There are provided compositions comprising (i) at least one non-aromatic polyol compound containing at least one polyol unit having at least two hydroxyl groups and at least one long chain unit containing at least 6 carbon atoms; and (ii) at least one fluoropolymer comprising repeating units derived from a fluorinated olefin. There are also provided methods of improving the shear stability of fluoropolymer dispersions, methods of coating substrates, and substrates coated with the above described composition.

Fluoropolymers have been long known and have been used in a variety of applications because of several desirable properties such as heat resistance, chemical resistance, weatherability, UV-stability, low friction and anti-stick properties, etc. The various fluoropolymers are described, for example in "Modern Fluoropolymers", edited by John Scheirs, Wiley Science 1997 or in "Fluoropolymers" edited by Sina Ebnesajjad, Plastics Design Library, Norwich, N.Y., 2000.
Commonly known or commercially employed fluoropolymers include polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), copolymers of tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) and hexafluoropropylene (HFP) (such copolymers are also referred to as FEP polymers), copolymers of tetrafluoroethylene and perfluoroalkoxy copolymers (such copolymers are also referred to as PFA), copolymers of ethylene and tetrafluoroethylene (such copolymers are also referred to as ETFE polymers), copolymers of tetrafluoroethylene, hexafluoropropylene and vinylidene fluoride (VDF) (such copolymers also referred to as THV) and polyvinylidene fluoride polymers (PVDF) and others.
Fluoropolymers have been used to improve the thermal and chemical resistance of a substrate or to provide anti stick or low friction properties to a substrate, for example by coating or impregnating the substrate with the fluoropolymers. The fluoropolymers may be applied to the substrate by liquid coating techniques if they are provided as a liquid formulation, such, as for example, as dispersions.
Fluoropolymer dispersions can be conveniently produced by aqueous emulsion polymerization employing fluorinated monomers, one or more radical reaction initiators and a suitable emulsifier. Perfluorinated alkanoic acids of the type CF3—(CF2)n—COO− with n being an integer of 6 to 8, and in particular perfluorooctanoic acid (n=6) and its salts, have been the emulsifier of choice in the aqueous emulsion polymerization of fluoromonomers for the last decades. Using perfluorooctanoic acid increases the solid content (polymer content) of the dispersions and leads to the generation of polymers of desired molecular weight and particle size in acceptable reaction rates and to stable dispersions. However, perfluorinated emulsifiers are expensive materials. Some perfluorinated acids have also been found to be poorly bio-degradable. Therefore, methods have been developed to retain and recycle the fluorinated emulsifiers from fluoropolymer dispersions leading to dispersion of low content of fluorinated emulsifiers.
Another attempt to reduce the amount of fluorinated emulsifiers in fluoropolymer dispersions involves preparing the fluoropolymers without using fluorinated emulsifiers. Therefore emulsion polymerization methods not requiring fluorinated emulsifiers at all have become of increased interest.
An aqueous emulsion polymerization without using any surfactants has been disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,453,477, WO 96/24622 and WO 97/17381. For example, WO 97/17381 reports an aqueous emulsion polymerization in the absence of a surfactant wherein a radical initiator system of a reducing agent and oxidizing agent is used to initiate the polymerization and whereby the initiator system is added in one or more further charges during the polymerization.
Methods using non-fluorinated emulsifiers have also been described, for example in U.S. Patent Publ. No. 2006/0281845, in EP 1 462 461 or in WO 2008/033271. In WO 2008/033271 small particle dispersions of TFE, HFP and VDF copolymers with a major part of the polymer made up by TFE were obtained using a carbosilane as emulsifier. However, carbosilanes are not readily available and their use at present is not economical.

Fluoropolymer compositions containing a polyol compound and methods of making them


Disclosed is an apparatus for removing a transmission leakage signal of an RFID system including a reader controller that sends a transmission signal to an RFID tag and receives a receiving signal transmitted from the RFID tag to read tag information, the apparatus including a leakage signal canceller that receives a portion of the transmission signal and the receiving signal, and performs an adjustment task to generate a cancellation signal according to an adjustment value to remove a transmission leakage signal and the portion of the transmission signal, and to remove the transmission leakage signal included in the receiving signal and a controller that continuously determines whether there is a change of an RF environment using an intensity of the receiving signal, the RFID tag being installed in the RF environment, and controls an operation of the leakage signal canceller according to the change of the RF environment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for removing a transmission leakage signal of an RFID system, capable of removing a transmission leakage signal in a Radio Frequency Identification (referred to as 'RFID', hereinafter) system, and an RFID system having the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an RFID system is widely used in a system for transmitting and receiving information in a variety of fields such as approval management, document management, distribution management, identification and radio authentication, which includes a plurality of tags on which tag information is recorded and a reader to read tag information included in the tag.
The plurality of tags that exist in the same radio frequency field in such an RFID system are activated by the reader, the tags transmit their own tag information to the reader so that there occurs a collision among a plurality of tag information.
Accordingly, in order to solve the above described problem, the reader periodically transmits an anti-collision period that is a time when each tag can send the tag information, so as to prevent the plurality of tag information from colliding among them.
Meanwhile, in order to isolate a transmission signal from a receiving signal in an RFID system in which a radio signal is transmitted and received together, a separate isolation device such as an isolator is used.
Since there occurs a phenomenon in which the reader cannot receive a receiving signal well due to the fact that a portion of a transmission signal is leaked and mixed into the receiving signal while the transmission signal is transmitted and a receiving signal is received, the reader includes a separate leakage canceller to cancel such a transmission leakage signal, so that it performs an adjustment task to generate a cancellation signal.
However, while a set condition of the leakage signal canceller should be changed to cancel the transmission leakage signal that changes according to an RF environment when an RF environment having tags installed therein changes, a reader controller to control a reader in the RFID system in the art is engaged only in a task to read the tag during an anti-collision period so that there occurs a problem that the set condition cannot be changed according to a change of the RF environment.
Further, there was a limitation to suitably counteract a market requirement according to the change of RF environment since it is difficult to change a setting condition of a transmission leakage canceller to a new RF environment in an anti-collision period with the reader controller in the art, and it is not easy to correctly read tag information.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Apparatus for removing transmission leakage signal in RFID system and RFID system having the same


A corner clip is provided on the edge of a ceiling panel and the end(s) of the clip space the panel from the ceiling runner vertical web. The clip can be a right angle shape having a downwardly projecting portion which fits into a recess in the back of the ceiling panel. The clip can be a disc shape having a downwardly projecting portion which fits into a recess in the back of the ceiling panel.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a ceiling panel and, more particularly, to a clip which is provided on the edge of the ceiling panel to space the edges of the ceiling panel from the vertical webs of the runners supporting the ceiling panel and to lock the ceiling panel in position within the runners.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,350 discloses the use of a bump 30 on the vertical web of a runner to position a ceiling panel relative the vertical web. This structure in no way teaches or suggests the invention described below.


Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a hypersaturation index for measuring a patient's absorption of oxygen in the blood stream after a patient has reached 100% oxygen saturation. This hypersaturation index provides an indication of the partial pressure of oxygen of a patient. In an embodiment of the present invention, a hypersaturation index is calculated based on the absorption ratio of two different wavelengths of energy at a measuring site. In an embodiment of the invention, a maximum hypersaturation index threshold is determined such that an alarm is triggered when the hypersaturation index reaches or exceeds the threshold. In another embodiment, an alarm is triggered when the hypersaturation index reaches or falls below its starting point when it was first calculated.

The measurement of oxygen delivery to the body and the corresponding oxygen consumption by its organs and tissues is vitally important to medical practitioners in the diagnosis and treatment of various medical conditions. Oxygen delivery is useful, for example, during certain medical procedures, where artificially providing additional oxygen to the patient's blood stream may become necessary. For example, during an intubation procedure, the patient will stop breathing while the procedure is performed. The patient is typically provided with oxygen before the intubation procedure. Because the patient stops breathing during an intubation procedure, the patient's blood oxygen saturation level will fall. In that situation, the medical practitioner must ensure that the patient has sufficient reserves of oxygen in their system before intubation so that during the intubation procedure suffocation is avoided. At the same time, providing oxygen at a high pressure to a patient can cause damage to the alveoli of an adult patient. On the other hand, even normal oxygen levels can or cause blindness in neonatal patients.
The current standard of care is to measure oxygen delivery through the use of a pulse oximeter. Pulse oximeters measure oxygen saturation (SpO2). SpO2 represents the percent of available hemoglobin that can chemically bind with oxygen molecules.
Another indicator of oxygen delivery is the partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2), However, there are currently no reliable ways to measure PaO2 noninvasively. Invasive PaO2 measurements require expensive sensors and are known to carry serious side effects that can harm the health of a patient.


An exhaust component includes a housing defining an internal cavity and a burner positioned within the internal cavity. The burner provides a combustion chamber having an exhaust gas inlet, a fuel inlet, a combustion air inlet, and an outlet. At least one exhaust aftertreatment component is positioned within the internal cavity and is directly coupled to the outlet of the combustion chamber.

A thermal system is used to elevate the temperature of exhaust gas to activate a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst in a vehicle exhaust system. The SCR catalyst reduces levels of NOx using ammonia as a reductant. The reducing agent, such as diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) for example, reacts with NOx to convert pollutants into nitrogen and water. Under certain operating conditions, such as cold start conditions, exhaust temperatures are not initially high enough to support efficient operation of the SCR catalyst. This can lead to urea deposit formation from the DEF injection. It is therefore desirable to provide a thermal management system that can ensure that the SCR catalyst is operating efficiently and optimally under all conditions.

Faurecia Emissions Control Technologies, USA, LLC


A method and apparatus for depositing single crystal, epitaxial films of silicon carbon and silicon germanium carbon on a plurality of substrates in a hot wall, isothermal UHV-CVD system is described. In particular, a multiple wafer low temperature growth technique in the range from 350xc2x0 C. to 750xc2x0 C. is described for incorporating carbon epitaxially in Si and SiGe films with very abrupt and well defined junctions, but without any associated oxygen background contamination. Preferably, these epitaxial SiC and SiGeC films are in-situ doped p- or n-type and with the presence of low concentration of carbon  less than 1020 cmxe2x88x923, the as-grown p- or n-type dopant profile can withstand furnace anneals to temperatures of 850xc2x0 C. and rapid thermal anneal temperatures to 1000xc2x0 C.

This invention relates to silicon-carbon and silicon germanium-carbon based materials system and more specifically, to a novel method and apparatus for depositing single crystal and polycrystalline layers of silicon-carbon (Si:C) and silicon germanium-carbon (SiGe:C) on a plurality of substrates at low temperatures and low pressures. A multiple wafer, low temperature growth technique is described for incorporating carbon epitaxially into Si and SiGe with very abrupt and well defined junctions, without any associated oxygen background contamination. Preferably, these silicon carbon alloy films are device quality, epitaxial layers which can be in-situ doped p- or n-type. A narrow base p-type device structure may be fabricated incorporating silicon-carbon and silicon germanium-carbon layers to form the base region of a high speed heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT). The incorporation of a low concentration of carbon  less than 1020 atoms cmxe2x88x923 into the SiGe base region of a HBT can suppress boron outdiffusion and allow the use of high boron doping levels ( greater than  greater than 1019 cmxe2x88x923) in a very thin SiGe base base region ( less than 20 nm) without suffering the effects of boron outdiffusion from post-epitaxial thermal processing and anneals.
The next generation of SiGe HBTs suitable for wireless telecommunication systems, which operate at radio or microwave frequencies will be designed and targeted for very high speed SiGe bipolar devices having fT and fmax of over 100 GHz. Presently, state of the art SiGe-base heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT""s) employ a graded SiGe structure to introduce an accelerating field across the base region in order to achieve high frequency performance from 45 to 90 GHz. Hence, to achieve SiGe bipolar devices with fT and fmax of over 100 GHz, another device enhancement or improvement will be required for the present graded SiGe based transistors. One possibility for performance enhancement is the scaling of the base width of the device, which is very difficult to achieve in manufacturing due to punch through of the base region. The key difficulty associated with base width scaling is in controlling the corresponding increase of the base doping to a high doping concentration to avoid punch through, which is very difficult to achieve in manufacturing. The effect of the base thickness on the high frequency performance of SiGe HBTs has been reported in a publication by E. Kasper et. al. entitled xe2x80x9cGrowth of 100 GHz SiGe-Heterobipolar Transistor (HBT) Structuresxe2x80x9d, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. Vol. 33 Pt. 1, No. 4B, April 1994, pp. 2415-2418 which is incorporated herein by reference. The reference showed a steady increase of fT with the decreasing of the SiGe-base thicknesses. For example, starting with HBT""s with a 65 nm base thickness which did not exceed 20 GHz, transistors with a thinner 40 nm base width had yielded 37-52 GHz, while devices with even thinner 28-30 nm bases had exhibited even higher fT in the range of 58-91 GHz. Moreover, when the effective base thickness was further scaled down below 50% to a 25 nm or 22 nm base thickness an extremely high fT of 95-100 GHz was achieved corresponding to an increase of 4-5 times in fT and demonstrating the influence of base thickness on the speed of the bipolar transistor. However, it is important to note that in these very narrow base SiGe transistors the base doping concentration was in the extremely high range of about 8xc3x971019 boron/cm3 which is necessary in order to maintain a base sheet resistance of about 1.2 K-Ohm in such a thin 20 nm base region without punchthrough.
Subsequently, in order to combine and benefit from both these critical device enhancements for high speed performances in the present SiGe npn bipolar transistors, very high Ge content and more importantly very high boron doping concentration will be required in a thinner base region to achieve lower base sheet resistance and higher fmax transistor performance. A heavily doped SiGe base profile will effectively have a smaller band gap in the strained SiGe base offering a lower barrier for electron injection into the base and importantly, maintaining a lower base resistance and shorter transit time with the use of a thinner and highly doped boron doped SiGe base structure. However, such a thin heavily doped SiGe layered structure is very susceptible to dopant out-diffusion or re-distribution due to high concentration gradients during thermal treatments in the manufacturing process. In fact, one of the key problems in the present SiGe npn BiCMOS technology of one major manufacturer is to retain the narrow as-grown boron profile within the SiGe base layer and eliminate the undesirable out-diffusion of boron from the base region caused by heat treatments or transient enhanced diffusion (TED) from post-epitaxial processing of annealing implantation damages and CMOS integrations. Unfortunately, out diffusion of boron does present a severe problem since it limits the final achievable base-width in the base of the bipolar transistor regardless of how narrow the base-width may have been originally generated. Moreover, in cases where the boron diffuses or extends outside of the SiGe base region this can cause undesirable conduction band barriers to be formed at the base-collector junction which will degrade the collector current and subsequently the high frequency performance of the bipolar device.
The classic solution to this problem has been to accommodate the out-diffusion of boron rather than to resolve it, i.e. is to grow an extended undoped spacer of SiGe on either side of the doped base region between the emitter and collector regions. However, in such a case the technological problem then reverts back to minimizing and adjusting the thickness of the SiGe spacer layers in order to avoid strain-induced defect formation within the SiGe base structure. Moreover, even then, the thicknesses of the undoped spacer layers selected to alleviate or accommodate the out-diffusion problem is still restricted and limited by critical thickness considerations and there may not be suitable spacer layers to accommodate the out-diffusion of boron problem. The ideal solution to prevent or reduce the boron base dopant out-diffusion from occurring is a well known chemical effect that the presence or addition of carbon in a boron doped Si or SiGe layer can significantly reduce the out-diffusion of boron from the initial as-grown dopant profile. Moreover, H. J. Osten et. al., in the paper entitled xe2x80x9cCarbon Doped SiGe Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors for High Frequency Applicationsxe2x80x9d, IEEE BCTM 7.1, 1999, pp109-116, which is incorporated herein by reference, have recently shown that low carbon concentration ( less than 1020 atom.cmxe2x88x923) can significantly suppress boron out-diffusion without affecting the strain or band alignment and successful applications of carbon-rich layers for SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors. Nevertheless, there exist a number of difficult material issues and problems associated with the growth of device quality SiC or SiGeC films. First, carbon has a very low equilibrium solid solubility in Si that is approximately 3.5xc3x971017 atoms.cmxe2x88x923 ( less than 10xe2x88x923 atomic %) at its melting point and it is even lower at the typical growth temperatures  less than 1000 C. Second, the presence of carbon contamination on a Si surface is know to disrupt the epitaxial growth and finally, there is a tendency to precipitate silicon carbide (beta-SiC) at high growth or annealing temperatures. Therefore, the biggest material problem is the ability to grow device quality Si:C and SiGe:C films at low temperatures, especially for the UHV-CVD process which is a fully manufacturable process currently being used in IBM""s BiCMOS technology.
A prior technique of UHV-CVD for depositing and fabricating very thin epitaxial layers having abrupt transitions in dopant concentration between adjacent single crystal layers at low temperatures is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,680 which issued on May 25, 1999 to B. S. Meyerson entitled xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus for Low Temperature, Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition of Epitaxial Silicon Layersxe2x80x9d and assigned to the assignee herein. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,680 an apparatus is described where the characteristic of the growth system is provided to have an ultrahigh vacuum integrity in the range of about 10xe2x88x929 Torr prior to epitaxial deposition at temperatures of less than 800xc2x0 C. Furthermore, the epitaxial silicon or silicon germanium layers can be doped in-situ to provide very abrupt defined regions of either n- or p-type conductivity. However, a suitable method for depositing silicon-carbon or silicon germanium-carbon by this technique has not yet been described.
The ability to grow and achieve high carbon concentrations in both device quality Si and SiGe films at low temperatures ( less than 550xc2x0 C.) has not been demonstrated by any other growth techniques or processes suitable for batch-size, manufacturing operations. There are, however, low temperature growth techniques such as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), solid phase epitaxy regrowth and rapid thermal CVD (RT-CVD) which have been successfully employed to grow SiC and SiGeC layers with carbon levels up to 1%-3% carbon but often the material quality is not suitable for device applications.
In accordance with the present invention, an apparatus and process for achieving epitaxial silicon carbon and silicon germanium carbon films without the above mentioned problems is described, and in particular a manufacturable technique for batch processing of multiple wafers for the growth of expitaxial silicon carbon or silicon germanium carbon films thereon is provided. Furthermore, the fabrication of very thin epitaxial layers of silicon carbon or silicon germanium carbon having abrupt transitions of several atomic widths in carbon concentration between adjacent single crystal layers, which cannot be achieved by any prior art techniques, is provided. In the present invention, the temperatures and pressures of the growth technique are much less than those utilized in the prior art, and are such that the growth process is nonequilibrium in nature whereby the growth kinetics on the silicon containing surface, rather than the equilibrium thermodynamics of the inlet gases, dictate the deposition process. A hot wall, isothermal CVD apparatus as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,680 is utilized whereby essentially no homogeneous gas phase pyrolysis of the silicon and/or carbon precursor such as silane or ethylene source gas occurs during the residence time, which is less than 1 second, within the selected temperature regime where the growth process is operated. Similar to U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,680 heterogeneous chemistry where kinetic reactions at the surface of the substrate occur by design of method and apparatus, are the primary determinants of epitiaxial deposition of silicon carbon and silicon germanium carbon films.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performing epitaxial single crystal deposition of silicon carbon layers in a batch process.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling low temperature epitaxy of silicon carbon layers having very low concentrations of oxygen contaminants in the SiC layers, preferably less than 1xc3x971017 O atoms cmxe2x88x923.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling low temperature epitaxy of silicon carbon layers in the temperature range from 475xc2x0 C. to 850xc2x0 C.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performing epitaxial single crystal deposition of silicon germanium carbon layers in a batch process.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling low temperature epitaxy of silicon germanium carbon layers having very low concentrations of oxygen contaminants in the SiGeC layers, preferably less than 1xc3x971017 O atoms cmxe2x88x923.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling low temperature epitaxy of silicon germanium carbon layers in the temperature range from 350xc2x0 C. to 850xc2x0 C.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performing polycrystalline deposition of silicon carbon layers in a batch process.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling low temperature polycrystalline deposition of silicon carbon layers having very low concentrations of oxygen contaminants in the SiC layers, preferably less than 1xc3x971017 O atoms cmxe2x88x923.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling low temperature deposition of polycrystalline silicon carbon layers in the temperature range from 475xc2x0 C. to 1200xc2x0 C.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performing deposition of polycrystalline silicon germanium carbon layers in a batch process.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling low temperature deposition of polycrystalline silicon germanium carbon layers having very low concentrations of oxygen contaminants in the SiGeC layers, preferably less than 1xc3x971017 O atoms cmxe2x88x923.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling low temperature deposition of polycrystalline silicon germanium carbon layers in the temperature range from 350xc2x0 C. to 1200xc2x0 C.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performing in-situ p- or n-type doping of epitaxial single crystal silicon carbon layers which can withstand furnace anneals to temperatures of 850xc2x0 C. and rapid thermal anneal temperatures to 1000xc2x0 C.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performing in-situ p- or n-type doping of polycrystalline silicon carbon layers which can withstand furnace anneals to temperatures of 850xc2x0 C. and rapid thermal anneal temperatures to 1000xc2x0 C.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performing in-situ p- or n-type doping of epitaxial single crystal silicon germanium carbon layers which can withstand furnace anneals to temperatures of 850xc2x0 C. and rapid thermal anneal temperatures to 1000xc2x0 C.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performing in-situ p- or n-type doping of polycrystalline silicon germanium carbon layers which can withstand furnace anneals to temperatures of 850xc2x0 C. and rapid thermal anneal temperatures to 1000xc2x0 C.

Epitaxial and polycrystalline growth of Si1-x-yGexCy and Si1-yCy alloy layers on Si by UHV-CVD

International Business Machines Corporation


A system includes: a radar scanner disposed to scan the interior of a container; an interrogator in communication with the scanner; and a processing system in communication with the interrogator, in which the processing system displays information about the interior of the container. A method includes: mounting a radar scanner antenna to a container so as to scan the interior of the container; connecting a coupler to the scanner so that the scanner communicates scanning data via the coupler to the exterior of the container. Another method includes: coupling an interrogator and radar processing system to a scanner mounted on a container; and processing radar scan data from the interior of the container. Another method includes: linking a radar processing system via a communications link to an interrogator that is coupled to a scanner mounted on a container; and processing radar scan data from the interior of the container.

The present disclosure generally relates to radio frequency (RF) detection and ranging (RADAR) and, more particularly, to providing surveillance information about interior spaces where radar is ordinarily not applicable such as the interior of metal cargo containers.
Portable, hand-held radars have been used for detection of hidden objects, e.g., objects such as weapons hidden behind a wall of a building. Some portable, hand-held radar units are capable of discriminating living individuals from inanimate objects and detecting whether an individual may be carrying an object of interest such as a concealed weapon or an improvised explosive device (IED). Such technology may be useful in situations where surveillance of an inhabitable area from behind a surface—such as a building wall, block wall, construction fence screen, boundary fence, or other non-electrically shielded obstruction—may be desired. Some examples include detecting illegal activities such as smuggling or illegal border crossings or, for example, detecting the presence of hostile individuals in a war zone or terrorist situation. In some situations, e.g., police work, military combat scenarios, fire and rescue situations, or border and immigration control, it may be desirable to be able to detect living individuals, and various objects that may be in their possession using a portable, hand-held or other widely deployable radar system from outside any kind of structure occupied by the individuals, for example, a building, temporary shelter, or vehicle. Such portable, hand-held radars may not be applicable, however, for interior spaces that are electrically shielded from a radar unit at the exterior, such as a metal shipping container, metal semi-trailer rig, or metal or carbon fiber aircraft fuselage, for example.

Remote interrogation for detection of activity or living organisms inside electronically conductive containers


An intersection navigation system for a hoist to prevent a hoist unit of the hoist from falling when the hoist unit passes an intersection may include a hoist unit including an auxiliary mover and a railway on which the hoist unit travels. The railway may include an intersection having auxiliary rails on which the auxiliary mover moves. Furthermore, the auxiliary mover may be configured to prevent the hoist unit from falling when the hoist unit passes through the intersection.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to an intersection navigation system for a hoist to prevent a mover of a hoist unit from falling when the hoist unit passes an intersection.
2. Description of the Related Art
"Hoists" generally refer to devices that lift and transport articles. Hoists are used for transportation of freight in, e.g., storehouses and railroad stations, or for assembly and disassembly of machines in factories. In addition, hoists are used for transfer of semiconductor materials.
In the case of a ceiling traveling type hoist, rails on which the hoist will move are mounted to the ceiling, and a mover of the hoist moves along the rails to transport an article.
The hoist includes the mover to move on the rails upon receiving drive force, and a gripper to lift the article.
To change a movement direction during forward movement on the rails, the hoist uses branch rails diverged from a progress direction thereof. Selecting whether the hoist will move in the progress direction or in the diverged direction may be realized by changing a position of a divergence wheel provided at an upper end of the mover of the hoist.
However, using only the branch rails may cause an extended movement path from a starting position to a target position, resulting in inefficient operation of the hoist. That is, changing the movement direction of the hoist using the branch rails may result in long distance movement of the hoist in a roundabout way.


A manifold for a medicament dispenser, where a manifold body defines a chimney with an inlet and an exit for directing airflow from the inlet to the exit, and a chamber with a chamber inlet and chamber exit. The chimney exit and the chamber inlet lie side-by-side each other such that when the open blister pocket of the blister pack is positioned adjacent thereto, the airflow may be directed from the chimney exit to the chamber inlet via the open blister pocket to entrain the medicament powder, enabling transport of powder in the airflow from chamber inlet to chamber outlet. The chimney creates turbulence in the airflow at the open blister pocket. The manifold comprises plural chimney exits, located at an angle relative to each other of from 150° to 30° such that, in use, plural airflow jets are directed at different and conflicting angles towards the open blister pocket.

The use of inhalation devices in the administration of medicaments, for example in bronchodilation therapy is well known. Such devices generally comprise a body or housing within which a medicament carrier is located. Known inhalation devices include those in which the medicament carrier is a blister pack containing a number of blister pockets for containment of medicament in dry powder form. Such devices typically contain a mechanism for accessing a medicament dose by opening one or more blister pockets. The mechanism for example, comprises either piercing means or peeling means to peel a lid sheet away from a base sheet of the blister pack. The powdered medicament is then liberated from the opened blister pocket(s) for inhaled delivery to the patient.
Inhalation devices of the type described above comprise an element, generally referred to as a manifold, for guiding airflow towards one or more opened blister pocket(s) for liberating the powder contained therein; and subsequently guiding that liberated powder to a mouthpiece for inhalation by a patient. It is appreciated that the characteristics of the manifold are important in both ensuring effective liberation of powder and in subsequent guiding that liberated powder to the mouthpiece.
The Applicant has now appreciated that the form of the manifold can affect the particle size characteristics of the liberated medicament powder, which characteristics are known to be pharmaceutically important. In particular, the Applicant has appreciated that fine particle fraction can be influenced by the form of the manifold. As known in the art, "fine particle fraction" or FP Fraction generally refers to the percentage of particles within a given dose of aerosolized medicament that is of "respirable" size. It is desirable that the form of the manifold acts such as to increase the FP Fraction of the liberated powder that is made available at the mouthpiece for inhalation by the patient.
In one aspect, the Applicant has now found that the liberation of powder from the pocket is enhanced if a turbulent (e.g. high shear) airflow is directed towards the pocket. Such enhancement can be of particular value where liberation of the powder from the pocket is otherwise difficult to achieve in a conventional airflow.

Manifold for use in medicament dispenser


A pre-coding method for improving diversity gain in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system and a transmission apparatus and method are disclosed. The transmission method includes converting an input transmission signal into parallel signals, pre-coding the parallel signals with a predetermined frequency offset, performing Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) on the pre-coded signals, and up-converting the IDFT signals and outputting the up-converted signals to a wireless network. By performing pre-coding on a transmission signal with a frequency offset in an OFDM system, diversity gain can be improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an apparatus and method for improving diversity gain in a wireless communication system, and in particular, to a pre-coding method for improving diversity gain in a mobile communication system based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and a transmission apparatus and method using the pre-coding method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, the term "wireless communication system" refers to a system that has been developed for communication between terminals where a fixed wire network is not used for connecting to a terminal. The wireless communication system can typically be a mobile communication system, a wireless local area network (WLAN), a Wireless broadband (Wibro) system, and a mobile Ad Hoc system.
Unlike general wireless communication, mobile communication assumes a user's mobility. One purpose of mobile communication is to allow users to exchange information media using cellular phones and wireless pagers anywhere, anytime, and anyplace.
A typical mobile communication system is a cellular system. The term "cellular system" refers to a system in which a service area is divided into several cells and each of the cells has installed therein a single wireless base station (cellular base station) operating at a different frequency than the frequency assigned to its adjacent cell, thereby allowing the reuse of frequency. A service area covered by the single wireless base station is referred to as a cell. As such, the system operates per unit cell and thus is called a cellular system.
With the rapid development of communication technology, current mobile communication systems have evolved from the initial stage of providing only a voice service to the stage of providing a data service to users moving at high speeds. Rapidly developing wireless communication techniques in various forms have been widely used in our daily lives. After Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA) communication technology, known as second-generation communication technology, current communication technology enables high-speed transmission of data-information as well as voice information using third-generation wireless communication technology called International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT)-2000. In addition, Wibro or a next-generation wireless communication system that transmits higher-speed data aims at efficiently providing a high-speed packet data service. Such development of communication technology has been made in order to provide higher-quality services to users and to provide techniques for efficient system operation to operators. A representative one of the communication technology is an OFDM system that performs communication using multi-carriers.
The OFDM system divides a broadband channel into several narrow band channels, allocates frequencies that are orthogonal to each other to the channels, and transmits different data simultaneously on the orthogonal frequencies, thus being suitable for high-speed data transmission. The OFDM system can increase the number of symbol intervals for each sub-carrier to as many as the number of sub-carriers, thereby effectively reducing Inter Symbol Interference (ISI) caused by a frequency selective fading channel, and thereby simplifying the structure of a receiver.
Although the OFDM system can reduce ISI and fading resulting from multiple paths, gain from a diversity effect cannot be expected. Therefore, the OFDM system also needs a technique for improving diversity gain.

Pre-coding method for providing diversity gain in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system and transmission apparatus and method using the pre-coding method


To determine whether an IoT system connected with a network environment (e.g., the internet) is compromised, a networked Trust as a Service (TaaS) server receives system data indicative of various characteristics of the IoT system, wherein the system data is harvested by a software agent installed on the IoT system. The TaaS server initially establishes a baseline characteristics profile for the IoT system, such that subsequently received system data from the software agent may be compared against the baseline characteristics profile to quickly identify discrepancies between the originally established baseline characteristics profile and current operating characteristics of the system. Such discrepancies may be caused by desirable software updates, in which case the discrepancies may be integrated into the baseline characteristics profile, or the discrepancies may result from the IoT system being undesirably compromised.

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) has introduced a new paradigm of distributed sensors and actuators that are embedded in industrial systems, and connected via an industrial IoT network. The key benefits of this include a high granularity of embedded sensor points that add critical real time visibility to the behavior of the factory systems. This enables modern systems to scale to automated, self-aware, just in time factories.
The current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing is often referred to as Industrie 4.0 or Factory of the Future. The Industrie 4.0 evolution leverages digital transformation and is characterized by four stages of visibility, transparency, predictive capacity, and adaptability. Real-time visibility is an essential step for the evolution to self-aware Industrial IoT (IIoT) systems.
The network has become a critical part of modern manufacturing systems. Modern factory applications typically put higher demands on these networks as they support higher load demands that directly impact operations' performance.
IIoT trustworthiness may be defined as the degree of confidence one has that the system performs as expected in the face of environmental disruptions, human errors, system faults and attacks. Systems are made trustworthy to merit the trust of their users. An IIoT trustworthiness is often expressed via a combination of characteristics, i.e., key aspects of security, safety, resilience, reliability, and privacy. The process for establishing and tracking IIoT trustworthiness may be utilized to track the trustworthiness of individual IIoT devices as they progress through their initial manufacturing process and into normal use in an industrial manufacturing environment.
A key challenge with conventional systems is that there is often no consistent framework to validate and establish trust into the authenticity and integrity of IIoT devices. Anomalies during the manufacturing process could adversely affect the effectiveness of the process, and/or the integrity of manufactured products.
The development, manufacturing, installation and operation of an IIoT system (e.g., encompassing one or more IIoT devices, manufacturing processes/machinery, factories, and/or the like) typically involves multiple organizations. The device and artifacts (application software and OS) installed on a device or other system can be compromised at any stage during the device's lifetime. A person can replace any component of the device during its manufacturing installation or operations stages.
There is no common, intuitive gauge to express a level of trustworthiness associated with an IIoT device. Such a gauge could provide the confidence that a manufacturing site or product meets operational standards. Furthermore, currently there is no flexible means to monitor a device's trustworthiness as it moves from the manufacturing floor to its deployment location which could be anywhere globally. Moreover, even if trustworthiness could be certified during the manufacturing phase, there is currently no consistent means for verifying the authenticity of a product during the life of the product.

System and method for enabling and verifying the trustworthiness of a hardware system


A heat pipe comprising a hermetic shell tube, a heat conveying fluid within the shell tube and a plurality of capillary circumferential or axial grooves provided entirely of an inner surface of the shell. A capillary axial channel structure which includes axially extending plates defining a U-shaped or V-shaped channels therebetween circumferential grooves and having an opening defining therein a meniscus of the heat conveying fluid in the liquid phase at least in the evaporator section and the condenser section. The capillary axial channel structure may comprise an inner tube for defining a tubular, axially extending capillary space therebetween. The inner tube has open ends disposed within the evaporation and condensation sections for allowing the heat conveying fluid to flow therethrough.

This invention relates to a heat pipe and, more particularly, to a heat pipe for conveying heat from an evaporation section to a condensation section by circulating a working fluid between the evaporation section and the condensation section.
FIG. 8 illustrates one example of a conventional composite wick heat pipe disclosed in "Heat Pipe Theory and Practice" S. W. Chi, in which 1 is an evaporation section and 2 is a condensation section. FIG. 9a is a vertical sectional view of the evaporation section 1, and FIG. 9b is a vertical sectional view of the condensation section 2. In these FIGURES, reference numeral 3 designates a first capillary material which is a coarse felt material disposed at the center of a shell tube 10, and 4 designates a second capillary material attached to the inner surface 5 of the shell tube 10. A working fluid or a heat conveying medium such as ammonia, Freon (trade name) and the like is disposed within the first and the second capillary materials 3 and 4. Reference numeral 6 is a heat source such as an electronic device to be cooled and attached to one end of the shell tube 10, and 7 is a cooling unit such as a radiator attached to the other end of the shell tube 10.
With the conventional heat pipe as above described, when one end of the heat pipe is heated by the heat source 6, the working fluid in the form of liquid impregnated in the second capillary material 4 attached to the inner surface 5 of the shell tube 10 is heated and evaporated. The evaporated working fluid flows through a vapor phase region 8 defined in spaces above and below the first capillary material 3 as shown by arrows A in FIG. 8 into the condensation section 2, where it is cooled and condensed by the radiator 7. The condensed working fluid penetrates the second capillary material 4 as shown by arrows B in FIG. 8 and then into the first capillary material 3 disposed at the central portion of the pipe through the capillary action as shown by arrows C in FIG. 9b. The working fluid which penetrates into the first capillary material 3 is further caused to flow by capillary action through the first capillary material 3 as shown by arrows D in FIG. 8 into the evaporation section 1, where it flows into the second capillary material 4 as shown by arrows E in FIG. 9a and is heated and evaporated again by the heat source 6. The heat is thus conveyed from the evaporation section 1 to the condensation section 2 with a small temperature difference by the circulation of the working fluid.
Since a conventional composite wick heat pipe is constructed as above described, the working fluid vapor or a non-evaporating gas such as air generated or trapped within the first capillary material 3 is very difficult to purge and once such gas is trapped and stays in the capillary material, the flow of the working fluid is impeded, whereby the heat conveying capacity of the heat pipe decreases. This may cause the temperature of the evaporation section 1 of the heat pipe to increase rapidly, so that the temperature of the electronic unit 6 to be cooled increases, which causes the failure of or a decrease of the reliability of the electronic unit 6 to be cooled.


A system generally including a delivery module and metering modules adapted to deliver grease to process valves. The metering modules each include a grease metering device including either: a grease cylinder, a piston extending within the grease cylinder, and a first actuator; or a casing, a rotor extending within the casing, and a second actuator. The delivery module includes a grease container and a fluid transport device adapted to deliver grease from the grease container to the grease metering modules. A control unit is adapted to control: the first actuator(s) to stroke the piston(s) within the grease cylinder(s) so that respective amounts of the delivered grease are metered to the process valves; and/or the second actuator(s) to rotate the rotor(s) within the casing(s) so that the respective amounts of the delivered grease are metered to the process valves.

Certain valves used in, for example, oil and gas operations encounter debris and contaminants, which can severely impair the performance of these valves. To address this issue, specific amounts of grease must be injected into the valves to flush the debris and contaminants. Currently, to inject appropriate amounts of grease into such valves, an operator manually connects a pump to the valves one at a time and pumps grease to each valve for a predetermined amount of time. In some cases, since this process is inherently inexact, operators will pump for extra time to ensure that an adequate amount of grease is pumped into each valve. In other cases, a less than adequate amount of grease is pumped into each valve, increasing the risk of malfunction and maintenance needs. Accordingly, an apparatus, system, or method capable of injecting grease into numerous valves and monitoring the amount of grease injected into each valve would be desirable. Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus, system, or method that addresses one or more of the foregoing issues and/or one or more other issues.

Delivering and metering grease to process valves


A wash-aid dispenser (20) for dispensing dishwasher detergent and rinse-aid employs a DC motor (46) and drive train (43) to separately actuate a door (23) for the release of detergent and a valve (21) for the release of rinse-aid allowing reduced noise and reduce energy operation using a single electric actuator.

Dishwashers, such as those found in many homes, provide a wash cavity holding one or more racks into which dishes, flatware, and the like may be placed for cleaning. The wash cavity may be sealed by a door opening at the front of the wash cavity to allow loading and unloading of the cavity but then closed during a washing cycle to prevent the escape of water sprayed within the volume of the wash cavity. Upon completion of the washing cycle, a drying cycle is initiated during which water is drained from the wash cavity and moist air is discharged through a vent or the like.
A washing session may include a pre-wash portion in which the dishes are rinsed with or without the application of detergent. Accordingly, most dishwashers provide for automatic detergent dispensing, for example, from an in-door dispenser, that can be automatically triggered at a later time than the wash cycle begins. A separate dispenser may provide an actuator for dispensing a rinse-aid, typically during the rinse cycle, such as assists in drying of the dishes and reduces water spotting.
An electrical solenoid may be used in the dispenser to activate mechanisms releasing detergent and rinse-aid. Typically, a single electrical solenoid operates to simultaneously dispense detergent and rinse-aid thereby reducing complexity and cost of the dispenser. At a time when detergent should be dispensed, the solenoid operates briefly to release a spring-loaded door covering a chamber holding the detergent while also dispensing a small amount of rinse-aid. This small amount of dispensed rinse-aid is an accommodation to the use of a single actuator.
At a time when rinse-aid should be dispensed, the spring-loaded door containing the detergent has already been opened and the detergent fully dispensed; accordingly the solenoid may be operated over a length of time necessary to release operative amounts of rinse-aid without concern about the detergent dispenser.
The rapid motion of an electrical solenoid can create substantial noise. In addition an electrical solenoid may consume significant electrical power when operated for an extended duration during the dispensing of rinse-aid. Slower, relatively quiet actuators such as wax motors and bimetallic elements can significantly reduce the actuation noise of the dispenser but may be insufficiently fast in response to allow a single actuator to release the detergent door while minimizing undesired dispensing of the rinse-aid. Wax motors and bimetallic elements, like solenoids, consume power while actuated.

Motor driven in-door dishwasher aid dispenser


Apparatuses and methods for supporting a receptacle block in a device testing a unit under test. The unit under test includes the receptacle block, which has one or more receptacles electrically coupled to components of the unit under test. A support includes a plurality of supporting surfaces that are respectively positioned at different depths. A positioning mechanism positions the support behind a receptacle block.

The present invention relates generally to testing and/or manufacturing.
A Functional Circuit Test (FCT) assesses a unit under test such as a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA). Typically, the unit under test is placed within a test fixture and connected to one or more testing circuits via electrical connectors. PCBAs usually include at least one receptacle block mounted thereon. The receptacle block contains one or more receptacles that engage the electrical connectors. The receptacles are coupled to components on the PCBA that are tested during the FCT.
Automated or manually operated systems urge the connectors toward and into the receptacle block so that an FCT can be conducted. To support and hold one or usually multiple electrical connectors, a typical test fixture includes a connector holder block. The system moves the connector holder block toward the PCBA so that the connectors enter the connector receptacle block simultaneously and engage the receptacles to enable the functional test of the PCBA.
When the connectors are inserted into the receptacle block in this manner, however, significant forces are applied to the receptacle block. The receptacle block typically deflects because of these insertion forces. Such deflection, especially if the connector block moves too great a distance toward the receptacle block, leads to stress in the PCBA and the electrical components that are mounted on it.
A common approach to address this problem employs a support that is moved into place behind the receptacle block. The support limits deflection and prevents over-stressing of the circuit board.
The test fixture may be configured so that the support, when placed in position behind the receptacle block, has a fixed location. This makes automatic positioning of the support easier. However, dimensional variability among different receptacle blocks creates concerns with this approach. If the receptacle block depth is smaller than that for which the support is configured, the support may be positioned too far back to provide needed support. Excessive deflection and stress to the PCBA may occur, leading to damage of the printed circuit board or components of the PCBA. If the connector block depth is greater than the connector block for which the support is configured, the support may interfere with the connector block as the support is moved into place, which may damage the PCBA or the PCBA-mounted receptacle block.
To accommodate different PCBA structures, a testing facility may need to readjust the position of the support each time production and testing change from one PCBA configuration to another. If the readjustment of conventional supports is not made when testing different PCBA configurations, the supports may be set with too much space between the support and the receptacle block, allowing too much deflection before providing support and preventing damage to the PCBA. Alternatively, if the conventional support is set too close to the receptacle block, and a too-large receptacle block is tested, interference between the support and the receptacle block may occur when the support block is moved into position. Such corrective readjustment, however, increases testing and production costs, and the amount of adjustment necessary may not be feasible in some instances.

Support for a receptacle block of a unit under test

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


The invention provides small molecule drugs that are chemically modified by covalent attachment of a water soluble oligomer. A conjugate of the invention, when administered by any of a number of administration routes, exhibits characteristics that are different from the characteristics of the small molecule drug not attached to the water soluble oligomer.

Drugs currently known as calcium channel blockers (CCB) (also called calcium antagonists), among other actions, inhibit calcium-evoked contractions in depolarized smooth muscles. Blocking the entry of calcium reduces the active tone of vascular smooth muscle and produces vasodilatation. This pharmacological property has, at a minimum, been one of the bases for the use of CCBs in the management of hypertension and coronary heart disease. CCBs may have other effects that help prevent the primary complications of hypertension, such as atherosclerosis, stroke, peripheral arterial disease, heart failure and end-state renal disease. CCBs are prescribed for the treatment and/or prophylaxis of vasospastic angina, including spontaneous coronary artery spasm presenting as Prinzmetal's angina, chronic stable angina, unstable angina, arrhythmias, such as arrhythmias associated with digitalis therapy, and arrhythmias associated with stress in chronic arterial flutter or arterial fibrillation, supraventricular tachyrrhythmias, paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, and subarachnoid hemorrhage. In addition, CCBs are prescribed for treatment and/or prevention of reinfarction of non-Q-wave myocardial infarction, tardive dyskinesia, Raynaud's syndrome, coronary heart disease, migraine, pulmonary hypertension, asthma, preterm labor, severe pregnancy-associated hypertension, esophageal disorders, biliary and renal colic, cardiomyopathy, coronary artery disease, and depression. As a class, CCBs represent an important and useful tool in pharmacotherapy.
Many CCBs can be divided into three categories based on their chemical structure; these three categories are diphenylalkylamines, benzothiazepines, and dihydropyridines.
With respect to the diphenylalkylamines, verapamil (described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,261,859) is one member of this category of CCBs, along with 2-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-5-[2-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)ethyl-methyl-amino]-2-(1-methylethyl)pentanenitrile, the structure of which is shown immediately below.

Oligomer-calcium channel blocker conjugates


A dry-type quantitative glucose-analyzing element comprising a water-impermeable light-transmissive support having thereon a group of water-permeable layers comprising a reagent layer, an enzyme-containing layer, and a porous spreading layer which are laminated on said support in this order, and a hydrogen peroxide-detecting coloring composition comprising a hydrogen donor and a coupler; wherein. said reagent layer contains at least said coupler; PA0 said enzyme-containing layer contains a glucose oxidase, a peroxidase and a mordant which immobilizes a dye formed by said coloring composition; and PA0 said hydrogen donor is contained in at least one water-permeable layer of said group. Using the element, quantitative determination of glucose of high concentration is possible with high accuracy.

JP-A-60-82859 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"; corresponding patent written in English or German are shown after the Examples hereof) illustrates a quantitative glucose analyzing element having an oxidase layer. This dry-type quantitative glucose-analyzing element is characterized in that it contains a peroxidase in the reagent layer. However, it has a drawback in that the accuracy of quantitative analysis of glucose is lower in the higher concentration range due to the smaller gradient of the calibration curve in the higher concentration range.


A light pipe includes a plate-like member having light output means formed in its upper surface so that light incident on an incidence side surface of the plate-like member is exited from the lower surface of the plate-like member through the light output means, an adhesive layer having a refractive index lower than that of the plate-like member, and (i) an anti-reflection layer made of a circularly polarizer and bonded to a lower surface of the plate-like member through the adhesive layer or (ii) a light-diffusing layer having a surface of fine prismatic structures and bonded to a lower surface of the plate-like member through the adhesive layer. A plane light source unit includes at least one light source disposed on one side surface of the light pipe. A reflection type liquid-crystal display device includes the plane light source unit and a liquid-crystal cell including a reflection layer disposed on the light output side of the plane light source unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light pipe excellent in light-utilizing efficiency to make it possible to form a reflection type liquid-crystal display device bright and easy to view, and a plane light source unit using the light pipe.
The present application is based on Japanese Patent Applications No. 2000-190512 and 2000-258354, which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known a reflection type liquid-crystal display device using a front-lighting system in which a plane light source unit including a side-lighting type light pipe making viewing in a dark place, or the like, possible is disposed on the visual side and in which an anti-reflection layer including a circularly polarizer is added to a lower surface of the light pipe (Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei. 12-111900). When a display screen is viewed through the plane light source unit disposed on the visual side, light reflected by a liquid-crystal cell, or the like, under the light pipe overlaps a display image to thereby cause white paling or lowering of contrast, resulting in deterioration of visibility both in an operating mode and in an external light mode. Therefore, the anti-reflection layer is provided for preventing the reflected light from being generated. In the background-art reflection type liquid-crystal display device, however, lowering of luminance caused by addition of the anti-reflection layer is conspicuous in an operating mode. Moreover, luminance decreases largely as the position goes farther from the light source. There is a problem that variation in brightness and darkness is large.
Further, there is also known a reflection type liquid-crystal display device using a front-lighting system in which a plane light source unit constituted by a side-lighting type light pipe to make viewing in a dark place, or the like, possible is disposed on the visual side and in which a light-diffusing layer having a surface of fine prismatic structures is added to a lower surface of the light pipe through an adhesive layer (Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei. 11-281980). Output light (display light) interferes with light reflected by the lower surface of the light pipe and by the liquid-crystal cell, so that moire (stripe-like brightness and darkness) occurs. The light-diffusing layer is provided for the purposes of: preventing the moire by scatter reflection, scattering at the time of transmission; preventing external incident light from being reflected by the lower surface of the light pipe and from forming an image of the external incident light. The moire reduces visibility greatly because a stripe pattern of brightness and darkness moves in a viewing position to form a glare visual sense. In the background-art reflection type liquid-crystal display device, however, contrariwise to the aforementioned advantage given by the addition of the light-diffusing layer, luminance in an operating mode decreases greatly as the position goes farther from a light source. Hence, there is also a problem that the display device has the disadvantage that variation in brightness and darkness becomes large.
An object of the present invention is to develop a light pipe and a plane light source unit in which an anti-reflection layer is added to thereby suppress lowering of luminance and variation in luminance in an operating mode while white paling, lowering of contrast, or the like, deteriorating visibility because of overlapping of light reflected by the lower surface side of the light pipe with a display image is prevented both in an operating mode and in an external light mode to thereby make it possible to form a reflection type liquid-crystal display device which uses a front-lighting system and which is excellent in visibility such as contrast, brightness, etc.
An object of the present invention is to develop a light pipe and a plane light source unit in which a light-diffusing layer is added to thereby suppress variation in luminance in an operating mode while preventing an image of external incident light from being formed and preventing moire from occurring to thereby make it possible to form a reflection type liquid-crystal display device which uses a front-lighting system and which is bright and excellent in display quality.
From a first aspect, the present invention provides a reflection type liquid-crystal display device comprising a light pipe including a plate-like member having light output means formed in its upper surface so that light incident on an incidence side surface of the plate-like member is exited from the lower surface of the plate-like member through the light output means, an adhesive layer having a refractive index lower than that of the plate-like member, and an anti-reflection layer made of a circularly polarizer and bonded to a lower surface of the plate-like member through the adhesive layer; a plane light source unit including at least one light source disposed on one side surface of the light pipe; and a liquid-crystal cell including a reflection layer disposed on the light output side of the plane light source unit.
According to the above invention, the anti-reflection layer including a circularly polarizer and provided on the lower surface of the plate-like member suppresses light reflected by the lower surface of the light pipe and leaking from the upper surface of the plate-like member without entering the liquid-crystal cell or the like. Hence, the leaking light to be a cause of generation of white paling or lowering of contrast because of overlapping of the leaking light with the display image from the liquid-crystal cell in viewing from the upper surface is little so that good visibility can be achieved both in an operating mode and in an external light mode. Incidentally, the reflectance by the lower surface of the light pipe is estimated as a value of from about 3 to about 5% in light output from the light pipe or in external incident light. In this case, the reflected light has strong influence on white paling or contrast of the display image if the reflected light is not suppressed by the anti-reflection layer.
On the other hand, the anti-reflection layer is bonded through an adhesive layer having a refractive index lower than that of the plate-like member. Hence, lowering of luminance or variation in luminance in an operating mode can be reduced greatly. This is based on the investigation on the problem in the background-art method. That is, it was conceived in the background art that suppression of reflection in the interface between the plate-like member and the anti-reflection layer was favorable for improvement of luminance and that bonding the plate-like member to the anti-reflection layer through an adhesive layer having a refractive index as near as possible to reduce the difference between refractive indices in respective interfaces as greatly as possible was favorable for improvement of luminance. In this case, however, light xcex20 incident on the side surface of the plate-like member or transmitted light thereof is apt to be transmitted through the adhesive layer 14 because of the lowering of the interfacial refractive index difference and enter a linearly polarizer 12b constituting the anti-reflection layer 12 as represented by the bent arrows xcex20, xcex21 and xcex10xe2x80x3 in FIG. 8. Generally, about a half of the light xcex21 entering the linearly polarizer is absorbed. Hence, the light xcex10xe2x80x3 transmitted backward is reduced greatly because of the absorption loss of the light xcex21.
On the other hand, in accordance with the present invention, the incident light xcex20 is apt to be totally reflected because of the refractive index difference between the plate-like member and the adhesive layer 13 as represented by the bent arrows xcex20 and xcex10xe2x80x2 in FIG. 7. Moreover, light which is large in incident angle on the adhesive layer to be apt to be transmitted backward is influenced easily by the total reflection. Hence, the light hardly enters the linearly polarizer and the efficiency of backward transmission of light is improved. As a result, luminance is improved and variation in luminance is reduced, so that uniformity of luminance in the light exit surface of the light pipe is improved. Hence, a plane light source unit for a front-lighting system can be obtained as a unit excellent in light-utilizing efficiency and excellent in brightness and its uniformity. Hence, a reflection type liquid-crystal display device using a front-lighting system can be obtained as a device excellent in contrast and brightness both in an operating mode and in an external light mode and excellent in display quality.
From a second aspect, the present invention provides a reflection type liquid-crystal display device comprising a light pipe including a plate-like member having light output means formed in its upper surface so that light incident on an incidence side surface of the plate-like member is exited from the lower surface of the plate-like member through the light output means, an adhesive layer having a refractive index lower than that of the plate-like member, and a light-diffusing layer having a surface of fine prismatic structures and bonded to the lower surface of the plate-like member through the adhesive layer; a plane light source unit including at least one light source disposed on one side surface of the light pipe; and a liquid-crystal cell including a reflection layer disposed on the light output side of the plane light source unit.
According to the above invention, the light-diffusing layer is bonded through an adhesive layer having a refractive index lower than that of the plate-like member. Hence, variation in luminance in an operating mode can be suppressed greatly. This is based on the investigation on the problem in the background-art method. That is, it was conceived in the background art that suppression of reflection in the interface between the plate-like member and the light-diffusing layer was favorable for improvement of luminance in terms of prevention of reflection loss, and that bonding the plate-like member to the light-diffusing layer through an adhesive layer having a refractive index as near as possible to reduce the difference between refractive indices in respective interfaces as greatly as possible was favorable for improvement of luminance in terms of suppression of reflection loss.
In this case, however, light xcex20 incident on the side surface of the plate-like member 101 or transmitted light thereof is apt to be transmitted through the adhesive layer 115 because of the lowering of the interfacial refractive index difference and enter the light-diffusing layer 112 as represented by the bent arrows xcex20, xcex20xe2x80x2, xcex21xe2x80x2 and xcex21xe2x80x3 in FIG. 15. The incident light is scattered xcex21xe2x80x2 in the interface between the fine structure surface and air, so that there is generated a great amount of light xcex20xe2x80x2, xcex21xe2x80x3 leaking from the upper and lower surfaces of the light pipe. In addition to this, the light xcex20xe2x80x2 leaking from the lower surface is made incident on the liquid-crystal cell 120 at a large incident angle. Hence, the light leaking from the upper and lower surfaces does not contribute to illumination of the liquid-crystal cell and reduces the light to be transmitted to the back of the plate-like member. Moreover, the light xcex21xe2x80x3 leaking from the upper surface is apt to cause lowering of contrast of display light. In addition, scattering owing to the light-diffusing layer brings variation also in the directions of the output light xcex21, xcex22, xcex23 and xcex24 serving as illumination light or display light through the light output means, or the like, to thereby deteriorate light-condensing characteristic to thereby darken display in the viewing direction because of the enlargement of the light distribution.
On the other hand, in accordance with the present invention, the incident light xcex10 is apt to be totally reflected because of the refractive index difference between the plate-like member and the adhesive layer 113 as represented by the bent arrows xcex10 and xcex11 in FIG. 14. Moreover, light which is large in incident angle on the adhesive layer to be transmitted backward is influenced easily by the total reflection. Hence, the light hardly enters the light-diffusing layer 112 and the efficiency of backward transmission of light is improved. Moreover, the directions of the output light xcex11, xcex12, xcex13 and xcex14 through the light output means, or the like, hardly vary. Hence, light-condensing characteristic is improved to thereby improve luminance in a narrow light distribution to there by make display bright in the viewing direction. As a result, a plane light source unit for a front-lighting system can be obtained as a unit excellent in light-utilizing efficiency and excellent in brightness and its uniformity. Hence, a reflection type liquid-crystal display device using a front-lighting system can be obtained as a device excellent in brightness and display quality both in an operating mode and in an external light mode because moire or an image of reflected light of external light is hardly generated.
Features and advantages of the invention will be evident from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments described in conjunction with the attached drawings.

Light pipe, plate light source unit and reflection type liquid-crystal display device


A semiconductor structure and method of forming the same, comprising forming a uniform buffer layer of diffusion-controlling stable material on top of a base gate dielectric layer, and then forming a uniform layer which contains a source of transitional metal atoms, and then annealing the structure to diffuse the transitional metal atoms from their source through the diffusion-controlling material and into the base gate dielectric layer.

For a high performance CMOS device, the inversion capacitance-based oxide-equivalent thickness of the gate dielectrics (Tinv) needs to be scaled down below 16 Å for future technologies. Traditional oxynitride as a gate dielectric material is reaching its technological limits.
In future technology generations, it is highly desirable to replace a silicon dioxide or silicon oxynitride dielectric with a gate material that has a higher dielectric constant. These materials are known as "high k" materials with the term "high k" denoting an insulating material whose dielectric constant is greater than 4.0, preferably greater than about 7.0. The dielectric constants mentioned herein are relative to a vacuum unless otherwise specified. Of the various possibilities, transitional metal oxides, silicates, or oxynitrides such as hafnium oxide, hafnium silicate, or hafnium silicon oxynitride may be the most suitable replacement candidates for conventional gate dielectrics due to their high dielectric constant and relatively low electrical leakage. In addition, Hf-based compounds exhibit a superior thermal stability at high temperatures with respect to other transitional-metal-based insulating compounds and, therefore, are highly preferred. However, high-k gate dielectric materials and related gate structures should simultaneously possess a number of properties to be useful for state-of-the-art MOSFET devices. Suitable combination of these properties is difficult to achieve with known high-k materials, conventional gate structures, and conventional methods of manufacture.
First, as alluded to above, the suitable high-k containing gate dielectric should be "electrically thin" when the gate is biased in inversion creating a large surface density of mobile inversion charge in the transistor channel. The term "electrically thin" denotes a high capacitance per unit area. It is customary to express the inversion capacitance per unit area in terms of equivalent oxide thickness, Tinv. For the purpose of this invention, Tinv is equal to the absolute dielectric constant of silicon dioxide (˜0.345 pF/cm) divided by the measured value of capacitance per unit area in inversion. For instance, a capacitance per unit area in inversion of about 2.16e−6 F/cm2 corresponds to the Tinv of about 16 A. In turn, the gate dielectric capacitance in inversion consists of several parts including the capacitance of dielectric material itself, the so-called quantum mechanical capacitance associated with a finite size of mobile carrier wave function, and the so-called depletion capacitance of adjacent gate electrode. The inversion capacitance breakdown of Tinv for a state-of-the-art MOSFET is as follows: about 3-5 A for the quantum mechanical portion, about 2-5 A for the gate electrode depletion portion, and about 12-14 A for the gate dielectric material itself. One skilled in the art would appreciate the fact that in order to achieve Tinv of about 16 A with a high-k containing insulating material with a thickness-average k of about 7, the total physical thickness of such high-k containing insulating film should be less than 20 A.
Second, in "high k" material compounds, a metal-oxygen bond is easily polarizable under an external electric filed yielding a high dielectric constant (high-k). The very same high polarizability of these bonds results in a scattering of channel mobile charges by remote phonons present in the high-k material. As a result, the transistor drive current can be substantially reduced by the presence of high-k materials in the gate insulator. It is also known that the proximity of the high-k film to the transistor channel plays a major role in the amount of such highly undesirable remote phonon scattering. The closer the high-k material is to the channel, the stronger the remote phonon scattering. Accordingly, it is extremely difficult to achieve an ultra-thin high-k-containing gate insulator that does not degrade the carrier mobility in the transistor channel.
Third, the entire gate structure including the MOSFET channel region, gate dielectric, and gate electrode should be able to support a state-of-the-art CMOS technology with a low transistor threshold voltage from about 0.1V to about 0.4V. While a desirable threshold voltage can be achieved by varying channel doping and selecting a correct work-function of the gate electrode, it can be inadvertently altered by the presence of a large fixed and/or trapped charge at both gate dielectric interfaces and within the dielectric itself. Further, the density of trapped and/or fixed charge can be inadvertently altered by various processes such as exposure to high-temperature (e.g. a 1000 C. junction activation anneal) or during FET operation. In addition, a high density of fixed or trapped charges in the vicinity of transistor channel can lead to an excessive coulomb scattering of the channel carriers and can reduce the channel mobility and transistor drive current. Accordingly, it is highly desirable to minimize the total surface density of such fixed and/or trapped charge to prevent any undesirable shifts in threshold voltage and channel mobility. Typically, the total surface density of fixed and/or trapped charge should be below 8e−7 C.·cm−2 or, equivalently, the surface number density of charged sites should be below about 5e12 cm−2 for a single charged site. A charge density of 8e−7 C.·cm−2 shifts the threshold voltage by about 0.4V for a gate dielectric with capacitance per unit area in inversion of about 2e−6 F·cm−2.
For example, FIG. 1(a) illustrates a conventional approach for fabricating a high-k gate stack 10 where Si substrate 12 has a base oxide layer 14 comprising SiO2 (or a silicon oxynitride—SiON), for example, and a Hf-silicate layer (e.g., HfxSi1-xO2) 16 formed on the base oxide. Typically, the HfxSi1-xO2 layer is deposited by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, and more specifically, by either an Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) CVD process or Metal-Organic CVD (MOCVD) process, or like deposition methods. Due to the nucleation problem of either of the aforementioned CVD methods, the HfSiO2 film becomes discontinuous at region 20, when the film is thinner than about 20 Å, as shown in the TEM photograph provided in FIG. 2. As a result, leakage current increases dramatically as the high-K film is thinned. Further, the highly non-uniform or discontinuous high-k film modulates the electrochemical potential in the transistor channel, and hence, reduces the transistor current. Thus, poor thickness scalability of high-k films results from conventional methods such as the kind illustrated in FIG. 1. Further, a 15-20 Å-thick base oxide film 14 is clearly visible in FIG. 2. The base oxide dielectric constant is not high (between 3.9 and about 6) resulting in an additional 10-15 Å of Tinv. As a result, typical Tinv of the insulating stack 14/16 with a continuous 20 Å-thick HfSiO2 film has the following components: dielectric material 14-20 Å, quantum-mechanical 3-5 Å, and depletion of a conventional polysilicon gate electrode 2-5 Å. That is, it is very difficult to scale down a high-k containing insulating layer to meet the requirement of high performance devices (e.g. Tinv<=16.5 A).
FIG. 3 depicts a graphic diagram plotting Tinv vs. a leakage current metric (Toxgl) for the HfO2 stack. For the purpose of this invention, Toxgl is a physical thickness of pure silicon oxide layer that yields the same leakage current density at the same inversion bias as the measured leakage current density of the sample under test in inversion bias. The conversion of measured leakage current density into the Toxgl metric is typically calibrated for thicker silicon oxide films and then extrapolated for ultra thin films using well-known direct tunneling laws of physics. As shown in FIG. 3, when the physical thickness of the HfO2 is reduced from 20 Å to 15 Å, the leakage current density increases by about 1 to 2 orders of magnitude (as reflected in Toxgl reduced from 2.3 nm to 2.1 nm), while Tinv is nearly unchanged. If the base oxide were thinned down, the channel electron mobility will reduce significantly as shown in FIG. 4, due to the remote phonon scattering and coulomb scattering. For example, a dielectric gate stack 14/16 with a 7-10 Å-thick base oxide film 14 followed by a 25-30 Å-thick HfO2 film 16 results in a reduction of peak channel mobility by more than 50% as shown in FIG. 4. The mobility degradation for thinner high-k containing dielectrics is another fundamental challenge for conventional gate dielectric structures and methods of manufacture.
Furthermore, in another conventional approach for fabricating a high-k gate stack structure 25 as illustrated in FIG. 1(b), a Si substrate 12 includes a layer of HfxSi1-xO2 24 deposited directly thereon without a base oxide (e.g., SiO2 or oxynitride). The structure 25 depicted in FIG. 1(b) further exhibits a high density of interface traps, low mobility and poor thermal stability. If heated above about 500 C., the HfxSi1-xO2 layer 24 reacts with underlying substrate 12 to form a thick layer of base oxide (10 Å-15 Å) yielding final gate dielectric structure similar to that of FIG. 1(a). Accordingly, the structure illustrated in FIG. 1(b) has the same fundamental challenges as that of the structure illustrated in FIG. 1(a).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,624,093 (the '093 Patent) entitled METHOD OF PRODUCING HIGH DIELECTRIC INSULATOR FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUIT proposes a method of forming hafnium silicate by depositing hafnium on a silicon dioxide surface of a silicon wafer and then heating the wafer to produce hafnium silicate. The resulting structure includes a high-k layer only and includes a method step of depositing a metal Hf directly on an SiO2 layer. The benefit of this structure is only in the provision of the high-k dielectric due to high dielectric constant without attendant reduction in Tinv to below 16 Å. Furthermore, the '093 Patent does not teach any solution to the degraded channel mobility in the case of thin high-k containing dielectrics with Tinv<16 Å. Subsequently, methods taught in the '093 Patent are only useful for forming relatively thick high-k containing gate dielectrics that do not suffer much from the mobility degradation effects.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,342,414 (the '414 Patent) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,475,874 (the '874 patent) both entitled DAMASCENE NiSi METAL GATE HIGH-K TRANSISTOR propose a method of forming metal silicide gate by confining a low temperature silicidation metal within a recess which is overlaying on the channel. In the recess area, the high-k dielectric is deposited first. Then, a fully-silicided (FUSI) gate layer is formed by depositing a silicon layer on metal layer and then annealing (in the '414 Patent) or, a FUSI layer is formed by depositing a metal layer on silicon layer and then annealing (in the '874 Patent). In these references, the high-k layer and FUSI are formed in two separate steps. High-k is deposited in advance. Then, Si and metal (or vice versa) are deposited and annealed to form the FUSI. The structure and method disclosed in this patent does not solve the aforementioned high-k scaling problems even though, generally, silicide-based, metal-based, and metallic compound-based (e.g. conductive metal nitrides, borides, carbides, oxides, etc.) gate electrodes result in the reduction or elimination of the depletion portion of Tinv. Since high-k dielectric is deposited by a regular method (either PVD or CVD), the physical thickness of the high-k film made by these methods is limited to about 20 Å in addition to 15-20 Å of the SiON base layer needed for acceptable channel mobility as discussed above. As a result, the Tinv of such conventional high-k containing dielectric and FUSI gate electrode is above about 20 Å. Alternatively, the channel mobility is substantially degraded for base SiON layers thinner than about 15 Å and overall Tinv thinner than about 18 Å. While there are numerous instances of prior art teachings where conventional high-k containing films are employed as gate dielectrics in combination with metal gate structures, the resultant transistor gate structures suffer from the same drawbacks as in the '414 Patent and the '874 Patent. Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to enable physical scaling of the high-k containing gate dielectric layer into the 10 Å-20 Å regime without any substantial mobility degradation.
Related co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/869,658 (the '658 Patent Application), assigned to the assignee hereof and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, entitled "High-temperature stable gate structure with metallic electrode" teaches the use of an ultra thin layer of reactive transitional metal such as titanium on top of the slightly thickened base oxide in the range of from about 13 Å to about 20 Å. During a high temperature step, the reactive metal reacts with the base oxide in a non-oxidizing ambient yielding an ultra thin layer of high-k material. In order to make the resultant high-k film thin and insulating, the application teaches that the metal layer should be as thin as possible but still uniform. This can be accomplished if the metal film is thicker than one monolayer and is deposited by a technique that does not have any nucleation problems in such thin regime. Unfortunately, PVD (physical vapor deposition or sputtering) deposition technique employed in the '658 Patent Application results in damage to the base oxide film by energetic ions. In addition, the method is limited to highly reactive titanium atoms which are known to react with silicon oxide at a relatively low temperature of below about 700 C.
Therefore, a new solution is needed to solve the aforementioned problems with the prior art conventional approaches.

Method of forming an ultra-thin [[HfSiO]] metal silicate film for high performance CMOS applications and semiconductor structure formed in said method

International Business Machines Corporation


A pulse modulation scheme for a thermal printer having pulses which have three different widths.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to continuous tone color thermal printers and, more particularly, to pulse count modulation for such printers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Some thermal printer apparatus use a dye transfer process. In this process, a carrier containing a dye is disposed between a receiver, such as paper, and a print head formed of, for example a plurality of individual thermal heat producing elements often referred to as heating elements or pixels. The receiver and carrier are generally moved relative to the print head which is fixed. When a particular heating element is energized, it is heated and causes dye to transfer, e.g. by sublimation (from the carrier to an image pixel in the receiver). The density or darkness of the printed dye is a function of the temperature of the heating element and the time the carrier is heated. In other words, the heat delivered from the heating element to the carrier causes dye to transfer to an image pixel of a receiver. The amount of dye is directly related to the amount of heat transferred to the carrier.
Thermal dye transfer printer apparatus offer the advantage of true "continuous tone" dye density transfer. By varying the heat applied by each heating element to the carrier a variable dye density image pixel is formed in the receiver.
Continuous tone thermal printers are used to print color images. First a cyan image is printed and then magenta and yellow images are superimposed on the cyan image to form a colored image as shown in FIGS. 1-4 of this application. Any order of printing can be used. Pulse count modulation is often used to provide continuous tone thermal prints. The heat delivered is adjusted by changing the number of pulses applied to each heating element. As shown in FIG. 4, in such a system the pulses have a constant current at a fixed width. In FIG. 4 for purposes of illustration there are only a maximum of four possible pulses. Only one pulse is activated, then the image pixel will have 25% of the maximum density. If two pulses are activated it will have 50%. If three pulses are activated it will have 75% and if all four pulses are activated it will have 100%. Let's assume for a more practical example that the maximum dye density pixel receives 200 pulses. There are then 201 discrete dye density levels since a heating element may receive anywhere between 0 and 200 pulses. U.S. Pat. No. 4,806,949 to Onuma et al discloses a pulse count modulation scheme for printing a multiple tone image with two signals. In this disclosure, the first signal corresponds to the least significant bit of the digital tone data. The second signal is comprised of a series of pulses, each pulse being twice as long in duration as the first signal. The number of pulses in the second signal corresponds to the digital tone data, excluding the least significant bit. The addition of the first signal effectively doubles the number of energy levels (corresponding to density levels) achieved by the pulses in the second signal.

Pulse count modulation for thermal printing


Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for prioritizing database failover. In one embodiment, an order in which to failover databases is determined based on a priority order of databases and the time at which the failover process occurs, which can be used to help reduce possible down time users can experience while waiting for the database most important to them to be failed over.

A database typically refers to a central storage location for information that a user of a program, such as a database management system, can access, share, and/or otherwise modify. Despite best maintenance practices, databases can still fail. Common examples of failure can include system crashes, user error, statement failure, application software errors, network failure, and media failure. Hardware malfunction, a bug in the database software, or the operating system itself are common instances that could cause one of the failures described above. Each time a database fails, a user of a database can lose information and/or halt transactions being conducted on the failed database.
High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HADR) refers to data replication technology that provides a high availability solution for both partial and complete failures of a database. HADR protects against data loss on databases by performing a process known as failover. The failover process replicates data changes from a source database, called the primary, to a target database, called the standby. In the case of failure, the failover of databases hosted on the primary server to the standby server typically occurs in sequential order. On average, each database failover process takes several minutes. Thus, users of a database can experience a down time of a few minutes or longer before databases are failed over and input-output can be resumed.


Organic matter digesting apparatus and methods are provided that can include a digestion tank operatively coupled to a vertically aligned gas collection tower and methods that can include providing a biodigesting apparatus; inputting organic matter into the biodigesting apparatus; initiating the biodigesting apparatus; and outputting water, methane gas, and solid carbon-based material.

Efficient use of resources has always been an important concept. However, this ideal becomes even more important in light of what society now understands about the dangers of not being conscientious about the environment. This contradicts humanity's reliance on exploiting natural resources. However, there are potential resources that man has not exploited fully as of yet, and some of those opportunities can actually benefit the environment. It is the goal of the present disclosure to provide clean water, usable methane gas, and solid carbon material while disposing of organic matter in an environmentally conscientious manner.