An authentication system and device including physical unclonable function (PUF) and threshold cryptography comprising: a PUF device having a PUF input and a PUF output and constructed to generate, in response to the input of a challenge, an output value characteristic to the PUF and the challenge; and a processor having a processor input that is connected to the PUF output, and having a processor output connected to the PUF input, the processor configured to: control the issuance of challenges to the PUF input via the processor output, receive output from the PUF output, combine multiple received PUF output values each corresponding to a share of a private key or secret, and perform threshold cryptographic operations. The system and device may be configured so that shares are refreshable, and may be configured to perform staggered share refreshing.

The unique properties of PUFs provide several advantages to cryptographic constructions. In general, PUFs may provide some or all of three main advantages: (1) eliminating private key storage, (2) providing tamper detection, and (3) establishing a hardware root-of-trust. Private key storage can be eliminated by evaluating a PUF to dynamically regenerate a value unique to an identified piece of hardware having that PUF. As to tamper detection, a PUF's unclonable properties (e.g., wire delays, resistance) may be such that modification to the PUF irreversibly alters the PUF's mapping from challenges (inputs) to responses (outputs) after enrollment (however, not against malicious modifications before enrollment, e.g., Becker et al., "Stealthy Dopant-Level Hardware Trojans," Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems—CHES 2013, volume 8086 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 197-214, Springer, 2013). These PUF properties may be used to produce a hardware-unique, tamper-protected value from which a hardware root-of-trust can be established.
Literature on physical unclonable functions evaluates the properties of PUF hardware design (e.g., Gassend et al., "Silicon Physical Random Functions," Proceedings of the 9th ACM conference on Computer and communications security, CCS '02, pages 148-160, ACM, 2002; Katzenbeisser et al., "PUFs: Myth, Fact or Busted? A Security Evaluation of Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) Cast in Silicon," Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems—CHES '12, pages 283-301, Springer, 2012; Ravikanth, Physical one-way functions, Ph.D. thesis, 2001; Rührmair et al., "Applications of High-Capacity Crossbar Memories in Cryptography," IEEE Trans. Nanotechnol., volume 10, no. 3:489-498, 2011; Suh et al., "Physical Unclonable Functions for Device Authentication and Secret Key Generation," Proceedings of the 44th annual Design Automation Conference, DAC '07, pages 9-14, ACM, 2007; Yu et al., "Recombination of Physical Unclonable Functions," GOMACTech, 2010), provides formal theoretical models of PUF properties, and designs protocols around those definitions (cf. Armknecht et al., "A Formalization of the Security Features of Physical Functions," Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, SP '11, pages 397-412, IEEE Computer Society, 2011; Brzuska et al., "Physically Uncloneable Functions in the Universal Composition Framework," Advances in Cryptology—CRYPTO 2011-31st Annual Cryptology Conference, volume 6841 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, page 51, Springer, 2011; Frikken et al., "Robust Authentication using Physically Unclonable Functions," Information Security, volume 5735 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 262-277, Springer, 2009; Handschuh et al., "Hardware Intrinsic Security from Physically Unclonable Functions," Towards Hardware-Intrinsic Security, Information Security and Cryptography, pages 39-53, Springer, 2010; Kirkpatrick et al., "PUF ROKs: A Hardware Approach to Read-Once Keys," Proceedings of the 6th ACM Symposium on Information, Computer and Communications Security, ASIACCS '11, pages 155-164, ACM, 2011; Paral et al., "Reliable and Efficient PUF-based Key Generation using Pattern Matching," IEEE International Symposium on Hardware-Oriented Security and Trust (HOST), pages 128-133, 2011; Rührmair et al., "PUFs in Security Protocols: Attack Models and Security Evaluations," 2013 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, volume 0:286-300, 2013; van Dijk et al., "Physical Unclonable Functions in Cryptographic Protocols: Security Proofs and Impossibility Results," Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2012/228, 2012; Wu et al., "On Foundation and Construction of Physical Unclonable Functions," 2010; Yu et al., "Lightweight and Secure PUF Key Storage using Limits of Machine Learning," Proceedings of the 13th international conference on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, CHES '11, pages 358-373, Springer, 2011).
Prior art PUF-based protocols fall into two broad categories: (1) a simple challenge-response provisioning process like the one described below in Protocol 3, or (2) cryptographic augmentation of a device's PUF response such that the raw PUF output never leaves the device. These approaches may require external entities to handle auxiliary information (e.g., challenges and their associated helper data) that is unsupported or superfluous in existing public key cryptography standards, and/or involve a hardware device authenticating to a challenge applied during an initial enrollment process, and/or are premised on the hardware device always recovering essentially the same response to a given challenge.
While a given challenge-response pair reflects the hardware state of a device when the pair was collected, the device will age and its hardware state drift over time. As the PUF hardware ages, the number of errors present in the responses may increase. Maiti et al. ("The Impact of Aging on an FPGA-Based Physical Unclonable Function," International Conference on Field Programmable Logic and Applications (FPL), pages 151-156, 2011) study the effects of simulated aging on PUF hardware by purposefully stressing the devices beyond normal operating conditions. By varying both temperature and voltage, the authors were able to show a drift in the intra-PUF variation that, over time, will lead to false negatives. Maiti et al. note that the error drift strictly affected the intra-PUF error rate distribution tending towards the maximum entropy rate of 50%. After enough time elapses, the hardware device may no longer be able to recover the proper response for the enrolled challenge.
For example, assume that a specific challenge ci is issued to a device during enrollment, with the device returning a public token {commitmenti, helperi} that links the device's hardware identity with the challenge c. To be authenticated, the device uses the pair {ci, helperi} to recover its private identity pipriv. As shown in FIG. 10, over time the PUF hardware may reach a time (e.g., at time τ=5 in the example of FIG. 10, which for simplicity assumes a drift that occurs linearly over time) at which hardware aging has increased the errors beyond the device's error correction limit, and the device is no longer able to reliably regenerate its private key.
Kirkpatrick et al. ("Software Techniques to Combat Drift in PUF-based Authentication Systems," Workshop on Secure Component and System Identification, 2010) describe a method for detecting hardware aging drift, and responding by updating the device's challenge-commitment pair stored on an external server. This approach requires that the server maintain auxiliary information in the form of challenge-commitment pairs, however, and that a periodic protocol be executed between the server and the device.
Another challenge facing PUF-based systems is side channel attacks, which seek to observe and analyze auxiliary environmental variables to deduce information about the sensitive PUF output. For example, electromagnetic (EM) analysis (e.g., Merli et al., "Semi-invasive EM Attack on FPGA RO PUFs and Countermeasures," Proceedings of the Workshop on Embedded Systems Security, WESS '11, pages 2:1-2:9, ACM, 2011; Merli et al., "Side-Channel Analysis of PUFs and Fuzzy Extractors," Trust and Trustworthy Computing, volume 6740 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 33-47, Springer, 2011; Schuster, Side-Channel Analysis of Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs), Master's thesis, Technische Universitat Munchen, 2010) extracts PUF output bits by observing changing EM fields during device operation. Another side channel attack methodology is (simple or differential) power analysis (e.g., Karakoyunlu et al., "Differential template attacks on PUF enabled cryptographic devices," IEEE International Workshop on Information Forensics and Security (WIFS), pages 1-6, 2010; Kocher et al., "Introduction to Differential Power Analysis," Cryptography Research, Inc., 2011; Kocher et al., "Differential Power Analysis," Proceedings of the 19th Annual International Cryptology Conference on Advances in Cryptology, CRYPTO '99, pages 388-397, Springer, 1999; Rührmair et al., "Power and Timing Side Channels for PUFs and their Efficient Exploitation," 2013), where power traces are collected from a device and analyzed to extract sensitive information (e.g., PUF output bits). Over many observations of a device recovering essentially the same response to a fixed challenge, an adversary can discover the sensitive PUF output.
While it is known that the effectiveness of side channel attacks may in some systems be reduced by introducing randomness (Coron, "Resistance Against Differential Power Analysis For Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems," Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, volume 1717 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 292-302, Springer, 1999), disguising sensitive values in this way may leave some vulnerability since the underlying values remain static and/or introduce additional complexity and/or processing overhead.

Authentication system and device including physical unclonable function and threshold cryptography


Methods and apparatus are provided for predicting the number of iterations needed for a computed Transversal Waveform Relaxation solution to achieve a given level of accuracy. In this manner, a Transversal Waveform Relaxation algorithm is disclosed that provides full automation. According to one aspect of the invention, a circuit is analyzed having transmission lines. One or more transmission line parameters of the circuit are obtained, as well as the intrinsic behavior, E(ω), and strength of coupling, N(ω), of each of the transmission lines. In addition, a relative error bound is obtained for the circuit based on the intrinsic behavior, E(ω), and strength of coupling, N(ω), of the transmission lines and a predefined error threshold. The process then iterates until the relative error bound satisfies the error threshold.

Electrical circuits with transmission lines are typically analyzed to ensure proper functioning of the circuits. The coupling between multiple lines and the resultant coupled signals are an important aspect of these transmission line circuits. Power distribution systems, for example, often must be analyzed for stability and other properties. Similarly, in instrumentation circuits and computer circuitry in racks or cabinets the noise coupled between transmission lines needs to be understood and minimized.
A number of techniques have been proposed or suggested for analyzing multiple wire transmission lines. Such techniques are described, for example, in Clayton Paul, Analysis of Multiconductor Transmission Lines, Ch. 5 (Wiley, 1994). While these techniques are suitable for the analysis of models with a few lines, the complexity increases rapidly as the number of lines increases. Some simplified techniques have been proposed to approximate the solution for many transmission lines with only neighbor-to-neighbor wire coupling. These approaches are suitable where reduced accuracy is acceptable to gain speed.
Existing techniques for analyzing multiple wire transmission lines are limited in the number of coupled lines or wires that can be analyzed simultaneously. The complexity of the coupling calculation increases rapidly as the number of lines increases, and the accuracy of the results decreases with the increasing number of lines. Hence, the existing techniques are unable to handle a large number of lines due to excessive computation time and the results become questionable. Some prior art techniques ignore the couplings for more than two lines to speed up the process. Other techniques are based on having only linear circuits to speed up the calculation process and are therefore unsuitable for handling even typical transmission line circuits, which include surrounding nonlinear drivers and receivers.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/776,716, entitled "System and Method For Efficient Analysis of Transmission Lines," incorporated by reference herein, discloses "Transversal Waveform Relaxation" techniques for analyzing multiple wire transmission lines by determining which sources influence each of a plurality of transmission lines, based on coupling factors. Transmission line parameters are computed based on the sources, which influence each transmission line. A transient or frequency response is analyzed for each transmission line by segmenting each line to perform an analysis on that line. The step of analyzing is repeated using waveforms determined in a previous iteration until convergence to a resultant waveform has occurred. For a more detailed discussion of such Transversal Waveform Relaxation techniques, see, for example, Nakhla et al., "Simulation of Coupled Interconnects Using Waveform Relaxation and Transverse Partitioning," EPEP'04, Vol 13, pp 25-28, Portland, Oreg., October 2004, incorporated by reference herein.
While such Transversal Waveform Relaxation techniques have greatly improved the analysis of multiple wire transmission lines, they suffer from a number of limitations, which if overcome, could provide further improvements. For example, the Transversal Waveform Relaxation is not fully automated and requires some manual input to determine when the algorithm has achieved a given level of accuracy. The full automation has been hampered by the absence of a quantitative link between the physical characteristics of a multiconductor transmission line system, as expressed by the per-unit-length capacitance, resistance, inductance and conductance matrices, and the convergence behavior of a Transversal Waveform Relaxation algorithm when used for the electrical analysis of large scale multiconductor transmission line systems. It has been qualitatively observed that when the electromagnetic coupling between the lines in the system is weak, the Transversal Waveform Relaxation algorithm needs only a few iterations to converge to an accurate solution.
A need therefore exists for methods and apparatus for predicting the number of iterations needed for the computed solution to achieve a given level of accuracy. A further need exists for a Transversal Waveform Relaxation algorithm that provides full automation.

Methods and apparatus for predicting convergence of a transversal waveform relaxation algorithm

International Business Machines Corporation


A hot-dip galvanized steel sheet includes: a predetermined chemical composition; and a steel structure represented by: in terms of area ratio, polygonal ferrite: 10% or less; upper bainite: 20% or less; retained austenite: 5% or less; and martensite: 70% or more, in which: martensite having Fe carbides at a number density of 1×106/mm2 or more is contained by 50% or more, in terms of area ratio, with respect to the entire amount of martensite; and the steel structure has an average effective crystal grain diameter of 5.0 μm or less.

In recent years, as countermeasures against global warming, improvement of fuel economy of an automobile has been demanded from a viewpoint of regulating a greenhouse effect gas emission amount. Accordingly, in order to realize reduction in weight of a vehicle body and to secure collision safety, a high-strength steel sheet is increasingly applied. Further, to a portion required to have rust prevention, an ultrahigh-strength steel sheet which is subjected to hot-dip galvanizing is required to be applied.
Particularly, in recent years, needs for an ultrahigh-strength steel sheet and an ultrahigh-strength hot-dip galvanized steel sheet having a tensile strength of 1300 MPa or more is increasing. Besides, to a member required to suppress deformation at a time of collision, an ultrahigh-strength steel sheet having a high yield ratio is required to be applied.
However, when applying an ultrahigh-strength steel sheet whose tensile strength exceeds 1300 MPa, there is a need to solve hydrogen embrittlement of the steel sheet. The hydrogen embrittlement is a phenomenon in which a steel member to which a high stress is applied in a situation of being used is fractured by an additional stress being equal to or less than a maximum tensile stress due to hydrogen which enters from an environment.
Generally, as a tensile strength of a steel sheet increases, the hydrogen embrittlement resistance of the steel sheet deteriorates, and its mechanism itself has not been clarified yet.
Various attempts to improve the hydrogen embrittlement of steel sheets have been made so far. Examination cases thereof will be described below.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique regarding a high-strength steel sheet which realizes both of high strengthening and hydrogen embrittlement resistance in a manner that a decarburization treatment is performed on a surface layer of a steel sheet to increase a ferrite volume fraction of the surface layer of the steel sheet, which causes softening, a structure inside the steel sheet is mainly constituted of ferrite, and besides, a small amount of martensite having fine blocks is dispersed. However, the steel sheet described in Patent Literature 1 contains a considerable amount of ferrite being a soft structure, so that it is not preferable for obtaining a high yield ratio.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a technique regarding a high-strength hot-dip galvanized steel sheet which realizes both of workability and hydrogen embrittlement resistance by properly controlling an average grain diameter and an aspect ratio as a form of ferrite. However, the steel sheet described in Patent Literature 2 also contains a certain amount of ferrite being a soft structure, so that it is predicted that the steel sheet is not preferable for obtaining a high yield ratio.
Patent Literature 3 discloses a technique regarding a high-strength hot-dip galvanized steel sheet which improves the hydrogen embrittlement resistance by setting a steel structure to a structure mainly constituted of martensite, and by making carbides of Nb, V, Cr, Ti, and Mo and the like to be precipitated and making the carbides function as hydrogen trap sites. However, also in the steel sheet described in Patent Literature 3, a high yield ratio is not taken into consideration.
Patent Literature 4 discloses a technique regarding a high-strength hot-dip galvanized steel sheet which improves the hydrogen embrittlement resistance by setting a steel structure to a structure mainly constituted of bainite, and by regulating retained austenite to less than 4%.
However, bainite generated in a hot-dip galvanizing process is often upper bainite due to its retention temperature region. The upper bainite is a structure with inferior toughness when compared to tempered martensite and lower bainite, so that reduction in toughness is concerned in a steel sheet having upper bainite as a main structure.


A method, apparatus, and system for application controlled network selection between a broadband network and a narrowband network include operating an application with an end device with a narrowband connection to the end device; acquiring a source broadband connection comprising a source broadband network address; negotiating a peer-to-peer broadband connection with the end device utilizing the narrowband connection to communicate the source broadband network address; utilizing the peer-to-peer broadband connection for data associated with the application responsive to successful negotiating; and managing the peer-to-peer broadband connection using the narrowband connection as a control channel therefor. The narrowband connection can include Digital Mobile Radio (DMR), Land Mobile Radio (LMR), Project 25 (P25), Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA), or the like.

The present disclosure relates generally to wireless networking. Digital mobile radio (DMR) is an open digital radio standard which is a two-slot, time division multiple access (TDMA) system offering voice, data, and a range of other features and applications. DMR covers the Radio frequency (RF) range of 30 MHz to 1 GHz and uses Frequency shift keying (FSK) constant envelope modulation. However, DMR has bandwidth limitations making it hard to accommodate high-bandwidth data applications. WI-FI technology (e.g., IEEE 802.11 and variants thereof, hereinafter, "Wi-Fi") is potentially applied to radio products (e.g., repeater and subscriber units) coexisting with DMR, but it also includes limitations. Wi-Fi allows a device to exchange data wirelessly over a network, including high-speed Internet connections. The Wi-Fi Alliance defines Wi-Fi as any wireless local area network (WLAN) products that are based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) 802.11 standards. Continuous Wi-Fi operation leads to battery life concerns in radios. Additionally, external Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and ports assigned by a Wi-Fi access point (AP) can be unknown to the radio due to Wireless local area network (WLAN) router/firewall traversal. Further, when the radio moves between APs, the mobility and addressing is unknown to remote end devices.
Broadband networks can include Wi-Fi technology (e.g., IEEE 802.11 and variants thereof), Bluetooth, WiMAX, 3G, Long Term Evolution (LTE), or the like. For example, Wi-Fi technology is potentially applied to radio products (e.g., repeater and subscriber units) coexisting with DMR, but it also includes limitations. Wi-Fi allows a device to exchange data wirelessly over a network, including high-speed Internet connections. The Wi-Fi Alliance defines Wi-Fi as any wireless local area network (WLAN) products that are based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) 802.11 standards. Continuous Wi-Fi operation leads to battery life concerns in radios. Additionally, external Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and ports assigned by a Wi-Fi access point (AP) can be unknown to the radio due to Wireless local area network (WLAN) router/firewall traversal. Further, when the radio moves between APs, the mobility and addressing is unknown to remote end devices.
Thus, it is a challenge to converge broadband networks (e.g., Wi-Fi) effectively with narrowband networks such as DMR, because typically an end device is mobile and its coverage to a broadband network may be sporadic. In addition, it is desired that different applications running on that end device are able to select different network service per its Quality of Service (QoS) needs. In conventional DMR radios, all over-the-air (OTA) applications are over DMR. With integration of Wi-Fi and other broadband techniques in radios along with DMR, there is a need for coordination of data traffic therebetween. Further, there exists no heterogeneous network handoff standard in DMR for interoperability.
Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods for application controlled network selection between narrowband and broadband wireless networks.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.

Methods for managing a broadband connection using a narrowband connection


A method and a system provide a feedback data indicating quality of a food processing performed by an operator. The method and system involve acquiring at least one image data of a food product from an operator; and processing the acquired image data. The processing includes detecting whether undesired objects are present in the food product, obtaining, in case undesired objects are detected, position data of the undesired objects within the food product, and utilizing the position data in issuing a feedback indicator indicating a position where the detected undesired objects are present within the food product processed by the operator.

Manually processing food products such as fish fillets is a challenging task, especially for food products where it may be difficult to visually detect undesired objects such as bones and cartilages.
In processing plants today, operators that process food products are provided with limited, if any, feedback about the quality of the processing. In fish factories as an example, it may be that the processing plant gets feedback from a customer that that quality of the overall food processing was not good enough.
In some cases, such fish factories may utilize X-ray apparatus to make quality checks to see if e.g. all bones were removed or not. If not, the fish fillets are rejected and typically recirculated into the system. However, individual operators will not be notified about whether or not improvement in the processing is needed.

Method of providing feedback data indicating quality of food processing performed by an operator


The invention relates to a retaining system for handling substrate stacks, including a retaining surface for retaining a first substrate, and one or more recesses provided relative to the retaining surface, for retaining first magnetic bodies for securing the first substrate relative to a second substrate that is aligned with the first substrate. Second magnetic bodies are applied on a holding side of the second substrate.

In the semiconductor industry, substrates are quite often different; product substrates or carrier substrates are connected to one another. Bonding is cited as the connecting process. Two different types of bonds can be distinguished: the temporary bond and the permanent bond. In temporary bonding, a first substrate, in most cases a product substrate, is bonded to a second substrate, in particular a carrier substrate, in order to stabilize the product substrate by the carrier substrate.
After additional processes on the product substrate, the product substrate can be removed from the carrier substrate. In technical terminology, the removal process is called debonding.
In permanent bonding, an irreversible connection between two substrates, in most cases two product substrates, is sought. This type of bonding is used primarily in the building-up of substrate stacks with different functional planes. In the publication of Dragoi, V. and Pabo, E., Wafer Bonding Process Selection, The Electrochemical Society, ECS Transactions January 2010; 33: 509-517, for example, there is an overview on different bonding methods.
Primarily before the permanent bonding, product substrates have to be aligned to one another with a very high precision via alignment marks, which are located on their surfaces. In this case, to date, the alignment and the bonding of the substrates is done mainly in different modules: an alignment module and a bonding module. The latter is referred to in simplified terms as a bonder. A critical aspect of the separation of the alignment module and the bonding module exists in the transport of the substrates that are aligned to one another from the alignment module to the bonding module. In this way, even though it may be a very short distance, the two substrates can shift toward one another. Therefore, an attaching of substrates aligned toward one another is necessary.
In the state of the art, the attaching of two substrates is done, for example, with mechanical clamps. In most cases, the mechanical clamps are connected to a substrate holder, e.g., a chuck or fixture. One of the two substrates lies directly on the substrate holder. After the second substrate is aligned relative to the first substrate, the two substrates are brought into contact. Very often, spacers that are inserted from the edge between the two substrates are used in order to prevent the complete contact of the two substrates with one another up until the actual bonding process. Independent of the use of the spacers, mechanical clamps can attach both substrates on the substrate holder. If the substrate holder is used to retain and attach the two substrates, substrate holders and substrates have to be transferred from the alignment module to the bonding module either manually or fully automatically by a robotic arm.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Receptacle device, device and method for handling substrate stacks


The disclosure is directed to a touch proximity sensing system detecting the presence or absence of a triggering object. The system includes a reflective optical sensor, an active surface, and a light pipe in combination. The reflective optical sensor has an emitter for creating a light and a receiver for detecting a reflected light of the emitter. The active surface is suitable for receiving the triggering object, such as a stylus or finger, or the like. The light pipe is disposed between the reflective optical sensor and the active surface. The length of the light pipe is such that the reflective optical sensor and the active surface are spaced-apart from each other. The light pipe transports the light from the emitter to the active surface. In the presence of the triggering object, light from the emitter is reflected and the light pipe transports the reflected light to the receiver.

The present disclosure relates in general to optical sensing and more particularly to the use of reflective optical sensors. Reflective optical sensors are often used in input devices with closed surfaces without any mechanical components (i.e. buttons). Their purpose is to sense a movement in the proximity of the surface or a touch upon it and their range of sensitivity is generally limited. The inventive method and apparatus disclosed herein significantly extends the effective range of a reflective optical sensor making the sensing process almost independent from the shape and thickness of an input device's front surface, which allows greater flexibility in the mechanical design of the input device.
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art reflective optical switch. A reflective optical sensor 1 contains an infra-red (IR) emitter 2 and a complementary IR receiver 3. The reflective optical sensor is positioned at a distance of 1 cm from a transparent active surface 4 which represents the maximum effective range of the reflective optic sensor. The effective range can be greater or lesser depending on the power and sensitivity of the IR emitter and receiver respectively, but in general for effective operation reflective optical sensors must be placed in close proximity to a transparent surface to facilitate the reflection and reception of emitted IR off of an approaching triggering object. A triggering object 5 is shown adjacent to the transparent surface at an active region, or at a position that leads to a successful reflection of IR light emitted by emitter 2 off of object 5 and back towards IR receiver 3. A successful reception of IR light by the receiver 3 generates an electrical signal which can be used to effect a change in the operation or status of an electronic device (not shown) connected to the reflective optical sensor. Triggering object 5 can be any manner of object having a surface which will reflect IR light but is typically a person's finger which has led to the description of such a reflective optical switch as "touch sensitive".
Reflective optical sensors used to sense movement in the proximity of the surface or to detect a touch of the surface near the sensor contain advantages over mechanical systems such as buttons. Mechanical systems are more prone to wear and tear because of their movement, and sensors can be used in connection with graphical user displays to promote flexibility in display design.
The physics of optical sensors, however, limits the range of the effective distance of the movement to the sensor. In general applications, the sensor must be most proximate to the surface in order for the sensor to detect a reflection. Accordingly, the design of such sensor systems is somewhat limited with respect to the positioning of the sensors and the thickness and shape of the touch surface. Accordingly, there is a need for a system of reflective optical sensors to break free of space and positioning constraints to permit innovative designs of touch sensor pads.

Touch/proximity-sensing using reflective optical sensor and a light pipe for specularly reflecting light


The present invention features processes and compositions for producing a metallic-looking image on a substrate having a reflective or luminescent surface. The process utilizes an opaque coating composition containing an opaque coating agent comprising a mixture of a polyacid and a polybase. When applied to a light-emitting, reflective or luminescent substrate, the opaque coating composition at least partially masks the light-emitting reflective or luminescent surface of the substrate, but becomes increasingly translucent or transparent when contacted with a recording liquid such as an ink, revealing the light-emitting, reflective or luminescent surface.

Many methods have been used to produce a metallic-looking image on a substrate. For the most part, these methods involve the use of metallic pigments and metal-containing inks. U.S. Pat. No. 4,233,195 to Mills, U.S. Pat. No. 5,912,283 to Hashizume et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,738 to Schmid et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,766,335 to Bujard et. al. describe pigments and ink formulations that incorporate metallic, usually aluminum, particles. While different approaches have been followed to provide enhanced color and pigment variation, the inks and pigments used are typically costly and require complicated and expensive procedures. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,976 to Williamson et al. describes a metallic color printing process wherein the image is produced using a four-color separation process, involving metallic gold and/or metallic silver separations, and an electronic masking system.
Other processes have been developed for producing a metallic-looking image without the use of metallic pigments. U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,331 to Kline, for example, describes a printed substrate having a metallic finish where the metallic appearance is achieved by applying a first layer having the desired final color pattern, a second layer comprising a moire dispersion pattern and a third coating of water pearl. Complex thermal processing methods have also been used. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,843 to Kawaguchi describes a method of producing a reflective image by printing the image on the surface of a film using a thermal print head and then affixing the film onto a reflective surface.
Reflective surfaces to form metallic-looking images have also been used, primarily in the marketing and display industries. U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,126 to Longobardi et al. describes a process for reverse printing on a transparent facing material such as a MYLAR® polyester sheet or a glass sheet. The printing must be done as a mirror image and the printing steps must be performed in an order that is the reverse of the order used in conjunction with conventional printing, making it difficult to use standard printing equipment without substantial modification. Also, this method is quite costly.
A more direct method is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,634 to Karel wherein a metallic-looking image is generated by first applying a coating of a white pigment to the surface of a reflective substrate, wherein the applied pigment has varying density across the surface, and then applying a coating of a colored pigment, also in varying density across the surface. Those surface areas having a lower density of white and colored pigments have a metallic-looking appearance, as the reflective substrate is visible through the coating layers. This method is effective, it requires a separate screened application of the white dots and is not suitable for use in conventional ink-jet printing or in any other consumer usable image production method.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a simple and inexpensive process for the printing of light-emitting, reflective or metallic-looking images.

Preparation of images on a substrate surface utilizing an opaque coating composition that becomes transparent upon printing


To perform surveying of a subterranean structure, an electromagnetic (EM) source array has a plurality of electrodes. Different subsets of the electrodes are dynamically activated to provide corresponding EM radiation patterns to survey the subterranean structure.

Electromagnetic (EM) techniques can be used to perform surveys of subterranean structures for identifying elements of interest. Examples of elements of interest in a subterranean structure include hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs, gas injection zones, thin carbonate or salt layers, and fresh-water aquifers.
One type of EM survey technique is the controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM) survey technique, in which an EM transmitter, called a "source," is used to generate EM signals. Surveying units, called "receivers," are deployed within an area of interest to make measurements from which information about the subterranean structure can be derived. The EM receivers may include a number of sensing elements for detecting any combination of electric fields, electric currents, and/or magnetic fields.
Traditionally, an EM source is implemented with two electrodes, one mounted on the front and one mounted on the aft of an antenna. The two electrodes of the EM source are connected to the "+" and "−" terminals of a power source system. However, this traditional arrangement of an EM source does not provide flexibility, particularly in marine survey applications.

Dynamically activating different subsets of a plurality of electrodes


Methods and test sets allow multi-line telecommunications services to be tested. The methods and test sets utilize multiple connections so that test connections to multiple lines can be made at once. Multiple test clips may be used where two clips are attached to two conductors of the test set for each line to be tested. A modular plug such as an RJ-11 plug may be used to plug into a modular jack that provides multiple lines of telecommunication service, and the modular plug has a pair of conductors connected to a pair of conductors of a test set for each line to be tested. Additionally, various combinations of clips and modular plugs may be provided to establish test connections to the multiple telecommunication lines to be tested.

Landline telecommunications services are provided at least partially through electrical conductors that establish circuits between telecommunications provider equipment and the devices of the end user such as a telephone or computer. During installation or subsequent troubleshooting of the telecommunications lines, the service to be provided through the lines may be tested using a test set. The test set allows a technician to test many variables of the telecommunication service such as the polarity of the voltage over the electrical conductors, the amount of noise present on the lines, and other factors related to the quality and reliability of the telecommunications service.
The test set analyzes telecommunications service through a physical connection that establishes electrical continuity between the test set and the two conductors of a line of telecommunications service. This physical connection is typically a pair of conductive clips that grasp the electrical conductor pairs. Tests may also be performed through the modular jacks generally located on a wall by coupling the test clips to a banjo, which then plugs into the modular jack to establish continuity between the modular jack and the test clips of the test set.
Some customers require telecommunication services that provide multiple telecommunications lines. For example, a single household may choose to have one telephone line for ordinary voice telephone calls while having another telephone line reserved for facsimiles. Each of these multiple lines of the telecommunications service are tested to verify proper connections, quality, and reliability. Conventionally, this requires that a technician connect the test set to the first line and then test it accordingly. Then, the technician disconnects the test set from the first line and reconnects the test set to the second line to test it accordingly. Alternatively, the technician must utilize multiple test sets where each test set is used to test one of the multiple telecommunication lines. Thus, it is inconvenient for the technician to test multiple telecommunication lines.

Methods and test sets for testing multi-line telecommunications service


Disclosed herein is an ultrasonic probe including a piezoelectric layer, a matching layer disposed at an upper portion of the piezoelectric layer, a conductive member disposed at a lower portion of the piezoelectric layer, a second connector coupled to at least one side of the conductive member, and a printed circuit board coupled to a side of the second connector and electrically coupled to the second connector.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus refers to an apparatus that radiates an ultrasonic signal toward a target area of an object, receives an ultrasonic signal (echoed ultrasonic signal) reflected from the object, and uses information thereon to non-invasively obtain an image related to a cross-section or blood flow of a soft tissue.
The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus has advantages over other diagnostic imaging apparatuses, such as an X-ray diagnostic apparatus, an X-ray computerized tomography (CT) scanner, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus, and a nuclear medicine diagnostic apparatus, in that the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is relatively small and inexpensive. In addition, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is capable of acquiring an image related to an inside of an object in real time and has high safety due to not causing exposure to radiation. Therefore, generally, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus has been widely used in cardiac diagnosis, abdominal diagnosis, urologic diagnosis, and obstetric and gynecologic diagnosis of people.
Therefore, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes an ultrasonic probe for transmitting an ultrasonic signal to an object in order to obtain an ultrasound image of an inside of the object and receiving an echoed ultrasonic signal reflected from the object.
The ultrasonic probe includes an acoustic element. The acoustic element includes a piezoelectric layer configured to convert an electrical signal to an acoustic signal and vice versa as a piezoelectric material vibrates, a matching layer configured to reduce an acoustic impedance difference between the piezoelectric layer and an object so that ultrasonic waves generated from the piezoelectric layer are effectively transmitted to the object, a lens configured to focus ultrasonic waves traveling toward the front of the piezoelectric layer to a specific point, and a backing layer configured to block ultrasonic waves traveling toward the rear of the piezoelectric layer so that image distortion is prevented.
Examples of an internal structure of the ultrasonic probe according to the related art include a bonding structure and a focused ion beam (FIB) structure.
The bonding structure refers to a structure in which a ground printed circuit board (GND PCB) and a signal printed circuit board (SIG PCB) are respectively inserted into electrodes formed at an upper portion and a lower portion of a piezoelectric layer and the GND PCB and the SIG PCB are parallel to a laminated structure of an acoustic element. The FIB structure refers to a structure in which a GND PCB and SIG PCB are inserted into a backing layer to be perpendicular to a laminated structure of an acoustic element and are respectively connected to electrodes formed at an upper portion and a lower portion of a piezoelectric material.

Abstract: A printed circuit board is disposed outside a laminated structure of the acoustic element so that the printed circuit board can be prevented from affecting acoustic characteristics of the ultrasonic probe, a failure in a process of manufacturing the ultrasonic probe that occurs due to a change in temperature or humidity can be prevented, and the manufacturing process can be relatively simplified.


A high speed connector includes an insulated shelter for accommodating at least one main body. The main body includes at least one terminal group integrated with the main body by having two opposing sides thereof to extend out of the main body, in which the two opposing sides are defined as a contact portion and a welding portion, respectively. The terminal group further includes a plurality of terminals. The insulated plastic element has a slot for enclosing up terminal group, and a height of a section in the slot is larger than a thickness of the plurality of terminals, so that at least one gap can be formed in the slot. By having the gap, dielectric coefficients and electromagnetic properties around the terminals can be adjusted to reduce the crosstalk effects upon the signal terminals. In addition, an insulated plastic element is also provided.

Signal transmission inside an electronic device is generally fulfilled via various electronic connectors. Generally speaking, the electronic connector or the connector is consisted of an insulated main body and a plurality of metal terminals. With development of technology, the amount of information needed to be transmitted is increasing, and thus a corresponding change in transmission frequency or rate shall be evaluated. However, in transmitting high-speed signals, effects of crosstalk among metal terminals would become significant. In particular, if the arrangement of the metal terminals is too dense or lack of shielding, corresponding transmission quality would be closely correlated.
Currently, some efforts have been made to improve problems caused by crosstalk effects. These efforts include changing appearance of metal terminals, increasing spacing between metal terminals, isolating metal terminals by shielding elements and so on. However, such an effort is hard to satisfy a modern requirement in miniaturizing the connector.
Thus, in improved connector that can reduce crosstalk effects and resolve accompanying problems is definitely urgent in the art.

High speed connector for reducing crosstalk effect

INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE