PGMs can be extracted from a source material by heat-treating the source material to form a residue containing PGMs in a cyanide leachable condition and, thereafter, cyanide leaching the residue using a solution containing cyanide to form a pregnant cyanide leach liquor containing PGMs in solution.

PGMs may occur as discrete minerals or as dilute solid solutions typically in major sulphide minerals (for example, pentlandite, chalcopyrite or pyrrhotite). The separation chemistry of PGMs is amongst the most complex known with treatment being generally more complex as the sulphide or chromitite content of the ore increases. Often, gold is present in minerals rich in PGMs.
Low sulphide PGM ores which contain small amounts of base metal sulphides are typically treated by fine grinding and bulk flotation to give a relatively low-grade PGM concentrate. The flotation reagents used are similar to those typically used for copper and nickel sulphides. The flotation concentrate is then dried before smelting to give a nickel-copper-iron-PGM matte. Smelting is a process by which a metal is separated from its ore in the presence of a reducing agent and a fluxing agent.
The platinum group metals have a greater affinity with sulphide melts than with silicate melts and therefore partition with the matte phase rather than with the slag. The matte is "converted" while molten by blowing air into the matte to oxidise the matte and remove iron and some sulphur. The converter matte is then granulated or allowed to cool slowly so that discrete crystalline phases of nickel sulphide, copper sulphide, and a platinum group metal-containing magnetic phase are formed. This matte is then sent to a base metal refinery where base metals such as copper, nickel and cobalt are removed and recovered by magnetic separation followed by acid leaching, or by direct acid leaching, leaving a high grade PGM concentrate. The high grade PGM concentrate is then sent to a PGM refinery which produces the individual PGM elements in metallic form. This route is expensive and not altogether satisfactory for lower grade sulphide ores.
Medium sulphide ores which contain economic amounts of nickel plus copper (base metals) are typically treated by fine grinding and selective flotation, to give a nickel copper PGM sulphide concentrate. This concentrate is smelted in flash furnaces to give PGM-containing mattes. The mattes are treated in various ways to give nickel and copper metal products plus PGM containing by-products which are sent to a refinery.
High sulphide ores which contain economic amounts of nickel and copper are also typically first treated by fine grinding and selective flotation, with or without magnetic separation, to give separate nickel copper PGM and copper PGM sulphide concentrates. The nickel copper PGM concentrate which is usually low grade is calcined to remove some sulphur and then smelted in reverberatory or flash furnaces as for concentrates from medium sulphide ores.
Such prior art processes may also include gravity concentration in place of or in conjunction with the flotation step. A simplified block diagram of one current process flow sheet is provided in FIG. 1 of the present specification. Recovery of PGMs by gravity methods or by flotation may be difficult for ores with low sulphide mineral content concentration.
Conventional processes suffer from several limitations. Some PGM ores and in particular oxide ores from existing operations cannot be sufficiently upgraded by flotation to produce a concentrate which can be treated by a smelter. The same is often true for high chromitite ores. Power consumption for the total process is high and the smelting process has difficulty in dealing with high chromitite ores, adversely effecting recoveries and costs.
PGM smelting capacity is concentrated in a limited number of countries, particularly South Africa, Canada, USA and Russia. Existing smelters are typically owned by a small number of companies which typically also operate mines associated with the smelters. Moreover, transport of concentrates to the existing smelters is expensive, making projects remote from the existing smelters difficult to establish.
PGM refining capacity is less concentrated than the smelting capacity with numerous independent refineries operating in Europe and Asia in addition to those associated with the operating mines and smelters.
The market for total treatment of PGM concentrates is therefore less competitive than many other metals markets. Smaller projects cannot justify the large capital investment required for a smelter and refinery. There is therefore a need for an improved method for upgrading the PGM concentrates shipped to provide a high grade concentrate which would by-pass the smelter and be able to be shipped direct to a refinery. This would not only decrease the cost of production but increase the competitiveness of the market.
One alternative method to traditional processing that has been suggested in the prior art is selective leaching of PGMs from finely ground ore. There is no accepted solvent system for platinum group metals reported in prior art literature. Bromide, chloride, hydroxide, cyanide, bisulfide, thiosulphate, sulphite, and polysulphide ions and ammonia have all been suggested as suitable ligands for forming complexes with the platinum group metals. However, the stability and low solubility of some of these complexes and their reactivity with gangue minerals in the ore makes some of these ligands unsuitable as lixiviants for platinum group metals.
While PGMs are generally recovered from ores, there is also a significant market for recovery of PGMs from used automobile and other industrial catalysts and from computer and electronics scrap. There remains a need for an improved method of extracting PGMs from source materials other than ores.
It is to be clearly understood that, although prior art techniques are referred to herein, such reference does not constitute an admission that any of these techniques form part of the common general knowledge in the art in Australia or in any other country.
Throughout this specification, including the claims, the words "comprise", "comprises" and "comprising" are used in a non-exclusive sense, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, ie. in the sense of "including".

Process for extracting platinum group metals


A graphical structure model trained by using labeled samples is obtained. The graphical structure model is defined based on an enterprise relationship network that includes nodes and edges. Each labeled sample includes a label indicating whether a corresponding node is a risky credit node. The graphical structure model is configured to iteratively calculate an embedding vector of at least one node in a hidden feature space based on an original feature of the at least one node and/or a feature of an edge associated with the at least one node. An embedding vector corresponding to a test-sample is calculated by using the graphical structure model. Credit risk analysis is performed on the test-sample. The credit risk analysis is performed based on a feature of the test-sample represented in the embedding vector. A node corresponding to the test-sample is labeled as a credit risk node.

With rapid development of computer and Internet technologies, many services including credit services can be implemented online.
In some existing technologies, credit of Internet users is usually evaluated by collecting behavior data of the users, and then loans can be granted to or other forms of resources other than funds can be provided for the users based on the credit of the users. However, operating statuses and risks of small enterprises usually cannot be directly reflected in the Internet, and data of the small enterprises usually needs to be collected and reported by specialized institutions.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Graphical structure model-based credit risk control


A pneumatic emergency brake release timer comprises a high capacity transfer valve, a timing reservoir in communication with the pilot port of the high capacity transfer valve, the check valve and choke circuit providing parallel connections between the main source of pressure and the reservoir through a check valve and opposite flow through a dissipating choke.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to pneumatic brakes for rail vehicles and, more particularly, to an emergency brake release timer for delaying the application of emergency braking pressures.
2. Description of Related Art
It is well known in the brake control art that modern train brake control systems typically use a central controller unit to control the brakes of the rail vehicles that comprise the train. A train operator located in the lead cab manipulates the brake handles or like devices of the train to apply and release the brakes of the trucks or bogies on each rail vehicle as desired. The inputs from the brake handles are typically processed by a cab control unit and passed to the central controller unit. In response to these and other inputs, the central controller unit issues a brake command signal along a train line to each of the rail vehicles in the form of either a pneumatic signal or an electrical signal or even both. Brake equipment on each of the rail vehicles applies or releases the brakes according to the dictates of the particular brake command signal received. The central controller unit sends the brake command signal to each of the rail vehicles along either a pneumatic train line or an electrical train line.
Depending on the type of train being considered, the brake equipment on each rail vehicle may include either exclusively pneumatic equipment or a combination of electrical and pneumatic (i.e., electro-pneumatic) equipment. In those trains featuring electro- pneumatic brake equipment on the rail vehicles, each rail vehicle typically includes a local control system whose construction and operation are generally well known in the brake control art. The local control system on each rail vehicle receives the brake command signal and various other signals in response to which it directly controls the electro-pneumatic equipment according to principles well known in the brake control art. Specifically, the local control system generates the electrical signals which open or close the various valves which supply pressure to or vent pressure from the brake cylinders. The brakes on each rail vehicle apply and release accordingly.
The prior art brake control systems discussed in the foregoing paragraphs typically provide service braking, emergency braking, dynamic brake blending, and wheel slip control functions. The local control system includes a microprocessor-based device which performs service brake control, limited emergency brake control, dynamic brake blending, and wheel slip control. Associated with the brakes on each bogie is a Brake Cylinder Control Unit (BCCU) which manipulates brake cylinder pressure based on pneumatic and/or electric inputs from the local control unit. It provides service and emergency brake cylinder pressure control as well as dynamic brake blending and wheel slip brake cylinder pressure modulation. The BCCU has integrated magnet valves and transducers which are monitored and controlled by the local control unit. The primary functional element of the BCCU is a Variable Load Relay Valve (VLRV) that provides a controlled pneumatic pressure to the brake cylinders. The output of the VLRV is a function of the pressure at its pilot pressure control port and an input indicative of vehicle load. The pilot pressure commands brake cylinder pressures during service braking. The pressures are related, for example, to speed and vehicle weight. In an emergency, the pilot pressure port of the VLRV is controlled for emergency stopping which may include modulation of brake cylinder pressure to minimize wheel slipping. Typically, the source of pilot pressure commands for service braking and emergency braking are different and are selected by an Emergency Magnet Valve (EMV) controlled by the local control system.
Typically during full emergency braking, modulation of the braking pressure by the VLRV or wheel slip control is inhibited. Inhibiting brake pressure modulation to wheel slip control often results in wheel slides and wheel lockups with extended stopping distances. With increasing demand for wheel protection in all brake modes along with increased emphasis on system safety, the pneumatic brake release timer according to this invention becomes necessary and easy to configure and analyze. The pneumatic brake release timer according to this invention will:
1. Provide a means to reduce the emergency brake level for a fixed limited period of time which begins at the start of the emergency condition and is not resetable.
2. Provide a non-electronic apparatus to return emergency brake pressure to the required level.
3. Allow for limited protection of the wheels in an emergency brake condition.
4. Allow limited duration software-controlled wheel slip control of emergency braking modes.
5. Provide a known reliability analysis of the emergency brake modes.


One aspect of the present subject matter relates to a method for forming a transistor. According to an embodiment, a fin is formed from a crystalline substrate. A first source/drain region is formed in the substrate beneath the fin. A surrounding gate insulator is formed around the fin. A surrounding gate is formed around the fin and separated from the fin by the surrounding gate insulator. A second source/drain region is formed in a top portion of the fin. Various embodiments etch a hole in a layer over the substrate, form sidewall spacers in the hole, form a fin pattern from the sidewall spacers, and etch into the crystalline substrate to form the fin from the substrate using a mask corresponding to the fin pattern. Other aspects are provided herein.

The semiconductor industry has a market driven need to reduce the size of devices, such as transistors, and increase the device density on a substrate. Some product goals include lower power consumption, higher performance, and smaller sizes. FIG. 1 illustrates general trends and relationships for a variety of device parameters with scaling by a factor k. The continuous scaling of MOSFET technology to the deep sub-micron region where channel lengths are less than 0.1 micron (100 nm or 1000 Å) causes significant problems in the conventional transistor structures. For example, junction depths should be much less than the channel length. Thus, with reference to the transistor 100 illustrated in FIG. 1, the junctions depths 101 should be on the order of a few hundred Angstroms for channels lengths 102 that are approximately 1000 Å long. Such shallow junctions are difficult to form by conventional implantation and diffusion techniques. Extremely high levels of channel doping are required to suppress short-channel effects such as drain induced barrier lowering, threshold voltage roll off, and sub-threshold conduction. Sub-threshold conduction is particularly problematic in DRAM technology as it reduces the charge storage retention time on the capacitor cells. These extremely high doping levels result in increased leakage and reduced carrier mobility. Thus, the expected improved performance attributed to a shorter channel is negated by the lower carrier mobility and higher leakage attributed to the higher doping.
Leakage current is a significant issue in low voltage and lower power battery-operated CMOS circuits and systems, and particularly in DRAM circuits. The threshold voltage magnitudes are small to achieve significant overdrive and reasonable switching speeds. However, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the small threshold results in a relatively large sub-threshold leakage current.
Some proposed designs to address this problem use transistors with ultra-thin bodies, or transistors where the surface space charge region scales as other transistor dimensions scale down. Dual-gated or double-gated transistor structures also have been proposed to scale down transistors. As commonly used in the industry, "dual-gate" refers to a transistor with a front gate and a back gate which can be driven with separate and independent voltages, and "double-gated" refers to structures where both gates are driven when the same potential. An example of a double-gated device structure is the FinFET. "TriGate" structures and surrounding gate structures have also been proposed. In the "TriGate" structure, the gate is on three sides of the channel. In the surrounding gate structure, the gate surrounds or encircles the transistor channel. The surrounding gate structure provides desirable control over the transistor channel, but the structure has been difficult to realize in practice.
FIG. 3 illustrates a dual-gated MOSFET with a drain, a source, and front and back gates separated from a semiconductor body by gate insulators, and also illustrates an electric field generated by the drain. Some characteristics of the dual-gated and/or double-gated MOSFET are better than the conventional bulk silicon MOSFETs, because compared to a single gate, the two gates better screen the electric field generated by the drain electrode from the source-end of the channel. The surrounding gate further screens the electric field generated by the drain electrode from the source. Thus, sub-threshold leakage current characteristics are improved, because the sub-threshold current is reduced more quickly as the gate voltage is reduced when the dual-gate and/or double gate MOSFET turns off. FIG. 4 generally illustrates the improved sub-threshold characteristics of dual gate, double-gate, or surrounding gates MOSFETs in comparison to the sub-threshold characteristics of conventional bulk silicon MOSFETs.
FIGS. 5A-C illustrate a conventional FinFET. FIG. 5A illustrates a top view of the FinFET and FIG. 5B illustrates an end view of the FinFET along line 5B-5B. The illustrated FinFET 503 includes a first source/drain region 504, a second source/drain region 505, and a silicon fin 506 extending between the first and second source/drain regions. The silicon fin functions as a transistor body, where the channel between the first and second source/drain regions is horizontal. A gate insulator 507, such as silicon oxide, is formed over the fin, and a gate 508 is formed over the fin after the oxide is formed thereon. The fin of the illustrated conventional FinFET is formed over buried oxide 509. FIG. 5C illustrates a conventional etch technique for fabricating the fin for the FINFET. As illustrated in FIG. 5C, the fin width is defined by photolithography or e-beam lithography and etch. Thus, the fin width is initially a minimum feature size (1 F). The width of the fin is subsequently reduced by oxidation or etch, as illustrated by arrows 510.


A medical apparatus for securing a medical device. The medical apparatus can include a garment, the garment having a body portion with an outward facing surface and an inward facing surface. The body portion can have an upper panel, and a lower panel juxtaposed with the upper panel to define an access opening. The access opening provides access from the outward facing surface to the inward facing surface between the upper panel and the lower panel. A low profile anchor secured on the outward facing surface can be configured for releasable securement of a portion of the medical device. An outer panel affixed to and selectively detachable from the body portion can span at least a portion of the access opening and define a selectively closesable pocket configured to retain a portion of the medical device. The garment can have a sleeve affixed to the body portion at an arm opening, the sleeve including a first sleeve portion and a second sleeve portion. The first sleeve portion and the second sleeve portion define an opening through which a catheter tube extending through the arm opening can be routed and secured.

A variety of medical devices are commonly attached to patients for extended periods of time, for a variety of reasons and in a variety of ways (e.g., adhesively, implanted, inserted into, attached via straps or other attachment members, etc.). For example, venous catheters, peritoneal catheters and pumps (such as those used for dialysis), gastric feeding tubes ("G-tubes"), various types of drainage tubes, various other types of vascular catheters, and various other medical devices are commonly implanted or otherwise attached to patients. In many such instances, a portion of the medical device (e.g., one or more conduits such as catheter tubes and/or electrical leads) extends out of or otherwise away from the patient's body. As a result, the patient often will have a portion of the medical device which must be secured in some manner, particularly when the device is not being used. If not secured in some manner, particularly if not secured close to the patient's body, a loose portion of the medical device may get in the way of normal activities or may even be inadvertently pulled or become entangled to the point that the device itself is compromised and/or the patient suffers adverse consequences (e.g., irritation, pain, inflammation, or worse). In addition, a visible exterior portion of the medical device (e.g., catheter tubing or electrical leads) may also cause embarrassment for the patient, particularly children.
The embodiments set forth in the drawings are illustrative in nature and not intended to be limiting. Moreover, individual features of the drawings and the disclosure will be more fully apparent and understood in view of the detailed description.


According to embodiments of the present invention, an ink composition is provided. The ink composition includes a plurality of nanostructures distributed in at least two cross-sectional dimension ranges, wherein each nanostructure of the plurality of nanostructures is free of a cross-sectional dimension of more than 200 nm. According to further embodiments of the present invention, a method for forming a conductive member and a conductive device are also provided.

Flexible electronics are electronic devices that are bendable, stretchable and/or potentially foldable without any significant loss in performance. In recent years, flexible electronics devices including flexible LCDs (liquid crystal displays), organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic solar cells have gained increasing popularity. According to one market report, the total market for flexible electronics will grow rapidly to more than $13 billion by 2020. One of the most important components for these flexible devices is the electrode. Electrodes in such applications have to meet two very important criteria—they have to be highly conductive and they have to be bendable and stretchable without severe decrease in conductivity.
Generally, metal is the ideal candidate as the electrode material due to its superior electrical conductivity. The deposition of metal electrode usually employs vacuum based deposition techniques, which will impose high processing cost. Doped tin oxide (indium-doped tin oxide (ITO), fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)) is commonly used in optoelectronic devices and gains popularity due to its combined advantages of high electrical conductivity and high optical transparency. Nevertheless, doped tin oxide electrodes are generally rigid and have low tolerance to mechanical bending or stretching. Recently, the industry is able to produce ITO electrodes on curved substrates, which leads to revolutionary TVs/smart phones with curved display panels. Despite excellent progress made in this technology, ITO/FTO electrodes are rigid and still far from being flexible. Therefore, new material approaches need to be explored and adopted.
Conductive inks containing metal nanostructures have been successfully developed and employed for solution processable electrodes. The resulting electrodes have high electrical conductivity and at the same time have a high degree of flexibility due to the formation of interconnected nanostructured networks. Silver (Ag) nanostructures (including nanoparticles and nanowires) based conductive inks have been commercialized. They have been widely used in various applications such as printed circuit boards, flexible circuits and touch screen panels. The success of Ag inks could be attributed to their good electrical performance as well as chemical inertness as Ag has a high oxidation resistance. However, the price of Ag is extremely high, over $500/kg as compared with around $3/kg for copper (Cu), which prohibits its low-cost applications.

Ink composition, method for forming a conductive member, and conductive device


A free draining, corrosive resistent valve for regulating the flow of corrosive fluids therethrough includes a plastic valve housing. An inlet passage extends into the housing and upwardly therein terminating in a valve seat. An inclined panel surrounds the inlet passage below the valve seat. An outlet passage extends from the lower most portion of the inclined panel through the housing. A plastic valve poppet is located above the seat having a diaphragm therearound with an upwardly extending stem. A plastic retainer is located above the diaphragm into which the stem extends. The retainer is adapted for affixing the diaphragm is a sealing relationship to the valve housing.

The present invention relates a plastic control valve for handling the flow of highly corrosive fluids.
Highly corrosive fluids, such as acids, are used in many industries, as in the processing of semiconductor wafers. The corrosive effects of such fluids or liquids is further increased when their application requires that the liquids be heated to temperatures ranging from 24.degree. to 150.degree. C. which will increase the corrosive effect of the fluids.
The handling and control of heated corrosive fluids in measured amounts has been problematic. Known valves having metallic parts are short lived in that their exposure to corrosive fluids will eventually destroy the valves. Furthermore, many applications absolutely require that metallic particles not be permitted to enter into the stream of the corrosive fluids or liquids which may destroy the usefulness of such fluids. The structure of known valves also may have what is known as a dead volume of fluid. That is, fluid may rest within the valve housing such as below the valve seat. The dead volume of fluid makes these valves difficult to flush and clean and may have corroding effects on valve parts.
Construction of valves out of polymers or plastics in combination with metal parts has been attempted to solve these known problems with minimal success. The nature of plastics and polymers allow permeation which will permit corrosive fumes from the corrosive fluids in the valve to work upon the internal operational parts of the valve and similarly render such valves short lived.
The handling of highly corrosive fluids by known valves has by necessity also required difficult and frequent inspection as well as repair to insure the integrity of the control valves. Disassembly of complex valve structures is time consuming and requires down time while the valve is disassembled for inspection and replacement of certain parts.
There is an need for a free draining, corrosive resistent plastic control valve that has a long life and renders itself easy to inspect and repair.


A high speed aircraft fitted with a unitary, rotatable wing coupled to the craft's fuselage at a hollow turret or solid pivot pin, enabling it to operate with the wing in either of two ninety degree opposed positions.

This invention relates to rotatable wing aircraft and more particularly to one in which the wing is unitary in nature and coupled to the fuselage through a large hollow turret, enabling it to be held in either of two positions, a 90 degree position, perpendicular to the fuselage for low speeds, and a 0 degree one, parallel to the fuselage, for high speed flight. Alternatively, the wing could be coupled to the fuselage through a solid pivot pin, but structures would require more weight for the condensed stress areas. At high speeds, the wing is faired into fuselage structure with its upper surface and an overlap portion with winglets cooperating with the lower surface of the fuselage to provide necessary lift. A set of winglets, small moveable aerosurfaces, is built into the center of the wing, each cooperating with the other to provide roll control and lift at high speeds when the wing is parallel with the fuselage. Greatly reduced "wetted" area of the wing is produced by this condition with up to 50 percent of the bottom of the wing nested into the fuselage and with a corresponding reduction in aerodynamic drag of approximately 25 percent.
For low speeds employed during takeoff and landing, the wing is oriented perpendicular to the fuselage, utilizing pivoted winglet type ailerons at either extreme for lift and control torques. Typical winglets comprise about 10 percent of total wing area. At high speeds, the wing is nested parallel to the fuselage, its upper surface contoured to provide lift as required in cooperation with the bottom of the fuselage and overlap beyond the nested area. Winglets extending from both sides of the middle of the wing provide roll control during high speed operation. Computerized winglet control during the transition mode maintains reasonable attitude conditions of the aircraft, while nesting the wing parallel to the fuselage reduces its wetted area by 25 to 30 percent, greatly increasing efficiency of high speed operation. At the low speed, or ninety (90) degree position, a high aspect ratio wing is provided that is more efficient than delta types and which provides more maneuver response than delta wings at such lower speeds.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has conducted extensive experimentation on oblique wing aircraft wherein a unitary wing (i.e. a single member extending symmetrically about a central chord) is pivoted in flight to form an angle with the fuselage to reduce its wetted area, increase leading edge sweep, and, consequently, reducing its aerodynamic drag. Tests, to be conducted in the late 1989 time period, will provide for pivoting wings at up to 60 degrees for flight at speeds up to Mach 1.4 (about 1000 miles hr). The aircraft scheduled for such tests is known as the Digital Fly-By-Wire (DFBW) test bed, NASA model F-8.
The DFBW has been in use for several years as a flying test platform for electronic, computer operated, flight control systems. Integration of computer controls with wing positioning mechanisms of the within invention will allow for safe transition from one orientation to the other at all speeds, up to, and including, supersonic and at right angles to the conventional wing orientation, as opposed to DFBW's 60 degree inclination.
Rotation of the wing from its 0 degree, high speed orientation to the 90 degree condition will provide the craft augmented "post-stall" or "super-maneuvering" capability by reason of the 90 degree condition's greater lift, higher drag and lower stall speed. Such capability provides escape potential and attack maneuver capability considerably exceeding that of conventional delta or double delta winged vehicles.
Many advantages accrue from use of the unitary, rotatable wing presented herein. High lift provided with the wing rotated 90 degrees from the fuselage allows slower speeds for takeoff and landing with associated shorter runways. The slower speeds and increased lift requires lighter weight landing gear and shock structure. Angles of approach to runways can be steeper for the reduced speeds involved and pilots are afforded greater visibility over the nose of the aircraft.
Use of such an airplane for fleet support on aircraft carriers is particularly beneficial. After landing with the wing at its high lift position, the craft is hangared and moved with that wing stowed parallel to the fuselage at significant economies in volume required, a prime concern of naval vessels.
Primary advantage of the 90 degree rotation wing is the greatly reduced frictional drag when the plane is performing at high speeds. 25 to 30 percent of the normally "wetted" area of the wing is hidden over the fuselage when it, the wing, is in the 0 degree orientation.
Because of the wing's unitary nature, enhanced use of internal volumes for fuel storage or other purposes is provided. Conventional or swing wing craft exhibit discontinuities at their interfaces with craft structure with complicated strengthening provisions often made which intrude into the wing and fuselage structure. In the 90 degree rotatable wing, flexible fuel and hydraulic lines provide optimal reliability with no "moving parts" for junctions or moveable joints and a large turret connector between wing and fuselage provides a simple, highly reliable support for rapid, low energy transfer between the 0 degree high speed, low friction, and 90 degree, low speed, high lift positions.
Since the connecting turret between wing and fuselage of this craft will have extensive bearing surfaces and possibly air bearings for reduced friction in transit, greatly enhanced maneuverability in air to air combat situations can be achieved by transfer of the wing from its 0 degree, high speed, position, to the 90 degree, low speed, high lift condition. Preliminary studies indicate that such a change in wing positioning can be effected at supersonic speeds with resultant high decelerations and vertical lift vectoring. Such maneuvers may be critical in evading high speed missiles with less maneuverability. Winglet operation during high speed change of orientation is not required but rapid changes in craft performance parameters are readily accommodated by electronic means coupled to other control surfaces such as rudders and elevators.
Reorientation of the wing of the within disclosed aircraft will allow a plurality of such craft to be transported by air in a single existing cargo air lifter. Rapid operational availability from a remote airstrip is achieved from this mode of transfer, with no reassembly or rework required for operability.
Actuation of the 90 degree wing to its 0 degree position (or vice versa) may be effected by such simple and reliable means as cranks activated by hydraulic or pneumatic pistons. Cranks and drives will be reciprocal and a common system, or redundant dual systems, used for driving the wing into either orientation. Nesting provisions in the fuselage provide for smooth stream lines over the wing's upper surface in either the 0 or 90 degree positions.
Detail features of repositioning means, fuel management, hydraulic line provisions and other aspects of the unitary, rotatable wing are not primary to this invention. They are mentioned and described herein to illustrate that they are all suporting elements to the primary rotatable wing aircraft, subject and object, of this disclosure.
The present invention provides a high performance aircraft, amenable to both low speed and supersonic flight with a supporting unitary wing having winglet control surfaces, which wing can be commanded to either of two ninety degree opposed positions to meet lift or speed requirements determined by its pilot. A number of features and attributes of such a craft is provided herein, but the primary invention is a rotatable wing aircraft as claimed below.
Moveable wing aircraft are known in the art of aeronautics. NASA's AD-1 and F-8/DFBW, are two examples. Swing wing craft such as that of U.S. Pat. No. 2,673,047, Foldable-Winged Craft by R. A. Scarato, the Pivotal Wing Cruise Missile of U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,426 by Groutage, et al are also examples of this type of vehicle. None of those studied possesses the features or advantages of the within invention.


A surface cleaning apparatus is disclosed. The cleaning apparatus connects to a liquid source under pressure, such as a garden hose, and disperses liquid on to a surface to remove debris from the surface. The surface cleaning apparatus comprises a handle member and a manifold. The manifold is connected to the liquid source at one end and the other end is connected to the manifold. The manifold has a right and a left section each of which is pivotally combined to the handle member. The right and left sections rotate between an extended position substantially perpendicular to the handle member and a retracted position parallel with the handle member.

This invention relates to a water sweeper or broom which is self-supported on a surface to remove debris from a surface; and more specifically to a water sweeper or broom that collapses to a smaller size for displaying at a point of sale or for storage.
Large flat surfaces, such as driveways, side-walks, pool decks, tennis courts and the like, are often difficult to clean quickly. One conventional way of cleaning such surfaces is to use a push broom or sweep broom. Unfortunately, using a conventional broom can be very tiring for the operator, and to remove all of the dirt with a broom, it is often necessary to go back over the area a number of times. Another method that is often employed is to use a spray of water from a garden hose to move the dirt and debris. However, the lone stream from a garden hose cannot clean large areas very quickly. Since neither of these methods has proven efficient for cleaning large flat surfaces quickly, it has been found advantageous to combine elements of a push broom with elements of a water sprayer in a device known as a water broom.
Water brooms having the width of a broom take up a lot of useable space. This is especially problematic at the point of sale where space is at a premium. Retailers are especially reluctant to market such brooms due to the their wide expanse. Accordingly, a water broom is needed which conveniently collapses to a manageable size for storing and displaying at the point of sale.


The present invention provides a security device for securing a spare tire and rim, retained by a winch mechanism, to the underside of an automobile. More specifically, the device includes a securing element that engages the rim and encloses a yoke of the winch mechanism to prevent a thief from severing the yoke and gaining access to the spare tire and rim. In a use position, the yoke extends through the primary opening in the rim and a fastener extends through a hole in the securing element and a secondary opening in the rim to connect the securing element to the rim, whereby the yoke is enclosed between the rim and the securing element.

In most sport utility vehicles (SUVs), the spare tire is located on the rear underside of the vehicle. A winch type mechanism includes a cable and yoke to couple the spare tire to the underside of the vehicle and permit ready access to the tire and rim when needed, such as a flat tire situation. However, a thief can easily cut the steel cable attached to the yoke and remove the spare tire and rim. Thus, the owner of the SUV will face the costly expense of replacing the entire winch mechanism, as well as the spare tire and the rim. Compounding this unfortunate situation is the fact that the SUV owner will not learn of the rim and tire theft until he or she attempts to access such in a time of need.
Accordingly, there is a need for a security device that provides a visual deterrent and an obstacle for a thief to access and severe the winch mechanism and thereby steal the spare tire and rim. Furthermore, there is a need for a security device that reasonably precludes access to the winch mechanism in order to secure a spare tire and rim to the underside of the vehicle. A full discussion of the features and advantages of the present invention is deferred to the following detailed description, which precedes with reference to the accompanying drawings.


The present invention provides an inspection device including an imaging unit 16 for imaging an object to be inspected, a characteristics measurement unit 15 for measuring characteristics of the object to be inspected, an inspection information acquisition unit 11 for acquiring inspection information related to the object to be inspected, a condition determination unit 12 for determining measurement information related to a measurement condition of the object to be inspected corresponding to the inspection information, an imaging control unit 14 for controlling imaging by the imaging unit, and a measurement control unit 13 for controlling measurement by the characteristics measurement unit based on the measurement information.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to inspection devices such as microscope and inspection apparatus, in particular, to an inspection device for taking an image of an object to be inspected and measuring characteristics of an object to be inspected.
2. Background of the Invention
Recently, sophisticated inspection devices have been developed. The devices are microscope and inspection apparatus capable of taking images of objects to be inspected, such as specimens, of measuring spectroscopic characteristics of the object, and of utilizing their result for an image processing of the object, for diagnosis support, and for an image inspection.
For example, JP2009014354 discloses a device providing stable images of specimens in analyses using microscopes for analyzing stained biological specimens. The device measures spectral characteristics of a plurality of portions in specimens, estimates dying variation in the specimens so as to execute correction of the dying variation.
On the other hand, a device, which divides necessary observation area of the object to be inspected and integrates the divided images acquired by an objective lens of high power with moving the object to be inspected with regard to the objective lens so as to provide a wide field and high resolution digital images effectively.


A reamer used in downhole oil well operations, particularly in reaming while drilling applications includes a plurality of helical blades. Each blade extends along a center axis of the reamer body and includes a sequence of a sloping leading edge, a central blade length, and a sloping trailing edge. Each edge slopes away from the central blade length and toward the center axis. A first series of a first type of cutter are positioned along the central blade length; separate pluralities of a second type of cutter are respectively positioned along the leading edge and the sloping trailing edge. A third type of cutter is positioned in a first transition zone located between the leading edge and the central blade length, an additional instance of the third type of cutter is positioned in a second transition zone located between the trailing edge and the central blade length.

The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.
Wellbore reamers are known in the field of oil well drilling operations, and are used to open wellbores to allow for smooth operation of a drilling string. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,607,900 to Smith discloses a bi-directional reamer. Similarly, European Patent Application No. EP1811124 by Bassal, et al. discloses a similar type of bidirectional reamer.
The prior art provides reamers that rely upon two types of cutting inserts, also referred to as cutters, positioned on three or more blades that extend along a center axis of the reamer. Prior art cutters are inserted along the blades with their respective cutting surfaces oriented to engage with a borehole wall at various orientations. Polycrystalline diamond cutting inserts (hereinafter, "PDC cutters") are provided along the tapered, linear portions of certain prior art blades. Prior art PDC cutters may be mounted with back rake or side rake (or both) to increase cutting efficiency and improve load distribution on these cutters. Optionally or additionally, tungsten carbide inserts (hereinafter, "TCI cutters") may be positioned on blade lengths and positioned between the two tapered, linear portions of the comprising blade. Current reamer designs also provide PDC cutters along portions of the blades. However current designs fail to balance the load on these cutters. It is thus desirable to allow for the implementation of back rake and side rake with PDC cutters in order to balance the extremely heavy and cumbersome burdens and forces placed on the cutter. Providing such back rake and side rake improves drilling efficiency by providing better force balancing and load work distribution of the cutters regardless of their position.
While they are useful tools, these types of reamers have maintenance requirements that can result in increased costs in drilling. Wear and tear on the cutters or the reamer body can result in effective failure of the reamer, which can then require pulling the drill string to replace the reamer. Some wear of the cutting bits on a reamer is expected, but the rate of wear can be exacerbated by the configuration of the reamer. For example, the configuration of the blades on a reamer may direct drilling fluid away from, rather than over, the cutting elements, resulting in excessive wear due to heating. Thus, it is desirable to provide improved fluid flow over the cutting elements of a reaming reamer by improving the placement and positioning of the cutting elements relative to a body of the reaming reamer, and the angle at which the cutting elements of the reaming reamer interact with the wellbore in a drilling operation.
Additionally, current reaming-while-drilling reamers utilize flat cap tungsten carbide inserts as the primary cutting elements on the cylindrical outer diameter. It is desirable to provide an improved cutting element design and material formulation to provide such a reamer with greater efficiency. Similarly, current reamer designs place the tungsten carbide cutting inserts in simple rows and columns, which does not provide uniform distribution of the carbide against the borehole wall. It is desirable to provide a reamer that aligns the cutting inserts so that there is more uniform coverage of the blade width, for example by providing helical cutting blades, positioned in close proximity to one another. It is desirable to provide a reamer with an improved blade design, over currently used helical blades for purposes of improving fluid flow over the cutting inserts.
It is understood that diamond table of a PDC cutter is far more brittle than tungsten carbide. It is further understood that the interface between the diamond table and tungsten carbide base of a PDC cutter is very susceptible to the shearing action caused by radial impact damage. As PDC cutters are thus generally more susceptible to impact damage than TCI cutters, in the prior art the PDC cutters that are positioned on a blade most distally from a center axis of a reamer are typically placed on the blade to be slightly and entirely below the anticipated position of a surface of a borehole; this PDC cutter positioning reduces the chances for impact damage of the PDC cutter when the reamer encounters a ledge, key seat or tight spot of a borehole. This positioning of the PDC cutters on a prior art blade more proximate then the TCI cutters to a center axis of the comprising reamer also protects the PDC cutter when sliding the prior art reamer on a vee-door, passing the prior art reamer through a rotary table, or inserting the prior art reamer into a casing or a liner.
In the prior art typically the two or three TCI cutters placed furthermost from a reamer central axis, fail much earlier than the remaining TCI cutters within the blade. This is primarily because these distally located TCI cutters do their job of protecting adjacent PDC cutters by absorbing the impact damage. A second mode of failure is due to the heat generated when the reamer is cutting ledges, key seats and tight boreholes. This is particularly true when cutting hard abrasive formations. This high heat causes heat checking in TCI cutters, resulting in cracks and weakening of the overall structure TCI cutter that may lead to premature failure of the instant TCI cutter.
While certain prior art reamers include both PDC cutters and TCI cutters, the prior art fails to provide other advantageous and innovative additional types of cutters that exhibit novel insert sizes, compositions, placements, and/or designs that would reduce the wear and tear of PDC cutters and TCI cutters.
There is therefore a long-felt need to provide a reamer comprising novel and innovative cutting insert that exhibit compositions, placements, and/or designs that in combination with other cutting insert types, for example but not limited to PDC cutters and TCI cutters, improve the operational performance and/or decrease the wear and tear rate of the novel reamer and/or cutting inserts of the invented reamer.
It is an additional optional object of the present invention address the problem of heat checking, while still providing impact damage protection for certain cutters of the invented reamer and a more aggressive axial cutting action for the reamer for ledges, key seats and tight spots.

Trimodal reamer for use in drilling operations


A round cutting insert includes a top surface, a clearance side surface and a bottom surface. The top surface includes an asymmetric chipbreaker feature adjacent a cutting edge that includes a finishing portion, a roughing portion, and a transition portion. The asymmetric chipbreaker feature includes a first rake face extending from the cutting edge, a second rake face between a bottom face and the first rake face, and a back face between a central island and the bottom face. The second rake face and the back face are sinusoidal waveforms with different periods to cause the distances from the cutting edge to the second rake face and back face to vary. The first and second rake faces are formed at different rake angles to provide effective chip control during machining operations.

Round cutting inserts may often manage a number of profiling operations from fine machining to rough machining. Usually, the round cutting inserts generate a fine surface also in connection with high feed rates because the round edge functions as a wiper.
Contour/profile-turning machining operations present a unique problem due to continuously changing cutting conditions, and the associated wide variations in chip flow and the consequent chip form and surface finish issues due to geometric variations along the length of cut. The chip control may easily become deficient, especially in connection with small cutting depths when relatively wide and thin chips are formed that could be hard to break. As a result, long curled chips are formed that at worst may entangle around the insert holder and scratch the generated surface and possibly cause insert breakdown.
Unfortunately, in many contour/profile-turning cases, a round insert is the only option due to the exclusive shape of the workpiece. Unlike other insert styles, (e.g. C-shaped: 80 degree nose angle, or D-shaped: 55 degree nose angle), the round insert allows the use of any part of the cutting edge (i.e. 360 degree nose angle) to engage the workpiece during the machining process.
Currently, conventional round cutting inserts have the same chipbreaker feature along the entire 360 degree cutting edge. However, due to an insufficient understanding of the contour/profile-turning process and the distinctive geometry feature of the round insert, the currently available round insert chipbreaker feature is not efficiently designed to properly control and break chips. As a result, the conventional round insert is designed for only two types of machining operations: 1) a roughing process with a large depth of cut and high feed rates, and 2) a finishing process with a small depth of cut and slow feed rates.
Thus, there is a need to provide a single round insert with improved chip control that provides the capability to perform both a roughing machining operation with large depths of cut at any desired feed rate, and a finishing machining operation with small depths of cut at any desired feed rate.

Round cutting insert with asymmetric chipbreaker feature


Disclosed are processes of forming a compound (33), (35) or (37)

The asymmetric construction of a stereogenic carbon center with a quaternary carbon atom remains one of the most challenging and demanding topics in the synthesis of natural products and chiral drugs. The development of efficient asymmetric methods to access complex molecules with multiple stereogenic centers also continues to be a substantial challenge in both academic research and industrial applications.
One approach toward these challenges is the use of catalytic enantioselective cascade reactions, which have emerged as powerful tools to give a rapid increase in molecular complexity from simple and readily available starting materials, thus producing enantioenriched complex compounds in a single operation. Of the developed strategies for asymmetric tandem reactions, organocatalysis provided an efficient protocol. The syntheses of substituted cyclohexenes by applying a three-component domino reaction (Enders, D, et al., Nature (2006) 441, 861; Enders, D, et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2007) 46, 467) and by a two-component multistep Michael-nitroaldol (Henry) sequence using pentane-1,5-dial and 2-substituted nitroalkenes (Hayashi, Y, et al, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2007) 46, 4922) have been described.
Although several other elegant organocatalytic tandem reactions have also been reported recently, the development of new methods for the generation of molecules with multiple stereogenic carbons, including quaternary centers, in a cascade manner remains a big challenge at the forefront of synthetic chemistry. The Michael addition reaction, being one of the most general and versatile methods for formation of C—C bonds in organic synthesis, has received much attention in the development of enantioselective catalytic protocols. Domino Michael-Michael (also called "double Michael") reactions have been explored and demonstrated as a powerful tool in organic synthesis (for a review on double Michael reactions, see: Ihara, M, & Fukumoto, K, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (1993) 32, 1010). Efficient asymmetric double Michael processes have been achieved by relying on the use of chiral auxiliaries and chiral precursors for stereocontrol. However, the development of organocatalytic enantioselective versions of the reactions proved to be a challenging task, and there have been very few reports regarding the formation of quaternary and tertiary stereocenters with both excellent enantioselectivity and diastereoselectivity using α,β-unsaturated esters as Michael acceptors.
The nitroaldol reaction, also termed Henry reaction, also represents a powerful C—C bond forming tool, and the resulting nitro alcohol products can be transformed into a number of nitrogen and oxygen containing derivatives such as nitroalkenes, amino alcohols and amino acids (Palomo, C, et al., Eur. J. Org. Chem. (2007) 2561). In addition to substrate-controlled Henry reactions, organocatalytic systems that provide good stereoselectivity have been developed in recent years.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a further process that can be used to form organic molecules with multiple stereogenic carbon atoms, in particular quarternary carbon centers.

Asymmetric cyclization processes using unsaturated nitro compounds


A headset includes a speaker, such as a side firing dipole speaker. The headset includes a front chamber that receives sound waves from a first side of the speaker and a rear chamber that receives sound waves from a second side of the speaker. A control leak channel connects the front chamber and the rear chamber. An acoustic mesh may be located within the control leak channel. The speaker configuration is configured to reduce total harmonic distortion of the speaker, particularly in ranges such as 3-6 kHz, while maintaining the broadband efficiency of the speaker.

Artificial reality headsets utilize speakers to present sounds to users. In some form factors, it is desirable to locate the speakers within components of the headset, such as within the temple of the headset. In order to limit the size of the component, side firing speaker may be utilized. However, speakers installed in small enclosures with side firing configurations may generate undesirable resonate peaks at certain frequencies which increases the distortion of the output sound.

Control leak implementation for headset speakers


An ion source generates ions from analyte molecules which are desorbed from a sample on the surface of a sample support in a pressure range of approximately 30 to 300 pascal. Reactant ions are generated in a separate ion source and guided by ion guides to the point in front of the sample or to a reaction chamber in which the desorbed molecules are located. The reactant ions ionize the desorbed molecules to form analyte ions. The analyte molecules can be mixed in matrix material or adsorbed on the sample support surface without additives. The desorption can be continuous or pulsed, for example by light from lasers or diodes.

One important type of ionization for biomolecules is ionization by matrix-assisted laser desorption and ionization (MALDI). This process ionizes the analyte biomolecules from mixtures with molecules of a matrix substance on sample supports. The ratio of analyte molecules to matrix molecules is around one to ten thousand. Hundreds of samples can be applied to a sample support using pipetting robots which are available for this purpose. Transporting the samples on the sample support into the focus of a UV pulsed laser takes only fractions of seconds; as much time as is ever needed is available for the analysis of this sample (until the sample is completely used up). This sets MALDI very favorably apart from electrospray ionization, which provides only very slow sample changing or, in conjunction with chromatography, restricts the analysis time to the duration of the chromatographic peak. MALDI is ideal for the identification of tryptically digested proteins which have been separated by 2D gel electrophoresis. The MALDI analysis of peptides which have been separated by liquid chromatography and applied to MALDI sample supports is also gaining ground ("HPLC MALDI").
A disadvantage of MALDI, however, is that it only ionizes one ten thousandth of the analyte molecules. One attomol of an analyte substance, i.e., approx. 600,000 molecules, only produces around 60 analyte ions. The rest are not ionized; some of the remaining molecules are possibly contained in splashes of molten matrix substance and completely excluded from access to ionization, while a large proportion of the analyte molecules are simply not ionized in the laser desorption process.
Until now, matrix-assisted laser desorption has principally been carried out in high vacuum. Its starting point is a solid sample mixture prepared on a sample support. The sample consists mainly of small crystals of the matrix substance which are admixed in low proportions (only around one hundredth of one percent or less) with molecules of the analyte substance. These analyte molecules are embedded individually into the crystal lattice of the matrix crystals or are located in inter-crystal boundary surfaces. The samples prepared in this way are irradiated with short pulses of UV laser light. The duration of the pulses is roughly between two and ten nanoseconds. This produces vaporization clouds which contain both ions of the matrix substance as well as some analyte ions. Some of the analyte ions are already contained in the solid sample in ionized form, some are created directly in the explosive vaporization process in the hot plasma, and a third fraction is formed in the expanding cloud by proton transfer in reactions with the matrix ions.
Laser desorption, which was previously only used in high vacuum, has of late also been used at atmospheric pressure, simplifying the sample introduction but not, as yet, increasing the analytical sensitivity. This method is termed AP-MALDI.
This laser desorption at atmospheric pressure is characterized by the formation of a vapor cloud which arises when sample preparation material is vaporized in pulses by the laser light bombardment, and which can be entrained with the ambient gas. The vapor cloud initially consists only of matrix vapor with analyte molecules blown likewise into the gaseous phase. Only a very small fraction of the analyte molecules, in the order of one hundredth of one percent or less, are ionized. The matrix substance is similarly weakly ionized; in absolute figures, however, the matrix ions are in the majority many times over. This vapor cloud mixes in a thin boundary layer with ambient gas, but remains together for a long time. In the vapor cloud, the matrix ions can thus react further by collisions with analyte molecules, forming analyte ions. It is thus possible that more analyte ions are formed at atmospheric pressure than with MALDI in high vacuum, but this advantage is counteracted by the disadvantage that the ions from this more or less expanded vapor cloud are generated at atmospheric pressure and have to be transferred into the vacuum system of the mass spectrometer. The analyte ions which are lost as a result have, until now, been greater in number than the gain in additional analyte ions—if, indeed, this occurs at all.
A method of matrix-assisted laser desorption at atmospheric pressure has also been described in which it is not the laser desorption itself which brings about the ionization of the analyte molecules but the ionization is achieved in the subsequent ion/molecule reactions. The matrix substance thus no longer has to perform the task of ionizing the analyte molecules. For the desorption here it is possible to specifically use a substance for the matrix which decomposes into small gas molecules under laser bombardment and thus has only the three objectives of (1) binding the analyte substances firmly to the surface of the sample support, (2) absorbing the laser light, and (3) vaporizing in such a way that it decomposes, transferring the confined analyte molecules intact and isolated from each other into the gaseous phase. The chemical ionization is then undertaken, for example by forming primary ions by means of the electrons of a corona discharge (J. Franzen and C. Köster, DE 196 08 963; corresponding to GB 2 299 445 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,663,561). It is difficult to carry out the chemical ionization, however, since it is very difficult to get the gas cloud with the analyte molecules and the gas cloud with the ions for the chemical ionization to mix sufficiently intensively with each other in a short time.
The desorption of analyte molecules does not have to be carried out with laser light. It is also possible to desorb adsorbed molecules with shock waves, temperature shocks and especially with vacuum sparks, even if desorption with laser light is by far and away the easiest option.
MALDI in an ambient gas at a pressure of around 100 pascal has already been reported (A. N. Krutchinski et al., Rapid Comm. Mass Spectrom. 12, 1998, 508-518). A MALDI ion source which also operates in this pressure range but under a pressure surge of a gas introduced as pulses has been described in DE 199 11 801 C1 (G. Baykut).
Whenever the term "mass of the ions" or simply just "mass" is used here in connection with ions, it is always the "charge-related mass" m/z which is meant, i.e., the physical mass m of the ions divided by the dimensionless and absolute number z of the positive or negative elementary charges which this ion carries.
The term "desorption" here should be taken to mean all types of release of molecules from the solid phase into the gaseous phase, as is already the case with the term MALDI (matrix assisted laser desorption and ionization). It is irrelevant here whether the molecules to be desorbed are adsorbed naked on a surface or whether they are embedded in, or attached on, another material, of any type.
An "ion guide" here should be taken to mean a device by means of which ions can be intentionally transported from one location to another. This can be achieved aerodynamically or by systems of electric and magnetic electrodes or yokes, and particularly by rod systems or systems of apertured diaphragms to which the phases of an RF voltage are applied.


A motor control apparatus has a motor driver for driving a motor in accordance with an input of digital-format drive data of a predetermined length, thereby driving a mechanism using the motor as a power source. The drive data, which has been made to correspond to a plurality of drive patterns, is stored in a memory, part of the drive data, which has been read out from the memory by DMA, is replaced with other data, and the resultant data is output to the motor driver. Thus, different drive data can be generated by replacing a part of the drive data stored in the memory with other data, and the generated data can be transferred to the motor driver. This makes it possible to reduce the memory capacity needed for motor control.

This invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling a motor. More particularly, the invention relates to control of a motor having a motor driver for driving the motor in accordance with an input of digital-format drive data of a predetermined length.
More specifically, the present invention relates to a motor control apparatus and method in which a portion of motor drive data, which is generated by a motor controller of a printing apparatus or the like, is replaced with other data in an arrangement in which the motor drive data is acquired from a memory by DMA (Direct Memory Access).
Printers are becoming increasingly popular and great strides are being made in printing techniques as well. Printers are adapted so as to print images on paper based upon image information. A printing method of much interest employed in such printers is the ink-jet printing method, which is method is a method of performing printing by ejecting ink onto paper from a printhead. This method is advantageous in that a highly precise image can be printed at high speed and is superior to other printing methods in terms of running cost and quietness.
In an ink-jet printer that employs the ink-jet printing method, generally stepping motors are used for paper-feed, carriage movement and recovery operations. Recently, there has been an increase in arrangements in which control of these motors is carried out not by a CPU but by a motor control circuit provided within a special-purpose system LSI (referred to as an xe2x80x9cASICxe2x80x9d below) chip that controls the overall printer.
The reason for this is that owing to the more complicated stopping control that accompanies an increase in printer resolution and in order to lower machine noise, there has been an increase in arrangements in which the motor excitation method is W1-2 phase excitation and 2W1-2 phase excitation and drive is by microsteps. Further, owing to an increase in the printing speed of these printers, motor driving speed also is higher than heretofore. As a consequence, the timing at which phase excitation switching takes places speeds up and therefore the burden upon the CPU increases. With conventional sequence control, therefore, situations arise in which the system cannot keep up with the higher switching speed.
Accordingly, an arrangement has been adopted in which a special-purpose hardware circuit for motor control is provided within an ASIC, data in a drive table stored on a ROM (Read-Only Memory) is expanded in a RAM, this data is incorporated in the special-purpose hardware for motor control by DMA transfer, and the data is transmitted to a motor driver to control the motor without the intermediary of a CPU.
For example, the specifications of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2001-286190 and 2001-286189 (these two applications correspond to U.S. Patent Publication No. 2001/045806 A1) disclose a method in which data of a motor drive table that has been stored in a RAM is incorporated in a motor driver controller successively by DMA transfer without the intermediary of a CPU, thereby controlling a motor driver and alleviating the load on a CPU.
A conventional motor control method using DMA transfer will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a prior-art arrangement for performing motor control using DMA transfer. An arrangement in which drive data is transferred to a motor driver serially will be taken as an example.
As shown in FIG. 2, this control arrangement includes a RAM 1, a printer controller LSI (ASIC) chip 2, a motor driver 3, a CPU 4 and a ROM 5. Various functional blocks for controlling printer operation are incorporated within the printer controller LSI 2. Mainly the portions relating to motor drive are illustrated. A DMA controller 6 performs DMA transfer with respect to the RAM 1 based upon a RAM access request of each functional block. Motor drive data that has been stored in a ROM 5 also is developed in the RAM 1 via the DMA controller 6 within the ASIC 2.
A motor driver controller 7 includes a control block 8, a data controller 9, a serial data generator 12 and a timing controller 13. The control block 8 is provided with a control register for driving the motor drive controller. On the basis of the content of the control register, the control block 8 executes sequential control of the functions within the motor drive controller. The writing of data to the control register is performed by the CPU. The data controller 9 requests the DMA controller 6 for transfer of DMA data from a designated address of the RAM 1. Reference numerals 10 and 11 denote data that the data controller 9 has acquired and latched. The data 10 is motor driver control data, and the data 11 is time data. A serial data converter 12 converts the latched drive data from a parallel signal to serial data, which is synchronized to a transfer clock, by a shift register. A timing controller 13 manages excitation time based upon the latched time data.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of transfer timing for transfer of drive data to the motor driver. FIG. 3 illustrates the timing of the strobe signal 14, transfer clock 15 and drive data 16 transmitted to the motor driver 3 from the printer controller LSI 2, which includes the motor driver controller 7 of FIG. 2, as well as the internal structure of the motor driver 3.
The drive data 16 is stored successively in a shift register 17 within the motor driver 3 in sync with the transfer clock 15. The data is latched in a latch 18 by the strobe signal 14. The output of the motor driver is finalized, after the data is latched within the latch 18, at the rising edge of the strobe signal 14. That is, excitation time is managed at the intervals at which the strobe signal 14 is generated. More specifically, the latched data is partitioned into bits on a per-control-element basis and is used in control of each drive control block.
A torque data controller 19 is for changing over the levels of the currents of A and B phases while maintaining the set values of the currents of these two phases. As a result, the current applied to the motor can be set stepwise in a state in which the setting of the ratio of the currents of the A and B phases is the same. This makes it possible to set torque. Reference numerals 20, 21 and 22 denote control blocks on the side of the A phase, in which block 20 controls the flow of regenerative current (decay mode), block 21 the current value and block 22 the phase with respect to the A-phase output current. Reference numerals 23, 24 and 25 denote control blocks on the side of the B phase. Control relating to these blocks is similar to that of the blocks on the A-phase side.
In the above-described example of the prior art, however, data of the motor drive table that has been expanded in the RAM is incorporated in the motor driver controller by DMA transfer. The motor driver controller transfers this data to the motor driver at the set excitation time intervals. Specifically, the data of the drive table that has been stored in the RAM is transferred to the motor driver as is. As a result, in a case where it is desired to change only certain specific information such as torque setting bits, it is necessary to rewrite the specific bits, which are desired to be changed in the drive table within the RAM, by a CPU in one-byte or two-byte (=one word) units, or to store these specific bits in another area of the RAM as data of another motor drive table.
If it is so arranged that the specific bit of the drive table is rewritten by the CPU, the CPU is occupied for the period of time required for the rewriting of the drive table data. During this time the CPU cannot execute other tasks and, hence, there is the possibility that the overall performance of the printer will decline. On the other hand, assume that the arrangement is such that the data of another motor drive table is stored in another area of the RAM. If drive modes in which the settings differ by even one bit in the drive data exist, drive table data must be set in an amount equivalent to the number of these drive modes. This makes it necessary to increase the capacity of the RAM and the capacity of the ROM as well.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a motor control apparatus that makes it possible to reduce the memory capacity used in control of a memory without increasing the load upon a CPU.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a motor control method that makes it possible to reduce the memory capacity used in control of a memory without increasing the load upon a CPU.
According to one aspect of the present invention, the foregoing objects are attained by providing an apparatus for controlling a motor that drives a mechanism using the motor as the power source, the apparatus comprising: a motor driver for driving the motor in accordance with an input of digital-format drive data of a predetermined length; a memory for storing the drive data, which has been made to correspond to a plurality of drive patterns; and driver control means for replacing part of the drive data, which has been read out from the memory by DMA, with other data and outputting the resultant data to the motor driver.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the foregoing objects are attained by providing a method of controlling a motor in a motor control apparatus, which has a motor driver that drives a motor in accordance with an input of digital-format data of a predetermined length, for driving a mechanism using the motor as a power source, the method comprising: a storage step of storing the drive data, which has been made to correspond to a plurality of drive patterns, in a memory; and a driver control step of replacing part of the drive data, which has been read out from the memory by DMA, with other data and outputting the resultant data to the motor driver.
Thus, according to the present invention, there is provided a motor control apparatus having a motor driver for driving a motor in accordance with an input of digital-format drive data of a predetermined length, the control apparatus driving a mechanism using the motor as a power source. The drive data, which corresponds to a plurality of drive patterns, is stored in a memory, and a portion of the drive data read out from the memory by DMA is replaced with other data and output to the motor driver.
If this arrangement is adopted, different drive data can be generated by replacing a part of the drive data stored in the memory with other data, and the generated data can be transferred to the motor driver. For example, be replacing a torque setting bit of the drive motor with other data, the motor can be driven at any torque using one type of drive data.
Accordingly, in an arrangement that uses DMA transfer, motor drive data stored in a memory can be diminished and therefore the capacity of the memory used in motor control can be reduced.
Preferably, the drive data comprises bits of a predetermined length, and the drive control means includes a buffer for storing the drive data, a register for storing the other data and a selector for selecting replacement data.
The driver control means may include data output means for outputting the drive data, part of which has been replaced, to the motor driver as serial data, or data output means for outputting the drive data, part of which has been replaced, to the motor driver as parallel data.
Preferably, the motor is a stepping motor.
According to other aspects of the present invention, there are provided a computer program for implementing the above-described motor control method by a computer, and a storage medium storing this computer program.
According to further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic apparatus that includes a motor control apparatus having a motor driver that drives a mechanism using the motor as a power source and drives the motor in accordance with an input of digital-format drive data of a predetermined length, a memory for storing the drive data, which has been made to correspond to a plurality of drive patterns, and driver control means for replacing part of the drive data, which has been read out from the memory by DMA, with other data and outputting the resultant data to the motor driver, wherein: the driver control means generates an interrupt signal after read-out and output of the drive data are executed a predetermined number of times in succession; and a CPU of the electronic apparatus responds to the interrupt signal by specifying an address from which the driver control means reads out data from the memory and changing the other data.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus for perform printing using a motor, comprising: a motor driver for driving the motor in accordance with an input of digital-format drive data of a predetermined length; a memory for storing the drive data, which has been made to correspond to a plurality of drive patterns; driver control means for changing part of the drive data, which has been read out from the memory by DMA, to other data and outputting the resultant data to the motor driver, and for generating an interrupt signal after read-out and output of the drive data are executed a predetermined number of times in succession; and control means, responsive to the interrupt signal, for specifying a read-out address of the memory with respect to the driver control means, and setting a change in the drive data.
The above objects of the present invention is also attained by providing a motor driver controller, to which digital-format drive data of a predetermined length stored in a memory is input by DMA means, for outputting drive data to a motor driver that drives the motor, comprising: a mask data register for storing mask data that rewrites the drive data; a rewrite register for rewriting predetermined bits by the mask data, which has been stored in the mask data register, when the drive data input by the DMA means is latched, and for holding the resultant data; and data output means for outputting drive data, which has entered from the rewrite register, to the motor driver.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.


A sanitary napkin comprising a topsheet comprising a plurality of discrete tufts of fibrous material, wherein the topsheet has a density of less than 0.027 g/cc under a load of 0.004 psi, and a density of less than 0.068 at a load of 0.23 psi.

Disposable absorbent articles such as baby diapers, adult incontinence products, sanitary napkins, pantiliners, hemorrhoid treatment pads, bandages, and the like are well known in the art. Such articles generally have a fluid permeable topsheet, and fluid impermeable backsheet, and an absorbent core sandwiched between the topsheet and the backsheet to absorb and contain body fluid exudates.
In some applications of disposable absorbent articles, such as sanitary napkins and pantiliners, it is desirable to not only absorb body fluids, but to minimize fluid on the body of the wearer. Fluid on the body can be minimized by ensuring that the fluid enters the absorbent article, and does not come back out, such as by being pressed or squeezed out. While much work has been done in to minimize rewet to the body, there remains a need for a disposable absorbent article that helps keep the users body clean and dry.
Accordingly, there is a disposable absorbent article that helps provide for a clean body benefit in the area of sanitary napkins and pantiliners.
Additionally, there is a need for a method for relatively inexpensively making a disposable absorbent article that helps provide for a clean body benefit in the area of sanitary napkins and pantiliners.


The present invention relates to an automatic focusing apparatus for positioning a lens at the optimum focus position. The apparatus includes an image pick up element which can be accessed at any desired line, thus allowing only a predetermined portion of an image pickup plane to be read scanned. This enables plural AF scan operations to be performed at high-speed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic focus adjusting (referred to as "AF" hereinafter) apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
A camera is generally provided with an automatic focus adjusting apparatus, and particularly, in recent years, a camera has necessarily been provided with an automatic focusing function.
Although there are many AF apparatus systems, video apparatus, such as video cameras, still video cameras and the like have recently remarkably been developed, a conventional AF system in which focus detected using the reflected light of an applied infrared has recently been changed to a system in which focus is detected and adjusted by determining an out-of-focus amount on the basis of the signal component which is extracted from the signal output from an image pickup element which varies depending upon a focusing state.
In such an AF system, a high-frequency component is extracted from the signal output from image pickup element, and a lens is controlled so that the high frequency level of the component is at a maximum.
In an AF apparatus, an area, i.e., a focus detecting area, from which a signal component, e.g., a high-frequency signal component, indicating a focusing state is extracted, is generally disposed on a predetermined portion near the central portion of an image plane. This focus detecting area is not provided over the whole image plane, but it is provided on a central portion of the image plane. Reasons for this are the following:
If the focus detecting area is excessively large, since the focus detecting area includes both a main subject and a background, focus cannot be detected with high precision. If the focus detecting area is excessively small, far and near competition between a main subject and a background occurs and thus makes a focusing state unstable.
Although typical recent AF systems have been described above, in these AF systems, a single focus detection requires a single vertical scanning referred to as "1 V" hereinafter) period necessary; for scanning the whole image plane because focus is detected using the signal output from an image pickup element.
However, about 12 to 13 times of scanning sometimes required for maintaining AF precision. Since a single AF scanning takes 1 V period, a about 200 ms is taken until AF scanning is completed, and a time lag at shutter release is thus increased. If an attempt is made to decrease the time lag, the number of times of AF scanning must be decreased, which produces an undesirable decrease AF precision.
There have been many prior applications concerning AF systems in which focus is adjusted on the basis of the signals output from an image pickup element or on the basis of signals from the focus detecting area provided on an image plane. Main examples of prior U.S. applications include the following:
(1) U.S. Ser. No. 17183 filed on Feb. 19, 1987, now abandoned PA1 (2) U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,920 PA1 (3) U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 240,915 filed on Sep. 6, 1988 PA1 (4) U.S. Ser. No. 154,078 filed on Feb. 9, 1988, now abandoned
However, there is no application concerning an AF system in which focus is adjusted by rapidly (within 1 V) reading only a portion of the image plane of an image pickup element. In any one of the AF systems, since a gate is applied to the image signals output at 1 V intervals, and only the signals within the focus detecting area are extracted, AF information can be obtained only on the 1 V unit, and an attempt cannot be made to increase the AF speed.

Focus adjusting apparatus which reads a selected portion of an image pickup plane


An electronic device and method of making same wherein the device includes a substrate (e.g., a printed wiring board or semiconductor chip) having a circuit thereon, a first non-photosensitive layer (e.g., polyimide resin) positioned on the substrate and over the substrate""s circuit, a second, photosensitive layer (e.g., epoxy resin) positioned on the first layer, and an electrically conductive layer positioned on the first, non-photosensitive layer and electrically coupled to the circuit through a hole in the first layer.

The present invention relates to an electronic device such as a semiconductor device and a printed wiring board, and a method of making the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a technology for forming a multilayer wiring structure including a via connection.
In a process of producing a semiconductor device, wiring board, or the like, a multilayer interconnection is formed as follows. First, a photosensitive resin layer acting as an interlayer insulating layer is formed on a substrate with a circuit formed thereon, and then it is exposed to light and developed to form a via hole therein. Next, a copper layer is plated on the developed layer and a photoresist layer is then deposited on the copper layer. The photoresist layer is exposed to light and developed in the same manner as the above for patterning. In accordance with the patterned photoresist layer, the copper layer is etched and patterned to form a circuit and a via hole (or several such holes). Thus, a two-layered circuit structure is formed.
Where a multilayer circuit is formed, the aforementioned process has to be repeatedly conducted. A repeat of such a complicated process for each circuit layer results in lower productivity and higher production costs.
If there is a relatively big difference between the coefficients of thermal expansion of the substrate and a component which is to be mounted on the substrate, connection failure may result when both are subjected to elevated temperatures, thus lowering the reliability of the device. One possible approach to overcoming this problem is to provide an underfill resin in the small space between substrate and component. However, as technology progresses (and especially as increased wiring densities in smaller areas are demanded), the space between substrate and component is getting narrower and narrower, which makes it relatively difficult to adequately provide sufficient underfill, resulting in a possible filling failure. For this reason, it is desired to provide a reliable connection without filling an underfill resin.
In a conventional method of producing a built-up printed wiring board, there may be a case where a metallized circuit layer is formed on an insulating layer having a via hole, and another insulating layer having a via hole is then formed over the circuit layer. In this case, if the via holes in both insulating layers overlap in position and the via hole of the lower layer is not completely filled with metal, insulating resin of the upper insulating layer may flow into the unfilled space in the lower via hole. As a result, a recessed part is formed in the surface of the upper layer and defocusing occurs during the exposing step, so that the precise formation of a via hole with a desired diameter becomes relatively difficult. If the via hole of the lower layer is completely filled with metal such as copper, the above problem does not occur. However, in practice, it is often difficult to completely fill the lower via hole with metal.
It is believed, therefore, that an electronic device (e.g., printed wiring board) that can be made in an efficient manner while overing the aforementioned advantages of earlier methods and devices made by same would constitute a significant advancement in the art.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved method for forming a multilayer wiring structure including a via connection on the structure""s substrate.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a method which will result in a structure having more reliable connections between substrate and electronic device mounted on the substrate, by focusing on the coefficients of thermal expansion of various insulating layers laminated to the substrate.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a method comprising the steps of providing a substrate, forming a circuit on the substrate, forming a non-photosensitive resin layer on the substrate, the non-photosensitive resin layer substantially covering the circuit, forming a photosensitive resin layer on the non-photosensitive resin layer, forming a patterned opening in the photosensitive resin layer relative to the circuit, forming a hole in the non-photosensitive resin layer to expose the circuit, and forming an electrically conductive layer on the non-photosensitive resin layer and the hole, the electrically conductive layer electrically coupled to the circuit.
According to a still further aspect of the invention, there is provided an electronic device comprising a substrate, a circuit positioned on the substrate, a first insulating layer positioned on the substrate substantially over the circuit and having a hole therein oriented directly above the circuit and contiguous thereto, a second insulating layer, positioned on the first insulating layer and including a patterned opening directly over the hole, formed of a material different from the first insulating layer, and formed on the first insulating layer in such a manner that the small hole is positioned in the larger hole, and an electrically conductive layer positioned on the non-photosensitive layer and substantially filling the hole, the electrically conductive layer being electrically coupled to the circuit.

Electronic device and method of producing same

International Business Machines Corporation


Lubricants are stablized against oxidative degradation by the incorporation therein of hydroxylamines substituted with thioalkanoic acid residues of the formula ##STR1## wherein R and R.sub.1 are independently H, alkyl or aryl, X is independently OR.sub.2 SR.sub.2 or NR.sub.3 R.sub.4 wherein Rhd 2 is H, alkyl, cycloalkyl or aralkyl, and R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 are independently H, alkyl or aryl and n is 1 or 2.

Various hydroxylamine derivatives have been disclosed as stabilizers for a variety of substrates. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,720,517 4,612,393, 3,644,278 and 3,778,464 describe the use of substituted hydroxylamines of varying structures as antioxidant stabilizers for hydrocarbons including lubricating oils. U.S. Pat. No. 3,408,422 discloses the use of selected hydroxylamine derivatives in unsaturated polyester compositions to prevent premature gelation on storage. U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,231 discloses the use of N,N-dibenzylhydroxylamine and other selected hydroxylamine derivatives in stabilizing polyolefin compositions. U.S. Pat. No. 4,242,224 discloses that the pink discoloration which occurs in the amine antioxidant and antiozonant emulsions used in the latex industry at high pH can be prevented or retarded by the use of dialkylhydroxylamines or mercaptan stabilizers. U.S. Pat. No. 4,316,996 pertains to a process of preparing phenolic antioxidants in the presence of a hydroxylamine derivative and of a substituted oxime to yield a phenolic antioxidant which itself exhibits improved color and color stability. U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,532 relates to the use of triorganotins and nitrogen compounds including hydroxylamines in the prevention of gelation of paint formulations. Neither the specific hydroxylamine derivatives disclosed herein nor the instantly disclosed lubricant compositions are disclosed in these patents.
Some bis(substituted thioalkyl)hydroxylamines are known. K. Ito et al., Chem. Pharm. Bull., 27, 1691 (1979) describes the Mannich type condensation of selected mercaptans, formaldehyde and hydroxylamine to yield compounds derived from propyl mercaptan, amyl mercaptan, cyclohexyl mercaptan, benzyl mercaptan, thiophenol and ethylene dimercaptan. Related compounds derived from N-methylhydroxylamine, N-benzylhydroxylamine and N-phenylhydroxylamine are also described. G. Rawson et al., Tetrahedron, 26, 5653 (1970) describe the preparation of N,N-(di-p-tolylthiomethyl)hydroxylamine and of N,N'-(di-p-bromophenylthiomethyl)-hydroxylamine in an academic study. No practical use for said compounds is disclosed. The possible use of such compounds as stabilizers for lubricants or other substrates is not suggested or described by the authors who were interested in the possible pharmaceutical applications of said compounds.

Thioalkanoic acid substituted N,N-dialkylhydroxylamines and stabilized lubricant compositions