A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device for preventing dielectric breakdown of gate electrodes attributable to needle-like protrusions caused inside a trench in the step of forming element isolation trench in which includes forming a silicon oxide film over a silicon nitride film as an etching mask for forming element isolation trenches, then cleaning the surface of a substrate with a hydrofluoric acid etching solution to lift off obstacles deposited over the surface of the silicon oxide film, before the step of patterning the silicon nitride film by using as a mask a photoresist film provided with an anti-reflection film therebelow.

The present invention concerns a technique for manufacturing a semiconductor device and, more in particularly, it relates to a technique effective to application for a method of manufacturing a shallow trench isolation (STI) to a semiconductor substrate.
A general method of forming a shallow trench isolation to a semiconductor substrate is as described below. At first, a single crystal silicon substrate is thermally oxidized to form a thin silicon oxide film on the surface thereof and a silicon nitride film is further deposited thereover by a CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) method and then the silicon nitride film and the silicon oxide film in an element isolation region are removed by dry etching using a photoresist film as a mask. Then, after removing the photoresist film and forming a trench to the substrate by dry etching using a silicon nitride film as a mask, the substrate is thermally oxidized to form a thin silicon oxide film to the inner wall of the trench. The silicon oxide film is formed with an aim of removing etching damages caused to the inner wall of the trench and for stress relaxation of the silicon oxide film buried inside the trench by the subsequent step.
Then, after depositing a thick silicon oxide film over the substrate including the inside of the trench by the CVD method, the substrate is heat treated to shrink fit (densify) the silicon oxide film buried inside the trench. Successively, the silicon oxide film over the silicon nitride film is removed by a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) method to leave the silicon oxide film only inside the trench and then the silicon nitride film which is no more required is removed by etching.
In the shallow trench isolation formed by the method described above, since a step is formed between the surface of the silicon substrate and the surface of the silicon oxide film in the shallow trench isolation when the silicon nitride film is removed, this leads to a phenomenon that the silicon oxide film at the end of the shallow trench isolation is recessed downward in the subsequent cleaning step.
Accordingly, it has been know that the thickness of the gate oxide film formed to the surface of the substrate in the active region is locally decreased at the end (shoulder) of the active region and the electric field of the gate voltage is concentrated to the shoulder to result in a problem that drain current flows even at a low gate voltage (referred to as kink characteristic) and, as a countermeasure for solving the problem, a technique of rounding the shoulder in the active region, etc. has been proposed.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Sho 63(1998)-2371 (refer to Patent Document 1) points out a problem that the so-called narrow channel effect that the threshold voltage (Vth) lowers in a case of forming a micro-fine MISFET with the channel width of 1 μm or less in an active region of a substrate surrounded with the shallow trench isolation develops making it impossible for use as the device. Then, for suppressing such a narrow channel effect, It discloses a technique of providing the shoulder in the active region with a curvature (roundness) by conducting wet oxidation at 950°C. after forming the french in the substrate and preventing the lowering of the threshold voltage by making the thickness of the gate oxide film larger at the shoulder of the active region.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 2(1990)-260660 (refer to Patent Document 2), the shoulder in the active region is rounded substantially by the following method. At first, a device forming region of a semiconductor substrate is covered with a mask comprising a stacked film of an oxide film and an oxidation resistant film and the substrate is thermally oxidized in this state, thereby forming an oxide film to the surface of the element isolation region such that one end thereof intrudes to the device forming region. Then, the oxide film in the element isolation region is removed by wet etching using the oxidation resistant film as a mask and, successively, forming a trench in the substrate at the element isolation region by reactive ion etching using the oxidation resistant film as a mask and then the substrate is thermally oxidized to form a thermally oxidized film on the inner wall surface of the trench and, at the same time, providing the roundness to the shoulder of the trench.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-200878 (corresponding to U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003-0038337A1) (refer to Patent Document 3) describes a method of forming the following structure at the corner of an active region and an element isolation trench. That is, the shoulder of the active region forms an inclined surface descending toward the side wall of the element isolation trench. The inclined surface includes two inclined surfaces (S1, S2) of different angles of inclination. The first inclined surface (S1) near the central portion of the active region L is a relatively steep inclined surface while the second inclined surface (S2) near the side wall of the element isolation trench 2 is an inclined surface more moderate than the first inclined surface (S1). Further, the surface of the substrate 1 at the shoulder of the active region L is entirely rounded and no angled region is present.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Sho 63(1998)-2371    [Patent Document 2] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 2(1990)-260660    [Patent Document 3] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-200878

Method of manufacturing a trench isolation region in a semiconductor device


Provided are an antenna of a mobile terminal, and a mobile terminal. The antenna includes a dielectric substrate, a ground plate located on one side of the dielectric substrate, and a near-feed unit, a near-ground unit and a coupling unit that are arranged on the other side of the dielectric substrate; the near-ground unit has one end connected to the coupling unit and the other end connected to the ground plate; the coupling unit and the near-ground unit are equivalent to a Left-Handed (LH) inductor; the near-feed unit is equivalent to a Right-Handed (RH) inductor; the coupling unit is coupled to the near-feed unit and is equivalent to an LH capacitor; the coupling unit is coupled to the ground plate and is equivalent to an RH capacitor; and the near-feed unit, the near-ground unit, the coupling unit and the ground plate form a Composite Right-Left-Handed Transmission Line (CRLH-TL) structure.

Mobile communication systems undergo several generations of innovations with the development of the times, and have been developed from 1st-Generation (1G) and 2nd-Generation (2G) at the very beginning to 4th-Generation (4G) nowadays. Along with the development of the mobile communication systems, the design for antennas of mobile terminals is also developed so that the antennas can be adapted for actual requirements. At the present stage, the antennas of mobile terminals need to meet communication requirements of 2G, 3G and 4G, and are required to respectively cover multiple bands such as LTE700/GSM850/GSM900 DCS1800/PCS1900/UMTS/LTE2300/LTE2600. Hence, when designing the antennas of mobile terminals, considerations need to be given to the characteristics of multiple bands and broadband. In addition, in order to meet requirements of consumers on intelligence, while increasingly more functions are integrated on mobile terminals, spaces reserved for the antennas are smaller and smaller.
Presently, in design solutions for antennas of mobile phones, it is the most common way to use a Planar Inverted F-shaped Antenna (PIFA), a monopole antenna, an annular antenna, etc. The PIFA antenna has advantages such as small size, easiness in implementation, and good consistency in production. The monopole antenna is smaller in size and wider in bandwidth. However, the PIFA antenna has a narrow bandwidth, and the monopole antenna is susceptible to an ambient environment but it is very hard to keep an empty space over the ground for the antenna at the present stage.

Antenna of mobile terminal, and mobile terminal


An n-doped field effect transistor (nFET) section of an integrated device logic region is provided. The nFET section includes a semiconductor substrate, a layer at least partially formed of silicon germanium (SiGe) disposed on the semiconductor substrate and fin formations. The fin formations are formed on the layer. Each fin formation includes a first fin portion that is at least partially formed of silicon (Si) and a second fin portion that is at least partially formed of hard mask material. The layer is etched to include free surfaces that facilitate elastic relaxation of SiGe therein and a corresponding application of tension in Si of the first fin portion of each of the fin formations.

The present invention relates to semiconductor devices and, more specifically, to co-integration of elastic and plastic relaxation on the same wafer.
In current or conventional semiconductor device manufacturing, some semiconductor devices are characterized in that they are manufactured to include a blanket silicon germanium (SiGe) layer that is grown everywhere on a wafer. This can occur even if that wafer includes n-doped field effect transistor (nFET) sections, in which tensile silicon (Si) is used, and p-doped field effect transistor (pFET) sections, in which compressive SiGe is used.
This situation leads to a requirement that a very high percentage or concentration of germanium (Ge) in layers of the pFET sections be grown over relaxed SiGe layers in order to generate sufficient compressive stress in the channel material. Defect formation can be an issue during the plastic relaxation of SiGe, especially if the thickness or Ge concentration is too important. In order to avoid degraded device performance and defect formation in FinFET technologies, it is possible to use the elastic relaxation of SiGe, but such elastic relaxation is not normally applicable to static random access memory (SRAM) regions where fins are typically never cut.

Co-integration of elastic and plastic relaxation on the same wafer

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


Detailed are valve assemblies principally for use as part of in-floor cleaning systems for swimming pools. The assemblies may use mechanisms for converting continuous rotation into discontinuous rotation, changing the timing of water distribution to different outlet of the assemblies. One such mechanism includes both an impeller, whose blades are rotated continuously by impingement of pressurized water, and a Geneva drive, whose driven wheel is rotated discontinuously by one or more associated drive wheels.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,424 to Ehret, et al., discloses a conventional water-distribution valve assembly. The valve assembly includes a housing defining a chamber in which a centrally-located vertical spindle extends. Fixed to the spindle for rotation in the chamber is an impeller. In use, pressurized water passing through an inlet of the housing rotates blades of the impeller, which in turn rotate the spindle and two gear assemblies. See Ehret, col. 2,1. 48 to col. 3,1. 7; col. 4,11. 42-50. As noted in the Ehret patent, rotation of the gear assemblies . . . imports a rotational movement to [a] platform and, therefore, [a] valve disc at a lower speed than that of the impeller. As a result, the valve disc rotates relatively slowly but with a relatively high torque in a counterclockwise direction . . . , whereby [a] slot successively exposes . . . outlets to permit fluid to pass therethrough, while sealing the remaining portion of the outlets.
See id., col. 4,11. 53-61 (numerals omitted).
Illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 8,714,182 to Malinasky, Jr. is another valve assembly for an in-floor pool cleaning system. It too includes a housing, an inlet port, and a plurality of outlet ports. See Malinasky, Jr., col. 3,11. 55-56. As with the assembly of the Ehret patent, that of the Malinasky, Jr. patent operates by passing pressurized water through the inlet port so as to rotate blades of an impeller and ultimately rotate a plate. See id., col. 5, 11. 5-12. Rotation of the plate changes its position relative to the outlet ports, with an aperture of the plate allowing the water to exit through one of the outlet ports. See id., col. 7, 11. 5-11.
For water at constant pressurization, valve assemblies of both the Ehret and Malinasky, Jr. patents are designed to produce continuous, uniform rotation of the disc or plate. Consequently, these assemblies distribute water to any particular outlet port for only relatively short periods of time and transfer between outlet ports relatively slowly. Beneficial, therefore, would be a valve assembly which allows distribution of water to a particular outlet port for a longer period of time and transfers between outlet ports more quickly.

Valve assemblies principally for in-floor swimming pool cleaning systems


A leak detecting apparatus includes a canister adsorbing a fuel vapor evaporated in a fuel tank, a measure passage, a pump connected with the canister through the measure passage, and a pressure senor detecting a pressure in the measure passage. The pump depressurizes the measure passage, the canister, and the fuel tank so that a leakage of the fuel vapor is detected. When a blow-by of the fuel vapor is arisen, the pump is stopped to forcibly terminate a depressurization.

It is known a fuel vapor treatment apparatus that causes a canister to temporarily adsorb fuel vapor produced in a fuel tank and introduces the fuel vapor desorbed from the canister as required into an intake passage of an internal combustion engine to purge the fuel vapor. In the fuel vapor treatment apparatus, a leak detecting apparatus is provided in order to detect a leakage of fuel vapor leaking from an evaporation system into an outside of the system.
In the leak detecting apparatus shown in JP-2004-232521A (US-2004-149016A), a pump is connected to a canister through a measure-passage. While the pump decompresses an interior of the evaporation system, a leak detection is performed based on a pressure in the measure-passage.
When the adsorbed amount of the fuel vapor is close to an upper limit of the canister adsorbing capacity, the fuel vapor is desorbed from the canister and is introduced into the pump. This is referred to as a blow-by of fuel vapor, hereinafter. When the blow-by of fuel vapor is arisen, the blow-by fuel vapor is sucked into the pump and then is discharged into outside of the pump. In the case where a discharge port of the pump is opened atmosphere, the leak detecting apparatus generates the leakage of the fuel vapor

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Leak detecting apparatus and fuel vapor treatment apparatus


A time-resolved hyper-spectral imaging system for imaging a sample, includes a radiation source suitable for illuminating the sample repeatably, a first optical system configured to form an image I of the sample on a spatial light modulator forming a transmission or reflection mask P, a processor connected to the spatial light modulator and configured to make the transmission or reflection mask P vary for each repetition of the illumination, a second optical system suitable for focusing the radiation transmitted or reflected by the spatial light modulator so as to form, in its image focal plane, a partial image S=P·I; the imaging system being wherein it comprises: a dispersive device comprising a slit placed in the image focal plane of the second optical system, the dispersive device being suitable for spatially splitting the various wavelengths of the radiation transmitted or reflected by the spatial light modulator; a streak camera arranged so as to be illuminated by the radiation issuing from the dispersive device and configured to acquire a plurality of time-resolved partial images of the sample, the images being associated with respective and different transmission or reflection masks P, the streak camera being connected to the processor and the processor also being configured to combine the partial images of the sample so as to construct a 4D image cube Itot forming an image resolved in time and in wavelength of the sample; and corresponding time-resolved hyper-spectral imaging method for imaging a sample.

Time-resolved hyper-spectral imaging possesses a great number of applications in a multitude of different fields ranging from characterization of biological tissues to the study of the environment. Optical techniques such as timed-resolved fluorescence imaging or fluorescence-lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) for example require images of an extensive area to be acquired with a sub-nanosecond temporal resolution. Specifically, in FLIM the fall time of the fluorescence effect must be measured on the picosecond or nanosecond scale in order to obtain maps of fluorescence lifetime. Fluorescence imaging is one of the most used imaging techniques in biology and the study of materials because it allows information to be obtained on variations in the pH, temperature and ion concentration of the studied sample.
Beyond temporal resolution, the acquisition of an emission spectrum of the sample is essential to study of the photo-physical properties of a sample. For example, spectral information may be used to differentiate certain chromophores within a sample, when using biological marking.
There are currently few imaging systems that are spectrally and temporally resolved with a temporal resolution ranging from about ten picoseconds to one nanosecond. It is known practice to use linear detectors coupled to a spectrometer and a time-correlated single-photon counting (or TCSPC) system. In order to construct an image it is however necessary to scan the sample. On account of the number of wavelength channels of the spectrometer, this technique only allows multi-spectral and not hyper-spectral imaging to be carried out.
To clarify, here an imaging system is considered to be hyper-spectral when it allows more than 20 separate wavelengths to be observed.
It is known practice to produce single 2D images with a nanosecond temporal resolution using intensified CCD cameras employing electronic gating, allowing a rapid shutter speed to be obtained. Their temporal resolution is limited by the intrinsic response time of the instrumentation. In addition, the read time of the camera limits the temporal sampling. Spectral information may then be obtained via sequential measurements at various emission wavelengths. Likewise, strips of single-photon avalanche diodes allow a temporal resolution of about 50 picoseconds to be obtained. However, they possess a limited spatial resolution due to the low number of pixels (˜32×32 pixels), a low fill factor (˜5%) and a high read time.
There is therefore no satisfactory imaging system allowing time-resolved hyper-spectral imaging to be carried out with a picosecond temporal resolution, to observe repeatable events.
To solve some of the problems of the prior art, one subject of the invention is a time-resolved hyper-spectral imaging system for imaging a repeatable event with a picosecond resolution using single-pixel imaging combined with a dispersive system and a streak camera.
Single-pixel (SP) imaging is a technique that produces images by illuminating a scene with light structured by successively applying diverse spatial patterns, and by measuring the total light intensity reflected or transmitted by the scene in correspondence with each spatial pattern. As a variant, it is possible to not use structured light, but to spatially modulate, by means of the same spatial patterns, the light reflected or transmitted by the scene. Single-pixel imaging uses a spatial light modulator (SLM)—in order to generate SLM patterns—combined with a detector without spatial resolution. This method essentially consists in measuring the scalar product of the scene and of a sequence of SLM patterns. Using methods for post-processing the acquired data, it is possible to reconstruct an image of the scene. The strategies used to reconstruct the scene are for example compressed-acquisition techniques, basis scans or adaptive basis scans. Compressed-acquisition techniques theoretically allow a better reconstruction resolution to be obtained but however require a high computing time. Scans of a preset (Hadamard, Fourier, wavelet, discrete-cosine-transform) basis allow the image to be reconstructed via fast inverse transformation but require a high number of SLM patterns and therefore a long acquisition time. Just like basis scans, adaptive basis scans allow the image to be rapidly reconstructed, and decrease the required acquisition time by selecting only the SLM patterns that contain the most information.
This imaging technique allows images to be reconstructed with a good spatial resolution. In addition, it is particularly suitable for time-resolved imaging when associated with a streak camera allowing the intrinsic limitation of the read time of CCD cameras to be overcome (see for example Liang, Jinyang, et al. "Encrypted three-dimensional dynamic imaging using snapshot time-of-flight compressed ultrafast photography." Scientific reports 5 (2015): 15504). It allows transient effects to be imaged with resolutions of about ten picoseconds (see for example Gao, Liang, et al. "Single-shot compressed ultrafast photography at one hundred billion frames per second." Nature 516.7529 (2014): 74). Using a spectrometer coupled to a TCSPC system and an SP imaging setup it is also possible to carry out time-resolved multispectral SP imaging with a sub-nanosecond resolution (see Rousset, Florian, et al. "Time-resolved multispectral imaging based on an adaptive single-pixel camera." Optics express 26.8 (2018): 10550-10558). However, currently, no SP imaging device allows hyper-spectral imaging to be carried out with a picosecond temporal resolution.
Because the measurements with various SLM patterns require repetition to reconstruct an image of the scene, it is clear that SP imaging is particularly suitable for the observation of repeatable luminous effects or events. Thus, FLIM imaging is an ideal candidate for SP imaging provided that a sufficiently good temporal resolution is obtained.
In addition, as mentioned above, obtaining a spectral resolution is key to determining certain critical parameters of the studied sample.
Also, the time-resolved hyper-spectral imaging system with a picosecond resolution of the invention uses single-pixel imaging combined with a dispersive system to obtain a spectral resolution and a streak camera to obtain a temporal resolution.
Compared to a confocal microscopy system provided with a streak camera to obtain a temporal resolution, the SP imaging system associated with a streak camera of the invention allows the entirety of the radiation emitted by the sample to be used.

Time-resolved hyper-spectral single-pixel imaging

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique


A steel material which is suitable for hot press working or hot three-dimensional bending and direct quench and which can be used to manufacture a high-strength formed article with sufficient quench hardening even by short time heating at a low temperature has a chemical composition comprising, in mass percent, C: 0.05-0.35%, Si: at most 0.5%, Mn: 0.5-2.5%, P: at most 0.03%, S: at most 0.01%, sol. Al: at most 0.1%, N: at most 0.01%, and optionally at least one element selected from the group consisting of B: 0.0001-0.005%, Ti: 0.01-0.1%, Cr: 0.18-0.5%, Nb: 0.03-0.1%, Ni: 0.18-1.0%, and Mo: 0.03-0.5% and has a steel structure in which the spheroidization ratio of carbides is 0.60-0.90.

In recent years, there has been a demand for decreases in the thickness and increases in the strength of structural parts for automobiles out of consideration of global environmental problems and collision safety.
In order to meet this demand, structural parts for automobiles are increasingly using high-strength steel sheet as a base material. However, when structural parts for automobiles are manufactured by press forming of a high-strength steel sheet used as a base material, forming defects in the shape of wrinkles and spring back easily develop. Therefore, it is not easy to manufacture structural parts for automobiles by press forming of high-strength steel sheets.
So-called hot press working is known as a method of solving such problems. hot press working is a method of manufacturing high-strength formed articles by press forming a steel sheet which has been heated to a high-temperature range over 700° C. and then carrying out quench hardening either inside or outside the press dies.
In hot press working, because forming is carried out in a high-temperature region in which the strength of a steel sheet is decreased, the above-described forming defects can be suppressed. Furthermore, it is possible to proved the formed article with a high strength by carrying out quench hardening after forming. Accordingly, hot press working can manufacture formed articles such as structural parts for automobiles having a high strength such as 1500 MPa or above, for example.
Concerning hot press working, Patent Document 1, for example, discloses a steel sheet for hot press forming which is purported to make it possible to carry out successful forming without the occurrence of fractures or cracks at the time of forming by hot press working.
Recently, new techniques are being proposed which make it possible to manufacture high-strength formed articles by methods other than hot press working.
For example, Patent Document 2 discloses a technique for push-through bending of a metal material. In this technique, while the a heating apparatus and a cooling apparatus undergo relative movement with respect to a metal material, the metal material is locally heated by the heating apparatus, and a bending moment is imparted to a location where the resistance to deformation has been greatly decreased by heating so as to perform bending to a desired shape which is bent two-dimensionally or three-dimensionally. Quench hardening is then performed by cooling with the cooling apparatus. (In this description, this technique will be referred to as hot three-dimensional bending and direct quench).
The hot three-dimensional bending and direct quench technique can efficiently manufacture a high-strength formed article with a high bending accuracy. Accordingly, the hot three-dimensional bending and direct quench technique can manufacture formed articles such as structural parts for automobiles having a high strength of the 900 MPa grade or above, for example.

Heat-treated steel material, method for producing same, and base steel material for same

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation


Systems and methods are described herein for improved droplet generation within microfluidic apparatuses. Electrowetting forces of varying configurations may be used to separate droplets from a fluidic reservoir in a reproducible and rapid manner. In many embodiments, separation of droplets from the fluidic reservoir is performed without the use of highly specialized surfactants.

Micro-objects, such as biological cells, can be processed in microfluidic apparatuses. To facilitate such processing, droplets containing micro-objects or reagents used to process the micro-objects must be generated in a reliable and consistent manner. Present solutions for droplet generation are limited by the need for expensive, highly specialized surfactants. In addition, the droplets are typically produced continuously, at a high rate that complicates the subsequent movement and use of the droplets. Consequently, a need exists for improved methods of droplet generation that avoid the use of expensive surfactants and allow flexibility with regard to the timing and rate of droplet production.

Droplet generation in a microfluidic device having an optoelectrowetting configuration


In general, according to one embodiment, an illumination device includes a light emitting unit, a connection unit, a containing unit, and a second sealing unit. The light emitting unit includes a first substrate, a second substrate, an organic electroluminescent element, and a first sealing unit. The organic electroluminescent element is provided between the first substrate and the second substrate. The first sealing unit seals circumferential edge portions between the first substrate and the second substrate. The connection unit supplies power to the organic electroluminescent element. The containing unit has a space being airtight in an interior of the containing unit. The containing unit contains the light emitting unit inside the space. The second sealing unit is provided in the containing unit. The second sealing unit seals between a portion of the unit extending outside the containing unit and the containing unit.

There is an illumination device in which an organic electroluminescent element that includes an organic light emitting layer is provided between a pair of glass substrates. In such an illumination device, circumferential edge portions of the pair of glass substrates are sealed with a sealing unit made of a resin.
However, the sealing unit made of the resin cannot prevent moisture, oxygen, etc., from passing through; and there is a risk that the product life of the illumination device may shorten.
Therefore, an illumination device in which a desiccant is provided to remove the moisture that passes through the sealing unit has been proposed.
However, it is difficult to completely remove the moisture, oxygen, etc., that pass through the sealing unit; and it is desirable to develop an illumination device that can further lengthen the product life.


Computer simulation was used in the development of an inward-burning, radial matrix gas burner and heat pipe heat exchanger. The burner and exchanger can be used to heat a Stirling engine on cloudy days when a solar dish, the normal source of heat, cannot be used. Geometrical requirements of the application forced the use of the inward burning approach, which presents difficulty in achieving a good flow distribution and air/fuel mixing. The present invention solved the problem by providing a plenum with just the right properties, which include good flow distribution and good air/fuel mixing with minimum residence time. CFD simulations were also used to help design the primary heat exchanger needed for this application which includes a plurality of pins emanating from the heat pipe. The system uses multiple inlet ports, an extended distance from the fuel inlet to the burner matrix, flow divider vanes, and a ring-shaped, porous grid to obtain a high-temperature uniform-heat radial burner. Ideal applications include dish/Stirling engines, steam reforming of hydrocarbons, glass working, and any process requiring high temperature heating of the outside surface of a cylindrical surface.

Dish/Stirling Systems engines generate electricity by focusing solar energy with a parabolic dish concentrator onto the heat-input end of a Stirling engine. This arrangement is of interest because it provides the potential for high solar-to-electrical conversion efficiencies, and low costs can be achieved with mass production. Applications include utility scale generation, grid support, village electrification, remote power, end-of grid power and irrigation pumping.
Successful implementation of dish/Stirling systems requires hybrid operation (fossil-fuel co-firing) via reliable, efficient burner systems that can be installed at a capital cost increment competitive with conventional means for providing electricity from fossil fuels in a given market, e.g., diesel generator sets. Burner system lifetime is also a concern as are air emissions in many markets.
In most applications, a hybrid capability is needed to maintain operation at night or under cloudy conditions. In a hybrid installation, there is a thermal interface between the concentrated solar flux and the heat input end of the engine. The thermal interface can be a sodium heat pipe receiver which allows heat input from a burner as well as the parabolic solar dish concentrator. Metal matrix burners have received a great deal of attention lately because of their ability to bum fossil fuels with very low emissions of nitrogen oxides. In this type of burner, a premixed air/fuel stream flows through a porous metal matrix. A significant fraction of the heat of combustion is released as infrared radiation from the matrix. Because of this heat removal from the combustion zone, maximum temperatures are well below the adiabatic flame temperature resulting in emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) as low as 10 ppm at 0% oxygen without exhaust gas recirculation.
Matrix burners have typically been used in an outward burning arrangement in which air and fuel mixing takes place inside a cylinder-shaped matrix, and combustion occurs as the mixture flows radially outward through the matrix. In many applications, however, a cylindrical inward burning approach is needed. This approach has been avoided in the past because of the difficulty of obtaining uniform flow and uniform burning in the matrix.
The present invention teaches that flow distributors could be used and still maintain a low pressure drop. One problem is that there are a large number of possible configurations. Using a build-and-test approach, it would be expensive and time-consuming to test even a single configuration. Even after a proposed design is built, it would be very difficult to place instruments in the plenum, and so engineers could only learn the temperature and flow conditions at a few points. This would make it impossible to measure the flow patterns in the plenum, so engineers would be able to gain little understanding of why their design alternatives did not work.
The present invention uses Computational Fluid Dynamics, CFD, to evaluate the inlet plenum and flow distributor configurations. A CFD analysis solves the fundamental controlling equations and provides fluid velocity, species, pressure and temperature values at every point in the solution domain. This allows engineers to optimize fluid flow patterns or temperature distributions by adjusting either the system geometry or the boundary conditions, such as inlet velocity and temperature, wall heat flux, etc. Of particular benefit to this application is the fact that CFD enables detailed parametric studies that make it possible to optimize a design with relatively little time and expense.
FLUENT.TM. software from Fluent Inc. is used to perform the analysis. (Fluent, Inc., USA, 10 Cavendish Court, Centerra Resource Park, Lebanon, N.H., 03766-1442, Tel.: (603) 643-2600.) Modeling is done to determine if the preheated air/fuel mixture would pre-ignite (burn upstream of the burner matrix). This is important because high temperature applications require recuperation of exhaust gas energy via combustion air preheat to achieve good thermal efficiency.
The plenum forms a cylindrical annulus and distributes the air and fuel from four inlet pipes to the outside of the burner matrix. With the geometry imported, engineers create the mesh and run analysis iterations to model a uniformly-heated matrix which doesn't pre-ignite. In addition, uniform mixing of the air and fuel are critical. In constructing a prototype for an application specific dish/Stirling engine, a sodium heat pipe was necessary.
After solving the flow distribution problem, the inventors herein turned their attention to the primary heat exchanger. This device transfers heat from the combustion gases to the heat pipe. The design requirements were 75 kW heat transfer to the heat pipe, 5000 Pascal pressure drop and 1150.degree. K maximum metal temperature.
Analysis showed that strip fins provided inadequate heat transfer and would likely be subject to excessive thermal stress. Pin fins were found to provide adequate heat transfer, acceptable pressure drop and were not expected to suffer from significant thermal stress. The combustion gas flow begins in a radial direction along the pin axes and then turns across the pin axes. In addition, significant temperature change in the exhaust gas and resulting large property variations preclude the use of existing correlations. Finally, radiation heat transfer is an additional complicating factor that could be incorporated in the CFD work. Other applications such as air flowing through an open pipe might place pin fins inside the pipe, and might remove them from the outside of the pipe.
The next step was building a one/sixth scale prototype to validate the model. This system was designed and built in collaboration with engineers at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, N.Mex., and provided the capability to test all features of the burner, primary heat exchanger, and heat pipe. In this prototype system, only the heat pipe diameter was reduced to 1/6.sup.th full scale, all other dimensions were maintained at their full-scale values. The system was operated with the air/fuel mixture preheated up to 675.degree. C., thus validating the CFD calculations used to predict pre-ignition. Prototype test data showed very close correlation to the CFD results. Pressure drop across the primary heat exchanger and heat transfer through the primary heat exchanger agreed to within about 10% of the CFD results. Maximum pin tip temperature, agreed to within 10.degree. C. of the CFD model.
Summarized below are related patents in the art.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,749,720 (1998) to Fukuda et al. discloses a radially inward burning matrix burner which discharges the exhaust fumes into the central heat pipe. The collar-shaped intake manifold allow the fuel/air mixture to cool the matrix support clips to prevent pre-ignition. A single intake port supplies the fuel air mixture for the entire circumference of the ring-shaped matrix. No pre-heating of the fuel/air mixture is possible due to the unaddressed problems of pre-ignition which pre-heating creates. No suggestion of how to provide uniform circumferential burning is made wherein only a single inlet port is shown. Non-uniform burning results in burner matrix hot spots which forces an average lower burner throughput to prevent matrix damage. Thus, Fukuda et al. teaches an inefficient, oversized gas burner.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,374 (1997) to Nutcher et al. discloses an in-line (not radial) gas burner having a ceramic honeycomb with a plurality of axial passageways to form a planar flame face offering low NOx levels. An in-line plenum has a bluff body to thoroughly mix the fuel/air mixture before combustion in the honeycomb. A mesh flame trap is used to prevent pre-ignition. There are no suggestions of pre-heating the fuel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,661 (1998) to Kushch et al. discloses a multi-layered matrix burner having at least three porous layers creating a three-dimensional array with the flame at the downstream porous layers. High-intensity applications are taught in the range of 1,500,000 BTU/hr/ft..sup.2 with large turndown ratios.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,905 (1997) to Bartz et al. discloses a hazardous waste combustion burner having a box-like construction of foraminous surfaces and a cooling column below.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,171 (1996) to Ozawa et al. discloses a round matrix burner having a flat, round burn surface which has a central burn area having a separate plenum feeding a lean fuel mixture. A second peripheral plenum has a rich fuel mixture which prevents a "lift" phenomenon of the flames. NOx emissions are reduced.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,205,731 (1993) to Reutter el al. discloses an axial flow nested fiber matrix burner which results in blue flame operation with low NOx levels comparable to radiant mode burners but with eight to ten times higher port loadings.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,552 (1993) to Krill et al. discloses a radially inward burning matrix burner in FIGS. 3, 4, 6, and 7. A refractory body reradiates heat from inside the combustion cavity to the matrix combustion surface. The combustion cavity acts as an exhaust port to exit the heat and exhaust gases. The combustion cavity must be devoid of a heat exchange means or used only to preheat air. The excess air in the range of 50-150% in excess of the stoichiometric requirement creates an invisible flame and a product gas of not more than 10 ppm NOx, 30 ppm CO and 10 ppm UHC. The embodiment of FIG. 6 is a square version of a radial burner having an intake manifold with four equally spaced inlet ports. No plenum design nor uniform flow measures are taught.
This invention only teaches a burner that develops useable heat only in the form of a super-heated exhaust gas created from more than 50% excess air while maintaining a clean burner. The burner pre-heats some of the air in the fuel/air mixture. Excess air is required in all matrix burners, otherwise the matrix will run too hot and burn out. All contemporary burners use excess air for this reason and also to reduce emissions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,375 (1995) to Khinkis et al. discloses an in-line two-stage matrix burner which introduces a second oxidant into the porous bed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,522,723 (1996) to Durst et al. discloses a combustion chamber having a porous matrix with pore-size increases from the inlet to the outlet to create a multi-zone burner.
The closest known prior art is Krill et al. shown herein as FIG. 2. FIG. 2 forms a furnace 40 useful for the practice of Krill's invention by having four surface combustors 30 arranged to provide a square adiabatic zone 41. Where each pair of combustors 30 meet at right angles to one another, a refractory post 42 is cemented to the side walls 32 of the contiguous burners 30 so that the products of combustion or flue gas cannot leak along the vertical (normal to FIG. 2) juncture line 43 of contiguous burners 30. By this arrangement, the four burners 30 act as an inwardly fired furnace. In short, FIG. 2 demonstrates that a furnace may be formed of modular burners 30. Likewise, preferably furnace 40 has a square refractory core 44 set in its center so that infrared radiation from the four porous fiber layers 35 will impinge thereon. Optional core 44 serves as a refractory column. It is understood that furnace 40 will have a base slab and a top slab with a stack opening.
Metal pan 31 has side walls 32 with screen 33 welded to the ends 34 of side walls 32. A porous layer 35 of ceramic fibers is deposited on, and attached to, screen 33. The porous layer 35 provides the exposed surface at which a mixture of fuel gas and air will burn without visible flame and become radiant. The fuel gas-air mixture is fed to combustor 30 through pipe 36 connected to metal pan 31.
The Krill device cannot produce uniform heat around center point E because of the varying distances from E to the corners and sides of the furnace. Also, the maximum burn temperatures cannot be achieved for the matrix 35 without creating hot spots at corners A, B, C, D due to the radiation view factor between surfaces near the corners. Therefore, Krill's furnace 40 fails to achieve a maximum heat output within his given geometry, thus using materials in construction and complicating construction costs with leak-prone corners A, B, C, D. It is estimated the Krill's device would only be half as efficient in heat out per area of burner as compared to the present invention. Krill does not teach a solution to uniform flow through the plenum with his preheated air/fuel mixture. Therefore, based on experimental modeling and successful prototyping used to develop the present invention, Krill will develop hot spots at the matrix centers at points F, G, H, I. Problems with these hot spots and those at the corners of the rectangular plenum will force Krill's furnace to run at less than maximum temperatures and throughput. Another drawback to Krill's furnace is the lack of heat exchange means in the furnace except for preheated fuel/air mixture. Krill's system is designed to exhaust hot air into a space for applications such as heating a greenhouse or to dry rice with excess air in the range of 60-120% and a clean (less than 10 ppm NOx) flue gas. Krill's system is not suited for heating external surfaces as required in numerous applications.
The present invention supplies a high-temperature uniform heat via a cylinder-shaped radial burner. The curved plenum, porous mesh, divider vanes, multiple inlet ports, and extended upstream fuel/air mixing point provide for uniform distribution of a preheated fuel/air mixture which avoids pre-ignition by limiting the residence time in the plenum to less than 100 msec.


A vehicle safety information system is presented that may include a user computing device configured to determine whether identifying information associated with a first vehicle is to be transmitted to at least one additional device. The user computing device may also be configured to transmit the identifying information based on this determination. The user computing device may further be configured to receive, in response to a determination via the at least one additional device that safety information associated with the first vehicle is to be provided, the safety information. The determination that the safety information is to be provided may be based on information available at the at least one additional device. The at least one additional device may access and transmit the safety information to the user computing device so that the safety information is made available to a user.

A vehicle owner or prospective purchaser may not know whether a vehicle that is owned or being considered for purchase is subject to one or more recalls and thus in need of repair, or whether such a vehicle otherwise has associated safety information of interest to the owner or prospective purchaser, such as one or more safety ratings associated with the vehicle. In some cases, this information may be obtained through publicly available sources. For example, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) maintains the web site <http://www.safercar.gov> through which information regarding recalls and other safety information may be obtained if a vehicle owner or prospective purchaser enters vehicle information through the web site. However, this technique for finding safety information not only requires the owner's or prospective purchaser's awareness of the web site and willingness to provide data through the web site in the first place, but more particularly requires the owner or prospective purchaser to enter specific data regarding the vehicle through the web site. Additionally, the need for an owner or prospective purchaser of a vehicle to be aware of an active recall pertaining to the vehicle is particularly important if the recall is for a safety defect.

STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY


Embodiments of the present disclosure describe techniques and configurations for paste thermal interface materials (TIMs) and their use in integrated circuit (IC) packages. In some embodiments, an IC package includes an IC component, a heat spreader, and a paste TIM disposed between the die and the heat spreader. The paste TIM may include particles of a metal material distributed through a matrix material, and may have a bond line thickness, after curing, of between approximately 20 microns and approximately 100 microns. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

To dissipate potentially damaging heat during operations, integrated circuit (IC) products may include thermally conductive structures such as a heat spreader and/or a heat sink in thermal contact with IC components (such as dies). These structures may be attached to the IC components using a thermal interface material (TIM), such as a polymer-based TIM (PTIM) or a solid, pre-formed solder TIM (STIM).
The performance of existing STIMs may be limited by, among other things, a relatively thick bond line thickness (BLT) (e.g., 200-400 microns) which adds bulk to the IC product, the undesirable voids that may be formed as solvent is driven out of a STIM during cure, the risk of deforming pre-formed STIM during pick-and-place operations, and the long heating times required for sufficient cure. Existing PTIMs may be able to achieve smaller BLTs than STIMs, but have poorer thermal performance (e.g., a bulk thermal conductivity of 2-5 watts/Kelvin-meter, versus approximately 80 watts/Kelvin-meter for some pre-formed STIMs).


The present invention is intended to solve the problem that the tip of the probe of a scanning probe microscope cannot be conditioned stably due to overload in a contact region. This problem is solved by a scanning probe microscope for scanning the probe and a sample relative to each other. The microscope has a cantilever, a vibration means for vibrating the cantilever, and a vibration signal-switching means for switching a vibration signal applied to the vibration means between at least two different signals. The cantilever has a resilient body that supports the probe.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scanning probe microscope that is a general term indicating various instruments, including scanning tunneling microscope, atomic force microscope, magnetic force microscope, frictional force microscope, micro-viscoelasticity AFM, and scanning Kelvin probe microscope (SKPM).
2. Description of Related Art
A scanning probe microscope uses a probe that is brought close to a surface of a sample made of a metal, semiconductor, insulator, or high-molecular weight material or consisting of a biological sample. The microscope scans the surface of the sample such that the tunneling current, interatomic force, or the like produced between the probe and the sample surface is maintained constant. Thus, the surface topography and physical properties are measured at the atomic level.
In the non-contact mode of atomic force microscopy, observations and measurements are performed using the interatomic attraction force between the sample surface and probe. Since the interatomic attraction force is detected from the non-contact distance and imaging is done, damage to the sample is small. Hence, the top layer of the surface of the sample can be imaged accurately. The microscope is equipped with a piezo element for vibrating the cantilever in contact with the base portion of the cantilever. The cantilever has a natural frequency of tens to hundreds of kilohertz depending on the length and thickness of the cantilever. When a driving signal of the natural frequency of oscillation is applied to the piezo element for applying vibrations from an oscillator, the free end forming the probe is vibrated up and down at an amplitude on the order of nanometers at the natural vibration frequency f0. Where this state is taken as a steady state and the probe is brought close to the sample, an interatomic force acts between the probe and sample at the lowest point. When the probe receives the interatomic force, the frequency shifts downward compared with the vibrational frequency f0 in the steady state. That is, the vibrational period becomes elongated.
In the non-contact mode of AFM using an optical lever technique, laser light reflected from the cantilever contains various frequency components, including components attributed to frequency variation Δf, amplitude variation ΔA, and phase variation due to the action of the attraction force. Using any one of these variations as a feedback signal, the probe-sample distance is kept constant. In detecting the feedback signal, the slope detection method in which the frequency shift is indirectly detected within the atmosphere is generally used. In a vacuum, the FM detection method in which the shift is directly detected is generally used. The prior art scanning probe microscope is shown in the block diagram of FIG. 1.
Where observations and measurements are performed using a scanning probe microscope, even if probes are fabricated at the highest accuracy, good observational results may not be obtained because of atomic-level observation and because of variations in individual probes. Furthermore, during observation, foreign material may adhere to the probe, deteriorating the sensitivity.
In this case, it has been empirically known that an improvement may be achieved by increasing the amplitude of the vibrating probe and bringing the probe into contact with the sample. It is considered that the contact has deformed the state of the tip of the probe at the atomic level, creating a state adapted for observation of the atomic image. It is also considered that the adhering material has been cleaned off.
Where the prior art control computer is used and the scroll bar on the viewing screen of the computer is dragged with the mouse to change the set value of the amplitude of the probe, the scroll bar has been varied suddenly with the mouse. The set value is modified to a value at which a contact might be made or to a value at which the amplitude is slightly smaller. Then, the probe is brought into contact with the sample. This method is not a quantitative technique and so the probe may be overloaded.
Where the numerical value of the set value of the probe amplitude is entered, a value at which the probe makes contact with the sample has been entered from the keyboard of the control computer. In this case of entry of numerical value, quantitative setting is possible. However, the operation is slower than the entry from the scroll bar. If the operation is made slower, the scanning probe may be overloaded.
As a known technique, a cleaning device for the probe of a scanning probe microscope is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H8-226927.


A vibratory plate compactor includes a vibratory mechanism, a hydraulic motor configured to drive the vibratory mechanism, and a removable baseplate assembly. The removable baseplate assembly includes a planar, central plate configured for compacting earth, and at least one interchangeable edge piece fastened along at least one of a leading edge and a trailing edge of the central plate.

Many projects require compacting a surface. For example, various types of construction projects may require compacting surfaces formed by substances like soil, gravel, and asphalt. Various types of specialized machines exist for compacting such surfaces, including, but not limited to, surface rollers and vibrating plates. Such surface compactors operate by applying downward force on the surface with a base of the surface compactor, which base may include, for example, one or more rollers and/or one or more base plates.
Some surface compactors include a vibratory mechanism for generating a fluctuating vertical force on the base of the surface compactor to enhance surface compaction. The results achieved by such a surface compactor may depend in part on the amplitude of the fluctuating vertical force generated by the vibratory mechanism. Accordingly, there exist various control methods for adjusting the magnitude of the fluctuating vertical force to achieve different results. In many existing vibratory compactors, a single base plate is welded to the bottom of the vibratory unit. In some instances, an engine or hydraulic motor controllably rotates at least one eccentric mass to impart vibratory motion at a particular frequency to the base plate. The result is an oscillatory force with the frequency of the speed of rotation, and an amplitude dependent on the mass eccentricity and speed of rotation. Variations on this basic system include multiple eccentric weights and/or shafts such that by changing the phasing of the multiple weights and/or shafts, the degree of force created by the eccentric masses can be varied. Vibratory compactors may also include a removable base plate, such that various sized and shaped base plates may be used with the same vibratory mechanism, and worn or damaged base plates may be readily replaced. In cases where the base plate is removable, a locking mechanism is provided to hold the base plate in place during operation of the vibratory compactor.
Vibratory plate compactor base plates are usually one piece, and are typically a thick plate with formed leading and trailing edges or cast base plates with the leading and trailing edges configured to curve upwards from a remaining flat central portion of the base plate. European Patent EP 2083123 A2 to Schrode ("the EP '123 patent") discloses a vibratory compactor with a removable base plate. In the EP '123 patent a quick-release latch is actuated by a double-acting hydraulic cylinder configured to receive hydraulic fluid from an excavator that operatively carries the vibratory compactor.
Although the EP '123 patent discloses an apparatus and method for removably attaching a base plate to a vibratory compactor, additional benefits and flexibility may be achievable by providing a removable base plate that also includes interchangeable leading and trailing edge pieces configured to be joined along leading and trailing edges of a central, planar, rectangular-shaped base plate. Conventional methods for manufacturing a removable base plate for a vibratory plate compactor generally involve forming a one piece base plate from a relatively thick plate of metal ranging in thickness from approximately 25-30 mm. The removable base plate is formed with a configuration including at least a leading edge that curves upward to allow dirt or other materials being compacted to be guided underneath the base plate as the vibratory plate compactor is moved along the surface. The relatively thick base plate is generally made longer than its final length in order to provide extra material along the leading and trailing edges that can be bent upward and then trimmed to the desired final dimensions for the base plate. This process for forming the base plate results in wasted material, and the process of bending the leading and trailing edges can be a difficult manufacturing operation involving large forces and the inability to precisely control the finished geometry and dimensions of the base plate. Further improvements to vibratory plate compactors may also be achievable by the added flexibility of providing interchangeable edge pieces that may be selectively joined to one or both of the leading and trailing edges of a planar, standardized, rectangular-shaped central plate.
The methods and apparatus for configuring a removable base plate assembly of a vibratory plate compactor with interchangeable leading and trailing edge pieces according to the present disclosure solve one or more of the problems set forth above.

Plate compactor with interchangeable edges


Systems and methods for performing data protection operations in a containerized application. A sidecar application is associated with or attached to a main application. The sidecar application has access to the resources of the main application. Backup requests are handled by the sidecar so that the application, which may be stateful, can be placed in a consistent state prior to performing the backup operation. The backup operation is then performed on the consistent application or on the data that is quiesced.

The manner in which applications are developed and deployed is constantly evolving. Currently, some applications are developed and deployed using containers and/or microservices. Containerized applications such as microservices provide a number of advantages. The nature of containers and containerized applications allows them to be updated frequently. In fact, it is possible to update portions or specific containers independently of other portions of the application. Further, containerized applications can be scheduled, rescheduled, and moved within a container platform with relative ease.
These advantages, however, complicate the task of protecting a containerized application (e.g., backing up the application). More specifically, part of the difficulty stems from the fact that containers can be updated frequently. Another part of the difficulty is related to the fact that containers may move from one node to another for various reasons (e.g., a node fails, load balancing, resource availability. etc.). These factors each introduce the possibility of data corruption and data loss—particularly for stateful applications.
Containerized applications thus present new challenges with regard to data protection operations such as performing backup operations. The mobility of containerized applications, the frequent updates, and other factors give rise problems not previously encountered. Systems and methods are needed perform data protection operations on containerized applications and to perform data protection operations in containerized platforms and/or microservice environments.

Application consistent snapshots as a sidecar of a containerized application


Generating data, such as metadata, relating to video media, such as a movie, and formatted according to a global video format. When metadata that is associated with video media and is formatted according to a formatting scheme associated with a particular content provider is received, the formatting scheme of the received metadata is validated if the formatting scheme of the received metadata corresponds to the global video format. Such video media may include streaming video, Video-On-Demand (VOD) movies, Pay-per-view movies, downloadable movies, and video files adapted for rendering by a media player program executed on a computer.

With the advancement of conventional video technologies, a growing number of Independent Content Providers (ICPs) provide video media to consumers (e.g., MOVIELINK® of Santa Monica, Calif. and CINEMA NOW® of Santa Monica, Calif.). These video technologies include, for example, Video-On-Demand (VOD) movies, Pay-per-view movies, and downloadable movies, to name a few. Each video media has video metadata associated with it that describes the video content. More generally, metadata is defined as data about data, and metadata commonly describes aspects of a tangible thing, such as a movie, an audio compact disc (CD), a digital video disc (DVD), a theatrical performance, or a concert, to name a few. In the case of video media, typical metadata includes several pieces of information, such as movie title, movie year, and movie rating, among others. The video metadata is very useful, not only because it describes the content of the video media, but also because it provides a basis for combining both video media and metadata associated with the video media from several providers.
Unfortunately, each individual ICP uses its own proprietary video metadata format, and often the formats of different ICPs are incompatible with each other. Because the format of the metadata from each provider is different, integrating metadata from multiple providers has proven difficult. Although transfer of some metadata pertaining to each video media from different providers is possible, recognizing and providing the majority of the metadata for consumption by an end user client is difficult, as the different formatting of various providers makes integration from various sources difficult. Moreover, such techniques ultimately fail to utilize the metadata effectively if they are unable to provide the majority of relevant metadata to the client.
Conventional techniques provide only limited amounts and types of metadata and provide no guidance to content providers regarding a common formatting scheme for use with video media metadata. Accordingly, a solution that enables metadata to be validated as conforming to a global video format schema or converted to a global video format schema so that the metadata may be readily organized for consumption by clients is desired.

Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for a global video format schema defining metadata relating to video media


A contrast control circuit for a display apparatus includes first and second resistors, a first transistor, a second transistor, and a Darlington circuit. The first and second resistors, each have a first end connected to a positive supply voltage. The first transistor has an emitter connected to a second end of the first resistor and a base to which the first voltage is input. The second transistor has an emitter connected to the second end of the first resistor, a base connected to the second end of the second resistor, and a collector connected to a negative supply voltage. The Darlington circuit is connected between the second voltage, the collector of the first transistor, and the negative supply voltage, and operates such that the absolute value of the second voltage is inversely proportional to the absolute value of the first voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a contrast control circuit for a display apparatus, and more particularly, to a contrast control circuit for a display apparatus, which receives a first voltage of positive polarity adjusted by a user, and outputs a second voltage of negative polarity for controlling the contrast of a liquid crystal display panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a liquid crystal display apparatus 1, which is one of general display apparatuses, includes a liquid crystal display panel 11 and a driving apparatus thereof.
In the liquid crystal display panel 11, signal electrode lines SL1, SL2, . . . , SLm are parallel arranged on cells of liquid crystal (LC), and scan electrode lines CL1, CL2, . . . , CLn are parallel arranged under the LC cells to be orthogonal to the signal electrode lines SL1, SL2, . . . , SLm. The scan electrode lines CL1, CL2, . . . , CLn and the signal electrode lines SL1, SL2, . . . , SLm are made of a transparent conductive material, for example, ITO (indium tin oxide).
The driving apparatus includes a controller 14, a segment driver 12, a modulation-signal generator 141 and a common driver 13. The controller 14 processes a video signal Sc from a host computer, e.g., a notebook computer, and generates a data signal DATA, a shift clock signal SCK, a frame signal FLM and a latch clock signal LCK.
The segment driver 12 makes the input data signal DATA stand by in the respective signal electrode lines SL1, SL2, . . . , SLm according to the shift clock signal SCK. Also, a signal voltage corresponding to the data signal DATA standing by according to the latch clock signal, is applied to the respective signal electrode lines SL1, SL2, . . . , SLm. Here, a circuit of generating bias voltages VBS supplied to the segment driver 12 is shown in FIG. 2.
The frame signal FLM indicates starting of a frame. The modulation-signal generator 141 divides the frequency of the latch clock signal LCK and generates a modulation signal. The generated modulation signal controls the polarity of voltages output from the segment driver 12 and the common driver 13.
The common driver sequentially applies the corresponding scan voltages to the respective scan electrode lines CL1, CL2, . . . , CLn by controlling the latch clock signal LCK, the frame signal FLM and the modulation signal. Accordingly, the arrangement of liquid crystal (LC) of a to-be-displayed cell changes and light is transmitted or blocked. Here, a circuit of generating bias voltages VBC supplied to the common driver 12 is shown in FIG. 2.
Referring to FIG. 2, the circuit of generating bias voltages applied to the common driver (13 of FIG. 1) and the segment driver (12 of FIG. 2), includes a contrast control circuit 151 and a bias-voltage generator 15. The contrast control circuit 151 receives a first voltage of positive polarity adjusted by a user and outputs a second voltage VOUT of negative polarity for controlling the contrast of a liquid crystal display panel. The bias-voltage generator 15 produces bias voltages VBC and VBS applied to the common driver 13 and the segment driver 12 according to the output voltage VOUT of the contrast control circuit 151.
FIG. 3 is a detailed circuit diagram of the contrast control circuit 151 of the conventional liquid crystal display apparatus.
Referring to FIG. 3, the positive voltage applied to an input port 2 of an operation amplifier (OP-AMP) is determined by a positive supply voltage VCC and eighth, ninth and tenth resistors R8, R9 and R10. Reference symbol C represents a capacitor for removing radio frequency noise. The resistance of the ninth resistor R9 varies by user""s manipulation. For example, the positive voltage applied to the input port 2 of the OP-AMP varies in the range from 0 to 3 V.
The OP-AMP operable by positive and negative supply voltages VCC and VEE, outputs a negative voltage VOUT, the absolute value of which is proportional to the positive voltage applied to the input port 2. The absolute value of the output voltage VOUT is proportional to the combined resistance value of eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth resistors R11, R12 and R13. The negative voltage VOUT output from the OP-AMP is applied to the bias-voltage generator (15 of FIG. 3) as a contrast controlling voltage. The rated contrast controlling voltage VOUT applied to the bias-voltage generator 15 ranges from xe2x88x928 to xe2x88x9211 V, for example.
According to the aforementioned contrast control circuit for the conventional display apparatus, since an OP-AMP which is commercially available at high cost is necessarily used, the manufacturing cost increases. Also, circuit stability cannot be improved and power consumption increases.
To solve the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a contrast control circuit for a display apparatus, which can reduce the manufacturing cost and power consumption and can improve circuit stability.
Accordingly, to achieve the above object, there is provided a contrast control circuit for a display apparatus, which receives a first voltage of positive polarity adjusted by a user, and outputs a second voltage of negative polarity for controlling the contrast of a display panel. The contrast control circuit includes third and fourth resistors, a first transistor, a second transistor, serially connected resistors and a Darlington circuit. The third and fourth resistors each have one end connected to the terminals of a positive supply voltage. The first transistor has its emitter connected to the other end of the third resistor and its base to which the first voltage is input. The second transistor has its emitter connected to the other end of the third resistor, its base connected to the other end of the fourth resistor, and its collector connected to a terminal of a negative supply voltage. The serially connected resistors have one end connected to the base of the second transistor and the other end connected to the output terminal of the second volt age. The Darlington circuit, constituents of which are connected between each of the output terminal of the second voltage, the collector of the first transistor and the terminal of the negative supply voltage, operates such that the absolute value of the second voltage is inversely proportional to the absolute value of the first voltage.
In the contrast control circuit for a display apparatus according to the present invention, the voltage of the base terminal of the second transistor is equal to the first voltage and the absolute value of the second voltage is inversely proportional to the absolute value of the first voltage. Accordingly, the second voltage can be generated by the first voltage, without using an operation amplifier which is commercially available at high cost. Thus, the manufacturing cost and power consumption can be reduced, and the circuit stability can be improved.
Preferably, at least one of the fourth resistor and the serially connected resistors is a thermistor. Accordingly, the circuit stability depending on temperature can be more effectively improved.

Contrast control circuit for display apparatus


Embodiments of this application disclose a terminal. The terminal includes a bezel, a screen, a lampshade, and a proximity light assembly. A periphery of the screen is fixedly connected to the bezel. The bezel is provided with a through hole. The lampshade is located on an inner side of the bezel and partially accommodated in the through hole. The proximity light assembly is located on the inner side of the bezel. The proximity light assembly is configured to emit emitted light into the lampshade and receive induced light passing through the lampshade. The emitted light passes through the lampshade to form emergent light. The emergent light intersects with a plane on which the screen is located. The terminal has a relatively high screen-to-body ratio.

With the rapid development of intelligent terminal products, users' requirements for display effects of the terminal products gradually increase. The design of full-screen (that is, a display with an ultra-narrow bezel) appearance has become a trend of current intelligent terminal products.
A screen of a conventional terminal includes a front cover and a display screen. The front cover includes a light-transmitting region in the middle and a non-light-transmitting edge region disposed around the light-transmitting region. The display screen is fastened to the light-transmitting region to perform display through the light-transmitting region. The terminal further includes a proximity light assembly. The proximity light assembly is disposed on a peripheral side of the display screen and close to the edge region of the front cover. Therefore, a light-outlet-and-inlet region needs to be disposed at a position that directly faces the proximity light assembly and is in the edge region. The edge region needs to be provided with the light-outlet-and-inlet region. As a result, it is difficult to reduce a width of the edge region, and a screen-to-body ratio of the terminal is low.


A transmission apparatus includes a test signal control unit that copies a test signal of a pseudo-random bit sequence and controls insertion of the same test signal in each member of a plurality of members of a concatenation signal, a concatenation signal transmitting unit that transmits each member of the concatenation signal with the test signal inserted therein by the test signal control unit to other apparatus via a plurality of transmission paths, a concatenation signal receiving unit that receives from the other apparatus each member of a plurality of members of a concatenation signal, and an individual-line-quality calculating unit that, using a test signal inserted in the members of the concatenation signal received by the concatenation signal receiving unit, individually evaluates each member of the concatenation signal received by the concatenation signal receiving unit and calculates a line quality of each transmission path.

Typically, in an Ethernet-over-OTN (EoO) network performing virtual concatenation (VCAT) transmission (Ethernet is a registered trademark and OTN stands for optical transport network), line quality evaluation information regarding a transmission path is measured by transmitting a test signal such as a pseudo-random bit sequence (PRBS) signal, as stipulated in the ITU-T G.709 (OTN) standard. Moreover, although not stipulated in the current ITU-T standard, there is a demand that the technology of measuring line quality evaluation information using a PRBS signal as a test signal be applied to an Ethernet-over-SDH/SONET (EoS) network or an Ethernet-over-PDH (EoP) network in an identical manner to that of an EoO network (SDH stands for synchronous digital hierarchy, SONET stands for synchronous optical networking, and PDH stands for plesiochronous digital hierarchy).
To perform full transmission of a 1 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) signal in an EoS network as illustrated in FIG. 7, seven VC4 signals (VCAT members) are virtually concatenated as a VC4-7V signal that is then transmitted over an SDH network. That makes it possible to effectively use the transmission band. In comparison, when VCAT transmission is not performed, the transmission is performed with a VC4-16C signal thereby resulting in a waste of 50% or more of the transmission band.
Meanwhile, it is not necessary that all seven VCAT members (VC4 signals) are transmitted over the same transmission path. That is, depending on the usage condition of the transmission line, the seven VC4 signals are sometimes divided into, for example, a group of four VC4 signals and a group of three VC4 signals and each group of VC4 signals is transmitted over a separate transmission path as illustrated in FIG. 7.
For such a case, there is a demand that an EoS apparatus (VCAT transmission apparatus) in a VCAT transmission system be equipped with a line quality evaluation feature using a PRBS signal (PRBS transmission feature, PRBS monitoring feature) to evaluate the line quality.
In practice, line quality evaluation using a PRBS signal can be performed with either an EoS processing unit illustrated in FIG. 8 that enables line quality evaluation of the entire VCAT signal (VC4-7V signal in the abovementioned example) or an EoS processing unit illustrated in FIG. 9 that enables elementary line quality evaluation of each VC path on an individual basis without giving consideration to the VCAT signal.
In the EoS processing unit illustrated in FIG. 8, line quality evaluation of the entire VCAT signal (VC4-7V signal in the abovementioned example) is performed by receiving a PRBS signal that is inserted in serial with respect to the entire VCAT signal and calculating an overall error rate for the entire VCAT signal.
In comparison, to perform elementary line quality evaluation of each VC path on an individual basis without giving consideration to the VCAT signal in the EoS processing unit illustrated in FIG. 9, a selector is disposed corresponding to each of seven VC signal processing units #1 to #7. Then, a PRBS generation/monitoring unit is selected for each VCAT member (7 times for each VC4 signal and 21 times for each VC3 signal) to individually evaluate the line quality of each VCAT member. Alternatively, a plurality of PRBS generation/monitoring units (7 for a VC4 signal and 21 for a VC3 signal) can be disposed for individual evaluation of line quality (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-268038 for further description of the conventional technique).
Meanwhile, in the technology of line quality evaluation of the entire VCAT signal, the line quality of individual VCAT members cannot be verified in consideration of division of the transmission path in VCAT transmission. That makes it difficult to independently evaluate the line quality of each transmission path.
In a conventional EoS apparatus, a VC-nC signal is de-multiplexed into a VC signal by performing byte interleaving and is transmitted in parallel as a VC-nV signal to individual VCAT members. Thus, in a network in which, as illustrated in FIG. 7, transmission is performed over two transmission paths by dividing the VCAT signal into a group of four VC4 signals and a group of three VC4 signals, the signal sequence of the PRBS signal gets disturbed (see FIG. 10).
For that reason, when the transmission path is divided, it is not possible to obtain the error rate of each divided transmission path on an individual basis. As a result, the line quality of each VCAT member cannot be verified individually at the same time. That makes it difficult to independently evaluate the line quality of each transmission path.
On the other hand, in the technology of simple line quality evaluation of each VC path on an individual basis without giving consideration to the VCAT signal, it is necessary to dispose a selector corresponding to each of the VC signal processing units #1 to #7 or dispose a plurality of PRBS generation/monitoring units. However, that is not an efficient way of performing line quality evaluation.

Transmission apparatus and line quality evaluating method


A computer module includes a housing having a cover defining a condenser chamber, and a heat-absorbing unit having at least one cavity body adapted to contact a heat source, and a working fluid received in the cavity body. A tubing unit is connected fluidly to the condenser chamber and the heat-absorbing unit. The working fluid flows through the tubing unit to circulate from the condenser chamber to the heat-absorbing unit by gravity and from the heat-absorbing unit to the condenser chamber by natural convection. The tubing unit forms a closed circulating loop with the heat-absorbing unit and the condenser chamber. The cover is adapted to exchange heat with external cold air so as to condense the working fluid in the condenser chamber.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a computer module, more particularly to a computer module having a mechanism to dissipate heat.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a liquid-cooling heat dissipating system, as disclosed in Taiwanese Publication No. M295424, includes a heat sink 11 for exchanging heat with external cold air by natural convection, a thermoelectric cooler 12, a pressure-increasing pump 13 to circulate a working fluid within the system, a liquid-cooling connector 14 in contact with a heat source 2, three input pipes 15 for interconnecting the heat sink 11, the thermoelectric cooler 12, the pump 13, and the liquid-cooling connector 14 in series, an output pipe 16 connected fluidly to the heat sink 11 and the liquid-cooling connector 14, and a fan 17 for directing a current of cold air toward the heat sink 11. The heat source 2 may be a central processing unit of a computer. When the pressure-increasing pump 13 is activated, the working fluid in the liquid-cooling connector 14 circulates toward the heat sink 11 after absorbing the heat generated by the heat source 2. The heat sink 11 then exchanges heat with the external current of cold air so as to dissipate the heat. Although the aforementioned heat dissipating system can achieve its intended purpose, in actual practice, it has the following drawbacks:
1. Since the aforementioned liquid-cooling heat dissipating system relies on the pressure-increasing pump 13 to circulate the working fluid, the system not only has more components, is more costly, and is more noisy, but also generates more heat itself due to the pressure-increasing pump 13. This runs counter to efforts at reducing the temperature of the working fluid in the system and, therefore, reduces the cooling efficiency of the system.
2. If the aforementioned working fluid is water, the water will freeze when the system is used in an environment with a temperature lower than 0° C., thereby rendering the system useless. Further, if there is water leakage in the system, circuitry in the heat source 2 and/or elements of the system itself may be destroyed.


A method of activating a vehicle function is provided. The method includes detecting a force exerted onto a bed step of a vehicle using a pressure sensor. A controller detects whether the amount of force exerted onto the bed step is greater than a force threshold. When the force exertion force exceeds the force threshold, one of a plurality of pressure patterns is detected. One of a plurality of vehicle functions is then activated based on the detected pressure pattern.

With the advancement of vehicle technology, user convenience is also being continuously developed. One such advancement is particularly applied to a truck vehicle having a bed at a rear thereof. These types of vehicles are often used to carry heavy loads. Thus, when approaching the rear of the vehicle, it is often desirable to rapidly activate bed features such as opening the tailgate and operating lights mounted within the bed of the vehicle. Conventionally, such feature activation is located within the vehicle cabin. For example, buttons near the driver's seat of the vehicle provide activation of a tailgate and bed lights. Alternately, the buttons are provided on a key fob which requires the user to have access to the key fob while potentially carrying a heavy load towards the vehicle. As another example, tailgate activation may be based on a motion sensor. However, such a motion sensor often erroneously detects an activation of the tailgate thus decreasing user convenience.


In a case where fuel injection system abnormality is detected, and fuel supply stop processing is carried out against the abnormality, since a judgment is made using a misfire judgment, in a case where the misfire judgment is carried out in a periodic measurement system, the reliability is low at the time of a periodic variation or in a low rotation region, and in a case where it is carried out in an ion detection system, the cost increases, and the calculation load of an internal combustion engine control apparatus by the misfire judgment processing increases. A control apparatus for a vehicular internal combustion engine of the invention includes an injector drive abnormality judgment unit to judge, based on an injector drive confirmation signal, drive abnormality of an injector corresponding to the injector drive confirmation signal, and the injector drive abnormality judgment unit judges abnormality of the injector drive confirmation signal based on a state of the injector drive confirmation signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control apparatus for a vehicular internal combustion engine, and particularly to a control apparatus for a vehicular internal combustion engine, which controls torque generated by an internal combustion engine by directly injecting fuel into a cylinder of the internal combustion engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, in an internal combustion engine mounted in an automobile, in order to improve fuel consumption or the like, a direct-injection internal combustion engine in which fuel is directly injected into a combustion chamber of a cylinder by an injector is proposed and is put to practical use. In the direct-injection internal combustion engine, because of restrictions of pressure in a cylinder, a fuel injection period, a fuel atomization period and the like, fuel pressure is set to be higher than that of a conventional port injection internal combustion engine. The injector to inject the high pressure fuel has a large drive current and requires a drive circuit to control the large current.
In this type of conventional apparatus, an injector drive circuit is provided separately from an internal combustion engine control apparatus, an injector drive signal is transmitted from the internal combustion engine control apparatus to the injector drive circuit, and the, driving of the injector is controlled by the injector drive circuit in accordance with the injector drive signal. Besides, in accordance with a request for the practice of self diagnosis in an internal combustion engine control system, it is detected whether a drive current flows to an injector in synchronization with an injector drive signal, and failure of a fuel injection system is diagnosed based on the detection result (see, for example, patent document 1: JP-A-2000-73840 (pages 1 to 5, FIGS. 1 to 7).
In this conventional apparatus, in order to avoid such a problem that in a case where a signal line to transmit an abnormality diagnosis signal goes wrong (opened or shorted), although fuel injection can be normally carried out, it is judged that a fuel injection system goes wrong, and vehicle traveling is carelessly stopped, the internal combustion engine control apparatus detects the existence of a misfire at every cylinder, and in the case where the misfire is not detected although the abnormality diagnosis signal to indicate the abnormality of the fuel injection system is outputted, an energization signal to each cylinder is continuously outputted, and the fuel injection is continued.
However, according to the conventional apparatus as stated above, in the case where the abnormality of the fuel injection system is detected, and a fuel supply stop processing against the abnormality is carried out, since the judgment is made using the misfire judgment, in the case where the misfire judgment is carried out in a periodic measurement system, the reliability is low at the time of a period variation or in a low rotation region, and in the case where it is carried out in an ion detection system, an increase in cost is caused. Further, an increase in calculation load of the internal combustion engine control apparatus due to the misfire judgment processing is also conceivable.
Besides, the misfire is not necessarily generated by injector drive abnormality. In general, the connection from the injector drive circuit to the injector is such that the power supply side to the injector is common to group cylinders, and the GND side is independent in each cylinder. Thus, for example, in the case of a four-cylinder internal combustion engine having a first to a fourth cylinders, in the case where the ground (hereinafter referred to as GND) side harness of the third injector for the third cylinder is GND-shorted, since the power supply side is common to the second and the third injectors for the second and the third cylinders, at the time of driving the normal second injector, current flows to the third injector. Thus, the third injector is also driven at the same time as the second injector, and the second cylinder at the normal drive timing injects fuel, for example, in the intake stroke to cause normal combustion, while the third injector for the third cylinder injects fuel into the third cylinder in the expansion stroke. In the third cylinder, since the injection of the fuel occurs in the expansion stroke, a misfire signal is not detected, however, there arises a problem that the combustion is delayed, or the fuel flows out to the exhaust system.

Control apparatus for vehicular internal combustion engine


A honeycomb labyrinth seal includes a downstream-most row of honeycomb cells which extends beyond the exit edge of a base portion, so that a portion of each cell of the downstream-most row of honeycomb cells overhangs the base portion by an amount approximately equal to one half the width of the drainage passages formed in the base portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to honeycomb labyrinth seals and, more specifically, to an improved seal which is used for low-pressure steam turbines.
2. Description of the Related Art
A grooved honeycomb labyrinth seal for steamed turbines is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,457 (assigned to Westinghouse Electric Corporation).
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 herein, the honeycomb labyrinth seal 3 described in the aforementioned U.S. patent is formed from a plurality of arcuate segments each comprising a base portion 7 and a plurality of rows of honeycomb cells 9 extending radially inwardly from the base portion 7 so that each cell 9 is open adjacent the blades 1. A plurality of passages or grooves 11 are so disposed that each cell 9 is connected to at least one passage, while the majority of the cells are connected to two passages or grooves 11. The groove 11 on the left side of the drawing is open to the upstream steam while the groove 11 on the right side of the drawing is open to the downstream and there is an interconnection between the grooves 11 and the cells 9 allowing steam and water entrained in the steam to flow across the base 7 of the seal from the upstream to the downstream side of the seal. The cells 9 are generally hexagonal having six walls, a plurality of which are common with adjacent cell walls.
An axially disposed gap 13 is disposed between the circumferentially adjacent honeycomb labyrinth seal segments which permits water collected in the grooves 11 to drain therefrom. An appropriate drain, not shown, is also disposed in the blade ring 5 to drain the water from the seal locating groove 4 in the blade ring 5.
FIG. 3A shows a typical arrangement for existing honeycomb seal designs in a steam turbine blade path. A radial step is formed between the seal inside diameter and the outer diameter of the downstream blade 16. A radial channel is formed between surface 12 and surface 12A for the purpose of removing steam and moisture from the blade path flow. It is difficult to achieve efficient turning of the flow leaving the rotating blade tip region (under the seal) and thus it is difficult for the moisture to enter the extraction slot. This can lead to disturbed flow conditions in this region.
It is postulated that moisture drainage from the seal may follow a generally axial path and become entrained into the main downstream flow through stationary blade 16, leading to increased moisture erosion damage to the downstream rotating blades.
By observing flow field behavior and moisture erosion characteristics downstream of a typical honeycomb seal installation, it has been determined that a disturbed flow pattern (standing vortex) can exist in association with the radial step between the inner diameter of the seal and the outer diameter surface at the inlet to the downstream stationary blade row. Also, moisture collected by the seal may not be flowing into the downstream moisture removal or extraction slot as intended. Both of these phenomena may be attributed to a limited ability of the extraction steam and water flow to negotiate the sharp 90.degree. corner at the seal exit edge.


The invention concerns a solid alkalimetal silicate having a molar ratio SiO.sub.2 :M.sub.2 O from about 1.5 to about 3, in which M is an alkalimetal substantially consisting of sodium and potassium. The silicate contains from about 1 and up to about 5% by weight of K.sub.2 O based on the dry material and the water content being from about 16 to about 25% by weight based on the total weight.. Further, the invention concerns a method of its preparation, its use and a cleaning agent composition containing the silicate above.

The present invention concerns solid alkali metal silicate comprising sodium and potassium. The silicate also contains from about 1 to about 5% by weight of K.sub.2 O and has a water content from about 17 to about 25% by weight. The invention also concerns a method of its preparation, its use and cleaning compositions containing such silicate.
Sodium metasilicate, i.e. sodium silicate having a molar ratio SiO.sub.2 :Na.sub.2 O of about 1, is frequently used in cleaning products such as washing and dishwasher agents. The silicate inhibits corrosion on glass, glazing and metal parts and also functions as an alkali generating agent. Generally, granules of pentahydrate are used, which granules dissolve quickly in water. However, many products contain metasilicate in such a high amount that a very high alkalinity is obtained, which renders the products corrosive and unpleasant to handle.
Less alkalinity but the same protection against corrosion can be obtained by the use of sodium silicates having a higher molar ratio SiO.sub.2 :Na.sub.2 O, for example disilicates whose molar ratio is about 2. For use in high concentrated cleaning products it is highly desirable that the silicate has as high bulk density as possible. A spray dried powder of disilicate may be brought to granules with suitable size and high bulk density by compacting, which for example is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,835,216. However, such compacted disilicates dissolve too slowly in water to be useful in commercial products in practice.

Alkali metal silicate composition with potassium compound additive


In a method, the starting behavior of an internal combustion engine (1) with a heating device (40) for heating a coolant is improved. According to the method, the temperature of the coolant to be heated by the heating device (40) and an additional temperature that is associated with the internal combustion engine (1), are determined. The temperatures are compared and a starting fuel amount is determined in accordance with the compared temperatures. The internal combustion engine (1) is started by metering the starting fuel amount.

To improve the starting behavior and the comfort when outside temperatures are cold, many internal combustion engines—at least optionally—have a heating device, by means of which the coolant of the internal combustion engine can be preheated. Such heating devices are also offered for retrofitting and can be operated by connecting them to an external power source. Modern internal combustion engines also mostly have a control device by means of which all sequences and control elements of the internal combustion engine can be controlled to take account of the wishes of the driver, driving comfort, safety functions and emission behavior etc. To this end the control device exerts influence on manipulated variables influencing the torque of the internal combustion engine, such as the amount of fuel to be injected for example, the ignition angle, the amount of fresh air supplied or the exhaust gas feedback rate. This is intended to optimize the engine combustion and the torque delivered.
The starting of the internal combustion engine is also controlled by the control device. To guarantee secure cold starting of the internal combustion engine even when outside temperatures are low, it is known that the amount of fuel needed for starting can be determined as a function of the coolant temperature of the internal combustion engine.
With an internal combustion engine which is equipped with a heating device as described above for heating the coolant, the starting behavior of the internal combustion engine can be noticeably adversely affected however. As well as the greater inconvenience of the long start time, increased pollutant emissions can also result.

Method and control device for starting an internal combustion engine comprising a heating device for heating a coolant