The present invention relates to a composite comprising a polymer and a blue phase liquid crystal (BPLC). The polymer is a crosslinked and non-liquid crystalline polymer, the BPLC is dispersed in said polymer, and the ratio of the polymer to the BPLC by weight (Wp/Wl) satisfies the relationship: 12:88<Wp/Wl≦30:70, wherein the Wp is the weight of the polymer, and Wl is the weight of the BPLC. The composite exhibits a very wide temperature range of blue phase of the BPLC, and can respond to an electric field at a millisecond level. The composite has an excellent stability, and a lower viscosity, while a wide viewing angle and a low driving voltage can be achieved. The invention also provides a method for preparing the composite, and a LCD device comprising the composite. The method of the present invention is simple and efficient.

The global depletion of the non-renewable energy resources has rapidly increased in recent years. How to improve the energy efficiency has become a worldwide issue. In China, the energy-saving issue is much more prominent. According to a recent statistic, the total amount of LCD televisions being used in China exceeds 100 million, and will reach 3.4 billion in the next 58 years. By then, the annual power consumption of the televisions will exceed 50 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) with ⅔ thereof being consumed by the displays. Since the LCD has become the most popular display medium in the world, the technical issues of reducing energy consumption of the LCD have become a worldwide important topic and task in the field of display technology.
Energy consumption of an LCD arises mainly from the backlight, the driving mode, the liquid crystal material and the peripheral components thereof. Among next-generation LCD technologies, the most attractive one is the blue phase liquid crystal display (BP-LCD) technology. The BP-LCD has the following four outstanding advantages over the conventional LCD technologies. First, the blue phase liquid crystal exhibits a fast response at microsecond level to an electric field, is applicable to a field sequential driving mode, and does not need a color filter. Second, the blue phase liquid crystal macroscopically exhibits optical isotropy, so that the alignment of the inner surface of a display substrate is no longer required. Third, the BP-LCDs can provide a relatively wide viewing performance and do not need any viewing angle compensation film. Fourth, the transmittance of the light from the backlights of the BP-LCDs is insensitive to the substrate gap, and thus the substrate gap does not need to be strictly controlled during the fabrication process. Such a feature of the BP-LCDs can greatly simplify the fabrication process and is useful for manufacturing large LCD panels.
As compared with a conventional LCD, a BP-LCD may reduce the backlight power consumption by about ⅓, the energy consumption during its fabrication may reduce by about 40%, and the cost of raw materials thereof may reduce by about 19%. Since the techniques and processes of manufacturing a BP-LCD are similar to that of the conventional LCD, they can be produced by the same manufacturing facilities. So, the key points of improving the BP-LCD technology reside in the development of blue phase liquid crystal (BPLC) materials.
In 2002, YANG Huai and Kikuchi, at al., reported a polymer-stabilized BPLC composite. Based on the composite, Samsung produced the first polymer-stabilized BP-LCD prototype in the world. The prototype was exhibited at the Display Week 2008 and aroused great repercussions in the display field. This polymer-stabilized BP-LCD can realize an image-driving speed of 240 Hz or greater, and thus can provide a naturally-appearing moving imagery. Therefore, the development of polymer-stabilized BPLCs is becoming the focus of the attentions in the art of manufacturing LCDs.
It is known that a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal is a composite formed by uniformly dispersing nematic liquid crystal droplets in a polymer matrix. Because the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal has excellent electro-optical properties and is easy to achieve large-scale production, it has been widely used in large-size flexible display devices, non-linear optical materials, electronically-controlled smart glass, liquid crystal gratings and so on. However, there are two main obstacles for manufacturing LCDs based on the polymer-stabilized BPLCs, including: (1) it is difficult to manufacture large panel with high uniformity using the polymer-stabilized BPLCs of wide temperature range; and (2) the microstructure of the polymer network is difficult to control precisely, and the life of the LCDs based on the polymer-stabilized BPLCs may be shortened significantly because the amount of the monomers used for polymerization is usually less than 10 wt % such that the resultant polymer network tends to deform under the effect of an applied electric field.
Therefore, in the field of LCDs, there is a great demand for the development of a useful BPLC, which can exhibit a wide temperature range, a lower driving voltage and a higher stability in electric field.

Composite comprising a polymer and a blue phase liquid crystal, a method for preparing the composite, and a liquid crystal display device comprising the composite


Laser equipment in which pumping every dependence of output beam diameter and beam wavefront curvature is reduced. The total pumping energy of at least one of laser active media disposed beyond terminal laser beam waists, among beam waists, is approximately one-half of the total pumping energy of laser active media disposed between two adjacent beam waists.

FIG. 26 is a block diagram for explaining conventional laser equipment disclosed in "Highly efficient operation of diode laser transversely pumped high power Nd:YAG rod laser" by A. Takada et al., Advanced High-Power Lasers, Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 3889.
In FIG. 26, 1a is a totally reflecting mirror with plane curvature, and 2a is a partially transmitting mirror with plane curvature. 5a, 5b, 5c and 5d, referred to as laser pumping sections hereinafter, are fundamental devices that singly or plurally constitute laser oscillators or laser amplifiers, and include respective laser active media 4a, 4b, 4c and 4d, and respective laser active medium pumping devices 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d, and as may be necessary, means for cooling them and for providing them with energizing power such as electric power. In FIG. 26, 111a is a reference mark indicating the beam-waist position on the end face of the totally reflecting mirror 1a; 111b is a reference mark indicating the beam-waist position between laser pumping sections 5a and 5b; 100a is a reference mark indicating the intermediate position in the excited portion of the laser active medium 4b; 111c is a reference mark indicating the beam-waist position on the end face of the partially transmitting mirror 2a; 111d is a reference mark indicating the beam-waist position between the laser pumping sections 5c and 5d; and 111e is a reference mark indicating the position of the beam waist formed on the beam-emitting side of the laser pumping section 5d.
Moreover, 60a, 60b, 60c and 60d are reference marks indicating optical systems that include thermal lenses formed by the laser active media that are situated respectively between 111a and 111b, 111b and 111c, 111c and 111d, and 111d and 111e. A plurality of optical elements that are arranged along the laser beam axis is referred to as an optical system hereinafter, when it is shown as a whole.
The operation of the conventional example illustrated in FIG. 26 for the present invention is now described. A laser beam 7 generated in the laser oscillator that is constituted by the totally reflecting mirror 1a, the laser pumping sections 5a and 5b, and the partially transmitting mirror 2a passes through the partially transmitting mirror 2a and then is extracted from the oscillator and guided into the laser amplifier constituted by the laser pumping sections 5c and 5d, thus forming a laser beam 77 after being amplified in the course of passing through the laser amplifier. In this case, the laser pumping sections 5a, 5b, 5c and 5d are constituted by parts with the same specification and are excited by the same pumping energy.
The laser equipment constituted as shown in FIG. 26 is considered to be, as a whole, a cascade-type laser oscillator and amplifier wherein optical systems 60a each acting as a fundamental unit are arranged periodically in series, because the optical systems 60b, 60c and 60d are identical to the optical system 60a, provided that only beam mode shape inside the oscillator and amplifier, and essential factors—focusing elements and propagation distances—which significantly affect the beam mode shape are thought, without taking into account optical properties such as gain, the totally reflecting mirror and the totally transmitting mirror. For this reason, as described thereinafter, the beam diameter in the position 111e significantly varies depending on changes in the pumping energy.
In a conventional cascade-type solid-state laser oscillator and amplifier as described above, the diameter of the beam in places in which the wavelength-conversion active media are positioned varies depending on the pumping intensity, and the condition of the wavelength conversion accordingly changes depending on the pumping intensity when wavelength conversion using the extracted beam is carried out, since emitted laser beam diameter and beam wavefront curvature varies significantly depending on the pumping intensity. Moreover, when a laser beam generated in the conventional laser equipment is guided into an optical fiber, the light-guiding conditions depends largely on the laser pumping intensity, since the diameter of the emitted beam and the wavefront curvature varies significantly depending on the pumping intensity. In addition, when a laser beam extracted from the conventional laser equipment is used for machining work, the processing conditions varies depending on the pumping intensity of the laser equipment, e.g., laser beam energy, since emitted beam varies depending on the pumping intensity.
On the other hand, assuming for example that the amplifier portion consisting of the laser pumping sections 5c and 5d shown in FIG. 26 are independently used as an amplifier and would receive an incident beam through the position 111c, since the position 111c is, from the viewpoint of designing the cascade-type amplifier, the one whereat the beam diameter varies, the beam parameters for the incident beam would need to be changed in accordance with the pumping intensity. Furthermore, when attempting to configure variable-output laser equipment utilizing an incident beam with a constant beam diameter and beam wavefront curvature, and varying the pumping intensity of the amplifier, since the beam behavior in the amplifier would not be that of a cascade type having a periodic structure, there have been problems such as that the design of the amplifier has been complicated, that multiplication of amplification stages has been difficult, and that the volume where the amplified beam mode and the excited region overlap has lessened, hindering high-efficiency amplification.
The present invention has been made to address the foregoing problems of the conventional laser equipment; it is an object of the present invention to provide laser equipment wherein the beam diameter of an emitted laser beam and the wavefront curvature have reduced dependence on the pumping intensity, as well as laser equipment that can efficiently amplify an incident beam having fixed beam parameters.


The present invention presents methods and apparatus for detecting, imaging, monitoring, and modulating of brain activities and neuronal activities in the brain using radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic (EM) waves, as well as methods and apparatus for detecting, imaging, and monitoring breathing and heart-beating using RF EM waves.

Brain activities are to be sensed or modulated for many important applications, such as for brain examination, monitoring or treatment, for brain-machine interfacing, and further for direct communication with the brain. So far there have been methods and apparatus for sensing of brain activities by detecting the neuronal electrical activities with needle electrodes inserted to the brain, and for sensing of brain activities by detecting the BOLD signal with functional Magnetic Resonant Imaging (fMRI), by detecting the neuronal electrical potential signals on the scalp with electroencephalography (EEG), or detecting neuronal electrical potential signals in the brain with implanted EEG or magnetoencephalography (MEG) or Positron Emission Tomography (PET). There have been Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) as a neuromodulation technique by implanting electrodes deep in the brain to stimulate targeted brain functional site with electrical impulses for treatment of Parkinson's Disease (PD) and other movement disorders such as essential tremor and dystonia. The present invention presents methods and apparatus for detecting, imaging, monitoring and modulating of brain activities with RF EM waves, as well as detecting, imaging, and monitoring breathing rate and heart rate using RF EM waves.

Electromagnetic wave sensing and modulating of neuronal activities


Methods and apparatus are disclosed for customizing an elution rate of a stent. The stent includes a hollow strut that forms the stent, the hollow strut defining a lumenal space, a drug formulation disposed within the lumenal space of the hollow strut, and at least one side port for eluting the drug formulation in vivo. When the stent is in the radially expanded configuration the hollow strut is deformable from a first configuration that has a first elution rate for the drug formulation to a second configuration that has a second elution rate for the drug formulation. The second elution rate is faster than the first elution rate. The hollow strut deforms from the first configuration to the second configuration upon application of an applied pressure above a predetermined threshold.

Drug-eluting implantable medical devices are useful for their ability to provide structural support while medically treating the area in which they are implanted. For example, drug-eluting stents have been used to prevent restenosis in coronary arteries. Drug-eluting stents may administer therapeutic agents such as anti-inflammatory compounds that block local invasion/activation of monocytes, thus preventing the secretion of growth factors that may trigger VSMC proliferation and migration. Other potentially anti-restenotic compounds include antiproliferative agents, such as chemotherapeutics, which include sirolimus and paclitaxel. Other classes of drugs such as anti-thrombotics, anti-oxidants, platelet aggregation inhibitors and cytostatic agents have also been suggested for anti-restenotic use.
Drug-eluting medical devices may be coated with a polymeric material which, in turn, is impregnated with a drug or a combination of drugs. Once the medical device is implanted at a target location, the drug is released from the polymer for treatment of the local tissues. The drug is released by a process of diffusion through a polymer layer of a biostable polymer, and/or as the polymer material degrades when the polymer layer is of a biodegradable polymer.
Drug impregnated polymer coatings are limited in the quantity of the drug to be delivered by the amount of a drug that the polymer coating can carry and the size of the medical device. As well, controlling the rate of elution using polymer coatings is difficult.
Accordingly, drug-eluting medical devices that enable increased quantities of a drug to be delivered by the medical device, and allow for improved control of the elution rate of the drug, and improved methods of forming such medical devices are needed. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0008405, filed Jul. 9, 2009, U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/244,049, filed Sep. 20, 2009, U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/244,050, filed Sep. 20, 2009, and co-pending U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0067008, each incorporated by reference herein in their entirety, disclose methods for forming drug-eluting stents with hollow struts. Polymer-free drug-eluting stents formed with hollow struts can achieve similar elution rates as drug-eluting stents with the therapeutic substance disposed in a polymer on the surface of the stent. Polymer-free drug-eluting stents formed with hollow struts achieving similar elution rates as drug-polymer coated stent are expected to have similar clinical efficacy while simultaneously being safer without the polymer coating.
However, it is currently difficult for a physician to customize or tailor the elution rate of a polymer-free drug-eluting stent to meet individual requirements of a specific patient. Accordingly, embodiments hereof relate to methods of and apparatuses to enable a physician to customize or tailor the elution rate of a polymer-free drug-eluting stent.

Drug-eluting stent formed from a deformable hollow strut for a customizable elution rate


An electrophotographic photoreceptor has at least an electroconductive substrate, and a photosensitive layer formed on or above the electroconductive substrate, wherein an outermost layer of the photoreceptor is a cured membrane of a composition containing at least one compound (a) having in a single molecule thereof a charge transporting skeleton and a chain polymerizable functional group, and at least one thermopolymerizable or photopolymerizable silicone polymeric radical polymerization initiator (b).

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic photoreceptor, a process cartridge, and an image forming apparatus.
2. Related Art
Image forming apparatuses in an electrophotographic system generally have the below-described structure and are operated according to the below-described process.
The surface of an electrophotographic photoreceptor is electrified to a predetermined polarity and a predetermined electric potential by an electrifier, and the electrified electrophotographic photoreceptor surface is imagewise exposed to light so as to remove the electric charge selectively, thereby forming an electrostatic latent image. Thereafter, a toner is adhered to the electrostatic latent image by a developing unit, and the latent image is developed as a toner image. The toner image is transferred to an image-receiving medium via a transfer unit, and the image-receiving medium is discharged as an image formed product.
Electrophotographic photoreceptors have the advantage that a high-quality image is obtained at high-speed. In recent years, therefore, the use thereof has been increasing in the field of copying machines, laser beam printers and the like.
Electrophotographic photoreceptors using a conventional inorganic material, such as selenium, selenium-tellurium alloy, selenium-arsenic alloy, or cadmium sulfide (inorganic photoreceptors), are known as electrophotographic photoreceptors used in these image forming apparatuses. In recent years, electrophotographic photoreceptors using an organic photoconductive material (organic photoreceptors), which are inexpensive and advantageous in terms of productivity and disposability, have started becoming mainstream.
A corona electrifying system using a color discharger has been hitherto used as the electrifying system. In recent years, a contact electrifying system, which has advantages such as low ozone generation and low power, has been put into practice and come into widespread use. In the contact electrifying system, an electroconductive member is used as an electrifying member and is contacted with or moved close to the surface of a photoreceptor, and voltage is applied to the electrifying member to electrify the photoreceptor surface. Systems of applying voltage to the electrifying member include direct current systems of applying only a direct current voltage, and alternating current superimposed systems of applying an alternating current voltage superimposed on direct current voltage. The contact electrifying system is advantageous in terms of miniaturization of apparatuses and reduced generation of gases such as ozone.
As the transfer system, a system of transferring a toner image directly onto a paper sheet has been the mainstream. However, in recent years, a system of using an intermediate transfer medium for transferring a toner image has been actively used since the choice of papers on which the toner image is transferred has expanded.

Electrophotographic photoreceptor, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus


A robot cleaner system and a method for the robot cleaner to return to an external recharging apparatus. The robot cleaner system has an external recharging apparatus including a charging stand having a charging terminal, and a plurality of transmission parts for sending signals having different codes and strengths; a robot cleaner including a rechargeable battery, a connection terminal for connection with the charging terminal to supply power to the rechargeable battery, a receiving part for receiving signals from the plurality of transmission parts, and a control part for controlling a movement of the robot cleaner using the signals received by the receiving part, so that the connection terminal is connected to the charging terminal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a robot cleaner system and a method of the robot cleaner to return to an external recharging apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a robot cleaner system including a robot cleaner having a rechargeable battery and an external recharging apparatus for charging the battery, and a method for the robot cleaner to return to the external recharging apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a robot cleaner automatically travels around an area of a predetermined range to clean a floor or a surface by drawing in dust and impurities without requiring a user's manipulation. The robot cleaner measures distances therefrom to obstacles such as furniture, office supplies and walls in the cleaning area and travels around without colliding with the obstacles using information on the measured distance, thereby performing a cleaning work as instructed.
The robot cleaner includes a battery for supplying electric power for driving. Rechargeable batteries are generally used to reuse the battery after being exhausted. Therefore, the robot cleaner needs an external recharging apparatus for charging the battery with electric power. The robot cleaner system includes the robot cleaner and the external recharging apparatus.
In order for the robot cleaner to automatically return to the external recharging apparatus, the robot cleaner needs to correctly perceive a location of the external recharging apparatus.
Among various methods for the robot cleaner to perceive the location of the external recharging apparatus and connecting with the external recharging apparatus, one example is as follows. The external recharging apparatus, having a charging terminal for connection with the robot cleaner, comprises a charging apparatus mark, whereas the robot cleaner comprises a mark sensor. Usually, a reflective optical sensor is used for the charging apparatus mark. The reflective optical sensor comprises a light emitting part and a light receiving part for receiving a light reflected from the charging apparatus mark. When the robot cleaner would return to the external recharging apparatus after finishing the cleaning work or after exhausting the battery, the light emitting part provided to the robot cleaner emits a light, and the light receiving part of the reflective optical sensor receives the light reflected from the charging apparatus mark mounted to the external recharging apparatus. Therefore, the robot cleaner recognizes the location of the external recharging apparatus and returns to the external recharging apparatus.
However, the reflective optical sensor, used for the robot cleaner system having the external recharging apparatus, is expensive. Further, the robot cleaner takes a long time to return to the external recharging apparatus because of a short distance that the optical sensor can perceive.

Robot cleaner system and a method for returning to external recharging apparatus


A method for centrally providing a profile of a user's degree of preference for one or more items across categories in a plurality of domains of interest in a taxonomy of preferences is described. In one embodiment, the method includes identifying a user's degree of preference for an item from a plurality of indicators. The user's degree of preference for the item is associated with a category in a domain of interest and is stored in a profile of the user. In another embodiment, the profile identifies preferences of the user in a taxonomy of preferences across categories in a plurality of domains of interest.

Proliferation of social networking sites has allowed a user to connect with a plurality of other users. The user can view profile information of other users and connect with them using a plurality of communication modes. The social networking sites include user generated content that is disparate and decentralized. With the proliferation of social networking sites and the inconsistent or unstructured form of user generated contents, it is challenging for a user of existing social networking sites to track likes and dislikes of an individual or a group of individuals. The user has to browse a plurality of websites in order to view information on likes, dislikes, preferences and trends associated with either an individual or a group of individuals. Furthermore, the user has to read and interpret user generated content to try to ascertain any information on the likes and dislikes of an individual or a group of individuals.

Web-based services for querying and matching likes and dislikes of individuals


Embodiments of the disclosed invention include an apparatus, method, and computer program product for creating and executing a client workflow for web data extraction. For example, the disclosed embodiments provide a system for web data extraction. The system includes a data storage component configured for storing a plurality of preconfigured reusable software components that provide services for creating a client workflow for web data extraction. The system also includes a communication interface operable to receive workflow definitions from a client for creating the client workflow for web data extraction utilizing at least one of the plurality of preconfigured reusable software components. The system has a processor for executing instructions to run the client workflow for web data extraction.

Data extraction is the act or process of retrieving structured or unstructured data out of data sources for further data processing or data storage. Typical unstructured data sources include web pages, emails, documents, PDFs, scanned text, mainframe reports, spool files etc. Though the Web is best known as a vast repository of shared documents, it also contains a significant amount of structured data covering a complete range of topics, from product to financial, public-record, scientific, hobby-related, and government. Structured data on the Web shares many similarities with the kind of data traditionally managed by commercial database systems but also reflects some unusual characteristics of its own; for example, it is embedded in textual Web pages and must be extracted prior to use; there is no centralized data design as there is in a traditional database; and, unlike traditional databases that focus on a single domain, it covers everything.
The business need for structured and unstructured extractions is well known. The domains range from augmenting search results, providing rich results to properties and targeted advertising where extracted information can be used to improve user experience as well as targeted advertisements.
However, currently, every design or development team that requires extraction of structured data [e.g. review ratings, store hours of operation, store phone number, hotel photos, etc.] from the web has to develop their own workflow execution mechanisms from scratch for retrieving and processing the structured data. So instead of concentrating on the business problem at hand, they have to worry about peripheral problems like how to orchestrate the whole workflow including, but not limited to, designing their own workflow model, developing custom ways of stringing together components using scripts, how to get access to web data, how to validate workflow output on a continuous basis, and how to transfer data between distributed and stand-alone systems.

System and method for web knowledge extraction


An apparatus for impeding counterfeiting, impeding stealing and managing optical disk stock is described. The radio frequency identification (RFID) system is applied in an apparatus for impeding counterfeiting, impeding stealing, and managing optical disk stock. The apparatus has a disc, a RFID chip and an antenna. The disc has a first annular area, a second annular area and a third annular area. The second annular area is a data recording area with a metal recording layer. The first annular area and the third annular area both are areas without data. The RFID chip is embedded in the disc and the antenna connects to the RFID chip. The RFID chip and the antenna are located in the third annular area. The apparatus further has a foldable matching circuit to increase an inductance of the antenna and shorten the length of the antenna with even poles.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for impeding counterfeiting, impeding stealing and managing optical disk stock. In particular, the present invention applies the radio frequency identification (RFID) system to an apparatus that can impede counterfeiting, impede stealing and manage stocks for optical discs.
2. Description of the Related Art
RFID has many advantages. For example, RFID can be read by a non-contact method. Data stored therein can be updated. RFID has a large data capacity and can be used repeatedly. More than one RFID tag can be read at one time. RFID provides good security for data. RFID is an acceptable replacement for the bar-code system. RFID also doesn't need manpower during the identification process and can be operated in environments with oil sludge and heavy dust.
Because optical discs, such as audio discs, video discs and data discs CD, VCD, CD-ROM and DVD, can be illegally and easily duplicated, legal manufacturers lose a lot of money, the creative will of the original creator is reduced, and the development of the software industry is obstructed. Therefore, stopping counterfeiting and copyright protection are considered urgent issues. Stolen discs also easily affect retail sales.
Due to the development of the semiconductor manufacturing process and the operating frequency of the RFID, the volume of the RFID tag has become smaller. An RFID tag can be embedded in a disc and the identification rate of the RFID tag reaches almost 100% due to the development of the RFID technology. An RF-EAS (electronic article surveillance) adapted to the RFID technology is a good solution for these issues. Therefore, many solutions with RFID technology are disclosed to solve the issues of counterfeiting, stealing and stocks management.
The technology for embedding an RFID tag in a disc of the prior art embeds the RFID tag in a blank central area of a disc. The U.S. publication patents, such as US 2003/0034400A1, US 2004/0054594A1 and US 2004/0052202A1, disclose a technology where an RFID tag is embedded in the blank central area of the disc. This method provides a larger space to embed the RFID tag and reduces the balance problem when the disc is rotated at a high speed. However, the readable distance between the tag reader and the RFID tag is very short because the antenna radiation field is affected by the metal parts of the disc and the quantity of discs.
Besides, because the input impedance of the RFID chip has a larger capacity, the prior art that adopts a simple even antenna needs an antenna longer than one wavelength of the radio frequency to provide a larger inductance.

Apparatus for impeding counterfeiting, impeding stealing and managing optical disk stock

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A semiconductor encapsulation apparatus for encapsulating a semiconductor device on a substrate, the apparatus comprising a mold comprising a cavity pressure zone that is configured to be at a molding process pressure during molding, a base vacuum pump conduit connecting a base vacuum pump to the cavity pressure zone, a base vacuum valve located along the base vacuum pump conduit such that the base vacuum pump is in fluid communication with the cavity pressure zone when the base vacuum valve is open, a reservoir vacuum pump conduit connecting a reservoir vacuum pump to the base vacuum pump conduit, and a reservoir vacuum valve located along the reservoir vacuum pump conduit such that the reservoir vacuum pump is in fluid communication with the base vacuum pump conduit when the reservoir vacuum valve is open. The base vacuum pump and the reservoir vacuum pump are each operative to reduce a pressure of the cavity pressure zone to the molding process pressure when they are in fluid communication with the cavity pressure zone.

After a semiconductor wafer has gone through processing to form connections for semiconductor devices, the semiconductor devices are generally encapsulated with a molding material, for example a resin, in order to protect the semiconductor devices from physical and environmental damage. In order to form the resin into a desired shape and size, semiconductor substrates are placed into one or more cavities and the resin is introduced into the one or more cavities such that the resin is molded into the desired shape and size over the semiconductor substrates.
Compression molding and transfer molding are molding techniques commonly used to coat semiconductor substrates with resin. It is possible both in the case of compression molding and in the case of transfer molding, for a molding system to comprise a plurality of molding presses, each molding press comprising one or more cavities.
In the case of compression molding, a molding material, which may take the form of preheated paste or pellets, is introduced into the open, usually heated cavity of the molding press, which is subsequently closed. The molding material is pressed by the molding press under pressure, and the molding material melts and fills the cavity completely. The molding material remains in the cavity until it has cured.
In the case of transfer molding, a defined quantity of the molding material, typically a thermosetting material, is liquefied by heat and pressure, and then forced into the one or more cavities through an inlet, and is held there under heat and pressure until the resin has solidified. The molding material is usually introduced into each cavity simultaneously from a supply container through branched feeding lines.
The walls of the one or more cavities are typically heated to a temperature which is above the melting temperature of the molding material in order to obtain appropriate viscosity of the molding material within the one or more cavities. Despite that, pockets of air or gas may form in the molding material in the one or more cavities, especially in regions in the one or more cavities that are particularly intricate or narrow thereby creating voids in the molding material. Voids may cause the semiconductor device to malfunction, and the yield rate of the semiconductor devices to drop.
One technique of reducing or preventing the formation of voids is to use vacuum to assist the molding process. FIG. 1 shows a conventional multi-press molding apparatus or system 10 comprising a plurality of molding presses 12, and a respective vacuum pump 14 connected to each molding press 12. Each vacuum pump 14 would pump out the air from and reduce the pressure in the respective molding press 12 connected to it. For example a first vacuum pump 14a would pump out the air from and reduce the pressure in a first molding press 12a, thus creating a vacuum in one or more cavities of the first molding press 12a.
If the first vacuum pump 14a should malfunction during the molding process, there would be no vacuum (atmospheric pressure) or an inadequate vacuum (pressure substantially higher than the target molding process pressure) in the one or more cavities of the first molding press 12a. This would result in the semiconductor devices molded in the first molding press 12a being of a lower quality, for example due to the formation of voids in the molded semiconductor devices. The semiconductor devices molded in the first molding press 12a would have to be discarded, and this results in wastage and higher costs.

Semiconductor encapsulation system comprising a vacuum pump and a reservoir pump


A detector detects the variation of resistance between fingers of a human's hands which varies in response to his mental condition. When the mental condition is varied and the resistance between fingers is changed, the detector detects such resistance variation, which is then converted into an electric signal. This electric signal drive light emitting diodes (LEDs) or the like so that the user of this detector can realize his mental condition by watching the light. By further providing a lamp, an image film and a lens, the user can watch the image on the image film when light radiated from the lamp projects such image onto the lens. This detector is useful for meditation and mental training because the user can realize the variation of his mental condition by watching the light or image.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a detector for detecting resistance between fingers of human, and more particularly to a detector in which resistance variation occurred between fingers of human is detected and then the detected resistance variation is converted into an electric signal for driving an indicator.
2. Prior Art
The conventionally known detector detects and biologically feeds back the resistance between fingers of human to thereby generate some sounds for alarm etc. However, there is no conventional detector whose detection result turns on or off a light emitting diode (LED) etc. In fact, such conventional bio-feedback type detector is disadvantageous in that a man who sits in meditation for mental training must be mentally disturbed by its sound.

Detector for detecting resistance between fingers


An HV energy storage device for a motor vehicle as well as a method for operating the HV energy storage device.

High demands regarding crash safety are made on high-voltage energy storage devices (HV energy storage devices) for motor vehicles, for example under-vehicle batteries for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) In the event of an accident, the HV energy storage devices must be isolated from the vehicle's HV system as quickly as possible. So-called pyrotechnic isolation elements are frequently used for this.
To ensure they are not damaged in the event of a crash, all HV components receive armored protection, which increases the weight, complexity, installation space, and costs of the HV system. Thus, HV energy storage devices, for example, under-vehicle batteries for BEVs, have switching mechanisms arranged between the HV battery and converter, so-called battery junction boxes (BJBs), with which the HV system of the vehicle and the HV battery can be connected or disconnected as necessary.
One such type of BJB is known, for example, from DE 10 2010 027 861 A1. A coupling unit for a battery module is presented, having first and second inputs and outputs, which can be connected and/or disconnected in response to a control signal. The switching unit ensures that the HV battery can be connected to the HV system of the vehicle and then switched off, completely electrically isolated from the HV system, at the end of the trip.
Said BJBs are typically arranged in front of or behind the HV battery, which causes problems in the event of front- and rear-end crashes and makes corresponding clearances, armoring measures, etc. necessary. If the BJB is arranged in front, for example, long electric cables are required from the battery to the power electronics or an axle drive on the rear axle. The HV cables are routed in a protected manner, with armor, and with aramid tubing so that they are not damaged. Because what occurs in a crash in actual operation does not always correspond to the conditions of the legally prescribed crash tests, the components are designed for high demands as a precaution.
However, HV systems are increasingly having to fulfill more demands regarding availability, redundancy, and fallback options, because failure of the HV battery on a battery electric vehicle inevitably leads to breakdown of the vehicle. Therefore, in order to provide its contribution, the HV battery is designed in a very complex way and employs a great deal of technology. Each individual HV component, moreover, has a series of suppressor circuits, active and passive discharges, etc.


The present invention relates to an interfacial method of preparing ester-substituted diaryl carbonates. The method includes the steps of: forming a reaction mixture comprising phosgene, an ester-substituted phenol, an organic solvent, and a catalyst selected from the group consisting of a tertiary amine catalyst and a phase transfer catalyst, said reaction mixture having an organic phase and an aqueous phase, wherein said aqueous phase has a brine strength; allowing the reaction mixture to react wherein during the reaction, (i) the aqueous phase has a pH, and the pH is adjusted, if necessary, by the addition of an alkali metal hydroxide solution in amounts such that the pH is greater than or equal to 9.0 during at least some portion of the reaction, and (ii) the brine strength of the aqueous phase is adjusted, if necessary, by varying the concentration of the alkali metal hydroxide solution being added to maintain the pH such that the brine strength is between 15% and a saturated brine solution during at least some portion of the reaction: thereby forming an ester-substituted diaryl carbonate, wherein the reaction mixture is formed with less than 15% water of formulation, and wherein the brine strength is maintained at or above 15% and the pH is maintained at or above 9 for a sufficient portion of the process that the ester-substituted diaryl carbonate is formed with a conversion of at least 90% and a selectivity of at least 98%.

This invention relates to a method of making ester-substituted diaryl carbonates. Ester-substituted diaryl carbonates such as bis-methyl salicyl carbonate (BMSC) have proven to be useful starting materials in the preparation of polycarbonates via the melt reaction of a diaryl carbonate with aromatic dihydroxy compounds. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,323,668 in which rates of polymerization of bis-methyl salicyl carbonate with bisphenol A were shown to be higher than the corresponding rates of polymerization of bisphenol A with an unsubstituted diaryl carbonate, diphenyl carbonate. Notwithstanding the simplicity of its structure there are few reported preparations of ester-substituted diaryl carbonates.
A classical preparation of diaryl carbonates involves the reaction of a hydroxy aromatic compound such as phenol with phosgene gas in a two phase reaction system comprising water of formulation, an acid acceptor such as sodium hydroxide and a solvent such as methylene chloride or chloroform. Typical interfacial conditions used to prepare diphenyl carbonate (DPC) utilize water, also known as water of formulation, and methylene chloride phases, sodium hydroxide as a pH control measure and triethylamine as a catalyst. Under such conditions it is possible to convert phenol to DPC in essentially quantitative yield. However, application of these same conditions to ester-substituted phenols such as methyl salicylate results in only modest conversion of this ester-substituted phenol to the corresponding diaryl carbonate. Even the use of as much as 20 percent excess phosgene does not result in conversion of more than 70% to 75% of methyl salicylate to the bis methyl salicyl carbonate.
It would be desirable, therefore, to discover means for the efficient preparation of ester-substituted diaryl carbonates generally, and in particular it would be desirable to discover a highly efficient means of preparing bis-methyl salicyl carbonate from methyl salicylate and phosgene.

Method of preparing ester-substituted diaryl carbonates


Drug purchases are evaluated according to available offers from drug manufacturers, based on the equivalent dosage regimens for similar drugs. Equivalent doses among drugs are calculated. Purchasing amounts of equivalent doses of drugs are reviewed. The costs of the equivalent doses of the drugs are compared, taking into account contractual price adjustments, such as discounts and rebates. Subsequent purchasing amounts of the drugs are determined, using results from the comparisons. The new purchasing amounts of the equivalent doses of the drugs are produced.

The relatively high cost of drugs is a growing concern for suppliers, health care providers, patients and insurance companies. Health care providers, such as hospitals, seek to provide the drugs they require at the lowest cost. Hospitals often serve as the intermediary sellers between drug manufacturing companies and hospital patients who may be considered the ultimate consumers. Hospitals are able to obtain lower prices from the drug manufacturers by purchasing in bulk. Drug manufacturers competing for the business often offer discounts based on purchasing amounts and relative use of their products. For example, a drug company might provide a 15% discount on a certain drug to treat a particular condition, as long as this drug comprises 75% of the total amount of drugs that the hospital uses to treat that condition (i.e., equivalent drugs). The contract terms can be relatively complex, making comparisons of purchasing scenarios difficult.
Consider the following example. Drug manufacturer 'A' offers drug 'X' at various prices for various different dosage quantities e.g., $7 for a 500 mg dose and $13 for a 1 g dose. Drug 'X' treats anemia, and drug manufacturer 'A' offers a 20% discount if a hospital purchases at least 60% of its anemia drugs from drug manufacturer 'A.' However, if a hospital purchases at least 80% of its anemia drugs from drug manufacturer 'A', the hospital is entitled to a 15% discount on all drugs purchased from drug manufacturer 'A' (not only drug 'X'), and will receive an additional rebate of 10% on all drug 'X' purchases. At the same time, drug manufacturer 'B' offers drug 'Y,' also an anemia drug, and is in competition with drug manufacturer 'A.' Drug manufacturer 'B' offers drug 'Y' at various prices for various different dosage quantities e.g., $5 for a 500 mg dose and $9 for a 1 g dose. Drug manufacturer 'B' offers a 15% discount if a hospital purchases at least 30% of its anemia drugs from drug manufacturer 'B.' However, if a hospital purchases at least 40% of its anemia drugs from drug manufacturer 'B', the hospital is entitled to a 20% discount on drug 'Y,' and will receive an additional rebate of 15% on all drug 'Y' purchases.
Hospitals must examine many variables in order to properly consider these offers and make the best purchasing decision. Hospitals normally examine the discounts and rebates, as well as other consequences of contracting with a drug manufacturer, and of failing to meet the requirements which make the hospital eligible for other discounts and rebates.
The complexity of a hospital's purchasing decisions is apparent, even from this simplified example. At present, hospitals employ a series of ad hoc spreadsheets in determining their drug purchases. These spreadsheets evaluate offers from drug manufacturers based on units purchased. They are cumbersome to use, because of the continually changing contract terms offered, such as changing discounts and rebates. Also, basing purchasing decisions on units purchased does not take into account how the drugs are actually used. For example, a 500 mg dose of drug 'X' may be therapeutically equivalent to a 1 mg dose of drug 'Y.' Hence, it would be misleading to compare the number of units of 500 mg of drug 'X' purchased to the number of units of 500 mg of drug 'Y' purchased, because twice as many units of drug 'Y' are needed to achieve the same therapeutic result. A calculation that compares total costs of purchase of drug 'X' and drug 'Y' based on the number of units purchased therefore does not provide the most accurate comparison.

Methods and systems for minimizing costs of drug purchases


According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method for estimating blood pressure is provided, comprising training a machine learning model on a cohort data set. The cohort data set may include subject-specific contextual data, time-varying features, and blood pressure measurements for a plurality of subjects. The method may include receiving contextual data for a specific subject, wherein the contextual data includes medical history data of the subject. The method may further include personalizing the machine learning model to the subject based on the contextual data. The method may include calibrating the machine learning model to the subject based on a set of time-varying features and blood pressure measurements of the subject. In addition, the method may include using the machine learning model and the time-varying features for the subject to generate a blood pressure estimate.

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a chronic condition which is generally asymptomatic but is a risk factor for a variety of medically significant outcomes, including stroke, heart failure, and coronary artery disease. It has a large impact on public health and healthcare spending, affecting between 16 and 37% of the world population. Treatment of high blood pressure is readily available via lifestyle changes and medication, but in order to determine who needs such treatment, accurate measurement of blood pressure is a necessity. Even after the initial diagnosis, monitoring blood pressure is helpful for managing hypertension, as doctors can monitor whether patients are keeping their pressure within recommended limits.
Measuring blood pressure (BP) involves determining a systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) value; representing the peak and minimum values of blood pressure in the artery, respectively. The clinical standard of attaining these measurements involves a stethoscope and a sphygmomanometer (inflatable cuff with pressure gauge) and listening for the changes in blood flow as the artery is completely occluded, partially occluded, and unoccluded; this is known as the auscultatory method. Patients will often monitor blood pressure at home with an automated device, also with an inflatable cuff, which uses the oscillometric method of measurement, an approach with a similar principle that attempts to determine the changes in the pressure wave electronically (with some loss in accuracy). These single-point measurements, however, do not necessarily predict whether a patient is truly hypertensive. Blood pressure varies throughout the day, and a patient's blood pressure is often higher at the doctor's office at midday versus when relaxing at home, due both to the physical activity associated with travel to the clinic and the patient's anxiety from meeting with the doctor (known as the "white coat effect").
An increasing body of evidence suggests that ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) provides a much more complete measure of blood pressure than either a single measurement at the clinician's office or a single measurement with a home blood pressure device, and as such provides significant value in the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension. The current standard in ABPM is an inflatable oscillometric cuff (typically with a tube going to a base module) that must be worn at all times; the cuff will inflate periodically and at least partially immobilize the wearer's arm. As a result, ABPM studies are logistically difficult; periodic inflation is at best uncomfortable, at worst painful, and often disrupts sleep during overnight studies. This has hindered the adoption of ABPM in practice.

Blood pressure estimation by wearable computing device


Systems and methods for transmitting information at very high data rates through narrowband communication channels are provided. The systems and methods involve modulating a message signal with a novel return-to-zero, abrupt phase modulation technique and filtering the modulated signal with a sophisticated high-precision digital filter. The digital filter is designed based on fractal modeling of the frequency spectrum of the modulated signal. The systems and methods of the present invention enable data rates exceeding 5 Mbps to be delivered through frequency channels as narrow as 50 KHz under a variety of channel conditions.

Advances in communications technologies, combined with the widespread adoption of personal communication devices ("PCSs"), have revolutionized the way information is disseminated and shared. Information can now be delivered directly to computer desktops, laptops, personal digital assistants ("PDAs"), cellular telephones, digital music players, and other portable devices over wired or wireless connections, providing a virtually unlimited connection experience for all users. In particular, the rapid expansion of wireless technologies has fueled the demand for faster and more efficient wireless transmission of voice, data, and video on a global basis.
Information is transmitted over a wireless channel from an information source to a destination by means of a wireless communications system, such as the conventional system shown in FIG. 1. At its simplest form, wireless communications system 100 includes: (1) modulator 105; (2) transmitter 110; (3) wireless channel 115; (4) receiver 120; and (5) demodulator 125. Modulator 105 processes the information into a form suitable for transmission over wireless channel 115. The information may be in the form of voice, data, audio, imagery, video, or any other type of content conveyed in an information signal, also referred to as a message signal. Modulator 105 essentially translates the message signal into a modulated signal suitable for transmission over wireless channel 115 by modifying one or more characteristics of a carrier signal. The modulated signal is passed on to wireless channel 115 by transmitter 110, which usually filters and amplifies the modulated signal prior to its transmission. The function of wireless channel 115 is to provide a wireless link or connection between the information source and destination. Once transmitted through wireless channel 115, the modulated signal is detected and amplified by receiver 120 to take into account any signal attenuations introduced during transmission by wireless channel 115. Finally, the transmitted signal is demodulated by demodulator 125 so as to produce a close estimate of the original message signal.
The performance of a wireless communications system such as wireless communications system 100 is, in part, dictated by the performance of its modulator, e.g., modulator 105. For it is the modulator that is responsible for converting the message signal into a signal suitable for transmission so as to maximize the use of the overall system resources. For example, a high performance modulator should generate a modulated signal having a frequency spectrum that, when filtered and transmitted by a transmitter such as transmitter 110, would utilize only a small fraction of the total channel bandwidth, thereby enabling many users to share the channel bandwidth simultaneously. A high performance modulator should also work in conjunction with a high performance filter in the transmitter to ensure optimal preservation of the frequency spectrum of the modulated signal.
Current wireless communications systems use many different modulation techniques, including, but not limited to, amplitude shift keying ("ASK"), frequency shift keying ("FSK"), binary phase shift keying ("BPSK"), quadrature phase shift keying ("QPSK") and its variations, minimum shift keying ("MSK") and Gaussian minimum shift keying ("GMSK"), among others. These modulation techniques are digital techniques in which the message signal is represented by a sequence of binary symbols. Each symbol may have one or more bits, depending on the modulation technique used.
Typically, these modulation techniques switch or key the amplitude, frequency, and/or phase of a carrier signal according to the binary symbols in the message signal, e.g., according to binary symbols "0" and "1." For example, different amplitudes are used to represent both binary symbols in ASK, different frequencies are used to represent both binary symbols in FSK, and different phases are used to represent both binary symbols in BPSK. QPSK is a variation of BPSK in which two bits or more are used per symbol. The phase of the carrier takes on one of four equally spaced values, such as 0, π/2, π, and 3π/2, with each value corresponding to a unique symbol, e.g., 00, 10, 11, and 01. MSK and GMSK are variations of FSK in which the change in carrier frequency from one binary symbol to another is half the bit rate of the message signal.
The selection of a digital modulation technique for use in a wireless communications system depends on several factors. A desirable digital modulation technique provides low bit error rates at low signal-to-noise ratios, occupies a minimum bandwidth, performs well in the presence of multipath and fading conditions, and is cost-effective to implement. Depending on the physical characteristics of the channel, required levels of performance and target hardware trade-offs, some modulation techniques will prove to be a better fit than others. Consideration must be given to the required data rate, acceptable level of latency, available bandwidth, and target hardware cost, size, and power consumption. For example, in personal communication systems that serve a large subscriber community, the cost and complexity of the receivers must be minimized. In this case, a modulation technique that is simple to detect is most attractive. In cellular systems where intersymbol interference is a major issue, the performance of the modulation technique in an interference environment is extremely important.
The performance of a modulation technique is often measured in terms of its power efficiency and bandwidth efficiency. Power efficiency describes the ability of a modulation technique to preserve the fidelity, i.e., an acceptable bit error probability, of the message signal at low power levels. In digital communication systems, higher fidelity requires higher signal power. The amount by which the signal power should be increased to obtain a certain level of fidelity depends on the type of modulation employed. The power efficiency of a digital modulation technique is a measure of how favorably this tradeoff between fidelity and signal power is made, and is often expressed as the ratio of the signal energy per bit to noise power spectral density required at the receiver input for a certain probability of error.
Bandwidth efficiency describes the ability of a modulation technique to accommodate data within a limited bandwidth. In general, increasing the data rate implies decreasing the pulse-width of a digital symbol, which increases the bandwidth of the signal. Bandwidth efficiency reflects how efficiently the allocated bandwidth is utilized. Bandwidth efficiency is defined as the ratio of the throughput data rate per Hertz in a given bandwidth. The system capacity of a digital modulation technique is directly related to the bandwidth efficiency of the modulation technique, since a modulation technique having a greater bandwidth efficiency will transmit more data in a given spectrum allocation.
In general, modulation techniques trade bandwidth efficiency for power efficiency. For example, FSK is power efficient but not as bandwidth efficient and QPSK and GMSK are bandwidth efficient but not as power efficient. Since most wireless systems are bandwidth limited due to frequency spectrum allocations, modulation techniques that concentrate their performance on bandwidth efficiency are generally preferable. In fact, most wireless communication standards available today use more bandwidth-efficient modulation techniques such as QPSK and its variations, in use by the PHS and PDC Japanese standards, and IS-54 and IS-95 American standards, and GMSK, in use by the GSM global standard.
The bandwidth efficiencies achieved by the digital modulation techniques currently adopted by the wireless standards are, however, only in the order of 1-10 bps/Hz. Such bandwidth efficiencies are not able to satisfy the rapidly rising demand for faster and more efficient wireless services that are capable of serving a large number of users simultaneously.
To address these concerns, two new sets of modulation techniques have been developed: (1) spread spectrum modulation techniques; and (2) narrowband modulation techniques. Spread spectrum modulation is a technique in which the modulated signal bandwidth is significantly wider than the minimum required signal bandwidth. Bandwidth expansion is achieved by using a function that is independent of the message and known to the receiver. The function is a pseudo-noise ("PN") sequence or PN code, which is a binary sequence that appears random but can be reproduced in a deterministic manner by the receiver. Demodulation at the receiver is accomplished by cross-correlation of the received signal with a synchronously-generated replica of the wide-band PN carrier.
Spread spectrum modulation has many features that make it particularly attractive for use in wireless systems. First and foremost, spread spectrum modulation enables many users to simultaneously use the same bandwidth without significantly interfering with one another. The use of PN codes allows the receiver to separate each user easily even though all users occupy the same spectrum. As a result, spread spectrum systems are very resistant to interference, which tends to affect only a small portion of the spectrum and can be easily removed through filtering without much loss of information. Additionally, spread spectrum systems perform well in the presence of multipath fading and Doppler spread.
The main disadvantage of spread spectrum systems is that they are very bandwidth inefficient for a single user or a single wireless cell, since the bandwidth utilized is much more than that necessary for transmission. In fact, bandwidth efficiency for a single user is so low that most spread spectrum systems report bandwidth efficiency for the whole channel, to emphasize their ability to simultaneously serve many users with the available channel bandwidth. In addition, spread spectrum systems are also much more complex than systems employing traditional modulation techniques, thereby increasing overall system design, deployment, and maintenance costs.
Narrowband modulation techniques, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,930,303, 6,748,022, and 6,445,737, provide an entirely different approach. Instead of spreading the signal over a wide bandwidth range to optimize the number of users sharing the channel bandwidth simultaneously, narrowband modulation techniques attempt to squeeze the frequency spectrum into a as narrow of a band as possible in order to maximize both the bandwidth efficiency for an individual user and the overall channel utilization for a large number of users. In the narrowband modulation techniques described therein, phase reversals occurring before, in the middle, at the end, or after a bit period are used to generate a modulated signal having most of its energy concentrated in a very narrow peak centered at a carrier frequency. As most of the signal energy is concentrated in the narrow peak, transmission of the modulated signal may be accomplished by transmission of the narrow peak, thereby significantly improving the bandwidth efficiency for an individual user.
While achieving bandwidth efficiencies of 30-60 bps/Hz, these narrowband modulation techniques are not very practical because they require the use of a specialized analog crystal filter with a resonant frequency tuned by a shunt capacitor. Such a filter is very difficult to implement in practice due to tuning imperfections of the shunt capacitor, irregularities of the crystal material employed, and other challenges associated with designing high-precision analog crystal filters. Furthermore, these narrowband modulation techniques are very susceptible to intersymbol interference, may not perform well under high bit error rates, and require higher transmission power than traditional modulation techniques such as FSK and BPSK.
Because currently-available modulation techniques have not been able to achieve high bandwidth and power efficiencies while performing well under various channel conditions, broadband wireless services that reach a large number of users simultaneously have not yet been fully deployed. Such services should be able to serve users with voice, data, audio, imagery, and video at high data rates and low infrastructure costs to service providers and consumers alike. Such services should also be able to optimize the number of users served by better utilization of the allocated frequency spectrum.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need in this art for a digital modulation technique that achieves very high bandwidth efficiency under various channel conditions.
There is a further need in this art for a high-precision narrowband digital filter for use in conjunction with a narrowband digital modulation technique in a communications system that achieves high bandwidth efficiency when transmitting information through narrowband communication channels.
There is also a need in this art for a communications system that optimizes bandwidth utilization when providing wireless services to a large number of users simultaneously under various channel conditions.

Systems and methods for designing a high-precision narrowband digital filter for use in a communications system with high spectral efficiency

Photron Research and Development PTE Ltd.


An outer belt for use with inner-outer belt systems includes a series of multiple belt links pivotally attached with roll pins. Each link supports hook or loop fasteners along the inner surface of the belt link and includes extensions having channels disposed therethrough to accept a roll pin when interlocked with extensions on an adjacent link. Serially connecting several belt links forms a belt, and opposite ends of the serially connected belt links attach to a catch link and an expandable buckle assembly. The expandable buckle assembly includes a face plate supporting two translatable connectors held biased together with a resilient member and cooperates with the catch link when the outer belt is worn by a shooter around his waist. Additionally, when a shooter is wearing an inner belt of an inner-outer belt system, the hook or loop fasteners secure the outer belt to the inner belt.

In addition to one or more firearms, competition shooters need extra magazines, ammunition, additional belt mounted accessories, and a belt or rig system on which to carry everything. Also known as a competition belt, speed belt, duty belt, or tactical belt, popular shooting belts include an inner-outer belt system having an inner belt that can be worn through the belt loops on the shooter's pants and a rigid outer belt that is stiff enough and strong enough to hold the shooter's holster, magazine carriers, and several pouches, which are usually securely attached to the outer belt with clamps or other fasteners. The rigidity of the outer belt is critical to keeping the gear in place and preventing wobbling, twisting, sagging, and shifting. The outer belt attaches to the under belt, usually with hook and loop connectors, but is not strung through belt loops on the shooter's pants. Accordingly, the outer belt can be quickly attached or removed to the under belt when the shooter is ready to go, and the holster, pouches, and other gear can remain permanently mounted to the outer belt in their fixed position. The two-belt system is widely used by competition shooters in particular for its strength, durability, mobility, and ease of configuration.
While popular among competition and other shooters, the commercially available outer belts for two-belt systems have several disadvantages. For example, to withstand the weight of the firearms, ammunition, and other gear, outer shooting belts are often formed of an outer webbing surrounding a continuous core of heavy duty polymer such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or high density polyethylene (HDPE) and an inner layer of hooks for hook and loop fasteners. Accordingly, the outer belt is bulky and rigid. It cannot be compacted, rolled, or otherwise reduced to a smaller form when not in use, making it cumbersome to store and carry. Additionally, because shooting belts must fit properly and because they are made of rigid and often bulky materials, they can be difficult to adjust or configure for a particular shooter and especially for a slim-waisted shooter. Accordingly, outer belts must be sold in many different sizes or be made to order. The stiffness of the belt also prevents it from following the contours of a shooter's waist such that it causes gapping and creates pressure points making it uncomfortable and leading to bruising when worn for several hours. Another disadvantage is that the ends of the outer belt often overlap to close the belt, which creates a large area where gear cannot be mounted. Consequently, to make the belt more useful, shooters often wear the belt so that it closes in the back, making it difficult to close. Finally, because the outer belt is made with a continuous core, if the core breaks or malfunctions anywhere along the belt, the entire outer belt must be replaced.
Given the drawbacks of outer belts for use with inner-outer belt systems, it would be desirable to have an adjustable and flexible outer belt that cooperates with existing inner belts while facilitating a better fit to the shooter's waist. It would be further desirable for the outer belt to allow for replacement of worn sections and for length customization to avoid having to replace it entirely. Additionally, it would be desirable for to have an outer belt that can be compacted or rolled into a smaller state for travel and storage while remaining rigid to prevent sagging or wobbling when worn by the shooter. Finally, it would be desirable to have an outer belt with a smaller buckle so that a shooter could comfortably wear the outer belt as intended without having to position the buckle at his back to create more room for gear. Such an outer belt would be a notable advance in the firearm and competitive shooting arts.


A rolamite sensor for use in sensing deceleration of a vehicle includes two separate electrical circuits for actuating two occupant restraints such as air bags. The sensor has a molded plastic base mounted on a metal chassis and a metal cover welded to the chassis to sealingly enclose the base. One surface of the base acts as a guide surface for a roller. A pair of thin metal bands are wrapped around the roller. Each band is fixed at one end to the base and at the other end to a J-shaped tensioner underneath the base. The roller is rollable on the guide surface under an applied force to cause the band to engage firing contacts to complete the electrical circuits. An optical electromagnet may be fixed to the chassis without increasing the overall size of the sensor. The electromagnet is selectively operable to attract the roller to test the sensor by completing the electrical circuits. The electromagnet includes a ferromagnetic core and a coil wound directly on the core. The roller has a ferromagnetic insert formed in a dumb-bell shape, that is, having a larger cross-section at its ends than in the middle to increase the attractive force of the electromagnet without significantly increasing weight and thus inertia of the roller. The chassis and the cover may be made of a ferromagnetic material to shield the sensor from external magnetic fields.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a rolamite sensor for sensing deceleration of a vehicle, and particularly to a sensor for actuating a vehicle occupant restraint such as an air bag.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A known rolamite sensor has a movable member, preferably a roller, which moves along a guide surface in response to deceleration of a vehicle in which the sensor is mounted. The sensor has two independent electrical circuits. Each circuit uses an S-shaped band which at least partially encircles the roller. Each band is welded at one end to a tensioner fixed to a base. The tensioners protrude upwardly from the base above the guide surface for the roller. The tensioners take up a significant amount of space and require the sensor to have a relatively large enclosure.
Another known rolamite sensor has two S-shaped bands which at least partially encircle the roller, but only one electrical circuit. The roller is electrically conductive and has a permanent magnet core. An electromagnet is operative to repel the roller. When the roller is repelled by the electromagnet, the circuit should be completed. Thus, the electromagnet is operated to test the sensor. The electromagnet has a coil wound around a plastic bobbin on a multi-piece magnetic core. The electromagnet is disposed beyond one end of the path of movement of the roller, and takes up a substantial part of the overall volume of the sensor. The electromagnet is fixed to the plastic base of the sensor, and the sensor is much larger than if the electromagnet were omitted.


The present disclosure provides a locating pin, a working platform and a locating method. The locating pin includes a housing, a movable mechanism, a securing mechanism and a guide rod, wherein the housing has a first cavity with an opening that has an axis therethrough, the movable mechanism is at least partially arranged in the first cavity and configured to be movable along the axis, the securing mechanism is secured with respect to the housing and configured to limit movement of the movable mechanism along the axis, the guide rod includes a guide rod body and configured to extend out of the first cavity through the opening with the movement of the movable mechanism, the guide rod body having a first end and a second end opposite to each other, wherein the first end is secured to the movable mechanism, and the second end includes a locating portion.

With continuous development of a mobile electronic devices and a wearable smart device, such an electronic product has now become major consumer goods. Due to a relatively small size of a display panel on the portable electronic device and the wearable smart device, it is usually necessary to semi-automatically cut a large-sized mother board into a plurality of small-sized panels. However, in the above-mentioned cutting process, both loading and unloading operation need an operator. In the case that the operator performs the operation, a locating pin is necessarily arranged on a working platform, so as to assist the operator to put a to-be-cut substrate in an accurate location.

Locating pin, working platform and locating method

HEFEI BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


It is an object of the present invention to provide a newly identified insulin secretion regulation factor that can control blood sugar in the normal range, and a method for screening an antidiabetic drug using said factor.

Diabetes mellitus is a disorder accompanied by a persistent hyperglycemia, and is said to result from interaction between a variety between environmental factors and genetic factors. Blood sugar is mainly controlled by insulin, and elevated blood sugar is known to result from insulin deficiency or excess of factors (such as genetic disposition, lack of exercise, obesity, and stress) that inhibit the action of insulin. Diabetes mellitus is divided into two types: type I diabetes mellitus caused by the reduced function of insulin secretion due to autoimmune disease, etc., and type II diabetes mellitus caused by the reduced function of pancreatic insulin secretion due to pancreatic fatigue associated with persistently elevated insulin secretion and insulin resistance. In Japan, diabetes mellitus is a national affliction, and more than 95% of the diabetic patients (predicted to exceed 20 million people including diabetic candidates) are said to be non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. The increasing number of patients due to changes in life style is posing a problem. On a global level, the number is expected to be about 200 million (Non-patent document 1), and the global market size of antidiabetics is about one trillion yen, indicating that diabetes mellitus is the number one disease in terms of the market size of its therapeutic agents and the number of population.
The treatment of diabetes mellitus, in mild cases, mainly comprises diet therapy, exercise therapy, amelioration of obesity, etc., and, in more advanced cases, the administration of oral antidiabetics (insulin secretion-promoting drugs) and, in further severe cases, the administration of insulin preparations. As insulin secretion-promoting substances (or insulin secretion-promoting drugs), there are known, in addition to glucose, amino acids (specifically arginine), β-receptor stimulating agents, α-receptor blockers, sulfonyl urea drugs and the like. Among them, sulfonyl urea drugs stimulate pancreatic β cells to promote intrinsic insulin secretion, but the timing and the amount secreted of insulin depend not on blood sugar level but on the timing and dosage of the drug. Thus, as a side effect, hypoglycemia may occur due to the persistent action of the drug (Non-patent document 2). Thus, conventional insulin secretion-promoting drugs and insulin preparations had the above problems. There have been needs therefore for drugs that permit more precise blood sugar control, i.e. drugs that not only decrease blood sugar but can maintain blood sugar in the normal range. For this purpose, simple screening methods are needed in order to obtain substances that are useful as insulin secretion-promoting drugs and insulin preparations.
L-arginine, an amino acid, plays a variety of roles in vivo. For example, it is involved in the control of immunological function, wound healing, hormone secretion, vascular tone, endothelial function, and insulin secretion (Non-patent document 3). L-arginine is a biologically active food-borne compound that mediates a variety of physiological actions. In this connection, a metabolic enzyme that uses L-arginine as a substrate is L-arginine interacting factor (AIF). However, little is known about AIF that directly mediates the physiological actions of L-arginine. The present inventors have so far succeeded in the purification and identification of AIF using L-arginine methyl ester (AME)-immobilized magnetic nanobeads developed by us (Non-patent document 4). While AME, similarly to arginine, promotes insulin secretion as an arginine agonist on the one hand, it inhibits nitrogen monooxide synthase (NOS) as an arginine antagonist similarly to L-nitro-L-arginine-methylester) on the other. Using this AME-immobilized magnetic nanobeads, phosphofructokinase (PFK), RuvB-like 2 (RBL2), and RuvB-like 1 (RBL1) were identified as AIF (Non-patent document 4).
A "protein comprising an amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 2" used in the screening method of the present invention is a newly identified insulin secretion regulation factor that was isolated using the above AME-immobilized magnetic nanobeads described in Non-patent document 4. The amino acid sequence per se represented by SEQ ID NO: 2 has been registered to GenBank as NM—198899. However, there have been no reports so far that a protein consisting of an amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 2 and a nucleic acid consisting of the base sequence encoding said amino acid sequence described in the present specification are involved in the promotion of insulin secretion.

Screening method for antidiabetic agent using newly identified insulin secretion regulation factor

Abstract: In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a composition which is (i) a protein comprising an amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 2 or SEQ ID NO: 4; or (ii) a protein comprising an amino acid sequence in which one or several amino acids are deleted, substituted or added in an amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 2 or SEQ ID NO: 4 and negatively regulating insulin secretion, as well as a method for screening antidiabetic drug using said protein or a nucleic acid encoding the same.


To provide thienopyrazole derivatives inhibiting PDE 7 selectively, and therefore, enhance cellular cAMP level. Consequently, the compound is useful for treating various kinds of disease such as allergic diseases, inflammatory diseases or immunologic diseases. The compound is thienopyrazole compound represented by the following formula (I):

Cyclic AMP (cAMP) or cyclic GMP (cGMP), which is an intracellular second messenger substance, is decomposed and inactivated by phosphodiesterases (PDE 1 to PDE 11). The PDE 7 selectively decomposes cAMP, and is characterized as an enzyme which is not inhibited by rolipram. Rolipram is a selective inhibitor of PDE 4, which decomposes cAMP similarly.
It is suggested that PDE 7 plays an important role for activating T cells (Beavo, et al., Science, 283, 848 (1999)), and is well known that activation of T-cell is concerned with the exacerbation of allergic diseases, inflammatory diseases or immunological diseases. These diseases are for example bronchial asthma, chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, allergic rhinitis, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, conjunctivitis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, inflammatory bowel disease, hepatitis, pancreatitis, encephalomyelitis, sepsis, Crohn's disease, rejection reaction in transplantation, graft versus host disease (GVH disease), and restenosis after angioplasty [J. Allergy Clin. Immunol., 2000 November; 106(5 Suppl.): S221-6; Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., 1996 February; 153(2): 629-32; Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., 1999 November; 160(5 Pt 2): S33-7; Clin. Exp. Allergy, 2000 February; 30(2): 242-54; Hosp. Med., 1998 July; 59(7): 530-3; Int. Arch. Allergy Immunol., 1998 March; 115(3): 179-90; J. Immunol., 1991 Feb. 15; 146(4): 1169-74; Osteoarthritis Cartilage, 1999 July; 7(4): 401-2; Rheum. Dis. Clin. North Am., 2001 May; 27(2): 317-34; J. Autoimmun., 2001 May; 16(3): 187-92; Curr. Rheumatol. Rep., 2000 February; 2(1): 24-31; Trends Immunol., 2001 January; 22(1): 21-6; Curr. Opin. Immunol., 2000 August; 12(4): 403-8; Diabetes Care, 2001 September; 24(9): 1661-7; J. Neuroimmunol., 2000 Nov. 1; 111(1-2): 224-8; Curr. Opin. Immunol., 1997 December; 9(6): 793-9; JAMA, 1999 Sep. 15; 282(11):1076-82; Semin. Cancer Biol., 1996 April; 7(2): 57-64; J. Interferon Cytokine Res., 2001 April; 21(4): 219-21].
Therefore, it is considered that a compound having PDE 7 inhibiting effect is useful for treating various kinds of diseases such as allergic diseases, inflammatory diseases or immunological diseases concerned with T cells.
There has been proposed that many compounds selectively inhibit PDE 7. There can be mentioned the examples such as imidazopyridine derivatives (Patent Document 1), dihydropurine derivatives (Patent Document 2), pyrrole derivatives (Patent Document 3), benzothiopyranoimidazolone derivatives (Patent Document 4), heterocyclic compounds (Patent Document 5; Patent Document 6), quinazoline and pyridopyrimidine derivatives (Patent Document 7), spiro tricyclic compounds (Patent Document 8), thiazole and oxathiazole derivatives (Patent Document 9), sulfonamide derivatives (Patent Document 10), heterobiarylsulfonamide derivatives (Patent Document 11), dihydroisoquinoline derivatives (Patent Document 12), guanine derivatives (Non-Patent Document 1), benzothiadiazine derivatives and benzothienothiadiazine derivatives (Non-Patent Document 2, and Non-Patent Document 3). However, no curative medicines having PDE 7 inhibiting effect as main pharmacological mechanism have developed up to now.
Though some compounds having thienopyrazole skeleton have been known (Patent Documents 13-24; Non-Patent Documents 4-8), there is no suggestion that these compounds have PDE 7 inhibiting effect. Further, the method for producing the thienopyrazole derivatives of the present invention has been reported (Non-Patent Documents 9-11); however, the substituents on the thienopyrazole skeleton are different from those of the present invention.    Patent Document 1: International Patent Publication WO 01/34,601    Patent Document 2: International Patent Publication WO 00/68,203    Patent Document 3: International Patent Publication WO 01/32,618    Patent Document 4: DE Patent 19,950,647    Patent Document 5: International Patent Publications WO 02/88,080    Patent Document 6: International Patent Publications WO 02/87,513    Patent Document 7: International Patent Publication WO 02/102,315    Patent Document 8: International Patent Publication WO 02/74,754    Patent Document 9: International Patent Publication WO 02/28,847    Patent Document 10: International Patent Publication WO 01/98,274    Patent Document 11: International Patent Publication WO 01/74,786    Patent Document 12: International Patent Publication WO 02/40,450    Patent Document 13: International Patent Publication WO 02/100,403    Patent Document 14: International Patent Publication WO 02/79,146    Patent Document 15: International Patent Publication WO 02/66,469    Patent Document 16: International Patent Publication WO 0/90,1469    Patent Document 17: U.S. Pat. No. 6,022,307    Patent Document 18: International Patent Publication WO 03/024,962    Patent Document 19: International Patent Publication WO 03/029,245    Patent Document 20: International Patent Publication WO 03/040,096    Patent Document 21: International Patent Publication WO 03/097,617    Patent Document 22: International Patent Publication WO 03/099,821    Patent Document 23: International Patent Publication WO 97/27,200    Patent Document 24: U.S. Pat. No. 3,649,641    Non-Patent Document 1: Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., 11 (2001), 1081    Non-Patent Document 2: J. Med. Chem., 43 (2000), 683    Non-Patent Document 3: Eur. J. Med. Chem., 36 (2001), 333    Non-Patent Document 4: Russ. J. Org. Chem., 39 (2003), 893    Non-Patent Document 5: Aknos Consulting and Solutions GmbH Co., Catalog: Akos samples     Non-Patent Document 6: Phosphorus, sulfur and silicon and related Elements, 157 (2000), 107    Non-Patent Document 7: Zhurnal Organisheskoi Khimii., 9 (1973), 2416    Non-Patent Document 8: Zhurnal Organisheskoi Khimii., 5 (1969), 1498    Non-Patent Document 9: Phosphorus, sulfur and silicon and related Elements, 157 (2000), 107    Non-Patent Document 10: Chinese Chemical Letters, 10(3), (1999). 189    Non-Patent Document 11: Indian Journal of Chemistry, Section B: Organic Chemistry Including Medicinal Chemistry, 35B(7), (1996), 715

Thienopyrazole derivative having PDE7 inhibitory activity

Abstract: [wherein, especially, R1 is a cyclohexyl, a cycloheptyl group or a tetrahydropyranyl group; R2 is methyl; R3 is a hydrogen atom; and R4 is a group: —CONR5R6 (in which any one of R5 and R6 is a hydrogen atom)].


Restenosis in a subject can be treated by administering to a tissue, e.g., a blood vessel, of the subject an agent that increases SERCA activity. For example, a stent that is coated with the agent can be introduced into a blood vessel.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the developed world. CAD is widely treated by implantation of stents (e.g., balloon stents) in the coronary artery. In-stent restenosis, the recurrence of constriction of an artery following efforts to dilate it, is a common side effect, affecting 20% to 40% of patients by 6 months after percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI), with neointimal hyperplasia being the primary cause.
Rapamycin (sirolimus), an antibiotic that inhibits cell migration and proliferation, is effective in reducing restenosis. However, prolonged exposure of smooth muscle cells to rapamycin results in the development of resistance to the drug (Luo et al., 1996, Mol. Cell. Biol. 16: 6744-6751).


A turbomachine comprising an engine body and an annular nacelle. The nacelle has an air intake comprising an outer skin, an inner skin, an air intake lip connecting the outer and inner skins together, and an annular frame connecting the outer and inner skins together. The turbomachine comprises a system for de-icing the air intake having an air bleeding port for bleeding a flow of hot air from the engine body, and two interconnected heating systems. An inner skin heating system receives the hot air flow to heat, by means of a gas-liquid heat exchanger, a heat transfer liquid contained in a hydraulic circuit arranged in part in the heat exchanger and in the inner skin. An air intake lip heating system diffuses the flow of hot air, once it has passed through the inner skin heating system, through the annular frame to heat the air intake lip.

As is known, a turbomachine comprises a nacelle having an air intake for channeling the air drawn into the nacelle towards the fan. The air intake comprises portions in contact with the outside air and consequently potentially subject to icing. It is known, in order to eliminate any accretion of ice, to heat these portions using a de-icing system which is either of the electric type (operating by resistance or induction) or of the pneumatic type (operating by bleeding hot air from the engine).
With the aim of reducing the mass of the air intake, the portions in contact with the air are made of composite materials or lightweight metals such as aluminum. It is known that both composite materials and aluminum have low heat tolerance (of the order of 150° C. for composite materials, 300° C. for aluminum) and, owing to this, only electric de-icing systems are used for air intakes made of composite materials or aluminum. Indeed, pneumatic de-icing systems can, during specific operating modes of the engine, generate high temperatures (above 150° C.) which can damage the portions made of composite materials or aluminum.
Electric de-icing systems operate using a high-power electrical signal provided by electrical cables passing via the wing between the high-power core of the aircraft, located in the fuselage of the aircraft, and the air intake. By contrast, using the hot air bled directly from the engine, pneumatic de-icing systems have the advantage of being less complex to install and of representing less of a penalty in terms of mass.
There is a need to find a pneumatic de-icing system that is compatible with an air intake made in part of composite materials and/or aluminum.
Patent document US 2015/291284 describes a pneumatic de-icing system in which the flow of hot air bled from the engine is cooled, using the air outside the nacelle, before being sent to the air intake for de-icing purposes.

Turbomachine having an air intake de-icing system


In a phase locked loop frequency synthesizer having multiple feedback loops, a reference phase signal is developed into two signals having a frequency twice as high as the reference frequency and the phase difference of the two signals is a half wavelength. The output frequency produced by a voltage-controlled oscillator is divided by two frequency dividers in accordance with predetermined frequency division factors. Each of the frequency-divided signals and each of the developed signals are subjected to phase comparison in pairs. A voltage signal corresponding to the phase differences is fed through a low-pass filter and supplied to the voltage-controlled oscillator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a frequency synthesizer using a phase locked loop (will be termed "PLL" hereinafter).
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 4 shows in block diagram a conventional PLL frequency synthesizer disclosed in the publication "Basics and Applications of PLL", written by Teruo Kadota, published by the Publication Department of the Electric College of Tokyo. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a fixed-frequency oscillator, 2 is a frequency divider which divides a constant frequency generated by the oscillator 1 to produce a reference phase signal f.sub.r, and 3 is a phase comparator which compares an output phase signal f.sub.p of a programmable frequency divider 7 with the reference phase signal f.sub.r and uses the comparison output to control a charge pump 4. Indicated by 5 is a low-pass filter (will be termed "LPF" hereinafter) which smoothes the output of the charge pump 4, and 6 is a voltage-controlled variable-frequency oscillator (will be termed "VCO" hereinafter). The programmable frequency divider 7 divides the output frequency of the VCO 6 to produce the please signal f.sub.p.
Next, the conventional PLL frequency synthesizer arranged as described above will be explained. The fixed-frequency oscillator 1 has its output fed to the frequency divider 2, by which the oscillation frequency is divided. For the reference phase signal (reference frequency) f.sub.r of the frequency divider 2 and the frequency division factor N of the programmable frequency divider 7, the phase signal f.sub.o produced by the VCO 6 is related with the phase signal f.sub.p produced by the programmable frequency divider 7 as: f.sub.o =f.sub.p .times.N.
The phase comparator 3 controls the charge pump 4 to have a high output impedance when f.sub.p is equal to f.sub.r, to have a positive output voltage (supply voltage) when f.sub.p is higher than f.sub.r, or to have a ground voltage when f.sub.p is lower than f.sub.r. The LPF 5 is formed of a lag-lead filter, RC filter, active filter, or the like, and it smoothes the output of the charge pump 4. The smoothed output is fed to the VCO 6. The VCO 6 is designed to raise or lower its output frequency in response to an increase or decrease, respectively, of the input voltage (output voltage of LPF 5).
In the case of f.sub.r =f.sub.o /N, the charge pump 4 is in the high output impedance state, causing the LPF output to be unvaried, i.e., the input voltage to the VCO 6 is unvaried and it does not vary the output frequency, and the relation f.sub.r =f.sub.o /N is kept unchanged.
In the case of f.sub.r >f.sub.o /N, the charge pump 4 produces a positive output voltage, which is applied to the LPF 5, causing it to supply an increased voltage to the VCO 6. Consequently, the output frequency of the VCO 6 rises, and the value of f.sub.o /N increases.
In the case of f.sub.r <f.sub.o /N, the charge pump 4 produces a ground (zero) voltage, which is applied to the LPF 5, causing it to supply a decreased voltage to the VCO 6. Consequently, the output frequency of the VCO 6 falls, and the value of f.sub.o /N decreases.
Accordingly, a negative feedback loop is formed for the phase of the signal, and the operation settles when the output frequency of the VCO 6 becomes equal to N times the output frequency (reference frequency) of the frequency divider 2, i.e., f.sub.o =f.sub.p .times.N.
The phase comparator 3 operates continuously even in the steady state (the programmable frequency divider 7 has a constant division factor N and the VCO 6 has a constant output frequency). It is not possible to maintain a constant output voltage V.sub.f of the LPF, but instead the voltage V.sub.f continues to fall due to the power loss of the resistive components of the LPF 5, which is a .pi.-connection of resistors R1, R2 and R3 and capacitors C1 and C2 for example as shown in FIG. 5.
The VCO frequency also falls continuously, and the charge pump 4 operates to charge the LPF 5 by producing a positive voltage. As a result, the VCO 6 is always subjected to a pulse modulation at the reference frequency (this phenomenon will be termed "reference leak" hereinafter).
FIG. 6 shows the reference phase signal f.sub.r by (a) and the phase signal f.sub.p by (b) for the output phase signal f.sub.o of 500 MHz and frequency division factor N of 10000, as an example, in the steady state, resulting in a comparator output f.sub.pD Of 50 kHz, for example, as shown by (c), and a small reference leak R is created. The transition of the output phase signal f.sub.o following a change in the frequency division factor of the programmable frequency divider from N to M until the steady state is restored is generally called "step response".
As described above, the conventional PLL frequency synthesizer implements the phase comparison at the reference frequency, imposing a pulse modulation at the reference frequency on the VCO, 6. Therefore, it is necessary for the LPF 5 to have a low cutoff frequency. Moreover, the output step response following a change in the frequency division factor of the frequency divider until the settlement of steady state is deteriorated.

PLL frequency synthesizer using plural phase comparisons