005, p286 (2005)].
Because it cannot be synthesized in the brain, DHA has to be supplied entirely from the diet and is then delivered into the brain by plasma [Spector, Plasma free fatty acid and lipoproteins as sources of polyunsaturated fatty acids for the brain. J. Mol. Neurosci. 16, 159 (2001)]. Unlike other tissues, the brain uptake of DHA needs to overcome the blood-brain barrier (BBB). However, to further understand the mechanism by which DHA phospholipid carriers pass across the BBB is important in preparing mechanism-based DHA phospholipid transporters.
Generally, DHA can be delivered into the brain in forms of both non-esterified DHA and phospholipids. The DHA carried by lysophospholipids is preferred transporters to pass across the BBB [Chen and Subbaiah, Phospholipid and fatty acid specificity of endothelial lipase: potential role of the enzyme in the delivery of docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) to tissues, Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 171, 1319 (2007); Lagarde et. al., Lysophosphatidylcholine as preferred carrier form of docosahexaenoic acid to the brain, J. Mol. Neurosci. 16, 201 (2001); Thies et. al., Unsaturated fatty acids esterified in 2-acyl-1-lysophosphatidylcholine bound to albumin are more efficiently taken up by the young rat brain than the non-esterified form, J. Neurochem. 59, 1110 (1992)] because the incorporation of DHA into the brain is approximately 10-fold higher from enzyme-catalyzed 2-DHA lysophospholipids than from non-esterified DHA at various times of analyses [Lagarde, Docosahexaenoic acid: Neutrient and precursor of bioactive lipids, Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 110, 673 (2008)].
For lipids based brain DHA transporters, use of a composition that consists of highly enriched DHA-containing lipid species is a must. Orally administrated DHA triglyceride carriers, which are present in current supplements including fish, algae and krill oils, have shown benefits for the human health, but it is still questionable whether these lipid mixtures are qualified as effective DHA transporters in the delivery of DHA into the brain, especially aged brain [Arendash, et. al., A diet high in omega-3 fatty acids does not improve or protect cognitive performance in Alzheimer's transgenic mice, Neuroscience, 149: 286 (2007); Freund-Levi et al., co-3 fatty acid treatment in 174 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease: Omeg AD study, Arch Neurol. 63; 1402 (2006)]. Because DHA lipid species metabolite differently from others, it is hard to further understand pharmacological and nutritional functions of those DHA lipid species in a mixture form. [Hossain, et. al, Docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid-enriched phosphatidylcholine liposomes enhance the permeability, transportation and uptake of phospholipids in Caco-2 cells. Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, 285, 155 (2006); Chen and Subbaiah, Phospholipid and fatty acid specificity of endothelial lipase: potential role of the enzyme in the delivery of docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) to tissues, Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 171, 1319 (2007)]. Although the ethyl DHA/EPA drug (over 80% purity) may alleviate coronary atherosclerosis, it may not be qualified as brain DHA transporters to overcome the blood-brain barrier (BBB).
On the other hand, the capacity of the brain to convert α-linolenic acid (18:3n-3; ALA) or eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3; EPA) to DHA is limited [Igarashi et. al., Docosahexaenoic acid synthesis from alpha-linolenic acid by rat brain is unaffected by dietary n-3 PUFA deprivation, J. Lipid Res. 48: 1150 (2007)]. For example, converting ALA and EPA to DHA involves more than single desaturation and elongation step, and yields of the DHA formed by this route is very low [Brenna, et. al., alpha-Linolenic acid supplementation and conversion to n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in humans, Prostaglandins Leukot. Essent. Fatty Acids, 80, 85 (2009)]. Due to structural specificity of DHA for brain requirements, the study strongly suggests that a direct supply of DHA to the brain is required against neuronal apoptosis [Kim, et. al., Inhibition of neuronal apoptosis by docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3), J. Biol. Chem. 275, 35215 (2000)].
Because brain DHA deficiency can cause brain function disorders, particular during periods of brain development and aging, the methods of using various compositions of lipid nutrients and potential drugs have been applied for enhancing levels of DHA in the brain, in order to improve general brain function.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,869,530 discloses a method of using phospholipids as dietary supplements for improving general brain function. Mixtures of phospholipids including phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine are extracted from chicken egg yolk, but DHA molecular species obtained from this natural resource are absent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,614 discloses a method of transporting DHA into the brain by EPA and DHA aminophospholipids-conjugated polycationic carriers (e.g. poly-lysine and poly-arginine or poly-ornithine) rather than highly pure DHA aminophospholipids, in order to improve function of mammalian brain.
Japanese patent 06256179 discloses the method for preparing 1,2-polyunsaturated fatty acids—3-phosphorycholine, or 3-phosphorylethanolmine, or 3-phosphorylserine, or 3-phosphorylinositol for improving learning ability and for treating senile dementia. However, Japanese patent 06256179 does not disclose highly enriched 1-acyl chains/2-DHA—containing molecular species of highly pure phospholipids for promoting survival of aged basal forebrain cholinergic dysfunction related neurodegenerative disorders.
Japanese 06279311 discloses the method of using a mixture of polyunsaturated fatty acids—containing phosphatidylserine species for treatment of senile dementia, especially Alzheimer's disease. However, the said compositions do not comprise a highly enriched 1-acyl chains/2-DHA—containing molecular species of highly pure phosphatidylserine, as well as highly pure phosphatidylethanolamine and highly pure phosphatidyl-monomethylethanolamine, for promoting survival of aged basal forebrain cholinergic neurons to prevent and treat age-related neurodegenerative diseases.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,964,969 discloses a method of treating impaired or deteriorating neurological function using a mixture of n-3/n-6 fatty acids and vitamins.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,668,117 discloses a method of treating age and Alzheimer's disease by administrating Vitamins. Similar effects for treatment of age and Alzheimer's disease using dehydroepiandrosterone has been also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,447.
WO patent 2007/073178 discloses a method of using compositions comprising DHA, proteins and manganese for improving membrane composition.
WO patent 1997/39759 discloses the methods for the preparation of 1,2-DHA-containing phosphatidylcholine species for the treatment of bipolar disorders. However, said compositions do not comprise highly enriched 2-DHA—containing molecular species of highly pure phosphatidylserine, or highly pure phosphatidylethanolamine or/and highly pure phosphatidyl-monomethylethanolamine.
WO patent 2005/051091 discloses a method of developing cognitive and vision functions of infants and children using a mixture of glycerophospholipid in combination with sphingomyelin or cholesterol.
Other published patents also documented methods of using mixtures of phospholipids, sphingomyelins and n-3 and n-6 fatty acids for the treatment of (1) a wide range of diseases [EP patent 1279400], (2) multiple traumata, burns, infections, and chronic inflammatory disease [EP patent 0311091], (3) hepatic cirrhosis and diarrhea, and (4) cancer diseases [EP patent 1426053].
From above published results, it is clear to see that the prior art does not disclose using highly pure 1-acyl chains/2-DHA aminophospholipids for promoting survival of aged basal forebrain cholinergic neurons.
The research paper and university study also reported the methods of using polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as DHA against excitotoxic brain damage of infant rats [Hogyer, et. al., Neuroprotective effect of developmental docosahexaenoic acid supplement against excitotoxic brain damage in infant rats, Neuroscience, 119, 999 (2003)]. The positive effect of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids on brain function in newborn and aged rats has been shown as well. But the methods of using highly pure 1-acyl chains/2-DHA aminophospholipids to promote survival of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons have not been claimed in the studies.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,654,290 discloses the methods of using polyunsaturated fatty acids based drugs, which include highly pure 2-DHA triglycerides, highly pure 1-short acyl chains/2-DHA PC species, and highly pure 2-DHA lysoPC species, to treat brain disorders. However, highly pure 1-acyl chains/2-DHA PE, highly pure 1-acyl chains/2-DHA PMME and highly pure 1-acyl chains/2-DHA PS are not disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,654,290. Further, the patent does not disclose inhibiting neuronal apoptosis or treating basal forebrain cholinergic dysfunction related neurodegenerative disorders.
A method of using 1-acyl chains/2-DHA phosphatidylserine (PS) species, which is extracted from bovine cortex, as the first DHA phospholipid based drug in Europe to alleviate and treat Alzheimer's disease has been documented [Amaducci, et al., Phosphatidylserine in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease: Results of a multicenter study. Psychopharmacology Bulletin 24, 130 (1988); Crook, et al., Effect of phosphatidylserine in age-associated memory impairment. Neurology, 41, 644 (1991); Effect of phosphatidylserine in Alzheimer's disease, Psychopharmacol. Bulletin 28, 61 (1992); Pepeu, et al., A review of phosphatidylserine pharmaceutical and clinical effects: Is phosphatidylserine a drug for aging brain? Pharmacology Research, 33, 51 (1996)]. Although the purity of the bovine PS drug was over 80%, the percentage of DHA molecular species in the PS drug was about 10% [Chen and Li, Comparison of molecular species of various transphosphatidylated soy-phosphatidylserine with bovine cortex PS by mass spectrometry. Chem. Phys. Lipids, 152, 46 (2008)]. Based on previously used clinical dosage of bovine cortex PS drug (100-600 mg/day), it took at least 60 days to meet the expected effects because the actual amount of the 2-DHA species intake was in the range of 10-60 mg/daily only. The safety of oral administration of phospholipids including PS up to 600 mg/daily has been confirmed [Jorissen, et. al., Safety of soy-derived phosphatidylserine in elderly people, Nutritional Neurosci., 5, 337 (2002)].
However, the risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease) made use of the PS, the first DHA phospholipid based drug, potentially unsafe. Although methods of using alternatives of DHA PS species mixtures, made by transphosphatidylation of squid skin PC [Hosokawa, et. al., Conversion to docosahexaenoic acid-containing phosphatidylserine from squid skin lecithin by phospholipase D-mediated transphosphatidylation. J. Agric. Food. Chem. 48, 4550 (2000)] and fish liver PC [Chen and Li, Comparison of molecular species of various transphosphatidylated soy-phosphatidylserine with bovine cortex PS by mass spectrometry. Chem. Phys. Lipids, 152, 46 (2008)] to improve learning ability of DHA deficient mice have been reported[http://www.issfal.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55 &Itemid=8 7%20#CS6], the maximal percentage of DHA species in the alternatives is approximately 45-55%. The method of using highly enriched 1-acyl chains/2-DHA molecular species (over 70% in the species mixture) of highly pure phosphatidylserine, highly pure phosphatidylethanolamine and highly pure phosphatidyl-monoethanolamine (more than 90% purity) for the purpose has never been reported.
For the preparation of natural source-based highly enriched 1-acyl chains/2-DHA-containing molecular species of highly pure phosphatidylserine (PS), the transphosphatidylation of highly enriched 1-acyl chain/2-DHA—containing molecular species of phosphatidylcholine [Hosokawa, et. al., Preparation of therapeutic phospholipids through porcine pancreatic phospholipase A2-mediated esterification and lipozyme-mediated acidolysis. J. Am. Oil Chemist Soc. 72, 1287 (1995)] can be used; an approach using nonenzymatic synthesis of phospholipids including phosphatidylserine in the presence of DHA-CoA has been described as well [Testet, et. al., Nonenzymatic synthesis of glycerolipids catalyzed by imidazole, J. Lipid Res. 43, 1150 (2002)]. However, these methods are expensive for large scale and/or industrial preparation.
The process for chemically synthesizing highly enriched 1,2-diDHA—containing molecular species of phosphatidylserine (PS) has been reported [Morillo, et., al., Synthesis of 1,2-diacyl-sn-glycerolphosphatidylserine from egg phosphatidylcholine by phosphoramidite methodology, Lipids 31, 541 (1996)]]. However, the safety of chemically synthesized diDHA PS has been not documented and therefore questioned. The pharmacological effect of diDHA PS species has never been reported as well.

Composition and method for promoting survival of aged basal forebrain cholinergic neuron leading to provention and treatment of age-related neurodegenerative disorder


A stacked card connector includes a base, a row of first terminals, a row of second rear terminals, and a row of second front terminals. The base is formed with a first slot and a second slot for receiving a first card and a second card which are inserted into the slots along the same direction. The first and second terminals are located in the first and second slots to contact the first and second cards, respectively. The second terminals have arced contacts flush with each other, pins extending out of a bottom surface of the base from a side opposite to an insert port of the second slot, and extensions connecting the contacts to the pins, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electric connector, and in particular to a stacked card connector connecting to an electric card.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional double-layerd and stacked card connector is used for an electric card, such as a telephone card or an ATM card, to be inserted into. The card connector includes a lower base 10, an upper base 15, two rows of spaced first terminals 25, two rows of spaced second terminals 30, and a circuit board 20.
The lower base 10 is formed with a first slot 11 for receiving an electric card, and the first slot 11 has an insert port 12. The upper base 15 is stacked above the lower base 10 and formed with a second slot 16 for receiving another electric card, and the second slot 16 has an insert port 17.
Each first terminal 25 has a contact 26, an extension 27 and a pin 28. The contacts 26 are in the shapes of convex arcs facing upward, positioned within the first slot 11, and well aligned. The pins 28 extend out of the bottom surface of the lower base 10 from a first side near the insert port 12 and a second side opposite to the insert port 12, respectively.
Each second terminal 30 has a contact 31, an extension 32 and a pin 33. The contacts 31 are in the shapes of convex arcs facing upward, positioned within the second slot 16, and well aligned. The pins 33 extend out of the bottom surface of the upper base 15 from a first side near the insert port 17 and a second side opposite to the insert port 17, respectively.
The circuit board 20 is positioned between the upper base 15 and the lower base 10 and formed with two rows of connection terminals 21 at a side opposite to the insert port 12. The pins 33 of the two rows of second terminals are electrically connected to the circuit board 20 and thus to the connection terminals 21 via traces on the circuit board 20.
According to the above-mentioned structure, when the card connector is mounted on a main board 23, the pins 28 of the two rows of first terminals 25 and the two rows of connection terminals 21 on the circuit board 20 are electrically connected to the main board 23. Thus, the two rows of second terminals 30 may be electrically connected to the main board 23 via the connection terminals 21.
In the conventional stacked card connector, a circuit board 20 is utilized to stack two bases, each of which having a single slot, into a dual-slot connector. However, due to the addition of the circuit board 20, the manufacturing processes are complicated and the cost may be greatly increased. That is, the cost of a circuit board has to be added. As to the complicated processes, the two rows of connection terminals 21 have to be bonded to the circuit board 20 in advance. Then, the two rows of second terminals 30 have to be bonded to the circuit board Finally, the upper base 15, the circuit board 20, and the lower base 10 have to be stacked.
An object of the invention is to provide a stacked card connector, in which the circuit board may be omitted and the manufacturing processes may be simplified, thereby reducing the manufacturing costs.
To achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention provides a stacked card connector comprising: a base formed with a first slot for receiving a first electric card and a second slot for receiving a second electric card, each of the first and second slots having an insert port, and the second slot being positioned above the first slot; a first row of spaced first terminals, each of the first row of spaced first terminals having a contact, an extension and a pin, the contacts being positioned within the first slot so as to elastically contact the inserted first electric card, the extensions connecting the contacts to the pins respectively and serving as elastic arms, and the pins extending out of a bottom surface of the base; and a first row of spaced second terminals, each of the first row of spaced second terminals having a contact, an extension and a pin, the contacts being positioned within the second slot so as to elastically contact the inserted second electric card, the extensions connecting the contacts to the pins respectively and serving as elastic arms, the pins extending out of the bottom surface of the base from a side opposite to the insert port of the second slot.

Stacked card connector having two rows of terminals extending out of a bottom surface of the connector at a side opposite to an insert port

15F, No. 4, Lane 127, Sec. 1, Fu-Hsing Rd.


A circuit for defining a voltage potential of a floating well in which is formed at least one metal-oxide-semiconductor device includes a sense circuit operative to detect a voltage at a node to which the floating well is connected and to generate a control signal indicative of whether the voltage at the node is substantially within a voltage range. A lower value of the voltage range is substantially equal to a threshold voltage below a first supply voltage of the circuit. An upper value of the voltage range is substantially equal to a threshold voltage above the first supply voltage. The circuit for defining the voltage potential of the floating well further includes a voltage generator circuit operative to receive the control signal and to generate a bias signal for setting a voltage potential of the well in response to the control signal, the bias signal being controlled throughout the voltage range.

Buffer circuits (e.g., output buffers, input buffers, and bidirectional buffers) are employed in a variety of electronic devices and applications. Each of these buffer circuits typically includes an output driver stage including a p-type metal-oxide-semiconductor (PMOS) device, MPO, and an n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor (NMOS) device, MNO, connected to an external input/output (IO) pad at node N1, as shown in FIG. 1. Devices MPO and MNO are driven by control signals PG and NG, respectively, generated by control circuitry in the buffer circuit. Generally, MPO and MNO are large transistors which are capable of providing the currents that are associated with driving off-chip loads.
In some applications, a buffer circuit running at a particular supply voltage, such as VDDIO (e.g., 3.3 volts), may be subjected to a voltage potential, PAD, at the IO pad (node N1) which is substantially higher than what is supported by the semiconductor process technology used to fabricate the buffer circuit. Essentially all PMOS and NMOS devices have associated therewith parasitic diodes, DP and DN, respectively, between their source/drains and the underlying well or substrate. When the voltage PAD exceeds the supply voltage VDDIO by about a threshold voltage of the PMOS device MPO, the parasitic diode DP associated with MPO will undesirably become forward-biased, thereby conducting a large current. This large diode current can trigger latch-up or, at a minimum, cause significant parasitic currents to flow.
To avoid forward biasing the parasitic diode DP associated with the output stage of the buffer circuit when PAD is substantially greater than VDDIO, it is known to place the PMOS device MPO in a floating n-well (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,855, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein). The well of a given device is typically defined by a voltage potential at a bulk of the device. Typically, a special voltage generator circuit 200 is used, an example of which is depicted in FIG. 2, which generates a voltage, VFLT, at an output node N2 of the circuit that is equal to the higher of either VDDIO or PAD. Node N2 of the voltage generator circuit 200 is connected to the bulk of PMOS device MPO (FIG. 1), so that the well of the MPO is always biased to the potential VFLT. However, when PAD is within a threshold voltage above or below VDDIO, the two PMOS devices, MPF1 and MPF2, generating the n-well bias voltage VFLT will be turned off, and thus the n-well in which PMOS device MPO is formed will truly be floating. Circuits having floating wells are generally highly susceptible to latch-up, particularly during latch-up testing and even during normal operation of the circuit.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved floating well circuit that does not suffer from one or more of the problems exhibited by conventional floating well circuits.

Floating well circuit having enhanced latch-up performance


A method, apparatus, and system are described for rasterizing a triangle. Pixel parameter values are interpolated by adding or subtracting a vertical delta and/or by adding or subtracting a horizontal delta within a 4xc3x974 tile of 16 pixels.

Contained herein is material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction of the patent disclosure by any person as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all rights to the copyright whatsoever.
This invention relates to the field of computer graphics, and more specifically, to rasterization using a tile-based digital differential analyzer algorithm.
Generally, the field of three-dimensional (3D) computer graphics is concerned with generating and displaying 3D objects in a two-dimensional (2D) space, such as a display screen. This is accomplished by converting information about 3D objects into a bit map that is displayed. This process is called rendering, a multi-part process by which a computer turns an application model description of an image into a screen image. The basic idea is that the processing of information in three-dimensional computer graphics occurs in a series of stages in a graphics pipeline, where each stage generates results for a successive stage.
The process starts with an application model for describing an object using three-dimensional coordinates (x, y, z), where the object is defined by large numbers of basic geometrical shapes called primitives that define the shape of components of the object. Examples of primitives that make up an object include a triangle, line, dot, circle, ellipse, arc, text, polyline, and polygon. In addition to primitives, an application model stores object attributes such as size, color, line, width, and surface texture, as well as connectivity relationships and positioning data that describe how the components fit together.
The application model for a given object is created by an application program, and stored in an application database. Using a graphics API (application programming interface), a series of graphics output commands that contain both a detailed geometric description of what is to be viewed and the attributes describing how the objects should appear, the application program converts the application model to a sequence of commands, which are then processed by a graphics pipeline to generate a view of the model. The graphics API typically consists of a set of output subroutines corresponding to the various primitives, attributes, and other elements, which are all collected in a graphics package that can be called from high-level languages such as C, Pascal, or LISP.
The basic element of any graphics system is rasterization, the process by which a primitive is converted to a two-dimensional image on a raster device. A raster device, such as a computer monitor, comprises a raster, the rectangular area of a display screen actually used to display images. A raster is itself made up of pixels, short for picture elements, the smallest units by which a primitive can be represented on a display. Pixels are activated on a raster device as an electron beam sweeps across the device to generate a picture one scan line at a time.
During rasterization, a primitive that is defined by 3D parameters in a three-dimensional (3D) representation is transformed into a two-dimensional raster of pixels. 3D parameters comprise x, y, and z coordinates, and may optionally comprise parameters such as color, and texture. During the transformation process, a 3D coordinate comprising an X, Y, and Z value is transformed into an X and Y screen coordinate used for positioning, and a Z, or depth value, that is treated as a parameter.
During rasterization, a set of parameter values are given for each of the three triangle vertices. One of the problems to be solved during the rasterization process is computing the 3D parameters, such as the Z parameter, color parameter, and texture parameter, corresponding to the coordinates in order to most closely approximate the three-dimensional primitive. Rasterization, which is also known as scan conversion, makes these determinations by computing the parameter values at each pixel while scanning the horizontal or vertical scan lines of the pixel grid.
The rasterization process can be a costly and inefficient process, sometimes requiring many multiplication computations. While several algorithms exist, the process is commonly the subject of optimization algorithms.

Tile-based digital differential analyzer rasterization


Exemplary embodiments are directed to devices for separating a sample by chromatography, components of the devices, and methods for using the devices, and directed to devices and components for use with immobilized enzymatic reactors. A device includes a wall having a wetted surface exposed to a mobile phase including the sample during chromatographic separation. The wetted surface of the wall includes an alloy material including the following constituents: nickel, and cobalt and/or chromium where the alloy is limited in an amount of titanium to 1 wt %. A component includes a body having a wetted surface exposed to a mobile phase including the sample during chromatographic separation. The wetted surface of the body includes an alloy material including the following constituents: nickel, and cobalt and/or chromium where the alloy is limited in an amount of titanium to 1 wt %.

Chromatographic techniques are important tools for the identification and separation of complex samples. The basic principle underlying chromatographic techniques is the separation of a mixture into individual components by transporting the mixture in a moving fluid through a retentive media in a separation channel (e.g., a separation column). The moving fluid is typically referred to as the mobile phase and the retentive media is typically referred to as the stationary phase. The separation of the various constituents of the mixture is based on differential partitioning between the mobile and stationary phases. Differences in components' partition coefficient result in differential retention on the stationary phase, resulting in separation. A detector, positioned at the outlet end of the separation channel, detects each of the separated components as they exit the separation channel yielding a chromatogram.
The methods of choice for chromatographic separations have conventionally been gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC). One major difference between GC and LC is that the mobile phase in GC is a gas, whereas the mobile phase in LC is a liquid. Although GC is typically a sensitive method of analysis, the high temperatures required in GC make this method unsuitable for some high molecular weight biopolymers or proteins because they are denatured by heat. In addition, their low vapor pressure makes them insoluble in the gas phase. In contrast, LC does not require high temperatures and can utilize solubilizing mobile phases. LC that generally utilizes small packing particles and moderately high pressure is referred to as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC); whereas liquid chromatography that generally utilizes very small packing particles and high pressure is referred to as ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC). In HPLC and UHPLC the sample is forced by a liquid at high pressure, which is the mobile phase, through a separation channel (e.g., a column) that is packed with a stationary phase, which is typically composed of irregularly or spherically shaped particles. In some embodiments, the stationary phase may be a monolithic solid.
Various materials (e.g., stainless steel, polymers such as PEEK, fused silica, etc.) have been used for column hardware (e.g., HPLC hardware or UPLC hardware) for chromatographic separation. However, each of these categories of materials exhibits deficiencies with respect to chromatographic separation of peptides and proteins in biological samples.

Nickel-cobalt alloy material devices and components


A manicure shield is set forth provided with an elongate convex shield to overlie a fingernail to prevent inadvertent contact with a nail and a foreign object during a drying procedure subsequent to the applying of a liquid convering and the like. The shield is formed with a plurality of parallel downwardly depending legs pivotally mounted to an upper, relatively rigid polymeric ring integrally secured to a lower resilient recircling ring for securement about a finger adjacent an associated fingernail of an individual. The lower ring may alternatively be defined by a pair of resiliently biased legs for securement to an individual's finger. A flexible tab secured to an upper surface of the upper ring is in contact with the rear convex surface of the shield to maintain the shield in an upper or lowered position.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of invention relates to manicure shields, and more particularly pertains to a new and improved manicure shield which may be pivotally lowered to protect a manicured nail, or selectively raised to allow access to the nail.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various coverings to provide protection for manicured nails have been developed in the prior art. Previously, however, the prior art organizations have not completely availed themselves to enable selective access to the fingernail when desired, and to thereafter overlie the nail to protect the same during a curing or drying of various coatings applied to a fingernail during a manicuring procedure. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,198,197 to Halanger sets forth a manicure nail protector wherein the glove-like portion developed by the patent to Halanger utilizes removable finger partitions to enable access to the nail, but is of a relatively expansive and awkward organization, as opposed to that of the instant invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,228,404 to Turner sets forth a nail protecting and lengthening procedure wherein an overlay of a relatively elongate convex configuration is applied to an existing nail to protect and lengthen an existing fingernail.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,631 to Kosal sets forth a series of fingernail caps securable about an existing fingernail to protect the fingernail from dirt, breaking, cracking and the like for use by women utilize lengthened fingernails during physical activity.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,972,325 to Bluestone sets forth a manner of protecting a long, protruding fingernail during performance of a manual activity by adhesively securing a cushioning member to an undersurface of an existing fingernail.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,694,843 to Casenhiser sets forth a tubular finger end sheath with a cavity for receiving a fingernail therein to protect an existing fingernail during manual activity and the like.
As such, it may be appreciated that there is a continuing need for a new and improved manicure shield which addresses both the problems of ease of use and effectiveness in construction, and in this respect, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.


A drive unit is disclosed. The drive unit includes a first drive source, a first torque converter, a second drive source, a second torque converter, and a transmission. A torque is inputted from the first drive source to the first torque converter. The first torque converter includes a first turbine. A torque is inputted from the second drive source to the second torque converter. The second torque converter includes a second turbine. The second turbine is coupled to the first turbine. The transmission is disposed between a drive wheel and both the first and second torque converters.

Hybrid vehicles include an engine and an electric motor as drive sources. For example, a hybrid vehicle described in Japan Laid-open Patent Application Publication No. 2013-136327 includes an engine, an electric motor, a clutch, a torque converter and a gearbox. The clutch is provided between the engine and the electric motor and allows or blocks transmission of power between the engine and the electric motor. The power, when generated in the engine, is herein outputted to the gearbox through the torque converter and is then transmitted therefrom to axles of the vehicle. By contrast, the power, when generated in the electric motor, is outputted to the gearbox directly or indirectly through the torque converter and is then transmitted therefrom to the axles.
In Japan Laid-open Patent Application Publication No. 2013-136327, depending on a travel mode, the power generated in the electric motor is outputted to the gearbox through the torque converter shared with the engine. Because of this, the clutch is required for synchronizing the rotational speed of the electric motor and that of the engine with each other. Besides, it is required to control timing of turning on and off the clutch.

Drive unit and power transmission device


In a phase-change nonvolatile storage device using a phase-change material as storage cells, which is improved to overcome a basic problem involved in conventional devices of this type and reliably, easily operable as a storage device, the pre-record state of a storage cell is read before recording information in the storage cell, and a write pulse optimum for transition is selected and applied. If the storage cell need not change in phase, the write pulse need not be applied. Alternatively, the pulse is adjusted in waveform of the trailing edge, depending on whether the storage cell should be changed to the amorphous state or the crystal state, to control the crystallization hold time.

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-296102, filed on Sep. 27, 2001; the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
This invention relates to a phase-change nonvolatile storage device and its drive circuit, and more particularly to a phase-change nonvolatile storage device for storing and reproducing information by making use of resistance changes of a phase-change material contained in memory cells, and a drive circuit therefor.
Storage devices (memory) are used not only in computer systems but also in any devices and machines such as control systems of social infrastructures including electricity, gas, water, transport and communication services, and it is no exaggeration to say that the modern society does not work without storage devices. Ideal form of storage devices is to fully satisfy a high speed, low bit cost, nonvolatility, low power consumption and high reliability. With no such devices, however, it is the present status to set up a hierarchical memory structure optimum as a system.
Let a hierarchical memory structure of a personal computer be taken as an example. This hierarchical structure is set up with, in the order from the top-level memory: SRAM (static random access memory) for direct dialog with MPU (microprocessing unit), which has an ultra-high speed but has a very high bit unit price; DRAM (dynamic random access memory) that is not so speedy but has a relatively large capacity as solid memory and a lower bit unit price than SRAM; HDD (hard disk drive) that has an access speed lower by as much as several digits than DRAM but sufficiently high as mechanical access speed, large in capacity, low in bit unit price, but not being removable; and optical disk, floppy disk or magnetic tape that is lower in speed than HDD but very low in bit unit price and excellent in medium commutability and reliability.
Thus the current effort with storage devices is to optimize the capability as a system and its price by building such memory hierarchies. However, if an ideal storage device such as almighty memory (universal memory) combining the speed of DRAM and the capacity and nonvolatility of HDD appears, the system design will be greatly simplified, and it will be possible to realize a system having dramatically high capability and inexpensive.
Even when turning the eyes to individual storage devices from such almighty memory, there is the specific issue that DRAMs having led the electronic industry under the nickname xe2x80x9cindustrial ricexe2x80x9d are close to the limit in the movement toward larger capacity. For example, the limit of DRAM and substitutional candidates of storage devices are explained in Nikkei Electronics No. 2001-2-12.
The limit of DRAM is a relative increase of the occupation area of the capacity caused by the continuous increase of the capacity, i.e. continuous miniaturization of memory cells, and it has become difficult to obtain a predetermined capacity (30 fF) with trench structures or stack structures. Candidates of storage devices substitutional for DRAM are three kinds of devices, namely, FeRAM (ferroelectric random access memory), MRAM (magnetoresistive random access memory) and PRAM (phase-change random access memory).
FeRAM stores and holds information by using residual polarization of a ferroelectric material, and its signal quantity is proportional to the quantity of the stored electric charge. Since the quantity of the stored electric charge is proportional to the area of the memory cell, structure of the ferroelectric storage portion of FeRAM is fated to become complicated in the three-dimensional configuration similarly to DRAM along with miniaturization of the memory cells.
MRAM makes use of a magnetoresistance effect. TMR (tunneling magnetoresistance effect) element and CPPGMR (current perpendicular to plane giant magnetoresistance effect) element, exhibiting a relatively large resistance change, are mainly subject to researches. An issue of MRAM is that miniaturization of the element results in an increase of the diamagnetism upon flux reversal and hence an increase of the recording current. Further, although the ratio of its resistance change is relatively large, it is only about 50%.
PRAM is the element that embodiments of the invention intend to handle. This is an element for recording information by using changes of the specific resistance of a phase-change material. Its principle has its origin in the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 3,271,591 of 1966 and the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 3,530,441, and it is often called Ovonic-memory named after the proponent, Dr. Ovshinsky. The entire contents of these references are incorporated herein by reference.
The principle of its operations is briefly explained below.
If a phase-change material contained in a recording cell is once melted by supplying a recording current of a level forming the amorphous phase to the memory cell, and thereafter quenched to carry over the amorphous state to the room temperature, then the amorphous state can be obtained. On the other hand, when such a phase-change material is annealed by supplying a recording current of a level forming the crystal state, then the phase-change material is crystallized, and the crystal state is obtained. In this manner, one of the amorphous state and the crystal state can be written in each cell.
Reproduction is carried out by supplying a cell with a current smaller than the amorphism-forming level and smaller than the crystallizing level and reading the difference in resistance between the amorphous state and the crystal state as a voltage change or current change. Since some kinds of phase-change materials have differences as large as two to three digits in specific resistance between the amorphous state and the crystal state. Therefore, the quality of reproduction signals therefrom is very high, and it is also possible to technically develop it for many-valued storage.
Structure of a PRAM cell is basically made up of an electrode and a phase-change material, and a diode or a transistor for selecting the cell is connected in series to each cell to form a matrix array. Here is no such problem that the storage portion becomes relatively bulky due to a progress of the cell miniaturization, which is inherent to DRAM and FeRAM. Also the problem of MRAM that miniaturization makes recording difficult does not exist. The phase-change storage portion of PRAM becomes smaller according to the scaling rule along with miniaturization of cells, and the recording current decreases in accordance with the miniaturization.
As such, PRAM has the excellent potential as a substitute for DRAM. Additionally, because of its availability for many-valued recording, it is positioned as a hopeful candidate of the xe2x80x9cuniversal memoryxe2x80x9d mentioned above. Since the resistance change of PRAM reaches hundreds to thousands times, if 50% resistance changes obtained by MRAM are assigned to two signal levels, it is possible to store information of two hundreds to two thousands values in a single phase-change memory cell. Therefore, With a 1 Gb matrix for two-valued operation, storage of information substantially from 200 Gb to 2Tb will be possible. As such, PRAM must be just a hopeful candidate of universal memory having both the high speed of DRAM and the large capacity of HDD.
Regarding PRAM, improved techniques are disclosed by, in addition to the aforementioned literature, U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,328, U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,205, U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,711, U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,712, U.S. Pat. No. 5,596,522, U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,112 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,087,674, for example. The entire contents of these references are incorporated herein by reference.
The Inventor, however, made a review on operations of storage devices using phase-change materials, and found a basic problem. Then, through examination of operations of memory cells experimentally prepared on the basis of that knowledge, the Inventor confirmed that the problem the Inventor of the present invention et al. had found was essential, and through further development of new techniques for solving the basic problem, has reached the present invention.
According to an embodiment of the invention, there is provided a drive circuit which drives a phase-change nonvolatile storage device which has a storage cell including a phase-change material variable in phase between a crystal state and an amorphous state, and changes at least a part of said phase-change material of said storage cell in phase between said crystal state and said amorphous state to record information as a first record state corresponding to said crystal state or a second record state corresponding to said amorphous state, said drive circuit comprising: a signal generator which generates a first record signal which changes said storage cell from said first record state to said second record state, and a second record signal which changes said storage cell from said second record state to said first record state; and a reading circuit which reads the record state of said storage cell before recording information in said storage cell, said drive circuit applying said first record signal to said storage cell when said storage cell is in said first record state and should be changed to said second record state, and said drive circuit applying said second record signal to said storage cell when said storage cell is in said second record state and should be changed to said first record state.
With this configuration, an optimum recording signal can be given in accordance with the pre-recording state of the cell, and write in the overwrite mode can be reliably, easily realized.
According to another embodiment of the invention, there is provided a phase-change nonvolatile storage device comprising: a storage cell including a phase-change material variable in phase between a crystal state and an amorphous state, and changes at least a part of said phase-change material of said storage cell in phase between said crystal state and said amorphous state to record information as a first record state corresponding to said crystal state or a second record state corresponding to said amorphous state; and a drive circuit which drives said storage cell, said drive circuit having: a signal generator which generates a first record signal which changes said storage cell from said first record state to said second record state, and a second record signal which changes said storage cell from said second record state to said first record state; and a reading circuit which reads the record state of said storage cell before recording information in said storage cell, said drive circuit applying said first record signal to said storage cell when said storage cell is in said first record state and should be changed to said second record state, and said drive circuit applying said second record signal to said storage cell when said storage cell is in said second record state and should be changed to said first record state.
The xe2x80x9ccrystallization-holding timexe2x80x9d herein means the duration of time for which the phase-change material of the memory cell is held in the crystallizing temperature region between its crystallization temperature Tx and the melting point Tm.
The xe2x80x9ccrystallization start timexe2x80x9d herein means a material parameter of the phase-change material. In case of a nucleation-dominant phase-change material such as GeSb having the composition near the tie line between two metal compound compositions GeTe and Sb2Te3 on the phase diagram, the crystallization start time xcfx84xs is the time where the phase-change material is held in a temperature range not lower than Tx and lower than Tm and generation of crystal nuclei begins. In case of a crystal-growth-dominant phase-change material such as GeSbTe, InSbTe or AgInSbTe, for example, containing a material close to the Sb70Te30 eutectic composition as its major component and additionally containing germanium (Ge), indium (In) or silver (Ag), for example, the crystallization start time xcfx84xs is the time where the phase-change material is held in a temperature range not lower than Tx and lower than Tm and crystal growth begins from minute crystal nuclei.
The xe2x80x9ccrystallization finish timexe2x80x9d herein means the duration of time required for progress of generation of crystal nuclei and coalescence of crystal nuclei until filling a predetermined portion each cell with crystal grains or for progress of crystal growth until crystallizing a predetermined portion.

Phase change nonvolatile storage device and drive circuit


A reinforcing system for a guy anchor used in a guyed or additionally guyed tower includes a concrete structure formed around the guy anchor. The concrete structure has a top surface slightly above grade level. The reinforcing system further includes a supplemental anchor shaft. The supplemental anchor shaft is attached to the existing anchor head and extends down into the concrete structure, where it is retained and encased therein. The concrete structure preferably has a base and at least one wall that extends down from the base and has a surface that faces the tower to resist horizontal forces. The reinforcing system is sufficiently strong to keep the guy anchor in place even if the original anchor shaft completely corrodes. The supplemental anchor shaft does not generally come into contact with soil. It therefore resists corrosion and is expected to provide a long service life.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to guyed construction techniques, and, more particularly, to techniques for anchoring and for reinforcing the anchoring of guyed and additionally guyed towers.
2. Description of Related Art
Towers are widely used in many industries, including television transmission, radio communication, cell phone communication, wind turbines, and power transmission, to name a few.
Some towers, known as "guyed towers" or "additionally guyed towers," rely on guy wires to maintain or assist in maintaining the towers in a vertical orientation. Generally speaking, these towers include a vertical main body, or "mast," that stands on one end atop a base, which is generally concrete. Guy wires attach to the mast along its length, extend down and away from the mast, and attach securely to the ground using anchors. Most guyed towers are triangular in cross-section, and a minimum of three guy anchors are typically provided and are spaced apart by approximately 120-degrees to provide a stable base for holding the mast vertically. Often, guyed towers require three, six, or more guy anchors with multiple guy wires originating from different vertical levels of the tower attached to each guy anchor.
The term "guyed towers" describes towers whose masts have no independent means of support. They rely entirely upon guy wires to hold them upright. By contrast, the term "additionally guyed towers" describes towers that are essentially free standing, although they require guy wires to provide reinforcement and stability.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional guy anchor 100 for an erected tower. As shown in this example, four guy wires 110 originating from the tower's mast attach to an anchor head 114. The guy wires 110 are generally composed of steel or some other high tensile strength metal. A shaft 116 extends from the anchor head 114 and into the ground 124. Typically, the anchor head 114 and shaft 116, which are also generally made of steel, are provided as a single unit, with the shaft 116 permanently welded to the head 114. The distal end of the shaft 116 is typically buried in a steel-reinforced mass of concrete 118, also known as a "dead-man." The weight of the dead-man 118 and the earth above it holds the shaft 116 securely in place, even in the presence of large forces on the tower due to wind and precipitation.
The typical guy anchor assembly 100 may also include turnbuckles 112. One turnbuckle 112 is generally provided for each guy wire 110. The role of the turnbuckles 112 is to fine-tune the tightness of each guy wire 110.
To prevent damage due to lightning strikes, the guy wires 110 are each electrically connected via a conductive cable 120 to a ground spike 122. The ground spike 122 is typically made of copper. The cable 120 and ground spike 122 form a low impedance path to ground. This arrangement is designed to conduct high current surges away from the shaft 116, thereby preventing damage to the shaft which could otherwise compromise the mechanical stability of the tower.
As is known, the shafts 116 of the guy anchors typically corrode over time. Guy shaft corrosion primarily affects the area of the shaft exposed to soil, i.e., underground but outside the region encased in the dead-man 118. Corrosion may be galvanic in nature, with the steel guy shaft forming a battery cell with the more noble copper ground spike 122. Corrosion may also be electrolytic in nature, or may be caused by other factors.
Over several years, corrosion may lead to a significant loss of material from the anchor shaft 116, which, under the tensile forces transmitted through the guy wires, can result in a separation of the guy anchor shaft from the dead-man and a consequent catastrophic collapse of the tower.
The cost of replacing a collapsed 120 meter wireless guyed tower is estimated to be approximately $400,000. In addition, tower collapse poses a great risk to human life and property in the vicinity of the tower.
Owners and operators of guyed towers have developed aggressive remedial measures to prevent guy anchor failure. These include the following:                1. Inspecting the anchor shafts. This technique involves excavating around an existing anchor shaft to visually ascertain the status of the anchor shaft. Since the complete anchor shaft must typically be inspected, excavation is generally all the way to the dead-man 118. Removing earth above the dead-man temporarily weakens the guy anchor, and measures must be taken to retain the anchor in the ground as inspection proceeds.        2. Installing a new dead man anchor in front of the corroded anchor. This approach requires relocating the existing guy wires from the corroded anchor shaft to the new one.        3. Installing a new anchor behind the corroded anchor. Because distance to the tower mast is increased, this approach generally requires replacing all the guy wires, as they will be too short to re-attach to the new guy anchor. The additional space needed for the modified tower may require the tower owner to acquire new property or easements.        4. Installing a new drilled pier anchor offset to one side of the corroded anchor. This approach requires relocating the existing guy wires from the corroded anchor shaft to a new one. Towers with pinned bases may be caused to rotate to re-align themselves with the new anchors. Rotating the towers can sometimes be hazardous, and any antennas on the towers will generally need to be realigned. In addition, some towers have fixed bases and cannot freely rotate, in which case relocating the guy wires to new anchor heads can place additional stresses on the towers, which can lead to other problems.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A process for the manufacture of a part includes the steps of forming a core in a ceramic material, inserting the core into in a wax mold, placing an element on the core thereby forming a spacer between the core and an internal wall of the wax mold, forming a wax model of the part with the core by injecting wax into the mold, forming a shell mold in ceramic material from the wax model, removing the wax, and pouring casting metal into the shell mold, wherein the element is of elongated form and placed on the core in a laying position.

1. Field of the Invention
This present invention concerns the area of turbines, in particular that of the turbines of gas-turbine engines, and is aiming at a process for the manufacture by lost wax moulding of parts, in particular of blades, including cavities intended for the circulation of cooling fluids.
2. Description of the Related Art
The blades of turbines that are subjected to high thermal stresses include resources for cooling by the circulation of a cooling fluid, generally of air in the case of a gas-turbine engine, within cavities created within the blade.
Furthermore, the blades of turbines are now generally manufactured by the lost wax moulding process. This technique consists of creating a model in wax or another equivalent temporary material, of the part that one wishes to mould. The model is then placed in a ceramic shell mould. The latter is manufactured by successive dipping of the model in slurry mixtures containing a ceramic material and the addition of stucco to the layer formed between each dipping. The mould is dried, and then the wax that it contains is removed by a first oven treatment at a suitable temperature, followed by further oven treatment of the mould at high temperature in order to give it the strength necessary for the casting process. There then remains the replica of the model in the form of a mould into which the casting metal is poured. After cooling, the mould is broken to release the part. The latter then undergoes a simple finishing process.
When the blade includes cavities for the circulation of a cooling fluid, it is necessary to incorporate one or more cores into the model. This phase of the process includes firstly the separate manufacture of the core or cores by moulding them in a ceramic material consolidated by a binder, assembling them where appropriate, and then positioning of the core or cores in a wax mould. A model is thus moulded by the injection of wax into the wax mould, so that the model forms the replica of the part to be cast.
FIG. 1 shows, in section view perpendicular to the axis of the part, a wax mould 10 whose internal wall is the image of the part to be cast. Here, this mould is in two parts 10A and 10B. This mould includes a core 13. Here, the core is composed of a multiplicity of branches 13A to 13G parallel to each other and attached to a common root. Between them, the branches define spaces which will form partitions after pouring the metal. In order to provide for the retention of the core within the mould, small cones 15 are included in a plastic material. The function of these cones is to maintain a space between the walls of the core and the internal wall of the mould. When wax is injected, any irregularity of the layer caused by unwanted movement of the core is thus prevented.
The next stage consists of forming a ceramic mould around the model obtained after its extraction from the mould 10. The cones are no longer sufficient to guarantee the quality of the part, since they are removed with the wax at the moment of dewaxing the mould. In order to ensure correct positioning of the core in the shell mould, and to prevent it from moving at the moment of pouring the molten metal, rods are fitted on the model as illustrated in FIG. 2. This figure shows the wax model within the shell mould 12 in ceramic material. Here, these rods 16 are placed in the area close to the trailing edge, through the layer of wax 17, bearing against one face of the core 13. These rods are in platinum and are melted at the moment of pouring the molten alloy. Materials other than platinum, and performing the same function, can also be used.
To hold the rods 16 in position during the operations for creation of the shell mould, wax beads 18 are added around the rods. These beads are embedded in the wall of the shell mould 12 and the external part of the rods 16.
When the wax has been removed from the mould, the casting metal is poured, filling the space between the walls of the mould and those of the core. The rods are dissolved in the metal. After appropriate cooling, the elements constituting the core, for the creation of one or more cavities, are removed.
The result is the part shown in FIG. 3. During the finishing stage, it is necessary to remove the beads 18′ which have formed at the surface of the blade. When this operation is manual, it cannot be fully controlled, and this may give rise to significantly uneven wall thicknesses and lead to a high rejection rate. The particularly close tolerances of the wall thicknesses in these areas leave very little margin for error.
It can also be seen that the process does not allow one to obtain a part whose quality is optimal. The critical area of the blade is neither located perfectly in its environment nor immobilised during the injection of the wax, so that a positioning defect can already be observed at this stage of manufacture. This, added to the loss of material during the finishing operation, increases the risk that one will not achieve a product of satisfactory quality.
Moreover, the beads, being anchored in the ceramic shell, are the seat of mechanical stresses during removal of the metal, which can generate re-crystallised grains during the heat treatment process. The part then has to be scrapped.
It can also be observed that the operation for positioning the platinum rods and beads on the wax model is lengthy and difficult.
Finally, the operations of grinding and elimination of the beads have a cost which it is desirable to avoid.

Process for the manufacture by lost wax moulding of parts that include at least one cavity


A railroad pin removal system for efficiently removing a pin from a base plate of a railroad system so as to free the rail from the base plate. The railroad pin removal system generally includes a frame, an actuator secured to the frame and a clamping mechanism at least partially secured to the actuator, wherein the clamping mechanism is operable via the actuator. The clamping mechanism includes a movable jaw and a fixed jaw to slidably move a railroad pin away from a rail so as to be released from a base plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to railroad assembly and disassembly devices and more specifically it relates to a railroad pin removal system for efficiently removing a pin from a base plate of a railroad system so as to free the rail from the base plate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Any discussion of the related art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such related art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Railroad systems have been in use for centuries and are generally regarded as an efficient means in which to transport goods, people or livestock over long or short distances. A railroad system generally includes two parallel rails in which the railroad cars or carriages travel along. Ties, which can be comprised of wood, metal or concrete among others, extend between and perpendicularly across the rails to maintain the rails a proper distance apart. Base plates are used to secure the rails to the ties. The base plates are secured atop the ties and include a flat upper surface to receive the rails.
A fastener is used to secure the rails to the base plate, wherein the head or portion of the fastener extends over an outer lip of the rail to clamp the rail down upon the base plate. Traditionally, fasteners may be comprised of spikes, lag bolts or pin clips. The present invention is focused around pin clips (i.e. pins) as utilizing pins allows for an easier insertion and removal of the pins from the base plate and thus an easier installation or removal of the rails from the base plate.
Various problems have still been associated with the removal of the pins in the past, in that a manual force is often used to remove the pins, which may become increasingly tiresome and require a large and costly workforce to remove or perform maintenance upon lengthy sections of railroad track. Because of the inherent problems with the related art, there is a need for a new and improved railroad pin removal system for efficiently removing a pin from a base plate of a railroad system so as to free the rail from the base plate.


An improved aspiration-type chemical sprayer for dispensing small quantities of a liquid-based chemical into a stream of carrier fluid is disclosed. The sprayer includes a sprayer head assembly sealingly mounted onto a container for storing the chemical to be dispensed. The sprayer head assembly includes a multi-function unitary valve for providing a range of aspiration rates simultaneously with full communication of the container interior to atmospheric pressure. The valve may include means for positive and simultaneous closure of the aspiration and vent passages so as to seal the chemical in the container when the sprayer is not in use.

The present invention is directed to aspiration-type sprayers for use in dispensing small quantities of a liquid- based chemical into a relatively large quantity of a carrier fluid. The device is particularly suited for lawn and garden and agricultural applications where chemicals, such as pesticides and fertilizers are applied to crops, plants, lawns and other vegetation. Because of the usually hazardous nature of the chemicals to be applied, it is desirable to market such products in containers which are permanently sealed to a sprayer head so as to minimize inadvertent human exposure, such as from careless handling or unauthorized access by children, to a concentrated chemical. To make such nonrefillable products economically feasible it is necessary to provide a sprayer which is of sufficiently low cost to allow the entire unit to be discarded when the container contents have been exhausted. It is therefore desirable to provide a sprayer which is inexpensive to manufacture and yet will reliably and safely provide a wide range of mixing ratios to meet the particular requirements of the individual user.
Prior art sprayers, such as that shown in Chow et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,674, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, teaches a sprayer assembly having a system of air vent and aspiration openings of different sizes to obtain a selection of discrete mixing ratios. The mechanism requires a system of cups to block openings associated with nonselected aspiration rates and to provide the desired fluid communication. Such a system, however, requires the alignment and assembly of a plurality of elements including openings, cup seals and springs. Such a system complicates manufacture and assembly thereby failing to fully minimize cost. Further, such devices fail to provide a simplified sprayer with a minimum of complex moving parts and a continuous range of mixing ratios. Employing the teaching of Chow et al., a range of mixing ratios would require a prohibitively complicated system of moving cup seals for alignment with a large number of alternative sized aspiration openings.
Other prior art sprayers, such as that shown in George et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,186,643, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, use a rotating carrier fluid valve having a range of adjustability of carrier fluid flow in combination with a vent bore closure boss extending from the rotating valve. Such control of carrier fluid flow fails to provide means for varying the desired rate of chemical dispensing while maintaining a selected distance and strength of spray projection.
Therefore a need exists for an aspiration-type chemical sprayer having simplified design and ease of manufacture which provides a range of direct control of the aspiration passageway while providing for leak resistant operation and secure and simultaneous closure of both the aspiration and vent passageways for positive chemical flow shut-off when the sprayer is not in use.


A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for local program reorganization using branch count per instruction hardware. In a preferred embodiment, a hardware counter is used in the present invention to count the number of times a branch is taken when branch instructions are executed. Branch count statistics generated from the hardware counters are available to a program in order to analyze whether code reorganization is necessary. If reorganization is necessary, the program autonomically reorganizes instructions locally at run time to allow more instructions to be executed prior to taking a branch, so that the number of branches taken is minimized without modifying underlying program code.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and, in particular, to a method and system for improving performance of the processor in a data processing system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method, apparatus, and computer instructions for local code reorganization using branch count per instruction hardware.
2. Description of Related Art
In a computer system, branch prediction is a technique used to guess whether a conditional branch will be taken or not. If it is predicted that a conditional branch will be taken, the processor will prefetch code for the branch instruction from the appropriate location. A speculative execution is performed to take advantage of branch prediction by executing the instruction before the processor is certain that they are in the correct execution path. For example, if a branch is taken more than 90 percent of the time, it is predicted to be taken and the processor will prefetch the code prior to reaching the branch instruction.
A branch instruction may be conditional or unconditional. A conditional branch instruction causes an instruction to branch or jump to another location of code if a specified condition is satisfied. If the condition is not satisfied, the next instruction in sequential order is fetched and executed.
A special fetch/decode unit in a processor uses a branch prediction algorithm to predict the direction and outcome of the instructions being executed through multiple levels of branches, calls, and returns. Branch prediction enables the processor to keep the instruction pipeline full while running at a high rate of speed. In conventional computer systems, branch prediction is based on branch prediction software that uses branch statistics and other data to minimize stalls caused by delays in fetching instructions that branch to nonlinear memory locations.
In some cases, the code of a program can be locally reorganized to improve performance. Such code reorganization is typically based on software generated statistics to determine whether local code reorganization is advantageous. However, such software generated statistics require use of resources that may in some cases be better allocated to other tasks, while hardware resources that may be present go unused, resulting in an inefficient use of overall resources.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved method, apparatus, and computer instructions for providing branch count per instruction statistics that allow a program to autonomically perform local code reorganization, so that processor performance may be optimized.

Autonomic method and apparatus for local program code reorganization using branch count per instruction hardware

International Business Machines Corporation


A method for producing a sandwich panel with a reinforced foam core includes inserting rod-shaped, thermoplastic reinforcing elements into a thermoplastic foam material such that the reinforcing elements extend through the foam material. End regions of the reinforcing elements project out of the foam material. The foam material is thermoformed to form a reinforced foam core, wherein the end regions of the reinforcing elements are integrally formed by applying temperature and pressure to the cover surfaces of the foam material and are bonded to the foam material in a fused connection. A thermoplastic cover layer is laminated on either side by applying temperature and pressure to the reinforced foam core on the cover surfaces of the foam material in order to form the sandwich panel, wherein the cover layers are bonded to the reinforced foam core in a fused connection.

Although it has many applications, the present disclosure and the problem addressed thereby is explained in relation to sandwich panels which are designed for cladding passenger cabins of aircraft. In principle, however, the present disclosure can also be used for producing panels for installation in general vehicles, such as road vehicles, railway vehicles and/or watercraft or the like, or in buildings, etc. Panels produced according to the disclosure herein can be used as floor plates, as cladding or cover plates and in the general design of interior spaces.
Because of the good ratio of rigidity or strength to density, sandwich structures or sandwich components, generally referred to in the following as sandwich panels, have a wide range of applications in the field of aircraft construction. Sandwich panels typically consist of a lightweight inner core structure, which is enclosed on either side by a cover layer. By appropriately designing the core structure, both the rigidity of these panels and other properties, such as acoustic or thermal insulation, can be set.
The cover layers are typically made of a fiber composite material, e.g. carbon fiber reinforced plastics material (CFRP). The core structure may for example be honeycomb-like and comprise a plurality of cells having a hexagonal cross section. The cell walls of the honeycomb may be made of a fiber paper impregnated with phenol resin, or of other materials such as cardboard, plastics material, etc. Rigid foam materials are often used as an alternative to a honeycomb construction of this type. These materials have advantages over honeycomb structures, inter alia in the field of thermal and acoustic insulation, and in component production. In order to also ensure sufficient mechanical properties of foam-based core composites in comparison with core composites having a honeycomb-like core structure of a comparable density, techniques are sometimes used in which reinforcing pins, fibers or threads or the like are inserted into rigid foam components. In what is known as the "tied foam core" technique, as described in DE 10 2005 024 408 A1 for example, a foam is penetrated by 'dry' fiber bundles by a sewing technique. Following a resin infiltration process and a subsequent curing process, the fiber bundles form rigid pins, which contribute to mechanically reinforcing the foam.
Known methods of this type for reinforcing foam cores are, however, usually only suitable for reinforcing foamed thermosetting polymers. If, however, fibers were accordingly inserted into a thermoplastic foam, it would be difficult in practice to subsequently infiltrate the fibers with a thermoplastic infusion material due to the high viscosity of thermoplastic polymers. However, foams made of thermoplastic polymers can be deformed into practically any shape under the effects of pressure and temperature, and can be joined to thermoplastic face sheets in short cycle times.

Method for producing a sandwich panel comprising a reinforced foam core


A method for evaluating an output pattern printed on a medium is described. A reference pattern is stored. The output pattern is printed on the medium based correspondingly on the stored reference pattern. A scan based instance of the output pattern is rendered, which has a set of features at least corresponding to the printed output pattern and zero or more features additional thereto. A difference image, having the zero or more features of the rendered scan instance, is computed based on a comparison of the rendered scan instance to the stored reference pattern. Upon the zero or more features including at least one feature, the computed difference image is evaluated in relation to a proximity of at least one feature to locations pixels of the reference pattern.

Generally speaking, data patterns, and indicia such as bar code patterns, data matrix patterns, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) fonts, text characters, graphic images, logos and other one dimensional (1D) and two dimensional (2D) patterns of geometric and graphic data (referred to herein as "patterns") are useful in a wide variety of applications. Some printers and printing evaluating processes may be specialized for efficient printing of the data patterns on labels or other graphic media. For example, bar code printers may thus be widely deployed in various supply chain and identification applications.
Some bar codes, data patterns and other symbols comprise information of significant relevance, importance, or substance in relation to an operation, endeavor, or enterprise ("operation"). Some of the significant information may be mission-critical to an operation. The success of the operation may depend, at least in part, on the mission-critical information. Accurate presentation, transactional reliability, and security thus become significant factors in relation to mission-critical information. Such data may also have a high time value, low duration of fresh relevance, and related heightened levels of urgency, which may make timely handling or responsiveness appropriate based on the accurate presentation.
In view of their significance, quality related verification is a significant feature of various printing evaluating processes and printing evaluating systems are thus associated with the production of mission-critical printed media. The printed data are verified using scanning and validation processes to compare an output instance of an image with a stored digital reference or programmed original instance of the image. An acceptable correlation may be determined based on the comparison. For example, alphanumeric, pictographic, or character based, and other text related data may be verified using an OCR process in relation to clarity, legibility, readability, and correct conformance to the reference or original.
Barcodes and other data patterns may be verified based on a scanning process. For example, a brief, simple scan may be performed to verify that a barcode pattern, QR code pattern or the like is actually scannable, and may thus be read, decoded, and stored. Additionally or alternatively, the data patterns may be subject to scanning to ascertain their compliance with a programmed quality specification, and/or to quality standards promulgated by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and other authorities.
For example, 1D Universal Product Code (UPC) and 2D matrix data patterns may be specified to comply with quality specifications set forth in the 'ANSI/UCC5' standard. Linear (1D) barcode patterns may be specified to comply with quality specifications set forth in the 'ISO/IEC 12516' standard. Quick Response (QR), Han Xin, and other 2D data patterns may be specified to comply with quality specifications set forth in the 'ISO/IEC 15415' standard.
These verification techniques however may be associated with nontrivial costs in relation to operator time, attention, and diversion from more productive and/or profitable activity. Moreover, access to reference instances corresponding to printed output products reflective of intended, original, programmed, stored, modeled, and/or otherwise "correct" printed product outcomes, may be lacking, unavailable, stale or corrupt.
Separate technologies and independent applications may be used to fully verify the correctness of the data. These however may tend to add complexity, cost, and the possibility of introducing inaccuracy. An OCR algorithm may be used in an effort to compute an estimate or essentially "guess" at the correctness of a printout without reference to actual input or other reference data on which the printout is ostensibly based.
For example, the 'Arabic' numeral '4' may be modeled for printing a corresponding feature with an open upper portion. However, OCR may read a '4' character as "correct," which has the upper portion closed by the vertex of an acute angle. The OCR may thus fail to ascertain actual compliance of an output print product to a reference input.
To mitigate the effects of latency and costs associated with visual examination of print products, inspections may be limited to "spot checks." However, such spot checks are typically performed only over portions of an entire print product. The print product portions are typically significantly smaller than the entire print product. For example, while a print product may comprise a total of 100, 1000, or 10,000 labels a corresponding spot check performed over five percent (5%) of the total product samples only five (5), 50 or 500 of the product, respectively. These spot checks essentially thus overlook 95, 950, or 9,500 of the labels, respectively. Such visual inspections may miss some quality deficient labels and may thus be error-prone, in least over the major portions of the print products that remain unexamined. Thus, the actual correctness of any printout, in its entirety, may remain effectively indeterminate and best on a statistically inferred quality level. Imperfect individual products may escape notice.
Some contemporary applications however may rely however, at least in part, on verifying the accuracy of the printed products. For example, accuracy in the labeling of prescription drugs may comprise a serious quality specification for printing evaluating processes undertaken by pharmacies and other health care endeavors. Lifesaving drugs, powerful narcotics, radioactive pharmaceuticals, and therapeutic substances and solutions may be dangerous if dosed or otherwise used improperly or incorrectly provide a clear and high example of the importance of accurate labeling.
In these respects, verifying the accurate printing of correct labels for medicine may thus be considered mission-critical to pharmacies and in other health care scenarios. Verification based the typical OCR and visual examination approaches may be insufficient in such mission-critical printing applications.
Therefore, it would therefore be useful to verify printed media products of mission-critical printing processes to confirm that information presented by output images correspond accurately to original instances or input digital images, on which the printing is based. It would also be useful to verify the printed media products without necessarily implicating, or resorting to either OCR based confirmation of text related images or for printed data patterns, to grading related to standards, specifications, and/or simplistic scannability checks. Further, it would be useful to verify the printed media products automatically with a high degree of accuracy and testing throughput speed, which obviates "spot checking" of mere sampled portions of a total printing product output, yet adds no significant latency or demands on an operator attention.


One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a method for enabling an intermediate code-based application program to access a target graphics processing unit (GPU) in a parallel processing environment. The method includes the steps of compiling a source code of the intermediate code-based application program to an intermediate code, translating the intermediate code to a PTX instruction code, and translating the PTX instruction code to a machine code executable by the target graphics processing unit before delivering the machine code to the target GPU.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to parallel processing, and more particularly, to a method and system for enabling managed code-based application program to access graphics processing unit in a computed unified device architecture (CUDA) environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
CUDA is a software platform for massively parallel high-performance computing on graphics processing units (GPU). A GPU is a parallel multi-core architecture and each core is capable of running thousands of threads simultaneously. Especially when an application program is designed for this architecture, the GPU can offer substantial performance benefits. CUDA development tools generally work alongside a conventional C/C++ compiler, so that programmers can use a variation of C program language to code algorithms for execution on the GPU. CUDA also hides the GPU architecture beneath application programming interface (API) and, as the result, application programmers are not required to be familiar with the architecture and the low level programming language. Instead, predefined graphics functions in the API can be called. Compiling a CUDA program, however, is not as straightforward as running a C compiler to convert source code into executable object code, partly because the CUDA program targets two different processor (CPU and GPU) architectures and partly because of the hardware abstraction of CUDA.
Although equipped with the conventional C/C++ compiler, the present CUDA environment does not support application programs that are written in a programming language that is for creating managed code to be executed under a virtual machine (such as Virtual Basic .NET). However, for programming convenience and security considerations, more and more applications are written in such a programming language. Moreover, there are also needs to executed a managed code-based application program in the CUDA environment so that the GPU computing resources can be utilized.
Before the managed code-based application program could access the GPU hardware resource, the application program needs to be translated into the corresponding GPU machine codes. However, such machine code translation can be inefficient without any support from the enhanced CUDA environment.
What is needed in the art is thus a method and system that can enable a managed code-based application program to access the resources of a GPU in the CUDA environment and can address at least the foregoing issues.

Method and system for enabling managed code-based application program to access graphics processing unit


A semiconductor light emitting device includes: a semiconductor laminated body including a light emitting layer and having a light extraction surface for light emitted from the light emitting layer, a conductive film provided on the light extraction surface of the semiconductor laminated body and being translucent to the light emitted from the light emitting layer and an electrode provided above the conductive film. The conductive film has at least two levels of thickness.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a semiconductor light emitting device and apparatus, and more particularly to a semiconductor light emitting device and apparatus having a translucent conductive film on its light extraction surface.
2. Background Art
A semiconductor light emitting device, such as a light emitting diode (LED), that uses low-resistance metal oxides such as indium tin oxide (ITO) as a translucent current diffusion layer provided on its light extraction surface, is disclosed in JP 2004-103710A, for example.
A thick current diffusion layer is required for sufficient diffusion of current throughout the light emitting layer. However, a thick current diffusion layer increases the light absorption therein, which decreases the efficiency of light extraction to the outside of the device. On the other hand, a thin current diffusion layer is required in order to increase optical transmittance for higher efficiency of light extraction to the outside of the device. However, a thin current diffusion layer increases the lateral electrical resistance of the device, which will cause insufficient current diffusion throughout the light emitting layer. It is thus difficult to achieve compatibility between current diffusion and light extraction in the current diffusion layer.

Semiconductor light emitting device and apparatus having a translucent conductive film