Apparatus for an anti-rotation mechanism, such as used in a wrench. The space between a pair of races contains a plurality of pairs of rollers. One race has a protrusion centered inside each pair of rollers, with the rollers biased against the protrusion. Adjacent the protrusion and between the rollers of each pair is a prong that selectively biases one or the other of the rollers of the pair away from the protrusion. When one roller in the pair of rollers is biased away from the corresponding protrusion, relative motion between the pair of races is enabled in only one direction. The protrusions extend into the space between the pair of races sufficiently to prevent the rollers from moving under load when relative motion is inhibited.

1. Field of Invention
This invention pertains to an anti-rotation mechanism that has infinitely variable steps for a ratchet-like operation, for example, a socket wrench.
2. Description of the Related Art
A wrench is a tool used to grip and provide mechanical advantage in applying torque to a fastener. A common type of wrench is a ratchet wrench, which allows rotary motion in one direction while inhibiting motion in the opposite direction. A ratchet wrench uses a gear and a pawl to control the rotary motion. The teeth of the gear define the minimum angular rotation of the wrench when in operation.
Other types of wrenches besides those using ratchets are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,888 discloses a wrench device with a bearing-type clutch for selectively and reversibly providing a unidirectional rotational force and an opposite unidirectional independent rotation. The wrench device includes one or more bearings disposed in an irregular space between a primary wall of a primary body and a secondary wall of a secondary body. The space has tapering or narrowing sections in which the bearings bind to fixedly engage the primary and secondary bodies as the primary body rotates in a first rotational direction. A pin or toggle dislodges a bearing so that the primary body may rotate freely in a second, opposing rotational direction while another bearing binds the secondary body to the primary body when said primary body is rotated in the first rotational direction. Alternatively, a bearing is selectively positioned in the space to cause the primary and secondary to rotate together or independently depending on the positioning of the bearing and the rotational direction of the primary body.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,354 was filed as a continuation-in-part application of U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,888. U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,354 identifies a problem with bearing-type wrenches, which is that they may roll under high torque conditions. The roller bearings of wrenches of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,888 inhibit rotation at the expense of applying an outward force to the wrench housing. Under high toque conditions, the outward force is sometimes sufficient to deform the wrench housing sufficiently to allow the bearing to move or slip.


Embodiments of the disclosed invention include a system and method for recording television content in the event of a power loss. For example, in one embodiment, an optical network terminal associated with providing video service to the digital video recorder is utilized to backup and store a scheduled television program that occurs during the duration of a power outage affecting the digital video recorder.

The disclosed invention is related to the field of digital video recorders (DVR). A digital video recorder is an electronic device used to record television programming. A digital video recorder works similar to, and is about the same size as a video cassette recorder (VCR), but instead of recording to a video cassette tape, a DVR uses a hard disk drive for storing television programming data. Currently, if a digital video recorder loses power while recording, the content broadcasted during the power outage is not recorded.


A method and apparatus for controlling a fluid treatment apparatus that includes a resin tank containing an ion exchange media. A control valve controls the regeneration cycle and includes a regeneration control turbine operatively connected to a regeneration control disk forming part of a servo system. During regeneration, a meter flow of fluid emitted by a regeneration control nozzle produces rotation in the turbine to effect a regeneration sequence. Regeneration is initiated by a regeneration initiating nozzle which emits a stream of fluid at the turbine for a predetermined time interval in order to initiate a regeneration cycle. A control system includes a sensor for monitoring the fluid quality level of the source fluid or the treated fluid and initiates regeneration. When the control system is used with the disclosed control valve, the control system communicates presssurized fluid to the regeneration initiating nozzle upon sensing a predetermined quality level. The control system preferably includes a programmable controller interconnected with a flow sensor and conductivity sensor and periodically samples the conductivity of the influent. Based on the conductivity and volume date provided by the sensors, the programmable controller maintains a running total of "total grains" processed by the ion exchange material. When the total grains processed equals or exceeds a preset value which is related to the capacity of the resin bed, the control system initiates regeneration.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,025, which is owned by the present assignee, discloses a control valve for use in water softeners having two resin tanks. One of the resin tanks is normally on-line while the other tank is regenerated and placed in a standby condition until the first tank requires regeneration. The disclosed control valve controls which of the tanks is on-line and controls the regeneration sequence of an exhausted tank.
The quantity of water treated by a given tank, is monitored by a mechanism that includes a water usage turbine driven by water entering the on-line resin tank. When a predetermined quantity of water is treated, which produces to a predetermined number of revolutions in the turbine, a regeneration sequence is initiated which places the standby tank on-line and isolates the exhausted tank.
A second turbine, operatively connected to a regeneration sequence control element (in the form of a disk) is rotated by a stream of water that is activated at the beginning of the regeneration cycle. The stream of water physically drives the regeneration control disk (via the turbine and associated drive train) through its sequence. With the disclosed arrangement, the frequency of regeneration of the water softener system is determined by the usage turbine which directly measures the quantity of fluid treated by a given tank.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,427,549 which is also owned by the present assignee, a deionization method and apparatus is disclosed. The disclosed apparatus includes a control valve similar to the control valve disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,025 in that it includes a usage turbine for monitoring the amount of source water treated by a given tank and a regeneration control turbine for driving a control element through a regeneration sequence.
In U.S. application Ser. No. 083,721 filed Aug. 10, 1987 under the title Apparatus and Method for Recovering Materials from Process Baths, a method and apparatus for recovering a metal such as nickel from a plating bath is disclosed. A control valve similar in function to the control valve disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,298,025 and 4,427,549 can be used to control an apparatus embodying the invention of U.S. Ser. No. 083,721, if a pair of resin tanks are employed, one of which is on-line, the other of which is regenerated and held off-line.
In all three of the above described fluid treatment and related applications, the regeneration frequency is determined by a quantity of fluid treated by the system. In selecting the frequency (i.e., the quantity of fluid to be treated before regeneration is necessary), it is assumed that the characteristics of the fluid to be treated remain fairly constant. In case of a water softener system, it is assumed that the water to be softened contains a fairly constant concentration of minerals to be removed. In the case of a deionization system, it is assumed that the incoming fluid has a fairly constant concentration of cations and anions. In the case of a metal recovery system, it is assumed that the fluid being processed has a fairly constant concentration of the metal to be recovered.
As a practical matter, however, in some applications the characteristics of the incoming fluid vary. As a result, the frequency of regeneration, as determined by the water usage turbine, may be excessive resulting in the waste of regeneration chemicals, or may occur at insufficient intervals which cause the quality of the output fluid to degrade.
Systems have been suggested in which the frequency of regeneration of an ion exchange bed is a function of a monitored characteristic or parameter in the output fluid. For example in U.S. Pat. No. 2,938,868 which issued to Carlson et al., a method of controlling regeneration of ion exchangers is disclosed that includes an apparatus for monitoring the output of a deionization apparatus. In the system disclosed in this patent, the pH or alternately, the conductivity of the effluent is monitored and when the pH (or the conductivity) of the effluent reaches a predetermined level, regeneration of the anion and/or cation beds is initiated.
In many industrial applications which use deionized water, relatively high quality water is required and the high quality level must be maintained throughout the operation of the deionization system. It has been found, that by monitoring the effluent, the quality of the output must degrade at least slightly in order for the system controller to recognize that regeneration is required. It has also been found that it is desirable to regenerate a resin bed before it is fully exhausted. By regenerating a resin bed prior to complete exhaustion, it has been found that extremely high-quality deionized water can be maintained throughout the operation of the deionization apparatus. Devices that rely on the degradation in quality of the output stream in order to effect regeneration of the resin bed have proved unsatisfactory in those applications that require high quality deionized water.


Described is a process for producing an inkjet printhead comprising an aperture face having an oleophobic surface. The process includes forming an aperture plate by disposing a silicon layer on an aperture plate; using photolithography to create a textured pattern on an outer surface of the silicon layer; and chemically modifying the textured surface by disposing a conformal, oleophobic coating on the textured surface. The oleophobic aperture plate may be used as a front face surface for an inkjet printhead.

Fluid inkjet systems typically include one or more printheads having a plurality of inkjets from which drops of fluid are ejected towards a recording medium. The inkjets of a printhead receive ink from an ink supply chamber or manifold in the printhead which, in turn, receives ink from a source, such as a melted ink reservoir or an ink cartridge. Each inkjet includes a channel having one end in fluid communication with the ink supply manifold. The other end of the ink channel has an orifice or nozzle for ejecting drops of ink. The nozzles of the inkjets may be formed in an aperture or nozzle plate that has openings corresponding to the nozzles of the inkjets.
During operation, drop ejecting signals activate actuators in the inkjets to expel drops of fluid from the inkjet nozzles onto a recording medium. By selectively activating the actuators of the inkjets to eject drops as the recording medium and/or printhead assembly are moved relative to one another, the deposited drops can be precisely patterned to form particular text and graphic images on the recording medium. An example of a full width array printhead is described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0046125, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. An example of an ultra-violet curable gel ink that can be jetted in such a printhead is described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0123606, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. An example of a solid ink that can be jetted in such a printhead is the Xerox Color Qube™ cyan solid ink available from Xerox Corporation. U.S. Pat. No. 5,867,189, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, describes an inkjet print head including an ink ejecting component which incorporates an electropolished ink-contacting or orifice surface on the outlet side of the printhead.
One difficulty encountered with fluid inkjet systems is wetting, drooling, or flooding of inks onto the printhead front face. This contamination of the printhead front face can cause or contribute to blocking of the inkjet nozzles and channels, which alone or in combination with the wetted, contaminated front face, can cause or contribute to non-firing or missing drops, undersized or otherwise wrong-sized drops, satellites, or misdirected drops on the recording medium and thus result in degraded print quality. Current printhead front face coatings are typically sputtered fluoropolymer coatings, such as those from PTFE and PFA. When the printhead is tilted, a UV gel ink at a temperature of about 75° C. (75° C. being a typical jetting temperature for UV gel ink) and a solid ink at a temperature of about 105° C. (105° C. being a typical jetting temperature for solid ink) do not readily slide on the printhead front face surface. Rather, these inks flow along the printhead front face and leave an ink film or residue on the printhead that may interfere with jetting. Thus, the front faces of UV and solid ink printheads are prone to be contaminated by UV and solid inks. In some cases, the contaminated printhead can be refreshed or cleaned with a maintenance unit. However, this approach introduces system complexity, hardware cost, and sometimes reliability issues.
There remains a need for materials and methods for preparing devices having superoleophobic characteristics alone or in combination with superhydrophobic characteristics. Further, while currently available coatings for inkjet printhead front faces are suitable for their intended purposes, a need remains for an improved printhead front face design that reduces or eliminates wetting, drooling, flooding, and/or contamination of UV or solid ink over the printhead front face. There also remains a need for an improved printhead front face design that is ink phobic, that is, oleophobic, and robust to withstand maintenance procedures such as wiping of the printhead front face. There further remains a need for an improved printhead that is easily cleaned or that is self-cleaning, thereby eliminating hardware complexity, such as the need for a maintenance unit, reducing run cost, and improving system reliability.
The appropriate components and process aspects of each of the foregoing U.S. Patents and Patent Application Publications may be selected for the present disclosure in embodiments thereof. Further, throughout this application, various publications, patents, and published patent applications are referred to by an identifying citation. The disclosures of the publications, patents, and published patent applications referenced in this application are hereby incorporated by reference into the present disclosure to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains.

Method of manufacturing inkjet printhead with self-clean ability


A positioning system for a body comprises a flexible bag of a gas-impermeable material/including a valve to permit evacuation of the interior thereof, the bag containing a flowable granular material and at least one bolster. The body can be at least part of a human form, such as a patient. Systems are generally provided for specific body regions such as the hip or thorax, and for the whole body. The bolster is larger than the grains of the granular material. A size dimension of the bolster is therefore preferably at least 5 times the- size dimension of the granular material, although it sill usually be one or more orders of magnitude larger. Various forms of bolster are possible. A bolster that includes a generally flat section and an upstanding section extending therefrom can be used to locate a shoulder region of the patient in a reproducible yet comfortable form. A bolster that is generally cylindrical in shape can be used to support various areas of a patient such as the neck or knee. The granular material can consist of polystyrene spheres. The bag is preferably of a nylon material; such as a nylon material coated with a polyurethane-based coating.

Patient positioning systems are used for the accurate and reproducible positioning of patients for radiation therapy, diagnostic imaging, surgery and other medical procedures. For modern radiotherapy treatments, precise positioning of the patient is an indispensable prerequisite.
Typically, such positioning systems use a mouldable vacuum cushion in order to combine patient comfort with reproducible accuracy of the patient's position. The vacuum cushion consists of a hull material, typically a nylon cloth laminated with a polyurethane coating, a filling material such as polystyrene grains, and a valve.
In order to form the cushion into a mould, the patient is placed on the vacuum cushion which then deforms to a shape that accommodates the patient. The tube is that connected to a vacuum supply such as one from a vacuum pump. This generates a vacuum in the cushion, and the vacuum cushion is moulded to the patient's contours. The grains that were previously free-flowing are constrained by compression resulting from the atmospheric pressure on the outside of the cushion.
Typical characteristics of such cushions include                reproducible positioning of the patient from imaging to treatment and subsequent treatment fractions, while preserving patient comfort and improving the clinical workflow        optimisation of clinical workflow for a range of clinical setups and indications such as thorax, hip, full body and head and neck        a comfortable, stable and precise mould of the patient's position
Such vacuum cushions are typically constructed entirely of radio translucent materials to provide consistent artefact-free image clarity with minimal dose attenuation.
A coated nylon material for the exterior of the cushion enables smooth mould definition, comfortable patient positioning and ease of cleaning.


The invention relates to a radiation image converting apparatus which employs an accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate which is rigid or low in flexibility, and it is an object of the invention to provide a radiation image converting apparatus which prevents radiations having passed through an accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate from being scattered and irradiated upon the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate again and achieves miniaturization of the equipment and simplification in structure. The radiation image converting apparatus of the present invention is comprises a lead containing sheet or a radiation absorbing plate which is composed of a plurality of rigid lead containing plates combined with each other, and a moving mechanism for moving the lead containing sheet or the radiation absorbing plate such that the lead containing sheet or the radiation absorbing plate is moved to a position behind the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate prior to photographing but is retracted from the position behind the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate prior to reading.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a radiation image converting apparatus which employs an accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent screen having a certain rigidity or a low flexibility and more particularly, to a radiation image converting apparatus which has a structure which decreases diffused radiation upon photographing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, systems wherein a radiation image is recorded on an X-ray film or the like and the film on which a radiation image is recorded is used for observation, diagnosis, etc., have been and are gradually being replaced by another type of system wherein radiation having passed through an object for photographing are irradiated upon an accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent material formed in a sheet or a panel to accumulate and record a radiation image on the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent material and then the radiation image is photoelectrically read to obtain an image signal, for which suitable image processing is subsequently performed to obtain a reproduction image. Basic construction of a system which employs an accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent material is disclosed in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,527. Here, the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent material signifies a fluorescent material which accumulates energy. When radiation such as X-rays, .alpha. rays, .beta. rays or .gamma. rays are irradiated thereupon, and if excitation light such as infrared rays, visible rays or ultraviolet rays is irradiated thereupon within a given period of time, then the accumulated energy is radiated as accelerated phosphorescence light. A kind of radiation energy of which it is easy to accumulate, a wavelength of excitation light with which accelerated phosphorescence light is liable to be radiated, a wavelength of accelerated phosphorescence light to be emitted and so forth are different depending upon different kinds of fluorescent materials.
It is recognized, with a system which employs an accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent material, that the amount of accelerated phosphorescence light emitted from the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent material by irradiation of excitation light increases in proportion, over a wide range of energy, to the energy of the radiation irradiated upon the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent material. Further, the ratio between the amount of light and the energy can be varied by an amount of excitation light. Accordingly, a radiation image which is not influenced by a variation in the amount of exposure radiation can be obtained. Further, in a system for obtaining an X-ray image of a human body, the exposure dose to a human body upon X-ray photographing can be reduced.
A radiation image converting apparatus may include a photographing and recording section, including an accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate, wherein an accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent material is formed in a panel and is rigid or has limited flexibility, and a reading unit for irradiating excitation light upon the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate which has a radiation image accumulated and recorded thereon, the reading unit receiving accelerated phosphorescence light radiated from the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate to obtain an image signal. The radiation image converting apparatus has a problem such that, when radiation such as X-rays are irradiated upon the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate, part of the irradiated radiation passes through the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate and are scattered in the inside of the apparatus so that they impact upon the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate again, and consequently, the sharpness of a radiation image accumulated and recorded on the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate is deteriorated, so that a visible image reproduced in accordance with an image signal obtained by reading the radiation image is made unclear.
One of the possible solutions to the problem may be to provide, similarly as in a conventional apparatus which employs an X-ray film, a rigid lead plate on the rear face side of the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate such that radiations having passed through the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate may be absorbed by the lead plate, so that they may not be admitted into the inside of the apparatus. In the case of a conventional apparatus which employs an X-ray film, there is no problem if a lead plate is disposed in such a manner as described just above because an X-ray film after completion of photographing is taken out to effect development thereof. However, when an accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate is employed, it is necessary to dispose, after completion of photographing, the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate and the reading unit close to each other to effect reading of a radiation image accumulated and recorded on the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate. Therefore, if a lead plate is disposed on the rear face side of the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate, then it is difficult to place, when reading is to be performed, the accelerated phosphorescence fluorescent plate and the reading unit close to each other, which is a serious obstacle to miniaturization of the apparatus and simplification in structure of the apparatus.
Further, while the object is fundamentally different from that of the present invention, a technique that, in an apparatus which includes a combination of a so-called film screen method wherein an X-ray image is photographed and recorded on an X-ray film combined with an intensifying screen and another so-called fluoroscopic photographing method wherein X-rays are converted into an electric signal using an X-ray fluoroscopic intensifying tube and then the X-ray image is observed on a CRT display, a thin lead plate is adhered to the intensifying screen and the intensifying screen is moved to and from a location in front of the X-ray fluoroscopic intensifying tube, is already known and disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 2-100042.


A storage bitcell comprising a first inverter cross-coupled with a second inverter, both the first and second inverter being in a path between a first potential and a second potential; wherein a first isolator is connected in the path between the first inverter and the first potential. The storage bitcell has particular application as Static Random-Access Memory (SRAM) circuitry.

Cloud computing services are becoming more common. More and more devices are being connected to the cloud, for example as part of the "Internet of Things". For example, relatively small devices such as wireless sensor nodes can be connected to the cloud so that they can be accessed and controlled using remote systems. For example, data from a temperature sensor may be periodically aggregated at a remote location and accessed from another device. Hence, there is an increasing amount of data being sensed and then collected by cloud platforms and their providers. Data may be held in memory bitcells and those bitcells with low voltage retention and low read energy provide greater efficiency of power usage. Efficient power usage is desired where sources of energy may be harvested by a sensor node incorporating a solar cell or where power supply is aggregated across many, perhaps thousands, of sensors.
Accordingly, providing an electronic storage device with a low retention voltage and low read energy is particularly beneficial.


An image recognizing device for recognizing the motion of a player on the basis of a content containing a sport in which players play in zones demarcated with an obstacle such as a net, including a video information acquiring section for acquiring video information representing the motion of the player in play from the content, a hidden state judging unit for judging whether or not a use tool such as a ball moving between the zones and being an object of scoring is in a hidden state by a predetermined object, a hit time information determining section for determining the time at which the use tool hits on the basis of the hiding start time at which the use tool is judged to be hidden by the hidden state judging section and the hiding stop time at which the hiding is judged to be stopped, a rule information storage section in which rule information on the sport is stored, and an image content recognizing section for recognizing the image content including the motion of the player represented by the video information on the basis of the video information acquired by the video information acquiring section, the position of the use tool at the hit time determined by the hit time information determining section, and the rule information stored in the rule information storage section.

Recently, digital video information that a user can use in various fields has been steadily growing. In conjunction with a development of the Internet society, computer equipment, communication environment and/or interface has been speeded up in a broader area, and various visual data has been accumulated ubique in large quantity, which gives more importance to image summarizing technology that makes it possible to access flood of information and to watch only a part that a user wants to watch in a short period of time.
For example, in case of extracting an image requested by a user from each scene of a sport video such as tennis, the following two methods can be conceivable as a method for recognizing an image content such as "passing success" or "smash success"; one of the methods is by inputting which segment of the visual information is "passing success" or "smash success" by hand on a case-by-case basis, and the other method is by extracting each position of the ball, the player, and the court line by the use of a computer and by determining a time change of a spatial relative relationship comprehensively.
In case of image recognition by means of inputting the image content by hand, it is possible to recognize the image without fail, however, there are problems such that a labor cost is increased or it bears a heavy burden for a worker to process a long content. In addition, in case of automatic recognition of the image by the use of the computer, if visual information alone is set to be an object to be processed, there is a problem; when the ball overlaps or is hidden by the player or the net, tracking the ball is failed, which creates a part where an important position or time cannot be specified, resulting in failure of detecting an event to be image-recognized or resulting in failures of image-recognition.

Image recognition system and image recognition program

National Institute of Information and Communication Technology Incorporated Administrative Agency


An apparatus and method are provided for effectively and efficiently testing or burning-in land grid array (LGA) modules, through the use of a self-aligning clamping device for clamping the LGA against a circuit card. The self-aligning clamping device includes a clamping body having an LGA contact surface adapted for bearing against the LGA module, and a pivot element for receiving a clamping force from a ram element selectively movable along a ram axis oriented generally normal to the array of electrical test contacts on the circuit card and transferring the clamping force to the clamping body. The clamping body is also a heat exchanger for maintaining the LGA module at a desired operating temperature during test or burn-in.

This invention relates to electrical components packaged in land grid array (LGA) modules, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for performing electrical testing of LGA modules.
The actual working elements of modern electronic and electrical devices often take the form of small electronic chips, that are mounted individually, or with other chips, inside of a module having a closed housing that protects the chips from environmental damage, and provides input/output connections to a circuit incorporating the module.
One commonly used type of module, known as a land grid array (LGA) module, is shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. The LGA module 10 of FIGS. 1A and 1B includes a housing, having a substrate 12 and a cover 18. The substrate 12 has an upper surface for receiving the chips, and a bottom, flat, planar surface 14 having plurality of LGA electrical contacts 16 arranged in an array as shown in FIG. 1B. Such LGA modules 10 may include more than one thousand LGA electrical contacts 16. The top of the substrate 12 is closed, or xe2x80x9ccappedxe2x80x9d by joining the cover 18 to the substrate 12 with an adhesive or solder. The cover 18 includes recesses for the chips on the side of the cover 19 joined to the substrate 12
Such LGA modules 10 are typically connected to a circuit card having an array of electrical contacts corresponding to at least a portion of the LGA electrical contacts, by positioning a device known as an interposer 20, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, between the LGA module 10 and the circuit card, and clamping the LGA module 10 and interposer 20 to the circuit card. There are several types of interposers 20 that are typically used for this purpose.
One commonly used type of interposer 20 includes a molded body having a raised frame 19 surrounding a flat planar surface 21 that includes an array of through holes 22. The through holes 22 are aligned with the arrays of LGA electrical contacts 16 on the LGA module 10 and circuit card, and with respect to a pair of location holes 26 passing through the raised frame 29. As shown in FIG. 2B, each hole 22 in the interposer 20 includes a compressible electrically conductive element 24, such as a pad of kinked small diameter wire, a C-spring that is compressed when the LGA module 10 is clamped to the circuit card, to provide electrical contact between the LGA electrical contacts 16 and the circuit card.
In a second type of commonly used interposer 20, the flat planar surface 21 of the interposer 20 is provided by a thin sheet of electrically insulative material, such as a polyimide, that is attached to the raised frame 19. The sheet of polyimide material includes through holes 22 aligned with the arrays of LGA electrical contacts 16 on the LGA module 10 and circuit card, and with respect to a pair of location holes 26 passing through the raised frame 29, in the same manner as described above with respect to an interposer 20 having a molded body. In the second type of interposer, however, each hole includes a compressible electrically conductive element 24 formed from a conductive elastomeric material, such as a silver-filled silicone.
The clamping force for holding the LGA module 10 against the circuit card is typically provided by a clamping device having a number of metal plates, stiffeners, tension posts, and a spring element, all held together by one or more screws, in a relationship that applies a clamping force to the LGA module 10. The clamping device may also include a heat exchanger for dissipating heat generated during operation of the LGA module. These clamping devices are often complex in nature to ensure that the clamping pressure is applied uniformly to the LGA module 10, for optimal electrical contact with the circuit card and optimal thermal transfer to the heat exchanger.
The electrical performance of LGA modules varies somewhat from module to module, due to slight variations in the performance of the chips, and factors relating to the installation of the chips in the modules that cannot be controlled during fabrication of the module. As is the case in many electronic components, an initial burn in period is also required in some instances to screen out certain defective modules and ensure that the completed modules will not fail prematurely. As a result, it is often necessary to test completed LGA modules prior to installing them into a circuit to determine their individual performance, or to burn in the modules at various operating voltages, clock speeds, and power levels, while the module is operating in a known temperature range.
It is desirable that an apparatus and method for testing the LGA modules be capable of closely emulating the physical mounting arrangement that will be used for attaching the LGA module to a circuit card during actual use of the module. While it would appear to be desirable to utilize the actual clamping hardware for testing the module, i.e. the hardware that will be used for mounting the LGA module on a circuit card in an electronic device, such hardware is typically not capable of being conveniently and repeatedly installed and removed in the manner that would be required for the mounting hardware to function as a test apparatus. Such hardware is typically designed to be so compact and light weight that it does not lend itself well to repeatedly establishing clamping and electrical connection conditions that are uniform enough, from module to module, to serve as a basis for testing.
In addition, a typical set of clamping hardware does not include a heat exchanging device that is sophisticated enough to allow testing of the module under a variety of environmental temperature conditions. The heat sinks used in such clamping arrangements are generally designed to operate only in the specific application and operating environment that the module will encounter during actual operation, and do not allow the module to be tested at higher or lower operating temperatures.
In a test apparatus, it is highly desirable to rapidly apply a clamping force to the cover 18 of the LGA module during testing, for clamping the LGA module against a circuit card, with a device such as an air or hydraulic cylinder or an arbor press, having a ram element that can be quickly moved along a one dimensional axis. Unfortunately, the upper surface of the cover 18 is typically not parallel to the bottom, flat, planar surface 14 of LGA module and the electrical contacts 16. If a one dimensional force is applied directly to the cover 18, using the ram element, the LGA electrical contacts 16 will not be clamped with uniform force against the circuit card. If the contacts 16 are not clamped with a uniform force, the electrical conductivity of the contacts 16 will not be uniform or representative of what will be achieved in service, thereby introducing an unacceptable variable into the test results. Also, if the upper surface of the cover 18 is tilted slightly with respect to the lower surface of the LGA module 10, good thermal contact will not be achieved between a heat exchanger clamped against the cover 18 by the ram element, thereby making it difficult to precisely control temperature of the LGA module 10 during testing and burn-in of the module.
What is needed is an apparatus and method for effectively and efficiently testing and burning-in LGA modules.
Our invention provides an apparatus and method for effectively and efficiently testing land grid array (LGA) modules in a mounting arrangement that closely matches the actual mounting arrangement that will be used for attaching the LGA modules to a circuit card, through the use of a self-aligning clamping device for clamping the LGA against a circuit card. The self-aligning clamping device includes a clamping body having an LGA contact surface adapted for bearing against the LGA module, and a pivot element for receiving a clamping force from a ram element selectively movable along a ram axis oriented generally normal to the array of electrical test contacts on the circuit card and transferring the clamping force to the clamping body. The clamping body may also be a heat exchanger for maintaining the LGA module at a desired operating temperature during test or burn-in.
In one form of our invention, an apparatus is provided for testing an (LGA) module having a flat planar mounting surface including a plurality of LGA electrical contacts arranged in an array. The apparatus includes a support frame, a circuit card, a ram element, and a self-aligning clamping device. The circuit card has a flat planar surface attached to the support frame and having an array of electrical test contacts corresponding to a portion of the array of LGA electrical contacts disposed on the planar surface. The ram element is operatively attached to the support frame for selectively applying a clamping force through reciprocating movement of the ram element along a ram axis oriented generally normal to the array of electrical contacts on the flat planar surface of the circuit card. The self-aligning clamping device includes a clamping body having an LGA contact surface adapted for bearing against the LGA module, and a pivot element operatively attached to the ram element for receiving the clamping force and transferring the clamping force to the clamping body. The pivot element may provide a single point of contact for transferring the clamping force to the clamping body. The pivot element may apply the clamping force along a primary line of force that is directed through a centroid defined by the LGA electrical contacts.
The apparatus may include an interposer positioned on the circuit card for receiving the LGA module. By using the same type of interposer in the test apparatus that will be used for attaching the LGA module to a circuit card when the module is placed into actual service, the electrical contact conditions established during testing closely approximates the conditions that will be established when the module is attached to a circuit card and placed into service. The apparatus may include an LGA socket retention frame for positioning the interposer and LGA module on the circuit card, so that the interposer can be conveniently replaced from time-to-time during testing quantities of the modules.
The apparatus may include a force generating device, such as an air or hydraulic cylinder, or an arbor press, operatively connected through the ram element to the pivot element for applying the clamping force to the clamping body. The clamping body may also be a heat exchanger for exchanging heat with the LGA module.
To facilitate achieving a uniform clamping force applied to the LGA module, the self-aligning clamping device may bring the LGA contact surface of the clamping body to bear against the LGA module and align the LGA contact surface with the LGA module prior to the clamping body receiving and transferring the clamping force to the LGA module.
The self-aligning clamping device may include a suspension plate adapted for receiving the clamping force, and having a first pivot element extending therefrom. A second pivot element is attached to the clamping body. One or more suspension posts slidingly connect the clamping body to the suspension plate in a spaced relationship therewith in a manner allowing angular movement over a predetermined range of the clamping body with respect to the suspension plate. One or more spring elements may be operatively connected between the suspension plate and clamping body for maintaining the spaced relationship while allowing angular movement within the predetermined range between the clamping body and suspension plate. The first pivot element may have a convex spherical shape, and the second pivot element may be a flat plate.
Our invention may also take the form of method for testing an LGA module by positioning the LGA module on a circuit card having an array of electrical test contacts corresponding to a portion of the array of LGA electrical contacts, and clamping the LGA module against the circuit card with a self-aligning clamping device including a clamping body having an LGA contact surface adapted for bearing against the LGA module, and a pivot element for receiving a clamping force from a ram element selectively movable along a ram axis oriented generally normal to the array of electrical test contacts on the circuit card and transferring the clamping force to the clamping body.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of our invention are apparent from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments, read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The detailed description and drawings are merely illustrative of our invention rather than limiting, the scope of our invention being defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

Apparatus and method for testing land grid array modules

International Business Machines Corporation


Near real-time collaborative media production by parties located remotely from each other is facilitated by the described methods. Automated dialog replacement with voice talent, editing system operator, and director located remotely from each other is supported by generating synchronized near real-time feeds for the operator and director. Pre-recorded media played back from the editing system is streamed without delay to the talent. A pre-recorded media feed is also delayed to synchronize it with the incoming talent stream, which was recorded in sync with the pre-recorded media stream when received by the talent. The synchronized feed is output to the operator and streamed to the director. Talkback channels and webcam video with appropriate synchronization delays support communication among the parties. Other methods support automatic punch-in and punch-out of remotely recorded dialog replacement, and automatic contextual switching and overlaying of inter-party communication video based on the state of the media editing application.

In traditional media production, the various parties participating in performing and editing the media are usually located in proximity to each other, generally within the same facility or even within a common physical space such as a studio or sound stage. In these circumstances the collaboration between the parties may be facilitated by direct line-of-sight communication, or by real-time electronic connections. For example, a performing talent may be located in a studio within a few tens of feet from an editor and a director with eye contact and the ability to talk to each other in real-time.
However, media production increasingly requires collaboration among participants who are not co-located in the same space or building, nor even in the same city or country. Such remote collaboration workflows are difficult due to connection latency and jitter, as well as the functional limitations of existing solutions. In addition, the Internet is not reliable for real-time isochronous connections such that delays and drop-outs may render a particular remote take of a performance unusable. The quality of real-time audio and video that is transmitted over wide area connections may also vary unpredictably.
Another aspect that is essential for effective collaborative workflows is the ability for the parties to communicate interactively with each other during all phases of the production, from playback and recording to review and approval. While such "talkback" capabilities are usually available when participants such as the talent, operator of the editing system, and director are co-located, they are often compromised or lacking entirely when participants are remote from each other.
There is a need to enable reliable, secure, and effective collaborative workflows for media production when the participants are not co-located.

Near real-time collaboration for media production


The embodiments of the present disclosure provide a driving circuit, a driving method thereof and a display apparatus, and relates to the field of display technology. The driving circuit is configured to drive a to-be-driven element and includes a driving element. The driving element and the to-be-driven element are coupled in series between a first operating voltage terminal and a second operating voltage terminal. The driving element comprises a driving sub-circuit, a writing sub-circuit and a gray scale control sub-circuit. The writing sub-circuit writes a first data voltage provided by the first data signal terminal into the driving sub-circuit. The gray scale control sub-circuit transmits the first operating voltage provided by the first operating voltage terminal to the driving sub-circuit. The driving sub-circuit generates a drive current. The gray scale control sub-circuit also controls an on-state duration of the current path.

Compared with an Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display apparatus, a tiny LED display apparatus (e.g., a Micro LED display apparatus or a μLED display apparatus) has advantages of low driving voltage, long life, resistance to wide temperature ranges, and the like, and is gradually applied to the field of mobile terminals.

Driving circuit, driving method thereof and display apparatus


Implementations of this specification provide a near field communication device and an information processing method performed by the near field communication device. An example device includes: an antenna; a radio frequency module connected to the antenna; a CPU circuit connected to the radio frequency module; and a power control module connected to the radio frequency module and the CPU circuit. The radio frequency module outputs, based on a radio frequency signal from the antenna, information conforming to a near field communication protocol of the radio frequency signal. The power control module controls the CPU circuit based on an indication included in the information, such that the CPU circuit is suppressed when a communication distance of the near field communication protocol of the radio frequency signal is greater than a predetermined threshold.

Recently, the near field communication (NFC) technology has become increasingly popular, for example, the NFC technology is used for anti-counterfeiting or integrated into mobile phones for card reading, payment, etc. Developed on the basis of the radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, NFC can transmit signals between two objects that are geographically close to each other NFC is a short-range high-frequency radio technology, which operates at 13.56 MHz within a distance of 20 cm. Compared with RFID, NFC has lower costs, higher bandwidth, lower energy than RFID, etc. Currently, NFC standardization is promoted in the frameworks of ISO 18092, ECMA 340, and ETSI TS 102 190 protocols, and is compatible with widely used ISO 14443A, ISO 14443B, ISO 15693, and Felica protocols. Among them, the ISO 15693 protocol has a longer communication distance than the ISO 14443 protocol, and the communication distance can be 1.5 m at high energy. Therefore, the ISO 15693 protocol is advantageous in supply chain management in plants. The IOS 14443 standard has the security characteristic of being not easily attacked by man-in-the-middle in financial-level applications of banks because its communication distance is less than 10 cm. Generally, bank-related NFC cards are based on the ISO 14443 protocol. Among NFC cards, compared with an NFC card with a logic circuit, an NFC card with a CPU circuit has disadvantages such as high costs and high power consumption, and consequently does not support long-range communication. However, asymmetric national cryptographic algorithm such as SM2 can be used at a front end, which has a higher security level.

Near field communication device and information processing method


A mute for stringed instruments such as banjos, guitars, and the like which allows the volume of the sound generated by plucking the strings to be varied without changing the pitch of the instrument. This device comprises a small, elongated cloth bag filled with tiny metallic balls. The bag is sufficiently long that when it is properly mounted on the bridge of the instrument, the bag extends past the points where the two outermost strings cross the bridge, the two outermost strings being disposed proximate opposite ends of the bridge. In use, the beg is mounted partially on the upper edge of the bridge and partially on the strings. The degree of muting, as well as the duration of individual notes once played, varies with the position of the bag on the bridge. The pitch of the strings, however, does not vary. The mute works by absorbing some of the energy of the vibrating strings as first those balls in the bag which are closest to the strings are displaced by the strings and then transmit momentum to adjacent balls.

This invention relates to the field of stringed instruments and particularly to that segment relating to devices for muting the sounds of vibrating strings.
One of the earliest mutes for stringed instruments was disclosed by Kozelek, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,518,935, dated 1924. In use, Kozelek's mute, which is fabricated of a soft, pliable material composed of woven strands of wool, cotton, silk or the like, is positioned under the strings of a violin between its bridge and finger board. The tone of the instrument can be varied changing the position of the mute.
Schuh, U.S. Pat. No. 2,475,055, dated 1946, discloses a practice mute comprising a solid brass insert mountable over the bridge of a stringed instrument by wedging the insert onto the sides of the bridge. In overcoming the inertia of the dense brass mute, the bridge loses vibration energy, dampening the vibrations of the strings.
Si-hon, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,863,350, dated 1958, discloses a device having a soft, resilient tubing which can be pressed against the strings of an instrument to mute it.
Lemon, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,440,917, dated 1967, discloses a muting device also having a structure formed of a soft, resilient material but one which can be pressed downwardly and rearwardly against the strings of an instrument.
Rhodes, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,165, dated 1979, discloses a muting device having means for clamping the strings of an instrument between two layers of a soft, resilient material.
Jabolonski, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,560, dated 1987, closes a muting device mountable on the bridge of a stringed instrument, the device having a structure fabricated from a soft, resilient material in which are formed a plurality of spaced apart vertical slots for straddling the strings. In use, the sides each s lot contact one of the strings.
In general, the prior art teaches that a mute should neither bend the strings of an instrument nor touch its sound box. Otherwise, if the mute were to bend the strings, it would change the pitch of the instrument.
Moreover, to the applicant's knowledge, there is no prior art device which can be used to mute an acoustic guitar; nor is there any such device which can be used to mute a banjo without causing it, while muted, to sound like a guitar.


A method of adaptively disabling deblock filtering of video information including determining a content characteristic of the video information, and adaptively disabling deblock filtering of the video information based on the content characteristic. The content characteristic may be a content complexity, such as an average of minimum sums of absolute differences of pixel values determined during motion estimation, or the mean square error of the video information, or the number of bits used for coding the video content. The content characteristic may be other than complexity, such as motion vector information. A video information processing system including a video processing circuit which processes video information and which determines a content characteristic of the video information, and a deblocking filter circuit which adaptively disables deblock filtering of the video information based on the content characteristic.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to video information processing, and more specifically to reducing video information encoding and decoding computational complexity by adaptively disabling deblock filtering based on a content characteristic of the video information.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Advanced Video Coding (AVC) standard, Part 10 of MPEG4 (Motion Picture Experts Group), otherwise known as H.264, includes advanced compression techniques that were developed to enable transmission of video signals at a lower bit rate or storage of video signals using less storage space. The newer standard outperforms video compression techniques of prior standards in order to support higher quality streaming video at lower bit-rates and to enable internet-based video and wireless applications and the like. The standard does not define the CODEC (encoder/decoder pair) but instead defines the syntax of the encoded video bitstream along with a method of decoding the bitstream. Each video frame is subdivided and encoded at the macroblock (MB) level, where each MB is a 16×16 block of pixels. Each MB is encoded in 'intraframe' mode in which a prediction MB is formed based on reconstructed MBs in the current frame, or 'interframe' mode in which a prediction MB is formed based on the MBs of the reference frames. The intraframe coding mode applies spatial information within the current frame in which the prediction MB is formed from samples in the current frame that have previously encoded, decoded and reconstructed. The interframe coding mode utilizes temporal information from previous and/or future reference frames to estimate motion to form the prediction MB. The video information is typically processed and transmitted in slices, in which each video slice incorporates one or more macroblocks.
Scalable Video Coding (SVC) is an extension of the H.264 standard which addresses coding schemes for reliably delivery of video to diverse clients over heterogeneous networks using available system resources, particularly in scenarios where the downstream client capabilities, system resources, and network conditions are not known in advance, or dynamically changing from time to time. SVC provides multiple levels or layers of scalability including temporal scalability, spatial scalability, complexity scalability and quality scalability. Temporal scalability generally refers to the number of frames per second (fps) of the video stream, such as 7.5 fps, 15 fps, 30 fps, etc. Spatial scalability refers to the resolution of each frame, such as common interface format (CIF) with 352 by 288 pixels per frame, or quarter CIF (QCIF) with 176 by 144 pixels per frame, although other spatial resolutions are contemplated, such as 4CIF, QVGA, VGA, SVGA, D1, HDTV, etc. Complexity scalability generally refers to the various computational capabilities and processing power of the devices processing the video information. Quality scalability generally refers to the visual quality layers of the coded video by using different bitrates. Objectively, visual quality is measured with a peak signal-to-noise (PSNR) metric defining the relative quality of a reconstructed image compared with an original image.
A deblocking filter is a formative part of the H.264 standard and SVC extension, and an informative part (as a post processing block) of the earlier H.263 standard and MPEG4-Part2. The deblocking filter performs both luma and chroma filtering as known by those of ordinary skill in the art. The deblocking filter is used either as an in-loop filter as part of the standard (e.g., H.264/AVC), or as a post-processor for video decoder (e.g., H.263, MPEG4-part2, MPEG-2, etc.). The deblocking filter enhances the decoded picture quality and increases the encoding efficiency by removing the block effects in the boundary of each 4×4, 8×8, and/or 16×16 block. The deblocking filter, however, also consumes a significant amount of power and processing cycles. Generally speaking, the entire deblocking filter (both luma and chroma) consumes approximately 8% of the computations at the encoder and approximately 35% at the decoder for H.264/AVC. Disabling the entire deblocking filter, therefore, provides a significant reduction of power and processing complexity, especially in the decoder. A conventional configuration according to H.264/AVC includes the ability to turn on and off the entire deblocking filter (including both luma and chroma deblock filtering). Disabling the entire deblocking filter, however, potentially causes degradation of both objective PSNR and subjective visual quality especially for video information having a relatively high level of motion. In most conventional configurations, therefore, the ability to completely disable the deblocking filter has not been used.
It is desired to improve the efficiency of a video information processing system for processing various types of video information including video, images, image sequences, etc. It is desired to reduce the computational complexity and/or power consumption of a video information encoder or decoder.

Adaptive disabling of deblock filtering based on a content characteristic of video information


An image pickup lens system has a four-lens configuration which forms an image on a solid-state image pickup device. The image pickup lens system includes, from an object side, a positive first lens, an aperture stop, a positive second lens, a negative third lens whose concave surface is faced toward an image surface side, and a positive fourth lens in the order from an object side. A ratio of an axial lens thickness of the third lens to a focal length of the whole system is optimally set. Therefore, an exit pupil position can be kept far away from the image surface while the image pickup lens system has good optical performance and a compact size.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup lens system. More particularly the invention relates to the high-performance and compact image pickup lens system suitable for digital input equipment such as a digital still camera and a digital video camera which captures an image of a subject with a solid-state image pickup device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as personal computers become widespread, digital still cameras and digital video cameras (hereinafter referred simply to as "digital camera") which can easily capture image information in the digital equipment become widespread in a personal user level. It is expected that such digital cameras become wide spread more and more in the future as input equipments for image information.
Miniaturization of a solid-state image pickup device such as CCD (Charge Coupled Device) which is mounted on the digital camera is also proceeding, and further miniaturization of the digital camera is required as the solid-state image pickup device is miniaturized. Therefore, the miniaturization is also strongly demanded in the image pickup lens system which occupies the largest capacity in the digital input equipment. In order to miniaturize the image pickup lens system, the easiest method is to decrease a size of the solid-state image pickup device. However, in order to decrease a size of the solid-state image pickup device, it is necessary to decrease the size of a photodetector, so that performance required for the image pickup lens system is increased while the degree of difficulty in producing the solid-state image pickup device.
On the other hand, when the size of the image pickup lens system is decreased while the size of the solid-state image pickup device remains, an exit pupil position is necessarily caused to be near to an image surface. When the exit pupil position is caused to be near to the image surface, an off-axis luminous flux outgoing from the image pickup lens system is obliquely incident to the image surface, so that a micro lens provided in front of the solid-state image pickup device does not sufficiently exert focusing performance. This results in a problem that brightness of the image is changed between a central portion of the image and a peripheral portion of the image. When the exit pupil position of the image pickup lens system is kept far away from the image surface in order to solve the problem, upsizing of the whole image pickup lens system can not be avoided.
Because of low-price competition in recent years, cost reduction is also strongly demanded of the image pickup lens system. Further, the higher performance is also required for the image pickup lens system due to recent integration of the solid-state image pickup device. For the above-described demands, the image pickup lens system for the solid-state image pickup device having a four-lens configuration has been proposed in Patent References (U.S. Pat. No. 6,414,802, US2003/117,721, and US2004/125,468).
However, the image pickup lens systems described in these Patent References include four lenses and the first lens is the negative lens, so that a total length of the lens is increased and the image pickup lens system lacks compactness.


A pressure cooking vessel has a lid and a container. A handle is coupled to the lid and not the container. A pressure relief mechanism is integrated in the handle. Various other embodiments are also described and claimed.

1. Field
An embodiment of this invention relates to a low pressure cooker having a lid with an integrated pressure relief handle. Other embodiments are also described.
2. Background
Pressure cookers are sealed vessels that cook foods at elevated pressures. Typically, the food to be cooked is placed into the vessel through its open top along with a small amount of water. A lid is then locked into place which seals closed the open top. Then, as the vessel is heated, and its internal temperature rises, the pressure inside the vessel also rises above normal atmospheric. Because the boiling point of water increases as the pressure increases, the pressure built up inside the cooker allows the liquid inside to rise to a higher temperature without boiling. Foods are therefore cooked much faster, with additional benefits including the use of less water and a richer flavor.
Most pressure cookers have a relief valve embedded in the lid which automatically opens and closes to regulate the pressure, releasing steam to prevent the pressure from rising above an upper limit and then closing to allow the pressure to build back up. An additional valve is also provided as a backup pressure relief valve should the regulator valve fail, which opens to release steam when the pressure reaches a maximum desirable level.
When it is time to remove the food from the hot vessel, it may be necessary for the user to first manually actuate the regulator or backup relief valve to drop the pressure down closer to normal atmospheric. This makes the lid locking mechanism easier to open (with less force by the user), as well as avoids food spillage when opening the lid.

Pressure cooker with pressure relief handle


An operating situation obtaining unit obtains the operating situation information of a plurality of operating vehicles along a predetermined route. A delayed vehicle extraction unit extracts a delayed vehicle that is delayed in actual operation relative to the operation schedule from among the plurality of operating vehicles, based on the operating situation information of the respective operating vehicles. An overtaking instruction unit outputs an overtaking instruction to overtake the delayed vehicle to a following vehicle that immediately follows the delayed vehicle.

In recent years, there has been suggested a traffic system using vehicles capable of automatic running For example, JP 2005-222144 A describes that an instruction signal regarding the operation of a bus is sent from a management center to each of buses that are running along a dedicated road, based on the boarding rate, speed, and location of the bus. For example, with respect to a bus with a relatively high boarding rate and being delayed; that is, a bus located close in operation interval to its following vehicle, an instruction signal is sent to instruct the bus to pass through a bus stop with people waiting, without stopping there.
A vehicle's passing through a bus stop without stopping there may decrease satisfaction of the passengers waiting at the bus stop. An attempt to get on a vehicle whose boarding rate is already high, however, is troublesome, and may prolong a boarding period at the bus stop. A prolonged boarding period may increase the delay, which may further shorten the operation interval relative to its following vehicle.
To address the above, this specification discloses an operation management device and an automatic running vehicle that can restore an operation interval between a plurality of vehicles in operation to be an operation interval in accordance with an operation plan when a delayed vehicle is caused.

Operation management device for automatic running vehicle and automatic running vehicle


A mold base of an embodiment is a mold base for use in manufacture of a mold that has a porous alumina layer over its surface, including: a base; and an aluminum alloy layer provided on the base, wherein the aluminum alloy layer contains aluminum, a non-aluminum metal element, and nitrogen. The aluminum alloy layer of the mold base of an embodiment of the present invention has high specularity.

Display devices for use in TVs, cell phones, etc., and optical elements, such as camera lenses, etc., usually adopt an antireflection technique in order to reduce the surface reflection and increase the amount of light transmitted therethrough. This is because, when light is transmitted through the interface between media of different refractive indices, e.g., when light is incident on the interface between air and glass, the amount of transmitted light decreases due to, for example, Fresnel reflection, thus deteriorating the visibility.
An antireflection technique which has been receiving attention in recent years is forming over a substrate surface a very small uneven pattern in which the interval of recessed portions or raised portions is not more than the wavelength of visible light (λ=380 nm to 780 nm). See Patent Documents 1 to 4. The two-dimensional size of a raised portion of an uneven pattern which performs an antireflection function is not less than 10 nm and less than 500 nm.
This method utilizes the principles of a so-called moth-eye structure. The refractive index for light that is incident on the substrate is continuously changed along the depth direction of the recessed portions or raised portions, from the refractive index of a medium on which the light is incident to the refractive index of the substrate, whereby reflection of a wavelength band that is subject to antireflection is prevented.
The moth-eye structure is advantageous in that it is capable of performing an antireflection function with small incident angle dependence over a wide wavelength band, as well as that it is applicable to a number of materials, and that an uneven pattern can be directly formed in a substrate. As such, a high-performance antireflection film (or antireflection surface) can be provided at a low cost.
As the method of forming a moth-eye structure, using an anodized porous alumina layer which is obtained by means of anodization of aluminum has been receiving attention (Patent Documents 2 to 4).
Now, the anodized porous alumina layer which is obtained by means of anodization of aluminum is briefly described. Conventionally, a method of forming a porous structure by means of anodization has been receiving attention as a simple method for making nanometer-scale micropores (very small recessed portions) in the shape of a circular column in a regular arrangement. An aluminum base is immersed in an acidic electrolytic solution of sulfuric acid, oxalic acid, phosphoric acid, or the like, or an alkaline electrolytic solution, and this is used as an anode in application of a voltage, which causes oxidation and dissolution. The oxidation and the dissolution concurrently advance over a surface of the aluminum base to form an oxide film which has micropores over its surface. The micropores, which are in the shape of a circular column, are oriented vertical to the oxide film and exhibit a self-organized regularity under certain conditions (voltage, electrolyte type, temperature, etc.). Thus, this anodized porous alumina layer is expected to be applied to a wide variety of functional materials.
A porous alumina layer formed under specific conditions includes cells in the shape of a generally regular hexagon which are in a closest packed two-dimensional arrangement when seen in a direction perpendicular to the film surface. Each of the cells has a micropore at its center. The arrangement of the micropores is periodic. The cells are formed as a result of local dissolution and growth of a coating. The dissolution and growth of the coating concurrently advance at the bottom of the micropores which is referred to as a barrier layer. As known, the interval between adjacent micropores (the distance between the centers), is approximately twice the thickness of the barrier layer, and is approximately proportional to the voltage that is applied during the anodization. It is also known that the diameter of the micropores depends on the type, concentration, temperature, etc., of the electrolytic solution but is, usually, about ⅓ of the size of the cells (the length of the longest diagonal of the cell when seen in a direction vertical to the film surface). Such micropores of the porous alumina may constitute an arrangement which has a high regularity (periodicity) under specific conditions, an arrangement with a regularity degraded to some extent depending on the conditions, or an irregular (non-periodic) arrangement.
Patent Document 2 discloses a method of producing an antireflection film (antireflection surface) with the use of a stamper which has an anodized porous alumina film over its surface.
Patent Document 3 discloses the technique of forming tapered recesses with continuously changing pore diameters by repeating anodization of aluminum and a pore diameter increasing process.
The applicant of the present application discloses, in Patent Document 4, the technique of forming an antireflection film with the use of an alumina layer in which very small recessed portions have stepped lateral surfaces.
As described in Patent Documents 1, 2, and 4, by providing an uneven structure (macro structure) which is greater than a moth-eye structure (micro structure) in addition to the moth-eye structure, the antireflection film (antireflection surface) can be provided with an antiglare function. The two-dimensional size of a raised portion of the uneven structure which is capable of performing the antiglare function is not less than 1 μm and less than 100 μm.
Utilizing an anodized porous aluminum film can facilitate the manufacture of a mold which is used for formation of a moth-eye structure over a surface (hereinafter, "moth-eye mold"). In particular, as described in Patent Documents 2 and 4, when the surface of the anodized aluminum film as formed is used as a mold without any modification, a large effect of reducing the manufacturing cost is achieved. The structure of the surface of a moth-eye mold which is capable of forming a moth-eye structure is herein referred to as "inverted moth-eye structure".
A known antireflection film production method with the use of a moth-eye mold uses a photocurable resin. Firstly, a photocurable resin is applied over a substrate. Then, an uneven surface of a moth-eye mold which has undergone a mold release treatment is pressed against the photocurable resin in vacuum, whereby the uneven structure at the surface of the moth-eye mold is filled with the photocurable resin. Then, the photocurable resin in the uneven structure is irradiated with ultraviolet light so that the photocurable resin is cured. Thereafter, the moth-eye mold is separated from the substrate, whereby a cured layer of the photocurable resin to which the uneven structure of the moth-eye mold has been transferred is formed over the surface of the substrate. The method of producing an antireflection film with the use of the photocurable resin is disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 4.
The above-described moth-eye mold can be fabricated using an aluminum base, such as typically a substrate made of aluminum or a cylinder made of aluminum, or an aluminum film formed on a support that is made of a non-aluminum material, such as typically a glass substrate. However, in a moth-eye mold manufactured using an aluminum film formed on a glass substrate or plastic film, the adhesive property between the aluminum film (part of which is an anodized film) and the glass substrate or plastic film deteriorates in some cases. The applicant of the present application found that, by forming an inorganic underlayer (e.g., SiO2 layer) and a buffer layer containing aluminum (e.g., AlOx layer) on a surface of a base which is made of glass or plastic, the above-described deterioration of the adhesive property is prevented. This is disclosed in Patent Document 5.
The applicant of the present application developed a method for efficiently producing an antireflection film using a moth-eye mold in the form of a cylinder (roll) according to a roll-to-roll method (e.g., WO 2011/105206). The moth-eye mold in the form of a cylinder can be formed by, for example, forming an organic insulating layer over an outer perimeter surface of a metal cylinder, forming an aluminum film on this organic insulating layer, and alternately and repeatedly performing anodization and etching on the aluminum film. In this case also, the adhesive property can be improved by forming the inorganic underlayer and the buffer layer disclosed in Patent Document 5.
According to further researches carried out by the present inventors, an aluminum film formed on an organic insulating layer contains abnormal grains in many cases. The abnormal grains are formed by abnormal growth of a crystal of aluminum. The aluminum film is an aggregation of crystal grains whose average grain diameter (average grain size) is about 200 nm. On the other hand, the grain diameter of the abnormal grains is larger than the average grain diameter, e.g., not less than 500 nm in some cases. The organic insulating layer has a lower thermal conductivity than the other materials (metal materials and inorganic insulating films), and therefore, the aluminum film readily reaches a relatively high temperature in the process of depositing the aluminum film (e.g., sputtering or vapor deposition). As a result, it is inferred that abnormal growth of crystal grains is likely to occur, i.e., abnormal grains are likely to be produced. Note that such a phenomenon can also occur when an aluminum film is directly deposited on a surface of an aluminum pipe (e.g., the thickness is not less than 1 mm).
When a moth-eye mold is manufactured using an aluminum film in which abnormal grains are present, structures corresponding to the abnormal grains are formed in the surface of a porous alumina layer of the moth-eye mold. When an antireflection film is formed using such a moth-eye mold, the structures corresponding to the abnormal grains are transferred to the surface of the antireflection film. Therefore, light is scattered by the structures transferred to the surface of the antireflection film which are attributed to the abnormal grains. That is, the antireflection film has a haze. In the case where the antireflection film is provided with an antiglare function as described above, no problem occurs in some cases even when the antireflection film has a haze which is attributed to the abnormal grains. However, there is such a problem that an antireflection film which does not have an antiglare function cannot be producing. Further, it is difficult to control the formation density (frequency of occurrence) of abnormal grains, and therefore, from the viewpoint of mass productivity, preventing production of abnormal grains is preferred.
The present inventors disclose in the international patent application (PCT/JP2012/058394, WO 2012/137664) that an aluminum alloy layer which contains aluminum and such a metal element that the absolute value of the difference between the standard electrode potential of the metal element and the standard electrode potential of aluminum is not more than 0.64 V (for example, the metal element may be Ti, Nd, Mn, Mg, Zr, V, and Pb, and the content of the metal element in the entire aluminum alloy layer is less than 10 mass %) scarcely contains abnormal grains, and as a result, a mold can be obtained which is capable of producing an antireflection film that does not have an undesirable haze.
The entire disclosures of Patent Documents 1, 2, 4, and 5 and the above-identified international patent application are herein incorporated by reference.

Mold base material, production method for mold base material, mold production method, and mold


Arrangements for plating a single surface of a thin foil are described. In one aspect, a metal foil is wrapped tightly at least partially around a plating solution drum. The drum is partially immersed in a plating solution such that the waterline of the metal plating solution is below a break point where the metallic foil strip begins to unwind from the plating solution drum. With this arrangement, one side of the metallic foil strip is exposed to the metal plating solution, while the opposing back side of the metallic foil strip does not come in substantial contact with the metal plating solution. In this manner, the exposed side of the foil is plated while the back surface of the foil is not plated. The drum may be rotated to convey the foil through the plating solution.

There are a number of conventional processes for packaging integrated circuit (IC) dice. By way of example, many IC packages utilize a metallic leadframe that has been stamped or etched from a metal sheet to provide electrical interconnects to external devices. The die may be electrically connected to the leadframe by means of bonding wires, solder bumps or other suitable electrical connections. Often, the die and portions of the leadframe are encapsulated with a molding material to protect the delicate electrical components on the active side of the die while leaving selected portions of the leadframe exposed to facilitate electrical connections to external devices.
At various times, package designs have been proposed that utilize a metal foil as the electrical interconnect structure in place of the leadframe. Although a number of foil based designs have been developed, none have achieved widespread acceptance in the industry in part because foil based packaging processes tend to be more expensive than conventional leadframe packaging. Accordingly, there are continuing efforts to develop more efficient techniques that improve the cost competitiveness of foil based packaging.
When a metal foil is used to form the interconnects of an integrated circuit package, it is sometimes desirable to pre-plate one side (and only one side) of the foil with a thin metal layer. For example, in packages that utilize gold bonding wires to electrically connect a die to a copper foil, it may be desirable to silver plate the side of the foil that forms the wire bonding surface. This may be desirable because, as is well known in the art, gold does not adhere well to copper but does adhere reasonably well to silver plating. Thus, an intermediate silver layer may be used to help anchor the bonding wires more securely to the foil.
One way to silver plate selected portions of a foil would be to mask portions of the foil that are not to be plated with a dielectric while leaving portions of the foil that are to be plated exposed. The exposed portions of the foil may then be plated using conventional electroplating techniques. Although such a masking approach works well, more cost effective methods for pre-coating a single side of a metal foil are desirable. The present invention provides improved processes for plating foils suitable for use in semiconductor packaging.

Foil plating for semiconductor packaging