A cooling apparatus 1 boiling and condensing refrigerant is constructed to have a stacked construction by stacking a plurality of pressed members 3 and comprises a refrigerant tank portion, a heat exchanging portion and a refrigerant diffusing portion. First openings for passing refrigerant and second openings for passing cooling water are formed in the pressed members 3 used for the heat exchanging portion and the first openings communicate with internal spaces formed in the refrigerant tank portion and the refrigerant diffusing portion. According to the construction, as the cooling apparatus has the stacked construction, tubes and fins that constitute a conventional heat dissipating portion can be eliminated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooling apparatus for cooling a refrigerant, that boils when receiving heat from a heat generating element, through heat exchange between the boiling refrigerant and a cooling medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, a cooling apparatus boiling and condensing refrigerant is known for cooling an inverter which conducts a large amount of electric current for operating a vehicle. This cooling apparatus contains a refrigerant container for storing therein liquid refrigerant and a heat dissipating portion for cooling the refrigerant, that boils when receiving heat generated by a heat generating element mounted on the refrigerant container, through heat exchange between the boiling refrigerant and a cooling medium (for example, cooling air or cooling water).
Heat generated from the heat generating element is transferred to the heat dissipating portion from the refrigerant container when the refrigerant boils or vaporizes and is emitted to the cooling medium as latent heat when the refrigerant is cooled to condense at the heat dissipating portion.
In many conventional cooling apparatuses, however, the heat dissipating portion contains tubes and fins and is fabricated by inserting the tubes in the refrigerant container. In this construction, the dimensional accuracy needs to be strictly controlled, for the tubes and holes in the refrigerant container into which the tubes are inserted, in order to prevent the leakage of the refrigerant, this causing a problem that the production of the components becomes difficult.
In addition, as a construction needs to be provided on the refrigerant container for controlling the insertion amount of the tubes, a volume occupied by the refrigerant container becomes large for the height of the cooling apparatus. As a result, as the volume of the heat dissipating portion becomes small, this causes a problem that the cooling capability becomes insufficient.
The invention was made in view of the above situation and an object thereof is to provide a cooling apparatus boiling and condensing refrigerant which can facilitate the production of the components involved and reduce the volume that is to be occupied by a refrigerant encapsulating portion (a refrigerant tank portion) so as to expand a heat dissipating surface area of the cooling apparatus.
According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a cooling apparatus boiling and condensing refrigerant having a refrigerant tank portion having a heat generating element mounted on a surface thereof and adapted to store therein a refrigerant, and a heat exchanging portion for executing heat exchange between the refrigerant that boils by being heated by heat generated by the heat generating element and a cooling medium, and constructed, as a whole, by stacking a number of plate-like members, wherein first openings that form part of the refrigerant passages and second openings that form part of the cooling passages are provided in the plurality of plate-like members which are used for the heat exchanging portion, the first opening portions being adapted to establish a communication with an internal space of the refrigerant tank portion.
According to the construction, as the cooling apparatus including the refrigerant tank portion and the heat exchanging portion has a stacked construction as a whole, tubes and fins, which are used to constitute the conventional heat dissipating portion, can be eliminated. As a result, as there exists no tube needing to be assembled to be inserted into the refrigerant tank portion, no strict dimension control of component parts is required and therefore the production of component parts is facilitated. In addition, as the adoption of the stacked construction allows the component parts to be assembled from one direction, automation of the assembling process can be easily arranged.
Furthermore, as the elimination of the conventional component parts obviates the necessity of providing the construction for controlling the inserting amount of the tubes into the refrigerant tank portion on the same refrigerant tank portion, the volume of the refrigerant tank portion which occupies part of the overall volume of the cooling apparatus can be reduced. As a result, the heat dissipating surface area of the cooling apparatus can be expanded to thereby improve the heat dissipating performance thereof.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a cooling apparatus boiling and condensing refrigerant having a refrigerant tank portion having a heat generating element mounted on a surface thereof and adapted to store therein a refrigerant, a refrigerant diffusing portion for diffusing the refrigerant that boils by being warmed by heat generated by the heat generating element and a heat exchanging portion provided between the refrigerant tank portion and the refrigerant diffusing portion for executing heat exchange between the boiling refrigerant and a cooling medium, and constructed, as a whole, by stacking a number of plate-like members, wherein first openings that form part of refrigerant passages and second openings that form part of cooling passages are provided in those of the plurality of plate-like members which are used for the heat exchanging portion, the first opening portions being adapted to establish communications with internal spaces of the refrigerant tank portion and the refrigerant diffusing portion.
According to the construction, as the cooling apparatus including the refrigerant tank portion, as well as the heat exchanging portion and the refrigerant diffusing portion has a stacked construction as a whole, tubes and fins, which are used to constitute the conventional heat dissipating portion, can be eliminated. As a result, as there exists no tube needing to be assembled to be inserted into the refrigerant tank portion, no strict dimensional control of component parts is required and therefore the production of component parts is facilitated. In addition, as the adoption of the stacked construction allows the component parts to be assembled from one direction, the automation of the assembling process can be easily arranged.
Furthermore, since the elimination of the conventional tubes obviates the necessity of providing the construction for controlling the inserting amount of the tubes into the refrigerant tank portion on the same refrigerant tank portion, the volume of the refrigerant tank portion which occupies part of the overall volume of the cooling apparatus can be reduced. As a result, the heat dissipating surface area of the cooling apparatus can be expanded to thereby improve the heat dissipating performance thereof.
In the cooling apparatus according to the invention, two different types of plate-like members, which are different from each other in at least the location of the second openings, are used for the heat exchanging portion, the two types of plate-like members being stacked alternately so that the second openings thereof partly communicate with each other.
According to the construction, the second openings provided in the two types of plate-like members partly communicate with each other to thereby form the cooling passages through which the cooling medium is allowed to flow.
In the cooling apparatus according to the invention, the two types of plate-like members each have pillar portions which divide the respective second openings, the locations of the pillar portions being different from each other between the two types of plate-like members.
According to the construction, as the plate-like portions have the pillar portions, the strength of the plate-like portions can be ensured. In addition, as the locations of the pillar portions are different from each other between the two types of plate-like portions, winding cooling passages, not linear cooling passages, extending around the pillar portions, can be formed.
In the cooling apparatus according to the invention, inner fins are inserted in the refrigerant passages and the cooling passages or either of them for increasing the heat conducting surface area.
According to the construction, the heat exchange between the refrigerant and the cooling medium can be promoted to thereby increase the cooling performance of the cooling apparatus.
In the cooling apparatus according to the invention, the inner fins are each formed into a configuration having an elasticity.
As this occurs, in inserting the inner fins into the refrigerant passages or the cooling passages, as the fins can be inserted while being compressed, there is no risk that the fins are hooked at intermediate positions along the length of the passages and therefore the fins can be inserted into the passages easily and securely. In addition, after having been so inserted into the passages, the inner fins can be joined to inner wall surfaces of the passages by utilizing the elasticity thereof, and therefore, joining failures of the inner fins can be advantageously reduced.
In the cooling apparatus according to the invention, the internal capacity of the refrigerant tank portion is set larger than a sum of an internal capacity formed by the first openings of the entirety of the heat exchanging portion and the internal capacity of the refrigerant diffusing portion.
According to the construction, even when the cooling apparatus is put in an inclined posture, there is no risk that part of the boiling surface dries out (dry-out), whereby a deterioration in performance when tilted can be prevented.
In the cooling apparatus according to the invention, the first openings provided in the heat exchanging portion are each constituted by a group of opening holes in which a plurality of opening holes, that are each opened in a circular or rectangular configuration, are formed in a continuous fashion.
According to the construction, the number of pillar portions formed between the opening holes can be increased and, as this can help attempt to increase the condensing surface area, the construction can contribute to the improvement in cooling performance. In addition, as the internal capacity formed by the first openings in the heat exchanging portion on the refrigerant side is reduced, the deterioration in cooling performance of the cooling apparatus, when it is used while being in a tilted posture, can advantageously be suppressed.
In the cooling apparatus according to the invention, tank portions are provided on the plate-like members used for the heat exchanging portion at ends of the second openings, and heat exchanging areas are provided on the plate-like members constituting the refrigerant tank portion and the refrigerant diffusing portion for executing heat exchange between the cooling medium that flows through the tank portions and the refrigerant.
According to the construction, as the heat exchanging areas for executing heat exchange between the refrigerant and the cooling medium are increased, an improvement in performance can be expected. Further, as heat exchanging areas are provided, the internal capacity of the refrigerant side can be increased, and when the cooling apparatus is used while being in a tilted posture, the deterioration in cooling performance thereof can be suppressed.
In the cooling apparatus according to the invention, the heat generating element is mounted at a substantially central portion of the surface of the refrigerant tank portion, and the internal capacity of a portion of the refrigerant tank portion, which belongs to an area thereof which is excluded from an area thereof where the heat generating element is mounted, is set larger than the internal capacity of a portion of the refrigerant tank portion which belongs to the area thereof where the heat generating element is mounted.
According to the construction, as the internal capacity of the portion of the refrigerant tank portion, which belongs to the area of the same tank portion which is excluded from the area thereof where the heat generating element is mounted, can be set larger even when the cooling apparatus is used while being in the tilted posture, there is no risk that the vaporizing surface dries out partially (dry-out), thereby making it possible to prevent the deterioration in cooling performance while the cooling apparatus is being tilted.
According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a cooling apparatus boiling and condensing refrigerant having a refrigerant tank portion having a heat generating element mounted on a surface thereof and adapted to store therein a refrigerant, and a heat exchanging portion for executing heat exchange between the refrigerant, that boils by being warmed by heat generated by the heat generating element, and a cooling medium, and constructed, as a whole, by stacking a number of plate-like members, wherein the heat exchanging portion is constructed by alternately stacking the first plate-like members having first openings, that form part of refrigerant passages to communicate with an internal space in the refrigerant tank portion, and second openings, that form part of cooling passages, and the second plate-like members having at least the first openings, the second plate-like member being set to be thinner than the first plate-like member so as to have a function as a fin.
According to the construction, as the cooling apparatus including the refrigerant tank portion and the heat exchanging portion has a stacked construction as a whole, tubes and fins, which are used to constitute the conventional heat dissipating portion, can be eliminated. As a result, as there exists no tube needing to be assembled to be inserted into the refrigerant tank portion, no strict dimensional control of component parts is required and therefore the production of component parts is facilitated. In addition, as the adoption of the stacked construction allows the component parts to be assembled from one direction, the automation of the assembling process can be easily arranged.
Furthermore, as the elimination of the conventional tubes obviates the necessity of providing the construction for controlling the inserting amount of the tubes into the refrigerant tank portion on the same refrigerant tank portion, the volume of the refrigerant tank portion which occupies part of the overall volume of the cooling apparatus can be reduced. As a result, the heat dissipating surface area of the cooling apparatus can be expanded to thereby improve the heat dissipating performance thereof.
In addition, as both upper and lower surfaces of the second opening formed in the first plate-like member are closed with the thinner second plate-like members, the second plate-like members can play the role of a fin relative to the cooling medium, whereby the heat conducting surface area on the cooling medium side can be increased to thereby improve the cooling performance.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a cooling apparatus boiling and condensing refrigerant having a refrigerant tank portion having a heat generating element mounted on a surface thereof and adapted to store therein a refrigerant, a refrigerant diffusing portion for diffusing the refrigerant that boils by being warmed by heat generated by the heat generating element, and a heat exchanging portion provided between the refrigerant tank portion and the refrigerant diffusing portion for executing heat exchange between the boiling refrigerant and a cooling medium and constructed, as a whole, by stacking a number of plate-like members, wherein the heat exchanging portion is constructed by alternately stacking the first plate-like members having first openings, that form part of refrigerant passages to communicate with internal spaces in the refrigerant tank portion and the refrigerant diffusing portion, and second openings, that form part of cooling passages, and the second plate-like members having at least the first openings, the second plate-like member being set to be thinner than the first plate-like member so as to have a function as a fin.
According to the construction, as the cooling apparatus including the refrigerant tank portion and the heat exchanging portion, as well as the refrigerant diffusing portion, has a stacked construction as a whole, tubes and fins can be eliminated which are used to constitute the conventional heat dissipating portion. As a result, as there exists no tube needing to be assembled to be inserted into the refrigerant tank portion, no strict dimensional control of component parts is required and therefore the production of component parts is facilitated. In addition, as the adoption of the stacked construction allows the component parts to be assembled from one direction, the automation of the assembling process can be easily arranged.
Furthermore, as the elimination of the conventional tubes obviates the necessity of providing the construction for controlling the inserting amount of the tubes into the refrigerant tank portion on the same refrigerant tank portion, the volume of the refrigerant tank portion, which occupies part of the overall volume of the cooling apparatus, can be reduced. As a result, the heat dissipating surface area of the cooling apparatus can be expanded to thereby improve the heat dissipating performance thereof.
In the cooling apparatus according to the invention, the second plate-like member has a communication port which communicates with the second opening formed in the first plate-like member.
According to the construction, since the cooling medium is allowed not only to flow through the second opening in parallel with the first plate-like member but also to pass through the communication port formed in the second plate-like member so as to flow through the heat exchanging portion in a direction in which the plate-like members are stacked, the cooling performance can be increased.
In the cooling apparatus according to the invention, the second opening in the first plate-like member is provided in such a manner as to be divided into a second opening portion and another second opening portion with a pillar portion being left therebetween, and the communication port formed in the second plate-like member is adapted to communicate with both the second opening portion and the other second opening portion.
According to the construction, as the second opening (the second opening portion and the other second opening portion) is formed in the first plate-like member with the pillar portion being left therebetween, the strength of the first plate-like member is increased. In addition, as the communication port formed in the second plate-like member communicates with both one second opening portion and another second opening portion, cooling water is allowed to flow in a winding fashion by flowing around the pillar portions.
In the cooling apparatus according to the invention, a sacrificial material is affixed to one or both sides of at least either of the first plate-like member and the second plate-like member which are both made of a metal.
According to the construction, the affixation of the sacrificial material to the plate-like member can restrain the corrosion of the plate-like member by the cooling medium, the leakage of gas hermetically sealed therein thereby being prevented.
In addition, the sacrificial material is a metallic material having a lower corrosion resistance against the cooling medium than that of the plate-like members and, for example, in the event that the plate-like member is made of aluminum, the sacrificial member can be an aluminum material containing Zn (zinc).
In the cooling apparatus according to the invention, the second-plate like member has a plurality of cut and erected pieces which are provided in such a manner as to be cut and erected from the surface thereof, and these cut and erected pieces protrude into the second opening formed in the first plate-like member.
According to the construction, as the cut and erected pieces are provided in such a manner as to protrude into the second opening through which the cooling medium flows, vertical vortexes can be induced in the cooling medium so as to promote heat conduction (turbulent flows).
In the cooling apparatus according to the invention, the second plate-like member is provided such that the surface of the second plate-like member becomes irregular within the second opening formed in the first plate-like member.
According to the construction, as the cooling medium flows along the irregular configuration in the vicinity of the surface of the second plate-like member, vertical vortexes can be induced in the cooling medium to promote heat conduction (turbulent flows).
In the cooling apparatus according to the invention, the first openings formed in the plurality of plate-like members that are used for the heat exchanging portion are adapted to communicate with one another to form refrigerant passages that communicate with the refrigerant tank portion, and barrier wall portions are provided in the refrigerant passages for disturbing the flow of the refrigerant.
As the refrigerant tank portion and the heat exchanging portion of the cooling apparatus according to the invention are adjacent to each other in the direction in which the plate-like members are stacked, when the thermal load from the heat generating element becomes large, there may occur a case where the liquid refrigerant boils up into the heat exchanging portion which should normally be filled with vaporized refrigerant. As this occurs, and in the event that the liquid refrigerant penetrates into the heat exchanging portion, the actual condensing surface area of the heat exchanging portion is reduced, this reducing, in turn, the cooling performance of the cooling apparatus. The boiling up of liquid refrigerant can be prevented by providing barrier wall portions (for example, a labyrinth construction) within the refrigerant passages which establish a communicate between the refrigerant tank portion and the heat exchanging portion, whereby the deterioration in cooling performance can be suppressed.
In the cooling apparatus according to the invention, the cooling medium is liquid such as water.
In the case of utilizing water as the cooling medium, heat dissipating fins that are used in a cooling apparatus utilizing air as the cooling medium can be eliminated by adopting the stacked construction in which the plurality of plate-like members are stacked as a cooling apparatus.
The present invention may be more fully understood from the description of preferred embodiment of the invention, as set forth below, together with the accompanying drawings.


The present invention is a fungicidal solution and method for controlling fungal disease in plants which provides for contacting the plant matter with a fungicidally effective application of an aqueous solution. The fungicidal solution is comprised of between about one-third (⅓) to two-third (⅔) cup of an organic plant matter to every two-third (⅔) gallon of a fermented solution. The organic solution may be any type of sage, tea leaves, coffee leaves, beech leaves, eucalyptus leaves, oak leaves, sumac leaves, and other similar leaves, or bark. The fermented solution contains between about (1%) one percent to (25%) twenty-five percent, per gallon, of an alcohol and grape juice.

This invention relates to fungicide, and more particularly to an organic fungicide for plants.
Plants are constantly challenged by a wide variety of pathogentic organisms including viruses, bacteria, fungi, and menatodes. Attempts have been made to control plant disease by means of disinfections, replacement of the soil, various cultural practices, and control by chemicals. Some plants suffer from detrimental soil-spread diseases, which have not been possible to control owing to restrictions of use of chemical control agents and hazard periods due to possible residues or lack of sufficiently effective products.
The control of fungi is important since fungal growth on plants or on parts of plants inhibits production of foliage, fruit or seed, and the overall quality of a cultivated crop. About twenty-five (25) percent of all fungal diseases in agricultural and horticulture are caused by powdery mildew phytopathogens.
Due to the vast economic ramifications of fungal propagation in agricultural and horticultural cultivations, a broad spectrum of fungicidal and fungistatic products have been developed for general and specific applications. Such examples are the use of inorganic bicarbonate, carbonate compounds, lecithin, and lime. However, these fungicidal and fungistatic products may be harmful to the environment and may pollute areas such as ground waters. Thus, there is a need for an organic fungal treatment which provides for an inexpensive way to control fungi without harming the environment and protect the plants with a minimum of phytotoxic side effects.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be present in more detail in the following specification of the invention and in the associated figures.
The present invention is a fungicidal solution and method for controlling fungal disease in plants which provides for contacting the plant matter with a fungicidally effective application of an aqueous solution. The fungicidal solution is comprised of between about one-third (⅓) to two-third (⅔) cup of an organic plant matter to every two-third (⅔) gallon of a fermented solution. The organic plant may be any type of sage, tea leaves, coffee leaves, beech leaves, eucalyptus leaves, oak leaves, sumac leaves, and other plant leaves, or bark. The fermented solution contains between about (1%) one percent to (25%) twenty-five percent of alcohol such as ethanol, per gallon of organic plant solution.
The method of preparing the fungicidal solution comprises boiling a solution of at least two-third (⅔) cup of the organic plant matter in one-half (xc2xd) gallon of water, boiling down the solution to one-third (xc2xd) gallon, cooling and straining the solution, and adding at least two-third (⅔) gallon of a fermented solution to the solution.


In an example, a registration request is received from an application provider, the registration request including one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) providing software code for interfacing with a cloud-based application provided by the application provider. The APIs are scanned to identify potential events triggered during execution of the cloud-based application. A graphical user interface (GUI) is caused to be rendered for a customer who has subscribed to the cloud-based application, the GUI providing a first area in which one or more of the potential events are rendered along with a selectable GUI element for each of the rendered one or more potential events and a second area in which the customer may type or upload one or more functions to be executed by the cloud-based application upon triggering of one or more corresponding potential events that have been selected by the customer via their corresponding selectable GUI elements.

Cloud computing is an Information Technology (IT) paradigm that enables ubiquitous access to shared pools of configurable system resources and higher-level services that can be rapidly provisioned with minimal management effort, typically over the Internet. Cloud computing providers often permit companies who wish to distribute and operate cloud-based applications ("application providers") to utilize centralized computing devices without the need for the individual companies to purchase or maintain their own resources.
When an application provider delivers an application into the cloud, however, each of the application provider's customers may have different requirements. In a public cloud scenario, it is often necessary for each customer to be treated the same. Hence it becomes difficult for a product to cater functionalities to each customer, and thus becomes difficult to keep each customer happy.
In the past there have been some attempts at solution to this problem using extensibilities, user-defined flows, and event-driven architecture. These help to at least give some options to the customer so the customer can implement the specific application instances on his or her own, by obtaining the callback as and when required.
The product may perform some processing and have the end result pushed to an external system. This external system is customer-specific. Thus, the original application can raise some events and the customer-specific application running on the external system can listen for those events and implement a custom implementation where data is pushed to an appropriate system.
The problem with such a solution is that each customer has to design a system that has to listen to events that the non-customized application raises, and implement the logic to do the same. The cost (in money and resources) in doing this causes many customers to hesitate to utilize such a solution.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A convertible toy includes a body portion and a base selectively coupled to the body portion. The body portion includes a seat portion, a first pair of leg portions extending from the seat portion, and a first axle extending between the first pair of leg portions. The body portion also includes a second pair of leg portions extending from the seat portion and a second axle extending between the second pair of leg portions. The base includes a curved support portion, a first coupling member coupled to the curved support portion, and a second coupling member coupled to the curved support portion. The first axle of the body portion is selectively coupled to the first coupling member in at least one degree of freedom and the second axle of the body portion is selectively coupled to the second coupling member in at least two degrees of freedom.

The present disclosure is related to convertible toys, and in particular to rocking animal in which the toy resembles an animal, for example, a horse, a dog, or the like. Conventionally known rocking animals include representation of the features of the animal, and allow a child to sit astride the rocking animal to simulate riding. Such rocking horse toys provide amusement to the child users.
Children playing with rocking animals may wish to play with the rocking animal in alternative methods rather than solely rocking the rocking animal. Accordingly, convertible rocking toys that provide alternative movements to rocking alone may be desired.


A variable transmittance element includes two substrates, two transparent electrode layers held between the two substrates, an electrochromic layer held between the two transparent electrode layers and having transmittance that is reversibly changed by electric control, and a first dielectric layer provided between one of the two substrates and one of the two transparent electrode layers closest to the one of the two substrates and configured to reduce reflections. The first dielectric layer is a multilayer film made by alternately laminating two or more layers each having a high refractive index and two or more layers each having a low refractive index, a refractive index difference for a wavelength of 550 nm between the layer having the high refractive index and the layer having the low refractive index being 0.2 or more.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a variable transmittance element, optical system, and optical apparatus utilizing an electrochromic material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. ("JP") 6-95165 discloses a structure of a variable transmittance element in which an electrochromic ("EC") layer and an electrolyte layer are laminated between a pair of transparent electrode layers held between a pair of substrates. The variable transmittance element utilizes an EC material which is colored by electric control and has a reversibly changing transmittance. JP 9-152634 proposes to provide an antireflective film on the side of the substrate opposite to the transparent electrode so as to improve the transmittance of the variable transmittance element that uses the EC material.
When each of these variable transmittance elements is used for the image-pickup optical system and the light quantity is adjusted, a deterioration of the imaging performance caused by the diffraction phenomenon of the conventional variable aperture diaphragm is restrained, and the image-pickup optical system becomes smaller because it requires no driver unlike an ND filter and the arrangement limitation reduces. In addition, it has higher transmittance in the decolored state and is less likely to exhibit the polarization dependency than that of a variable transmittance element that utilizes liquid crystal and a polarizer.
JP 2005-77825 proposes to provide an antireflective layer between a substrate and a transparent electrode. The antireflective layer has a refractive index between the reflective indexes of the substrate and the transparent electrode so as to improve the transmittance of a variable transmittance element that uses an EC material.
However, the conventional variable transmittance element that uses the EC material causes interferences among the layers and reflections due to the refractive index differences of the interfaces among the substrate, the transparent electrode, the EC layer, and the electrolyte layer. Hence, the image-pickup optical system utilizing the variable transmittance element has degraded image performance due to insufficient wavelength flatness (color balance) of the transmitted light and the ghosts caused by the high reflectance.
According to JP 2005-77825, a dielectric thin film having a refractive index between 1.75 and 1.95 can reduce reflections between the substrate and the transparent electrode. It is however difficult to restrain reflections caused by interferences between the transparent electrode layer and EC layer and thus is insufficient to improve the wavelength flatness of the transmitted light and to restrain the ghosts. Moreover, it is technically difficult to stably manufacture (mass-produce) the dielectric thin film having a refractive index between 1.75 and 1.95.

Variable transmittance element, optical system, and optical apparatus utilizing electrochromic material


An electronic device includes a processor and a memory. The processor obtains a group of original specification data of an ambient light sensor, obtains a group of testing data of the ambient light sensor, combines the group of original specification data with the group of testing data to obtain a group of combined data, and analyzes the group of combined data according to a source of the plurality of data and a corresponding wavelength of the plurality of data to obtain a spectral hand table and a channel distribution table of the ambient light sensor.

Electronic devices, such as mobile phones and tablet computers, include ambient light sensors for taking photos, videos, and the like. The ambient light sensor adjusts light according to ambient light detected by the ambient light sensor. The ambient light sensor requires to be accurately calibrated during a production process thereof, which requires a lot of time and human resources.

Ambient light sensor, light transmission analysis method, and system thereof

HONGFUJIN PRECISION ELECTRONICS (ZHENGZHOU) CO., LTD.


Cavity lasers exhibit a relatively high beam quality (e.g., M2<1.25) despite a relatively small cavity length (e.g., 50-53 mm) for a high (e.g., ≧10 watt) output power device. This enables the construction of physically smaller laser and optical assemblies without sacrificing performance. Reduction of optical photonic interference, which can impair imaging performance, is also facilitated. Laser and optical assemblies may utilize an aperture defined within an optical barrier element to reduce the divergence of the light beam emanating from a diode-pumping laser.

In offset lithography, a printable image is present on a printing member as a pattern of ink-accepting (oleophilic) and ink-repellent (oleophobic) surface areas. Once applied to these areas, ink can be efficiently transferred to a recording medium in an imagewise pattern with substantial fidelity. Dry printing systems utilize printing members whose ink-repellent portions are sufficiently phobic to ink as to permit its direct application. Ink applied uniformly to the printing member is transferred to the recording medium in the imagewise pattern. Typically, the printing member first makes contact with a compliant intermediate surface called a blanket cylinder, which, in turn, applies the image to the paper or other recording medium. In typical sheet-fed press systems, the recording medium is pinned to an impression cylinder, which brings it into contact with the blanket cylinder.
In a wet lithographic system, the non-image areas are hydrophilic and the necessary ink-repellency is provided by an initial application of a dampening (or "fountain") solution to the plate prior to inking. The ink-adhesive fountain solution prevents ink from adhering to the non-image areas, but does not affect the oleophilic character of the image areas.
If a press is to print in more than one color, a separate printing member corresponding to each color is required. The original image is decomposed into imagewise patterns, or "separations," that each reflects the contribution of the corresponding printable color. The positions of the printing members are coordinated so that the color components printed by the different members will be in register on the printed copies. Each printing member ordinarily is mounted on (or integral with) a "plate" cylinder, and the set of cylinders associated with a particular color on a press is usually referred to as a printing station.
In most conventional presses, the printing stations are arranged in a straight or "in-line" configuration. Each such station typically includes an impression cylinder, a blanket cylinder, a plate cylinder and the necessary ink (and, in wet systems, dampening) assemblies. The recording material is transferred among the print stations sequentially, each station applying a different ink color to the material to produce a composite multi-color image. Another configuration, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,211, relies on a central impression cylinder that carries a sheet of recording material past each print station, eliminating the need for mechanical transfer of the medium to each print station. With either type of press, the recording medium can be supplied to the print stations in the form of cut sheets or a continuous "web" of material.
o circumvent the cumbersome photographic development, plate-mounting and plate-registration operations that typify traditional printing technologies, practitioners have developed electronic alternatives that store the imagewise pattern in digital form and impress the pattern directly onto the plate. Plate-imaging devices amenable to computer control include various forms of lasers (e.g., cavity-type lasers). For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,339,737; 5,351,617; 5,385,092; 5,822,345; and 5,990,925, the entirety of which are incorporated herein by reference, disclose ablative/sub-ablative recording systems that use laser discharges to remove, in an imagewise pattern, one or more layers of a lithographic printing blank, thereby creating a ready-to-ink printing member without the need for photographic development. In accordance with those systems, laser output is guided from a diode to a printing surface and focused onto that surface (or, desirably, onto a layer most susceptible to laser ablation, which will generally lie beneath the surface layer). Other systems use laser energy to cause transfer of material from a donor to an acceptor sheet, to record non-ablatively, or as a pointwise alternative to overall exposure through a photomask or negative.
A challenge in designing laser-based imaging systems is achieving a beam having a high degree of symmetry and energy concentration while minimizing cost and equipment footprint. In general, the output should be circular in nature and feature a single dominant peak. The degree to which actual output approaches the ideal of a diffraction-limited source can be quantified, and this quantity used to assess the quality of the output. In particular, the widely used M factor relates beam resolution to the ideal of a diffraction-limited source (i.e., the beam quality factor. M2=1, where M2 =θD0 π/4wB, D0 is the diameter of the beam waist, θ is the beam divergence, and wB is the beam wavelength). The beam quality of a cavity laser, unfortunately, tends to vary with cavity length (for a given output power level)—the longer the cavity (and the larger the resulting laser assembly), the closer M2 will be to unity and, consequently, the better the beam. What is needed, therefore, is a design that combines relatively high beam qualities with relatively short cavity lengths.

Graphic-arts laser imaging with reduced-length laser cavities and improved performance


The invention discloses an OCT probe used for human open lumen system, comprising a probe protector, a probe body, an oily liquid, a metal coil, a probe guard tip and a light-guided optical fiber; the probe body is match mounted will the metal coil, and the metal coil is mounted on the rear end of the probe body; the light-guided optical fiber is fixed inside the probe body; the probe guard tip is sleeved on the probe body, the probe protector is sleeved on the probe guard tip and sleeved on the metal coil; the oily liquid is filled between the probe guard tip and the probe protector, and between the metal coil and the probe protector. The invention effectively remedy for the defect that the image is unclear by filling the oily liquid between the probe protector and the probe body.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a rapidly developing high-resolution imaging technique in the past decade, it's based on the principle of low-coherence interference of light and, combined with confocal microscopic technique to detect echo time-delay and echo intensity signals of the backscattered wave of the incident weak coherent light to different depth layers of biological tissue, achieving a high-resolution microstructure of the sample in two or three dimensions by scanning. In such way, a nondestructive tomographic image of the measured sample in vivo is obtained. OCT imaging technique eliminates the need for any developer, has no ionization and fluorescence effects, and is more secure than traditional imaging techniques, is known as 'optical biopsy'.
The OCT tomography scanning imaging has higher resolution than X-ray imaging, ultrasound imaging and magnetic resonance imaging. The current OCT tomography scanning imaging technique can achieve 10 μm resolution, which is two orders of magnitude higher than X-ray and magnetic resonance imaging technique. High-resolution, nondestructive testing and other advantages make OCT tomography scanning imaging technique widely used in fields such as ophthalmology, dermatology, dentistry and craft product testing, and such technique has already achieved satisfactory results.
The current OCT tomography scanning imaging technique uses near-infrared light (such as 1300 nm) as the detection source, while near-infrared light does not penetrate the red blood cells in the blood vessels well. Therefore, when applying OCT technique, in the cardiovascular field, it is necessary to block blood flow in a short time or locally flush blood vessel or take other methods to exclude blood in blood vessels, and then scan imaging.
This method of detection is risky and can easily cause myocardial ischemia in patients, and the operation is complicated, which requires very high operational skills for the operator. To widely apply OCT technique to areas such as angiography and intraluminal tissue (such as lung) testing, improving the imaging quality of OCT tomography scanning imaging technique is the key.
Currently, the OCT probe used for blood vessel detection has a defect of existing an air gap between the scanning probe and the outer protective sleeve. The presence of this air gap makes it easy for the light-spot emerging from the probe to be distorted, thereby makes the light-spot becoming an elliptical spot. This convergence effect of the beam would definitely result in a decrease in image quality. The patent CN201520036955.2 adopts a method of completely matching the inner wall of the protective sleeve with the front d of the probe body Although the problem of the air gap is solved, there is transmission relationship between protective sleeve with the probe body due to the complete matching, resulting from the fact that the OCT probe mainly uses a circumferential annular scanning method during biopsy, which requires that the OCT protection sleeve in contact with human tissue cannot perform circumferential annular motion. Therefore, it is important to find a method that can effectively improve the quality of OCT tomography scanning imaging.

GUANGZHOU WINSTAR MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY COMPANY LIMITED


A secure online payment system in which, upon initiation by a card holder of a payment operation to an online merchant, the card holder is directed to a wallet-hosting website which stores at least one digital wallet associated with the card holder. Each digital wallet is associated with at least one payment card associated with the card holder, and the website has access to database storing payment card data relating to the payment card. At the website, a card holder authentication process is performed. Upon successful authentication, payment card data is extracted from the database, and a successful authentication indicator message is generated and returned to the merchant. The successful authentication indicator message includes the payment card data, code indicating that the card holder has been successfully identified, and code indicative of the fact that the payment card is registered in the wallet.

The present invention relates to methods and systems of permitting a financial transaction using the internet.
3-D Secure is an XML-based protocol designed to be an additional security layer for online transactions using a payment card (e.g., a credit card or debit card). The protocol ties the financial authorization process to an online authentication. This authentication is based on a three-domain model, the three domains being i) an acquirer domain (i.e., the online merchant and the merchant's bank, referred to as the "acquirer" bank), ii) an issuer domain supported by a server of the bank which issued the payment card, and iii) an interoperability domain supported by an access control server (ACS) for the issuing bank, which supports a 3-D Secure authentication web page for the issuing bank.
When a card holder who is interacting with an online merchant wants to make a payment, he makes a payment request to the merchant domain, including entering his full credit card details. In response to the payment request, a Merchant Plug In (MPI) component is activated. The MPI talks to the issuer domain to check if the card is enrolled for 3-D Secure. If the card is not enrolled, this means that either the bank that issued the card is not yet supporting 3-D Secure or it means that the card holder has not yet been registered for the service.
If the card is enrolled, the MPI will redirect the card holder to the 3-D Secure authentication web page for the ACS associated with the issuing bank. The card holder will then identify himself. There are several methods in which this can be done. For example, in some implementations the card holder is required to enter a pre-agreed password into the 3-D Secure authentication web page (typically, the card holder selected the password the first time that he used the 3-D Secure system). In another system, a one-time passcode (OTP) is generated by the ACS, and transmitted by an SMS message to a pre-registered mobile phone owned by the card holder, or transmitted by email to an email address owned by the card holder. The card holder enters the OTP into the 3-D Secure authentication page.
Following the authentication, the interoperability domain transmits a reply to the MPI. The message includes a field called a Universal Cardholder Authentication Field (UCAF) storing a value which only the card issuer is able to generate, because generating it requires data which is kept confidential. In some systems this value is referred to as an AAV (Accountholder Authorization Value) and in other systems this value is referred to as a CAVV (Cardholder Authentication Verification Value). An AAV is generated by the interoperability domain (more exactly the AAV is typically generated by an applet issued by the ACS and running on the card holder's computer, and the AAV is transmitted by the applet to the ACS), and incorporates information specific to both the transaction and the cardholder's identity, thereby binding the cardholder to a particular transaction.
The MPI evaluates the reply and, if it indicates that the authentication was successful, allows the transaction to proceed to a separate authorization process in which the acquiring domain communicates with the issuing bank to ask the bank to authorize the transaction. As part of this process, the acquiring domain transmits the AAV to the issuing bank. The transaction could still fail for lack of funds or other reasons.
In certain countries, standards exist governing internet commerce, and compatibility with the standard can give provide certain advantages. The 3-D Secure process is compatible with some of these standards, and accordingly is able to benefit from such advantages.
There are disadvantages to at least some known 3-D Secure systems, however. Firstly, the card holder is required to enter a considerable amount of information: first the full card details (typically at least including a 16 digit number, and card expiry date, and often other data such as a CVC code); then, the card holder is required to enter the password/OTP required by the 3-D Secure authentication page. If the card holder's computer is a mobile device with a small screen, transferring the OTP from the SMS program to the 3-D Secure authentication page may be relatively difficult. Furthermore, card holders may be disconcerted when redirected to the 3-D Secure authentication page, which tends to have a different look and feel. This leads some card holders to suspect that fraudulent activity may be occurring. These problems result in card holders being reluctant to complete the online purchase, and a proportion of online purchases may fail due to card holders who decline or fail to follow the procedure.
To alleviate such problems, MasterCard International Incorporated provides the MasterPass® system. In this system, a card holder sets up one or more "digital wallets" on a wallet-hosting server. There are two forms of wallet-hosting server. One is a server operated by an organisation which is not itself a card issuer, but which is a trusted partner of the card issuer (in existing implementations, the organisation may be MasterCard International Incorporated itself). The other form is a server operated by a card issuer (conventionally, a wallet on such a server is referred to as a "partner-hosted wallet"). Both the server(s) operated by MasterCard International Incorporated, and the servers operated by card issuers use the same APIs (developed by MasterCard International Incorporated), so that the user sees no difference in using the two forms of wallet-hosting server.
A card holder registers his or her payment card with a digital wallet. Having done this, the card holder can interact with a participating online merchant. At the check-out stage, the online merchant displays a button on the merchant website which the card holder can click on in order to make a payment using the card holder's digital wallet. The online merchant then redirects the user to a "switch" operated by MasterCard International Incorporated. Using a cookie located on the card holder's computer, the "switch" is able to determine which wallet-hosting server hosts a wallet associated with the card holder. The switch then establishes a connection between the card holder's computer and the appropriate wallet-hosting system, which presents the card holder with a MasterPass sign-in page (e.g., as a pop-up window), where there is an authentication process (e.g., entry of a pre-agreed password). This log-in process may use the same login credentials (e.g., password) which the user also uses to obtain access to other online banking activities.
Following the authentication process, if more than one digital wallet has been created for a given card holder, the card holder chooses the digital wallet he or she would like to use. If more than one payment card is associated with the digital wallet, he or she chooses one of the payment cards. He or she may further confirm a shipping address he or she wishes to use (e.g., by selecting from previously entered addresses). The wallet-hosting system then securely transfers the card holder's payment and shipping information to the online merchant's domain. The merchant's domain submits the card holder's payment information to the acquiring bank as under the 3D Secure system, for a separate authorization process in which the acquiring domain communicates with the issuing bank to ask the bank to authorize the transaction. Thus, in contrast to the 3-D Secure system, the card holder is not required to enter their card details (except at the stage of initially registering with the wallet-hosting system), and the online transaction process is streamlined with only a single redirection, and consistent branding for the entire payment process, irrespective of the online merchant.
In a variant of the above system ("advanced checkout"), it is known to integrate the MasterPass system with the 3-D Secure system such that, instead of the wallet-hosting server itself authenticating the card holder, it establishes a connection with an ACS associated with card-issuing bank, which performs a card holder authentication (using a fixed password or a OTP), and transmits an AAV to the wallet-hosting server, which in turn passes it to the merchant. The use of the 3-D Secure system means that the advanced checkout variant complies with those legal standards with which 3-D Secure system complies, and thus the advanced checkout variant benefits from the advantages of the 3-D Secure system. However, the advanced checkout variant suffers from the disadvantages of the 3-D Secure system. Firstly, undesirable redirection of the card holder to an ACS occurs. Secondly, in the case that the ACS uses an OTP, inputting the OTP may be relatively complicated. Note that the operator of wallet-hosting domain cannot control whether the ACS of the issuer bank uses a OTP.

Methods and systems for secure online payment


A distributed-line directional coupler including: a first conductive line between first and second ports intended to convey a signal to be transmitted; and a second conductive line, coupled to the first one, between third and fourth ports, the second line being interrupted approximately at its middle, the two intermediary ends being connected to attenuators.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the electronic industry and, more specifically, to radio-frequency transceiver systems. The present invention more specifically relates to a bi-directional coupler and to its applications.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A coupler is generally used to draw part of the power present on a so-called main or primary transmission line towards another so-called coupled or secondary line located in the vicinity.
Couplers are distributed in two categories according to whether they are formed of discrete passive components (it is then spoken of couplers with local elements) or of conductive lines close to one another to be coupled (it is then spoken of couplers with distributed lines). The present invention relates to the second category of couplers.
In many applications, part of the power transmitted over a line needs to be sampled, for example, to control the power of amplifiers in a transmit circuit, to control the linearity of a transmit amplifier according to the losses due to the reflection of an antenna, to dynamically match an antenna, etc.
A coupler can be defined, among other things, by its directivity, which represents the power difference (expressed in dBm) between the two access ports of its coupled or secondary line.
Theoretically, an ideal coupler has an infinite directivity, that is, no power is present on the port of its secondary line located opposite to the output port of its main line when a signal flows on its main line from the input port to this output port. In practice, a coupler is said to be directional when its directivity is sufficient (typically greater than +20 dB) for the powers recovered on the access ports of its secondary line to enable making out the flow direction of the power in the main line. When the two ports of the coupler are used to simultaneously have the power information on the two ports of its secondary line, the coupler is said to be bi-directional.
If the two ports of its secondary line and the output port of its main line are perfectly matched, no parasitic reflection occurs. Such a perfect matching is difficult to obtain in practice. In particular, the port from which the power portion is sampled by coupling is seldom ideally matched. As a result, parasitic reflections generate errors on the recovered information.
A mismatch of the secondary line port of the coupler from which the information is sampled may have different sources. Most often, the coupler is placed on an insulating substrate (for example, of printed circuit type) to be associated with other circuits. It is then not possible to ensure a perfect matching (typically, at 50 ohms) of the measurement port.
To attempt overcoming this problem, it has already been provided to equip the ends of the secondary line with attenuators. However, at constant coupling factor, this requires increasing the coupling, and thus the coupler size, and thus increases transmission losses. Further, this only postpones the problem of parasitic reflections, which then appear for higher levels of mismatch of the secondary line ports.


Methods, systems, and devices for an H-bridge driver for haptics and camera voice coil motor applications are described. A device may generate a control signal for an application executing on the device such as a camera application, a gaming application, or any application receiving a user input or outputting feedback to the user. The device may generate the control signal using a voice coil motor driver of a camera component of the device. The device may drive a haptics motor based on the generated control signal and generate a haptic response based on driving the haptics motor. The device may, as a result, output the generated haptic response. Additionally or alternatively, the device may drive a voice coil motor based on the generated control signal and may control a camera component of the device based on driving the voice coil motor or the haptics motor, or both.

Multimedia systems are widely deployed to provide various types of multimedia communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These multimedia systems may be capable of processing, storage, generation, manipulation and rendition of multimedia information. Examples of multimedia systems include entertainment systems, information systems, virtual reality systems, model and simulation systems, and so on. These systems may employ a combination of hardware and software technologies to support processing, storage, generation, manipulation and rendition of multimedia information, for example, such as client devices, capture devices, storage devices, communication networks, computer systems, and display devices. In some cases, these devices may be configured with a haptic motor to provide haptic feedback to a user, for example, alerts, notifications, or user feedback when using an application. The devices may also be configured with additional haptic motors to improve user experience. However, such configurations may demand extra hardware resources for utilizing the additional haptic motors. The devices may, in some cases, include a pulse-width modulation half-bridge driver for driving the haptic motor. As demand for improving user experience continues to increase, it may be desirable to provide improvements to haptic feedback without increasing device footprint (e.g., hardware components).

Driver for haptics and camera voice coil motor applications


A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate; and a multilevel wiring structure over the semiconductor substrate, the multilevel wiring structure including a first insulating layer, a first conductive layer on the first insulating layer, a second conductive layer on the first insulating layer, a third conductive layer on the first and second conductive layer, a fourth conductive layer on the third conductive layer, and a second insulating layer on the fourth conductive layer. The multilevel wiring structure includes: a first gate electrode comprising first and second insulating films in the first and second insulating layers, respectively, and first, third and fourth conductive films in the first, third and fourth conductive layers, respectively; and a second gate electrode comprising first and second insulating films in the first and second insulating layers, respectively, and second, third and fourth conductive films in the second, third and fourth conductive layers, respectively.

The process dimension and the chip size of semiconductor devices, for example, Dynamic Random Access Memories (hereinafter referred to as "DRAMs"), are constantly reduced to increase the storage capacity and decrease the cost of the devices. Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (hereinafter referred to as "CMOS") circuits are commonly used in semiconductor devices. The CMOS circuit includes a P-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) and an N-channel MOSFET. A P-channel MOSFET is disposed on an N-well and an N-channel MOSFET is disposed on a P-well. In order to decrease the chip size of a semiconductor device, the separation distance between the P-well and the N-well, i.e., the PN isolation width, needs to be reduced.
Usually, the gate electrodes of P-channel MOSFETs and the gate electrodes of N-channel MOSFETs are formed in different process steps to improve the performance of the MOSFETs. A gate electrode comprises a laminated film including a plurality of conductive films and a plurality of insulating films, the thickness of the laminated film being thick with respect to the width of the gate electrode. Thus, in forming the gate electrodes of some MOSFETs, when the plurality of conductive films and the plurality of insulating films of the gate electrodes are formed, those films are inevitably deposited on the sides of the previously formed gate electrodes of other MOSFETs. The subsequently formed gate electrodes, therefore, cannot be disposed within a distance less than the total thickness of the conductive films and the insulating films from the previously formed gate electrodes. Accordingly, it is difficult to reduce the distance between a P-well and an N-well any more.

Semiconductor device and method of forming the same


An image sensor is disclosed, which includes:                a pixel unit having a plurality of pixels each outputting incident light as a pixel signal;        an amplifier amplifying the pixel signal output from the pixel unit; and        a defective pixel detection circuit performing a defective pixel detection on signals output from the amplifier, wherein        the defective pixel detection circuit adjusts the detection accuracy of the defective pixel detection in accordance with an exposure condition of the pixel unit.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image sensor capable of detecting and correcting a defective pixel without having a storage unit for storing an address of the defective pixel.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a solid-state pickup element formed on a semiconductor substrate, such as a CMOS image sensor and a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) image sensor, a defective pixel is generated in some cases due to a local crystal defect and the like on the semiconductor substrate. Since a signal level output from such defective pixel is specific to the defective pixel and independent from an amount of incident light, quality of a picked up image can undesirably be deteriorated due to the signal output from the defective signal.
In an image pickup device of video cameras and digital cameras which have heretofore been used, a defective pixel existing in a solid-state image pickup element is detected, and address data and the like relating to the defective pixel are stored in a storage unit such as a nonvolatile memory, so that a signal output from the defective pixel is corrected based on the address data and the like of the defective pixel stored in the nonvolatile memory during image pickup.
For instance, in the case of the image pickup device provided with the CMOS image sensor, a lens of the image pickup device is light-shielded in a manufacturing stage, and a signal output from each of pixels of the image sensor is compared with a signal output from a pixel around a test pixel in a state where no light is incident to the CMOS image sensor to detect whether or not a difference between values of output levels of the signals exceeds a predetermined threshold value. The pixel outputting such specific signal output level is detected as a defective pixel.
Then, address data of the defective pixel are stored in a nonvolatile memory. After completion of the defective pixel detection, the CMOS image sensor is paired with the nonvolatile memory in which the address data of the defective pixel are stored and then incorporated in the image pickup device to be shipped. In the case where a user picks up images by the use of the image pickup device, a signal corresponding to the defective pixel in video signals output from the CMOS image sensor is corrected by a signal of a pixel in the vicinity of the defective pixel based on the address data of the defective pixel of the CMOS image sensor stored in the nonvolatile memory.
However, as described above, for the purpose of the correction of defective pixel in the solid-state image pickup element, the lens of the image pickup device is light-shielded to detect the defective pixel in the state where no light is incident to the CMOS sensor or the like, and the address data and the like of the defective pixel are stored in the memory in the manufacturing stage. Therefore, there has been a problem of an increase in process steps of the manufacturing stage. Also, it is difficult to correct a defective pixel of the CMOS image sensor generated by a spaceship irradiation after the shipping of the image pickup device which is provided with the CMOS image sensor.
As a countermeasure against such problems, for example, there has been disclosed a defect correction device correcting a defective pixel by: closing a diaphragm of a lens provided in an image pickup device at the time of inputting power to the image pickup device to establish a light-shielded state; detecting a defective pixel using a image pickup output signal of a solid-state image pickup element; recording defect data based on a detection signal from the defective pixel to retain the defect data; and by using the newest defective data during image pickup (see Patent Literature 1).
However, in this defect correction device, since address data and the like of the defective pixel are stored in a memory, it is necessary to provide a storage unit such as a memory for storing the address data of defective pixel in the image pickup device. There is another problem that the number of defective pixels to be corrected depends on memory capacity of the storage unit such as a nonvolatile memory storing the address data of defective pixels.
As a countermeasure against such problems, an automatic defect detection and correction device of a solid-state image pickup element, which detects and corrects a defective pixel generated after shipment without the provision of a storage unit such as a memory and an image pickup device using the same have been disclosed, for example (see Patent Literature 2).
[Patent Literature 1] JP-A-6-6685
[Patent Literature 2] JP-A-2002-223391


A method is disclosed that includes measuring, under control of one or more processors of a mobile device, performance of a radio frequency reception parameter for radio frequency reception for the mobile device. The mobile device includes one or more antennas over which the radio frequency reception occurs and the one or more processors. The method includes causing movement of the mobile device to improve the performance of the radio frequency reception parameter. A mobile device includes one or more antennas over which radio frequency reception occurs, one or more processors, and one or more memories including computer program code. The mobile device performs at least the following: measuring, under control of the one or more processors, performance of a radio frequency reception parameter, and causing movement of the mobile device to improve the performance of the a radio frequency reception parameter. Program products are also disclosed.

Many mobile devices are incorporating multiple radio frequency (RF) receivers, such as amplitude modulation (AM), frequency modulation (FM), and digital video receivers. Digital video receivers include digital video broadcasting (DVB) terrestrial (DVB-T) and DVB handheld (DVB-H). Although these receivers are useful, there are problems with radio reception using the receivers.


A foldable cart (100) comprising a foldable framework with foldable wheel units (140) and flexible containers (130) attachable thereto. The cart may be folded to fit a vehicle's luggage room, and the containers may be used to store products when attached to the framework, and carry them on when the framework is folded. The framework and the wheels may be folded inwardly such as to minimize the volume and the dimensions of the folded cart.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of carts, and more particularly, to a foldable shopping cart.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Shopping cart are in common use, yet they either have a small volume (when foldable) or must be rented and used only on the shopping grounds.


The present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition, preferably a pharmaceutical dosage form, comprising at least two separate compartments, wherein one compartment contains a composition comprising metformin or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof and wherein another compartment contains a composition comprising sitagliptin.

Sitagliptin is a potent, orally active dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV) inhibitor used for the treatment of type II diabetes (Drugs of Today 2007; 43:801-814). There is a number of substrates beyond metabolic control that DPP-IV cleaves, and therefore inhibit their action, including hormones, neuropeptides, and chemokines. DPP-IV inhibitors prolong the action of hormone YY, neuropeptides such as substance P, and macrophage-derived chemokines. Potential adverse effects resulting from the prolongation of these messengers include inflammation (effect on substance P), increased blood pressure (effect on neuropeptide Y), and allergic reactions (effect on chemokines). Particularly, lower serum DPP-IV activity is related to depressive and anxiety symptoms and immune activation in patients with hepatitis C (Molecular Psychiatry 2001; 6:475-480) and to the neurogenic inflammation induced by substance P in chronic rhinosinusitis (The FASEB Journal 2002; 16:1132-1134). Furthermore, inhibition of DPP-IV may be a trigger of prostate cancer metastasis (Clin Exp Metastasis 2008; 25:765-776 and Int J Cancer 2004; 109:855-866) and inhibitors of DPP-IV have the potential to interfere with chemokine-mediated effects including but not limited to allergy (J Immunol 2008; 181:1120-1127).
A combination therapy of sitagliptin with the well established active ingredient of diabetes management metformin HCl provides even more effective treatment of type II diabetes (Drugs Today 2008; 44:303-314). Although metformin is effective at lowering blood glucose levels, its use is associated with gastrointestinal (GI) adverse effects, particularly diarrhea and nausea (Expert Opin Pharmacother 2006; 7:803-809). These adverse effects may limit the tolerated dose of metformin and cause patients to discontinue therapy.
Most currently available metformin formulations are immediate-release (IR) products, which release the entire drug within 1-2 h after dosing, resulting in high drug concentrations in the GI tract and consequently in undesired adverse effects.
WO 2009/111200 discloses pharmaceutical formulations comprising an inner core tablet composition comprising metformin hydrochloride. The inner core is coated with a sustained-release polymer and further comprises a coating comprising an immediate release composition of sitagliptin. When dissolving such tablets, firstly the sitagliptin from the immediate release coating is released. After dissolution of the immediate release coating, the sustained-release of the metformin hydrochloride starts.
EP 1 537 880 A1 discloses sustained release formulations of DPP-IV inhibitors in general, including sitagliptin. Such sustained release formulations comprise DPP-IV inhibitor and hydrophilic polymer.
WO 2009/099734 discloses pharmaceutical compositions providing an extended release of metformin and an immediate release of sitagliptin. The tablet core is comprised of metformin and an extended release excipient (HPMC). The tablet core is then coated with immediate release polymer comprising sitagliptin.
Although pharmaceutical compositions comprising metformin and sitagliptin exist, there is still a need for improved pharmaceutical compositions comprising metformin and sitagliptin as well as an improved process for preparing such preparations.

Pharmaceutical compositions comprising a combination of metformin and sitagliptin

Abstract: The present invention also relates to a process for preparing dosage forms comprising metformin or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof and sitagliptin or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, the process comprising the steps of:    a) providing one composition containing metformin or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof and optionally also sitagliptin,    b) providing a further composition containing sitagliptin or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof and optionally also metformin, and    c) combining the compositions to form compartments.

Abstract: The present invention also refers to a process for preparing dosage forms comprising at least one compartment comprising metformin or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof and sitagliptin or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, the process comprises providing a composition containing metformin or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, and sitagliptin or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, and a matrix agent.

Abstract: Moreover, the present invention related to a dosage form obtained by said process, and to the use of said dosage form for the treatment of diabetes.


This nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes a word line regulator circuit 22, which supplies a voltage to a word line, a program/erase control circuit 21, which outputs a write control signal to the word line regulator circuit 22, and a pulse voltage step width storage circuit 23, which stores information of a voltage increment xcex94Vg. The word line regulator circuit 22 supplies a voltage to a word line according to the write control signal from the program/erase control circuit 21 based on the information of a voltage increment xcex94Vg stored in the pulse voltage step width storage circuit 23. A voltage increment xcex94Vg by which a threshold voltage change of a memory cell becomes a predetermined voltage can be set for each chip by the pulse voltage step width storage circuit 23. Consequently, a highly reliable multi-valued write operation can be performed.

The present invention relates to a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, in particular, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device employing a multi-valued write method using channel hot electrons.
Conventionally, as a most commonly used nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, flash memory of an ETOX (EPROM Thin Oxide, a registered trade name of a product of Intel Corporation) type can be mentioned. FIG. 8 is a schematic cross sectional view showing a memory cell of this ETOX-type flash memory. As shown in FIG. 8, a floating gate 64 is formed on a substrate 60 on which a source 61 and a drain 62 are formed with a predetermined gap therebetween and a region between the source 61 and the drain 62 via a tunnel oxide film 63, and a control gate 66 is further formed on the floating gate 64 via an interlayer insulating film 65.
An operation principle of this ETOX-type flash memory is described below. As shown in Table 1 as voltage conditions, at the time of a write operation, a write voltage Vpp (for example, 9 V) is applied to the control gate 66, a standard voltage Vss (for example, 0 V) is applied to the source, and a voltage of 5 V is applied to the drain 62.
It is noted that the drain 62 of a memory cell to which data is not written is opened. Consequently, a large amount of current flows in a channel layer, hot electrons are generated in a portion on the drain side where an electric field is high, electrons are implanted into the floating gate 64, and a threshold voltage of the memory cell is raised. FIG. 9 shows a state of threshold voltages of two-valued flash memories. The right side of FIG. 9 is a distribution state of threshold voltages in a program (written) state with data xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d.
Furthermore, at the time of an erase operation, Vnn (for example, xe2x88x929 V) is applied to the control gate 66, Vpe (for example, 6 V) is applied to the source 61, and electrons are pulled from the floating gate 64 on the source side to lower a threshold voltage. The left side of FIG. 9 is a distribution state threshold voltages in an erased state with data xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d. Upon this erase operation, a BTBT (Band To Band Tunneling) current flows from the source side to the substrate 60. When this current is generated, hot holes and hot electrons are generated at the same time. Of these, the hot electrons flow to the drain 62, but, on the other hand, the hot holes are pulled to the tunnel oxide film 63 side and trapped inside the tunnel oxide film 63. Generally, this trap is considered to deteriorate reliability.
Furthermore, at the time of a read operation, 1 V is applied to the drain 62, and 5 V is applied to the control gate 66. When a memory cell is in an erased state and the threshold voltage is low, a current flows through the memory cell, and data xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d is determined. On the other hand, when a memory cell is in a program state and the threshold voltage is high, a current does not flow through the memory cell, and data xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d is determined.
Meanwhile, recently, multi-valued techniques are being developed for the purpose of lower costs. FIGS. 10A to 10D are conceptual diagrams showing a state electrons in a floating gate in the case of a four-valued flash memory using the multi-valued technique (the one shown in FIG. 10 is a four-valued one, while FIG. 11 shows a two-valued one for comparison). As shown in FIG. 10, a state at each level is determined by the number of electrons in the floating gate. The state of the threshold voltage in this case is divided into four threshold voltage levels as shown in FIG. 12 as follows.
Data xe2x80x9c00xe2x80x9d: threshold voltage of 5.7 V or higher
Data xe2x80x9c01xe2x80x9d: threshold voltage of 4.7-5.0 V
Data xe2x80x9c10xe2x80x9d: threshold voltage of 3.7-4 V
Data xe2x80x9c11xe2x80x9d: threshold voltage of 3.0 V or lower
Such a state of the threshold voltage is adjusted by controlling the amount of electrons to be implanted into the floating gate by utilizing a characteristic that the threshold voltage is changed by the number of electrons in the floating gate shown in FIG. 10.
A point of this multi-valued technique is how the threshold voltage (in particular, threshold voltages for data xe2x80x9c01xe2x80x9d and data xe2x80x9c10xe2x80x9d, which are intermediate levels) is made within a predetermined threshold voltage.
Procedures of this multi-valued technique are described below. A general write method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-57091 and IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 35, No. 41, pp. 1655-1667, November, 2000, xe2x80x9c40 mm2 3 V Only 50 MHz 64 Mb 2 b/cell CHE NOR Flash Memoryxe2x80x9d. The method described in these references includes procedures in which program (write) pulse application and a verify operation for verifying a threshold voltage of a memory cell after program pulse application are repeated, and the drain of a memory cell of which threshold voltage reaches a predetermined threshold voltage is opened in subsequent program pulse application so that a drain voltage is not applied thereto, while 5 V is applied to the drain of a memory cell of which threshold voltage does not reach the predetermined threshold voltage, and a program pulse is applied to continue a write operation. When threshold voltages of all memory cells to be programmed (written) finally reach the predetermined threshold voltage, the write operation is terminated.
In particular, a procedure is described in which a voltage applied to the control gate is set to be low at the time of a first program (write) operation and the voltage of the control gate is raised by a certain voltage for each program pulse application in order to increase a program (write) speed in this case. FIG. 13 shows a write algorithm in this case.
As shown in FIG. 13, when a program is started, N is set at zero in step S1, and a verify operation is performed in step S2 to determine whether a threshold voltage of a memory cell is 3.7 V or higher. Then, when the threshold voltage of the memory cell is lower than 3.7 V, N is increased by an increment (N+1) in step S3. The operation proceeds to step S4, and a gate voltage Vg (=Vg10) is raised by xcex94Vgxc3x97(Nxe2x88x921). In step S5, a write pulse having a voltage of Vg+xcex94Vgxc3x97(Nxe2x88x921) is applied to the control gate. Then, the operation returns to step S2, and steps S2 to S5 are repeated until the threshold voltage of the memory cell becomes 3.7 V or higher.
On the other hand, when the threshold voltage of the memory cell is 3.7 V or higher in step S2, the operation proceeds to step S11, and N is set at zero. A verify operation is performed in step S12 to determine whether the threshold voltage of the memory cell is 4.7 V or higher. Then, when the threshold voltage of the memory cell is lower than 4.7 V, N is increased by an increment (N+1) in step S13. The operation proceeds to step S14, and the gate voltage Vg (=Vg01) is raised by xcex94Vgxc3x97(Nxe2x88x921). In step S15, a write pulse having a voltage of Vg +xcex94Vgxc3x97(Nxe2x88x921) is applied to the control gate. Then, the operation returns to step S12, and steps S12 to S15 are repeated until the threshold voltage of the memory cell becomes 4.7 V or higher.
On the other hand, when the threshold voltage of the memory cell is 4.7 V or higher in step S12, the operation proceeds to step S21 shown in FIG. 14, and N is set at zero. A verify operation is performed in step S22 to determine whether the threshold voltage of the memory cell is 5.7 V or higher. Then, when the threshold voltage of the memory cell is lower than 5.7 V, N is increased by an increment (N+1) in step S23. The operation proceeds to step S24, and the gate voltage Vg (=Vg00) is raised by xcex94Vgxc3x97(Nxe2x88x921). In step S25, a write pulse having a voltage of Vg +xcex94Vgxc3x97(Nxe2x88x921) is applied to the control gate. Then, the operation returns to step S22, and steps S22 to S25 are repeated until the threshold voltage of the memory cell becomes 5.7 V or higher.
On the other hand, when the threshold voltage of the memory cell is 5.7 V or higher in step S22, this processing is terminated.
In FIG. 13, steps SI to S5 are write processing of data xe2x80x9c10xe2x80x9d, and Vg10 is a start voltage (write start voltage) of data xe2x80x9c10xe2x80x9d at the time of a write operation. Furthermore, steps S11 to S15 are write processing of data xe2x80x9c01xe2x80x9d, and Vg10 is a start voltage of data xe2x80x9c01xe2x80x9d at the time of a write operation. Steps S21 to 525 are write processing of data xe2x80x9c00xe2x80x9d, and Vg00 is a start voltage of data xe2x80x9c00xe2x80x9d at the time of a write operation.
Meanwhile, FIG. 15 shows transition of voltages applied to the control gate in program pulse application.
A write principle of this procedure is described in view of characteristics of a memory cell. First, FIG. 16 shows a distribution of threshold voltages Vt of memory cells when a program pulse is applied once with a gate voltage of Vg10 (for example, 6 V) and a drain voltage of Vd (for example, 5 V). It is shown that the threshold voltages are distributed from 2.7 to 3.7 V. An upper limit of the distribution in this case is 3.7 V (Vtmax), and a lower limit is 2.7 V (Vtmin). Here, after the control gate voltage is set at 6 V and the drain voltage is set at 5 V, for example, a program (write) operation is performed once. A threshold voltage distribution in this case is distribution 1 (corresponding to FIG. 16) shown in FIG. 17. Then, when the control gate voltage is raised successively to 6.5 V and a program (write) operation is performed, the whole threshold voltages shift to distribution 2 shown in FIG. 17. Meanwhile, when the control gate voltage is further increased by 0.5 V to 7 V and a program pulse is applied, the distribution of the threshold voltages of the memory cells becomes as shown as distribution 3. Subsequently, while the control gate voltage is similarly raised and a write operation is performed, the threshold voltage distribution becomes as shown as distribution 4. Relations between the upper limit threshold voltage Vtmax, lower limit threshold voltage Vtmin and control gate voltage at this time are as shown in FIG. 18. This relationship can be converted to relations of the number n of pulses applied when the control gate voltage is raised by each voltage increment xcex94Vg. When the upper limit threshold voltage Vtmax and the lower limit threshold voltage Vtmin at the gate voltage of 6 V upon the first program pulse application to the control gate are assumed as Vtmaxi and Vtmini, respectively, the following relations are satisfied:
Vtmax=Vtmaxi+xcex94Vgxc3x97(nxe2x88x921)
Vtmin=Vtmini+xcex94Vgxc3x97(nxe2x88x921)
(wherein xcex94Vg is Vgxe2x88x926 V, and n is the number of pulses applied). That is, a relationship of xcex94Vt=xcex94Vg is satisfied.
As shown in these expressions, by setting the voltage increment xcex94Vg of a control gate voltage to be 0.3 V in a program algorithm in which the control gate voltage is raised as described above for data xe2x80x9c01xe2x80x9d and data xe2x80x9c10xe2x80x9d, the threshold voltage increment can be limited to 0.3 V or lower. That is, the threshold voltage can be set to be 4.7 to 5 V for data xe2x80x9c01xe2x80x9d, and the threshold voltage can be set to be 3.7 to 4 V for data xe2x80x9c10xe2x80x9d. For example, in order to limit a threshold voltage of a memory cell that stores data xe2x80x9c10xe2x80x9d within a range of 3.7 to 4 V, the control gate voltage is set such that the upper limit threshold voltage Vtmax reaches the range of 3.7 to 4 V. When the control gate voltage in this case is set to be 6 V, the following are obtained:
1st pulse (6 V): Vg Vtmin=2.7 V
2nd pulse (6.3 V): Vg+xcex94Vg Vtmin=3.0 V
3rd pulse (6.6 V): Vg+2xcex94Vg Vtmin=3.3 V
4th pulse (6.9 V): Vg+3xcex94Vg Vtmin=3.6 V
5th pulse (7.2 V): Vg+4xcex94Vg Vtmin=3.9 V
With this 5th pulse (voltage applied to the control gate is 7.2 V), the threshold voltage of even a memory cell with the slowest write speed due to variations in write characteristics of memory cells should become 3.9 V or higher, that is, 3.7 V or higher.
In practice, a verify operation is performed for each program pulse application, and a threshold voltage is determined from a memory cell current that flows in a memory cell by this verify operation (basically the same as a read operation) Since the drain of a memory cell of which threshold voltage reaches 3.7 V or higher is opened, and thereafter a write operation is not performed in this processing, all the write operations of memory cells to which data xe2x80x9c10xe2x80x9d is to be written is terminated with this 5th pulse application.
Thus, since a procedure is used in which a verify operation is performed for each pulse application, and a voltage is not applied to the drain of a memory cell of which threshold voltage reaches 3.7 V or higher, the threshold voltage increment can be limited to 0.3 V or lower.
A threshold voltage of a memory cell that stores data xe2x80x9c01xe2x80x9d can be limited within a range of 4.7 to 5 V with a similar procedure. That is, by applying pulses so that the upper limit threshold voltage Vtmax reaches the range of 4.7 to 5 V, the lower limit threshold voltage Vtmin becomes 4.8 V with an 8th pulse.
Meanwhile, if characteristics of memory cells vary depending on each device in a four-valued flash memory as the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, as a practical problem, a device in which the above relationship of xcex94Vt=xcex94Vg is not satisfied occurs. At this time, a problem arises in the following cases (1) and (2).
[(1) In the case of xcex94Vt greater than xcex94Vg]
In the case of, for example, xcex94Vt=1.2xc3x97xcex94Vg, when the gate voltage is increased by each voltage increment xcex94Vg=0.3 V, a change of the threshold voltage becomes xcex94Vt=0.36 V, and, as a result, the threshold voltage distribution falls within the range of 3.7 to 4.06 V. Consequently, the threshold voltage distribution varies more than predetermined values, and this expansion of the threshold voltage distribution is expected to lead to a decrease of a margin when the memory cell current is decided upon a read operation, resulting in a defective read operation.
[(2) In the case of xcex94Vt less than xcex94Vg]
In the case of, for example, xcex94Vt=0.8xc3x97xcex94Vg, when the gate voltage is increased by each voltage increment xcex94Vg=0.3 V, the threshold voltage change becomes xcex94Vt=0.24 V. In this case, the threshold voltage distribution is limited within the predetermined range of 3.7 to 4.0 V, but the following is obtained:
1st pulse (6 V): Vg Vtmin=2.7 V
2nd pulse (6.3 V): Vg+xcex94Vg Vtmin=2.94 V
3rd pulse (6.6 V): Vg+2xcex94Vg Vtmin=3.18 V
4th pulse (6.9 V): Vg+3xcex94Vg Vtmin=3.42 V
5th pulse (7.2 V): Vg+4xcex94Vg Vtmin=3.66 V
6th pulse (7.2 V): Vg+5xcex94Vg Vtmin=3.9 V
Thus, the number of required pulses is increased. The increase in the number of pulses further result in an increase in the number of verify operations performed for each pulse application, and a problem arises as a result that a program speed is deteriorated.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device with which a multi-valued write operation with high reliability can be performed in which a read margin can be secured without being affected by variations in devices and deteriorating a program speed.
In order to achieve the above object, there is provided an electrically writable and erasable nonvolatile semiconductor memory device composed of one or more chips and having memory cells respectively constituted by a floating gate field effect transistor including a control gate, a drain, a source and a floating gate, wherein charged states corresponding to three or more values are generated in the floating gate, comprising:
write means that, at the time of write operation for generating one of two or more charged states of the floating gate corresponding to two or more values, performs a first step of applying a write pulse being a positive write start voltage to the control gate, and thereafter repeatedly performs a second step of applying a write pulse to the control gate of the transistor of a memory cell which is not judged to be in a predetermined charged state, wherein the write pulse in the second step is repeatedly raised by a voltage increment until the transistor of the memory cell becomes the predetermined charged state, wherein
a voltage increment setting means for setting the voltage increment in the second step for each chip.
According to the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device having the above constitution, a voltage increment by which the change of the threshold voltage of the memory cell falls within a predetermined voltage width can be set for each chip in the write means without being affected by the variations in devices, and a multi-valued write operation with high reliability can be performed in which read margin can be secured without deteriorating a program speed.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the write means includes:
voltage supply means for supplying a voltage to the control gate;
write control means for outputting a write control signal to the voltage supply means; and
storage means for storing information of the voltage increment; and
the voltage supply means successively supplies voltages raised by the voltage increment based on the information of the voltage increment stored in the storage means to the control gate according to a write control signal from the write control means.
According to the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device of the above embodiment, since the voltage supply means supplies a voltage successively increased by the voltage increment to the control gate by a write control signal from the write control means based on voltage increment information stored in the storage means, write pulses can be applied to the control gate by the voltage increment set for each chip with a simple constitution.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the write means includes:
voltage supply means for supplying a voltage to the control gate;
write control means for outputting a write control signal to the voltage supply means; and
storage means for storing a numerical value corresponding to the voltage increment as information of the voltage increment;
the write control means successively adds a numerical value corresponding to the voltage increment stored in the storage means to the positive write start voltage, and outputs a write control signal representing the positive write start voltage and added results; and
the voltage supply means supplies a voltage corresponding to the write control signal from the write control means to the control gate.
According to the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device of the above embodiment, since the write control means outputs a write control signal representing a result obtained by successively adding a numerical value corresponding to a voltage increment stored in the storage means to the numerical value corresponding to the positive write start voltage, and a voltage corresponding to the result represented by the write control signal is supplied from the voltage supply means to the control gate, a write pulse can be applied to the control gate by the voltage increment set for each chip with a simple constitution.
In one embodiment of the present invention, information of the voltage increment by which a change of the threshold voltage of a memory cell obtained by a test of a write characteristic becomes a predetermined voltage is stored in the storage means.
According to the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device of the above embodiment, since information of the voltage increment which is obtained from a test of write characteristics and by which a change in a threshold voltage of a memory cell becomes a predetermined voltage is stored in the storage means, and a voltage is supplied from the voltage supply means to the control gate based on the information stored in the storage means, the change in the threshold voltage of the memory cell can be made within the same predetermined voltage width irrespective of variations in chip characteristics.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a memory cell having the same constitution as the memory cell is used as the storage means.
According to the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device of the above embodiment, since a memory cell having the same constitution as the memory cell is used as the storage means, it is sufficient to use a part of the memory cells constituting a cell array made of the memory cells, for example, and no special storage means needs to be newly designed. Therefore, a chip area can be reduced.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the voltage supply means supplies a voltage generated by a resistive potential divider to the control gate.
According to the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device of the above embodiment, since the voltage supply means supplies a voltage generated by a resistive potential divider made of resistors connected in series to the control gate, a layout area can be reduced with a simplest constitution. Since a resistance ratio is stable even if resistance values vary depending on device (chip) manufacturing conditions, a stable voltage increment can be reliably obtained.