A system for preventing flooding caused by blockages in the drain lines of appliances such as washing machines, dishwashers and the like included a sealed connection between a washing machine drain line and the sewer line drain, further including a washing machine drain line inlet attachment to a housing, the inlet line connecting to the sewer drain line and to a sealed vent pipe connected to the sewer line drain above the inlet attachment, and including a C-shaped loop in fluid communication with the sewer drain line and containing a float actuated control valve adapted to cut off power to the washing machine upon actuation; a kit containing components of the system and methods of installing the system and kit.

The present method of connecting a washing machine drain hose to a sewer line drain is flawed and results in a tremendous amount of property damage, globally every year, due to flooding. Water damage resulting from washing machine flooding is believed to be a costly form of recurring property damage.
Conventional methods of connecting a washing machine drain hose to a sewer line drain are flawed because the connection between the washing machine discharge and the sewer is not sealed and is therefore susceptible to flooding. In the current method, the washing machine pumps and discharges waste water through a smaller flexible drain hose that is loosely inserted into a larger open sewer line drain. This conventional connection is not sealed in order to provide an "air-gap", or "vacuum break", that is needed to prevent induced siphonage during the wash cycle. Without an "air-gap", or "vacuum break", the resulting induced siphonage would prematurely empty the washing machine, obviously defeating the function of the washing machine. The present system provides for a solution by incorporating both a sealed connection between the washing machine drain hose and the sewer line drain and a "vacuum break" that prevents induced siphonage. Prior to the present system a system and method that provides both a sealed connection and a "vacuum break" has not been introduced.
One main problem with the current method of connecting a washing machine drain hose to a sewer line drain is that the smaller flexible drain hose, which pumps water out of the washing machine, will sometimes drop-out of the larger open sewer line drain pipe. If the smaller drain hose drops-out of the larger open sewer line drain and is not noticed and rectified immediately, the washing machine will continue through its wash, rinse, and drain cycle thereby pumping a significant amount waste water onto the floor, causing severe flood damage.
The current method is also inherently flawed because it incorporates an open sewer line drain with direct exposure to the living area or other area where the washing machine discharges into the sewer line. Even if the washing machine drain hose does not drop-out of the larger open sewer line drain, this area remains susceptible to severe flood damage in the event that the sewer line is blocked. If a blockage occurs in the in-ground or the under-floor 2″ or 3″ drain pipe, or in the inline sewer drain, then, as the washing machine washes and drains, the pumped waste water can only escape through the open end of the larger sewer line drain pipe or "vacuum break". This situation will result in major flooding possibly mixed with foul water. The preferred present system includes sensors to detect blockage, a sub-system to shut-off the washing machine and cease the pumping of waste water to prevent flooding in the event that blockage in the sewer line drain is detected, surge protection and an alarm.
An additional problem with the open sewer line drain is that it is possible for the water seal in the drain trap to evaporate, thus allowing direct access of foul sewer gases and vermin into the living area. The preferred present system also addresses this problem.


A field instrument and system for obtaining pressure, flow and temperature data from a facility. The field instrument includes an enclosure having an opening therein. An integrated analog sensor is sealingly contained within the opening. The field instrument further contains an external analog sensor. An analog to digital converter converts the analog signals to digital readings. An external digital sensor is also provided, with the digital output being communicated through a second opening within the enclosure. A control member that receives, stores and processes the digital readings is positioned within the enclosure. A communication module is included to transmit the digital readings to a remote computer. The communication module allows for two way communication between the field instrument and remote computer. The remote computer may be a server that allows for access by many users. The communication module also allows for locally accessing the digital readings via a serial port to a local terminal.

This is a continuation-in-part application of the patent application filed 13 Jan. 2000 as Ser. No. 09/482,415, entitled "System for Acquiring Data from a Facility and Method".
This invention relates to a system for obtaining pressure, flow and temperature data from one or more facilities. More particularly, but not by way of limitation, the invention relates to a system having one or more instruments that collect, process and store measurements of pressure, flow and temperature and relays data to a remotely located network data receptor series, where for example it may be accessed by multiple users.
In the production of oil and gas from subterranean reservoirs, operators have found it necessary to complete wells in many remote regions. In order to produce, transport and refine hydrocarbons, it is necessary to construct production facilities at these remote regions. Due to the hazardous nature of hydrocarbons, it is necessary to employ various safety features in all phases of the process to ensure against pollution, explosion, and other safety hazards.
Operators find it beneficial, if not necessary, to monitor pressure, temperature, flow rates, etc from these oil and gas facilities. The reasons for monitoring are numerous. For instance, the operator may wish to test the producing well in order to calculate bottom hole pressure, permeability, skin damage, etc. Additionally, the operator may simply wish to monitor the pressure within separators, pipelines and/or vessels to maintain proper working conditions. Regardless of the specific application, there is a need to accurately monitor conditions at the oil and gas facility in a timely manner.
It is furthermore desirable to provide a system for the monitoring of conditions at a number of individual oil and gas facilities, which may be geographically spread over a given region, to permit a broad assessment of overall conditions in the production facility or region.
Prior art devices have been designed to remotely communicate with oil and gas facilities. For instance, Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems have been developed to monitor and communicate with these remote areas. However, these SCADA systems suffer from a variety of deficiencies.
A significant deficiency is related to the inherent limitations of the Master-Slave communication protocol that is employed by SCADA systems. The Slave must be always powered-up waiting for the call from the Master. And when the Master calls, the Slave must immediately respond to the Master to minimize the time Master spends with the Slave.
Further, prior art systems communicate from a limited number of oil and gas facilities to a single monitoring station which in turn relays information to a central control station. This architecture is necessary since the Master monitoring station must poll each Slave Field location individually to prevent communication collisions.
Another limitation in current practice is the accuracy of pressure measurement, which is impaired by ambient temperature fluctuations. This accuracy limitation reduces the effectiveness in many process monitoring applications that depend on measurement stability, such as process simulation or process accounting.
A further limitation of current practice is the elaborate installation requirements that result from the physical size, number of components and complex interconnections that are needed to implement each field location with a remote measurement system.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method that can capture, store and process accurate pressure, flow and temperature data, and communicate this data in a more flexible manner to a local computer and/or remote server. There is also a need for a system that will allow for users to access data from multiple remote locations on an as needed basis. Further, there is a need for a system that can alert remote users of predetermined alarm conditions in an efficient and timely manner. There is also a need in many practical applications for improved pressure measurement accuracy and stability compared to what is achieved using current practice. There is also a need for an instrument that can work in an oil and gas environment without fear of explosion. There is also a need for an instrument that integrates many of the measurement system components into a single, compact package to simplify installation. These, and many other needs, will be accomplished by the invention herein described.

System for acquiring data from facilities and method


A driving method for a display device and a display device are disclosed. The driving method includes: obtaining a pre-display image; obtaining, according to an average of corresponding preset grayscale values of two blue sub-pixels in a pixel group, n sets of target grayscale value pairs of the pixel group by table lookup; and displaying a same pre-display image in m continuous frames of display cycles.

Conventional large-size liquid crystal displays use negative vertical alignment (VA) liquid crystal or in-plane switching (IPS) liquid crystal technology. In the case of a large viewing angle, brightness of a pixel of the VA liquid crystal display is rapidly saturated along with the driving voltage, which causes severe color shift of the liquid crystal display under a large viewing angle, thereby affecting image display quality of the liquid crystal display.
When original driving signals for driving a sub-pixel in a liquid crystal display panel include a high voltage signal and a low voltage signal to drive the sub-pixel in the liquid crystal display panel, the problem of color shift of the liquid crystal display in the case of a large viewing angle can be improved. One solution to the problem of color shift of a liquid crystal display under a large viewing angle is to divide each sub-pixel in the liquid crystal display panel into primary and secondary pixels; by providing different driving voltages to the primary and secondary pixels in each sub-pixel, liquid crystal molecules corresponding to the primary and secondary pixels in each sub-pixel have different deflection directions, thereby enhancing optical isotropy of the liquid crystal molecules, and thus solving the problem of color shift of the liquid crystal display panel under a large viewing angle. However, providing different driving voltages for the primary and secondary pixels in each sub-pixel requires that some metal wires and thin film transistor elements respectively drive the primary and secondary pixels for display, but these metal wires and the thin film transistor elements may affect illumination of the liquid crystal display panel, so that a light transmission opening area of the liquid crystal display panel is greatly reduced, affecting transmittance of the liquid crystal display panel, and causing increase of backlight costs of the liquid crystal display panel.

Liquid crystal display panel alleviating color shift problem due to large viewing angle


A feet washing system has a generally rectangular trough with a planar floor, an anterior side wall, a posterior side wall, a first side wall, and a second side wall. The system has an anterior raised floor support, a posterior raised floor support, and a middle floor support. The system has a fluid inlet and a drain outlet. The system has a generally planar perforated raised floor component. The system has an agitation pump operatively connected to a power supply. The agitation pump is located between the floor and the raised floor component. The system has an anterior side rail located on a top surface of the anterior side wall, a first side rail located on a top surface of the first side wall, and a second side rail located on a top surface of the second side wall.

Often when a pet comes into the house from outside, its paws are muddy which leaves a mess on the flooring surface. Even when the paws are wiped clean, dirt and mud can remain between the toes of the paw. The present invention features a feet washing system for cleaning the feet of an animal using a water circulation bath which effectively cleans the entire paw, even between the toes.


A seal for an oil well apparatus has reinforcing rings embedded within the seal. The seal is elastomeric. The apparatus has an energizing device that deforms the seal to cause it to move radially outward to a set condition. The reinforcing ring does not expand during this radial movement. The reinforcing ring is preferably a cable and is located near the inner diameter of the seal. The seal may also have anti-extrusion rings at the outside corners, which are flexible coil springs. Each anti-extrusion ring is a coil spring with a core of material that has a hardness greater than the hardness of the body of the seal.

1. Field of the invention
This invention relates in general to well tools used in subsea wells, and in particular to an elastomeric seal which has reinforcing rings.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
In subsea well drilling, operations occur wherein a tool must be lowered through a blowout preventer in a riser, then used to seal against a bore, such as in a subsea wellhead housing. In one instance, it is a good practice to test the blowout preventer by closing the blowout preventer on drill pipe while applying pressure below the drill pipe. The tool at the lower end of the drill pipe seals the bore of the wellhead housing to allow the blowout preventer to be tested. This test also tests the seal of the wellhead connector to the subsea wellhead housing.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,514, Nov. 17, 1992, Charles E. Jennings, an isolation test tool is described for performing the above test. That tools lowers through the blowout preventer and seals in the wellhead housing. The seal is elastomeric, and is set by axial compression.
While workable, frequently, the seal will be pulled off the tool as the tool passes through the blowout preventer stack while the test tool is being retrieved. After pressure is removed from the blowout preventer, the elastomeric portion of the preventer tends to encroach into the riser bore. A combination of mechanical grip, friction, and differential pressure will often stretch and roll the seal out of its groove. This necessitates retrieving the seal from the well. Usually that can be handled by circulation of fluid to float the seal to the surface. However, there is a danger that the seal will catch on downhole structure, making it difficult to retrieve. Also, normally, the seal will be damaged and cannot be reused. Tools other than isolation test tools also have similar problems in retaining elastomeric seals, such as some casing hanger running tools.
It is known to utilize coil springs at the outside corners of the elastomeric seals. These coil springs serve as anti-extrusion members to prevent the seal from extruding axially while set and under test pressure. The coil springs, however, have essentially no circumferential tensile strength so as to avoid interfering with the radial expansion of the seal during energizing. The anti-extrusion rings allow the seal to stretch and be pulled out of its groove upon retrieving of the test tool.


A super-resolution processor includes a storage section for storing data of point spread functions of an X-ray CT scanner which are acquired using a phantom and a super-resolution processing section performing super-resolution of image data of a sample generated by the X-ray CT scanner using the stored point spread functions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a super-resolution processor and a medical diagnostic imaging apparatus for performing super-resolution processing on volume data or multislice data collected by an X-ray CT scanner.
2. Description of the Related Art
X-ray CT scanners have made considerable progress and, in response to strong demand for higher-definition (higher-resolution) imaging from a medical field, multislice X-ray CT scanners have recently been developed and become widely available. The multislice X-ray CT scanner includes an X-ray source for emitting fan-beam X-rays having a broadening width in a slicing direction (along the base) and a two-dimensional detector with a structure in which multiple rows (four, eight, sixteen, etc.) of detecting elements are arrayed in the slicing direction, which are operated by multiscanning or helical scanning. This provides high-accuracy volume data across the wide range of a sample in a short time as compared with a single-slice X-ray CT scanner.
The volume data obtained in such a way is recently not only displayed for observation but also used in various applications. For example, for medical use, it is used for measuring the ratio of angiostenosis, aneurysm, or varicose veins. Specifically, an X-ray contrast medium is given to a sample for imaging by an X-ray CT scanner, so that volume data can be provided in which the distribution of the contrast medium flowing in the blood vessel is imaged. Accordingly, the ratio of angiostenosis and the size of aneurysm or varicose veins can be measured from the distribution of the CT value of the contrast medium imaged in the volume data. For example, the ratio of angiostenosis is obtained by measuring the thickness of the inner wall of the blood vessel (the range occupied by the contrast medium) from the volume data and comparing the thickness of an apparently normal region of the blood vessel to that of a thin region. For the measurement of the thickness of a blood vessel, a threshold for a CT value is generally set.
JP-A-11-342132 discloses another example of the process of volume data acquired from not only the X-ray CT scanner but various medical imaging scanners including an ultrasonic diagnostic imaging scanner and a magnetic resonance imaging scanner. The scanners described in JP-A-11-342132 are intended for accurate blood-vessel measurement based on display images, wherein a region of interest is set that crosses the wall of a blood vessel vertically on the tomogram of the vessel and the size of the vessel is measured from the profile of the pixel values in that region. JP-A-2000-350726 describes another example intended for accurate measurement of the length of a region of interest (a blood vessel, bowels, etc.) having curvature in a direction that is not in parallel to the projection plane using a maximum intensity projection (MIP) image.
Not only the X-ray CT scanner but also all imaging scanners have resolution limit that depends on the pitch of the detecting elements of their detectors. Referring to FIG. 11, particularly, the CT image of the X-ray CT scanner is formed as a reverse projection sum of a large number of views. Accordingly, blurring that depends on the resolution limit appears on the image as a result of multidirectional multiple combination of data profiles of one view at a minute point. In other words, the CT image can be stated as the intensity distribution function of a minute point image which represents blurring, that is, the assembly of point spread functions (PSFs).
However, no consideration is given to the blurring under present circumstances.

Super-resolution processor and medical diagnostic imaging apparatus


Leakage of a working fluid from a shaft sealing device of a turbomachine which handles a liquid as the working liquid is reduced and also unstable fluid force which acts on a rotor is reduced. For this purpose, the turbomachine has a rotor having an impeller, a bearing which rotatably supports the rotor, a casing which contains the rotor therein and forms a stationary flow passage, and the shaft sealing device which reduces the leakage of the working fluid through a gap part between the casing and the rotor. The working fluid is a liquid. A plurality of axial grooves which are intermittently arranged in axial direction and circumferential direction of the rotor with a land part being interposed are provided in an inner circumferential surface of the shaft sealing device.

The turbomachine such as the centrifugal pump and so forth is mainly provided with a rotor having an impeller, a bearing which rotatably supports the rotor, a casing which contains therein the rotor and forms a stationary flow passage and so forth. In addition, the impeller imparts a dynamic pressure to the working fluid by rotating the rotor, converts the dynamic pressure into a static pressure at a part on the stationary flow passage which is formed in the casing, and thereby feeds the high-pressure working fluid under pressure to a demander and so forth.
Part of the working fluid which has been sucked into the turbomachine leaks through a gap part between the casing and the rotor. In order to reduce this leakage flow, the shaft sealing device is installed in the gap part between the casing and the rotor.
In a case of the centrifugal pump acting as the turbomachine which handles the liquid as the working fluid, in the centrifugal pump which is described, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 10-259799 (Patent Literature 1), a so-called labyrinth shaft sealing device that labyrinth grooving has been performed on an inner circumferential surface on the casing (stator) side is provided for the purpose of preventing the working fluid from leaking to the outside through the gap part.
In the labyrinth shaft sealing device which is described in this Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 10-259799, a groove part (a circumferential groove) which is arranged in a circumferential direction and whose gap formed together with the impeller side becomes larger and a land part which is arranged in the circumferential direction and whose gap formed together with the impeller becomes smaller are alternately arranged in an axial direction and the leakage flow is reduced by utilizing an energy loss of a flow caused by abrupt expansion of a gap flow passage in the groove part and an energy loss of the flow caused by viscous friction on the land part as shown in FIG. 9 thereof. In addition, a width (a length in the axial direction) of the land part and a width (a length in the axial direction) of the groove part are configured to be almost the same as each other.
Incidentally, in a centrifugal compressor which handles a gas as the working fluid, for example, as indicated in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-74360 (Patent Literature 2), use of a labyrinth seal (a pocket damper shaft sealing device) that a plurality of grooves have been formed in the axial direction and a plurality of pockets have been formed in a circumferential direction of each of the grooves is described (see FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-74360). In addition, it is described in this Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-74360 that in the labyrinth seal, simultaneous attainment of a reduction in leakage of the gas through a seal portion of the centrifugal compressor and improvement of damping characteristics at the seal portion is promoted.


A polymer light emitting element having a large light releasing surface, a high light emitting efficiency and a long life, a polymer light emitting display device and planar light source, as well as a method for manufacturing the polymer light emitting element are provided. The polymer light emitting element is characterized by comprising a first electrode, a second electrode and a light emitting layer provided between the first electrode and the second electrode and containing a polymer compound, wherein the second electrode is composed of three layers, a first layer, a second layer and a third layer arranged in this order viewed from the light emitting layer, and at least one of materials contained in the second layer has a reducing action on at least one of materials contained in the first layer, and the visible light transmittance of the third layer is 40% or more.

In a case of an organic light emitting element with an active matrix driving scheme, when a so-called bottom emission type element in which the light is emitted from a substrate side is made, an aperture for emitting the light every element becomes smaller because a drive circuit is present. Thus, it has been proposed to make a so-called top emission type element in which the light is emitted from the side opposite to the substrate in order to assure a large light emitting surface. An organic light emitting element having a cathode composed of three layers has been known, in which a first layer and a third layer are oxide thin film layers and a second layer is composed of a thin film of a metal selected from Au, Ag, Cu, Pd and Pt (e.g., Patent Document 1).
However, this organic light emitting element has a problem that a light emitting efficiency is low.    Patent Document 1: JP 2004-79422 A

Polymer light emitting element, method for manufacturing the same and polymer light emitting display device


The present invention is an interspinous process implant with a selectably expandable spacer that can be placed between adjacent spinous processes.

The spinal column is a bio-mechanical structure composed primarily of ligaments, muscles, vertebrae and intervertebral disks. The bio-mechanical functions of the spine include: (1) support of the body, which involves the transfer of the weight and the bending movements of the head, trunk, and arms to the pelvis and legs, (2) complex physiological motion between these parts, and (3) protection of the spinal cord and the nerve roots.
As the population ages, it is anticipated that there will be an increase in adverse spinal conditions characteristic in older persons. For example, with aging comes an increase in spinal stenosis (including, but not limited to, central canal and lateral stenosis), the thickening of the bones that make up the spinal column, and facet antropathy. Spinal stenosis is characterized by a reduction in the available space for the passage of blood vessels and nerves. Pain associated with such stenosis can be relieved by medication and/or surgery. Of course, it is desirable to eliminate the need for major surgery for all individuals, and, in particular, for the elderly.
In addition, there are a variety of other ailments that can cause back pain in patients of all ages. For these ailments it is also desirable to eliminate such pain without major surgery.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method for alleviating such conditions that is minimally invasive, can be tolerated by patients of all ages (in particular, the elderly), can be performed on an out-patient basis, and allows adjustments both during and after surgery to minimize patient discomfort. There is a further need for an apparatus with which to apply the method.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Interspinous process apparatus and method with a selectably expandable spacer


A silicon film provided on a blocking film 102 on a substrate 101 is made amorphous by doping Si+, and in a heat-annealing process, crystallization is started in parallel to a substrate from an area 100 where nickel serving as a crystallization-promoting catalyst is introduced.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a semiconductor device having TFTs (thin film transistors) provided on an insulating substrate of glass or the like, and a method for producing the semiconductor device.
2. Description of Related Art
TFTs have been conventionally formed on a glass substrate to form a semiconductor device such as an active matrix liquid crystal device or an image sensor. The TFTs are used, for example, to drive the pixels of the liquid crystal device.
The TFTs used in the above devices are generally formed of a silicon semiconductor layer in the form of a thin film. The silicon semiconductor of a thin-film type is classified into two types, an amorphous silicon semiconductor (a-Si) type and a crystalline silicon semiconductor type. The amorphous silicon semiconductor can be relatively easily produced at a low film-forming temperature by a vapor-phase deposition method. Therefore, this type is suitable for mass production, and it has been most generally used. However, this type of silicon semiconductor has inferior physical properties such as electrical conductivity, etc. to the crystalline silicon semiconductor. Therefore, in order to more improve a high-speed response characteristic of TFTs, a producing method for TFTs comprising crystalline silicon semiconductor has been strongly required to be established. As the silicon semiconductor having crystallinity have been known polycrystalline silicon, microcrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon containing crystal components, semi-amorphous silicon having an intermediate state between crystallinity and amorphousness, etc.
The following methods may be used to obtain thin film silicon semiconductors having the foregoing crystallinity:
(1) Crystallinity is established during the formation of the semiconductor film.
(2) An amorphous semiconductor film is formed in advance, and then a laser beam is irradiated to the film to crystalize the film.
(3) An amorphous semiconductor film is formed in advance, and then heated to crystalize the film.
However, in the method (1), it is technically difficult to form a film having excellent semiconductor physical properties on the whole surface of a substrate uniformly. In addition, the film formation must be performed at a temperature above 600xc2x0 C. and thus an inexpensive glass substrate is unusable, so that a manufacturing cost is increased.
In the method (2), an excimer laser is most generally used at present as a laser beam source for irradiating a laser beam to an amorphous semiconductor film. In this case, the irradiation area of the laser beam is small, and thus this method has a disadvantage that a throughput is low. In addition, the stability of the laser beam is insufficient, so that the whole surface of a large-area substrate cannot be treated uniformly. That is, this method is not practically usable at present.
As compared to the methods (1) and (2), the method (3) has an advantage that it is more suitable to manufacture a large-area semiconductor film. However, this method requires a heating temperature above 600xc2x0 C., and thus an inexpensive glass substrate is not usable. Therefore, this method must be developed to reduce the heating temperature. Particularly in case of present liquid crystal display devices, a large-area screen design is being promoted, and thus use of a large-size glass substrate is required. When a large-size glass substrate is used, contraction and distortion of a substrate occur in a heating process which is indispensable to produce semiconductors, and they cause a critical problem that the precision of a masking process is reduced. Particularly in a case of 7059 glass which is most generally used at present, it has a distortion point of 593xc2x0 C., and it is greatly deformed in a conventional heat crystallization method. In addition to the heat problem as described above, a heating time required for crystallization is over several tens hours in a present process, and thus the heating time must be shortened.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method capable of solving the above problems, and specifically to provide a process for producing a silicon semiconductor thin film having crystallinity utilizing a method of heating an amorphous silicon thin film to crystallize the thin film, in which both of lowering of the temperature for crystallization and shortage of the heating time for crystallization can be performed. A silicon semiconductor having crystallinity which is manufactured using the process according to this invention has the same physical properties as or physical properties superior to that manufactured by a conventional technique, and it is usable in an active layer area of TFTs.
The inventors of this application have made the following experiments and consideration for a method of forming an amorphous silicon semiconductor film as described above by a CVD method or a sputtering method, and then heating the film to crystalize the film.
An amorphous silicon film is initially formed on a glass substrate, and then the film is crystallized by heating. The inventors investigated the mechanism of this crystallization. Through the experiments, it was observed that crystal growth of silicon starts at an interface between the glass substrate and the amorphous silicon and proceeds vertically to the substrate surface into a pillar shape in the case that the thickness of the film is larger than a certain thickness.
The above phenomenon is considered as progressing on the basis of a mechanism that crystalline nuclei serving as geneses for crystal growth (species serving as geneses for crystal growth) exist between the glass substrate and the amorphous silicon film, and crystal grow from the crystalline nuclei. These crystalline nuclei are considered as being impurity metal elements or crystal components (as is called as a crystallized glass, it is considered that crystal components of silicon oxide exist on the surface of the glass substrate) existing on the surface of the substrate in a very small amount.
Accordingly, it is expected that a crystallization temperature can be lowered by introducing crystal nuclei more positively. In order to confirm an effect of introducing crystal nuclei, the following experiment was tried. That is, a thin film of different metal in a very small amount was beforehand formed on a substrate, then an amorphous silicon thin film was formed on the different metal film, and then heat-crystallization was conducted on the amorphous silicon thin film. As a result, it was proved that the crystallization temperature was lowered when thin films of some different kinds of metal were beforehand formed on the substrate, and it was expected that crystal growth using foreigners as crystal nuclei had conducted. Accordingly, a more detailed mechanism for plural kinds of impurity metal which could lower the crystallization temperature was studied.
The crystallization mechanism can be considered to be classified into two stages which are an initial nucleus generation stage and a subsequent crystal growth stage from the nuclei. The speed of the initial nucleus generation can be detected by measuring a time elapsing until spotted fine crystals occur at a constant temperature. This time could be shortened in all cases where the thin films of the above kinds of impurity metal were formed on the substrate, and the effect of the introduction of the crystal nuclei on the lowering of the crystallization temperature can be proved. As an unexpected result, through an experiment for examining variation of growth of crystal grains with variation of the heating time after generation of crystal nuclei, it was observed that the speed of the crystal growth after the generation of the nuclei was also rapidly increased when a thin film of a certain kind of metal was formed on a substrate, an amorphous silicon thin film was formed on the metal thin film and then the amorphous silicon thin film was crystallized. A mechanism for this effect has not yet been elucidated at present, however, it is guessed that any catalytic effect acts.
At any rate, it was proved that when a thin film was formed of a certain kind metal in a very small amount, an amorphous silicon thin film was formed on the metal thin film and then the amorphous silicon thin film was crystallized by heating, sufficient crystallinity which had not been expected in the prior art could be obtained at a temperature below 580xc2x0 C. and for about 4 hours due to the two effects as described above. Nickel (Ni) is the best material which is experimentally proved as providing the most remarkable effect in all impurity metals having such an effect. In addition to nickel, Fe, Co, Pd and Pt may be listed as a metal element having such a catalytic action on crystallization.
The following is an example showing an effect of formation of a nickel thin film. In a case where an amorphous silicon thin film was formed by a plasma CVD method on a substrate (coring 7059 glass) which had been subjected to no treatment, that is, on which no nickel thin film had been formed, and then heated under a nitrogen atmosphere to crystallize the amorphous silicon thin film, a heating time over ten hours was required for a heating temperature of 600xc2x0 C. On the other hand, in a case where an amorphous silicon thin film was formed on a substrate on which a nickel thin film in a very small amount (hereinafter referred to as a trace nickel thin film) had been formed, the same crystal state as the former case could be obtained by heating the amorphous silicon thin film for about 4 hours. The crystallization of the amorphous silicon thin film was judged using a Raman spectrum in this experiment. From this experiment, it is apparent that nickel has a large effect.
As is apparent from the foregoing, formation of an amorphous silicon thin film after a trace nickel thin film is formed enables the lowering of the crystallization temperature and the shortening of the crystallization time. This process will be described in more detail on the assumption that this process is applied to a TFT producing process. As described later, the same effect can be obtained by forming a nickel thin film on not only a substrate, but also on an amorphous silicon thin film, or by implanting the nickel into the amorphous silicon by an ion implantation method. Accordingly, these treatments are commonly referred to as xe2x80x9ctrace nickel additionxe2x80x9d in the specification of this application.
First, a method for the trace nickel addition will be described.
It has been known that the trace nickel addition can provide the same effect on the lowering of the crystallization temperature in both cases where a trace nickel thin film is formed on a substrate and then an amorphous silicon thin film is formed on the trace nickel thin film, and where an amorphous silicon film is formed and then a trace nickel thin film is formed on the amorphous silicon film, and any film-forming method such as a sputtering method, a deposition method, spin coating, coating or the like may be used as a film-forming method. However, in the method of forming the trace nickel thin film on the substrate, the effect becomes more remarkable by forming a silicon oxide film on a 7059 glass substrate and then forming the trace nickel thin film on the silicon oxide film than by directly forming the trace nickel thin film on the substrate. As one of reasons for this fact, it would be considered that direct contact between silicon and nickel is important for the low-temperature crystallization, and components other than silicon serves to obstruct direct contact or reaction between silicon and nickel in the case of using a 7059 glass substrate.
It was proved that the substantially same effect could be obtained by adding nickel with the ion implantation method as well as the method of forming the trace nickel thin film in contact with the lower surface or upper surface of the amorphous silicon thin film as described above. The lowering of the crystallization temperature was observed for addition of nickel of 1xc3x971015 atoms/cm3 or more. However, it was observed that for addition of nickel of 1xc3x971021 atoms/cm3 or more, the shape of the peak of a Raman spectrogram was clearly different from that of silicon itself, so that a practically usable range of nickel addition is from 1xc3x971015 atoms/cm3 to 5xc3x971019 atoms/cm3. If a nickel concentration is 1xc3x971015 atoms/cm3 or less, nickel elements are localized and thus the catalytic function of nickel is deteriorated. Further, if a nickel concentration is 5xc3x971019 atoms/cm3 or more, nickel and silicon are reacted with each other to form NiSi compounds, and the semiconductor characteristics are hindered. In a crystallized state, products can be more practically used as a semiconductor as the nickel concentration is lower.
On the basis of the above consideration and the fact that products are used as active layers or the like of TFTs, the nickel addition amount is required to be adjusted in the range of 1xc3x971015 atoms/cm3 to 1xc3x971019 atoms/cm3.
Next, crystal form when the trace nickel addition is performed will be described.
As explained below, in the case that nickel is not added, crystallization occurs from crystal nuclei existing at the substrate surface. This crystallization proceeds in a random direction provided that the film is not thicker than a certain thickness. Further, if the thickness of the film is enough large, the columnar crystals grow in such a manner that the (110) direction aligns vertically to the substrate surface. This crystallization can be observed on the entire surface of the substrate. On the other hand, in the case of the trace nickel addition according to this embodiment, different crystal growth was observed between an area added with nickel (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cnickel areaxe2x80x9d) and an area in the neighborhood of the nickel area (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cadjacent areaxe2x80x9d). That is, it became clear from a transmission electron microscopic photograph that, in the nickel area, added nickel or a compound of nickel and silicon served as a crystal nucleus and the pillar-shaped crystal growth progressed substantially vertically to the substrate. In addition, the low-temperature crystallization was also confirmed in the adjacent area in which the nickel was not directly added, and a peculiar crystal growth in which needle or pillar shape crystals grew substantially in parallel to the substrate so that the (111) plane was aligned vertically to the substrate was also observed in this area.
It was observed that the crystal growth in the lateral direction parallel to the substrate was started from the nickel area and the maximum crystal size of grown crystals extended to several hundreds xcexcm, and it became clear that the degree of crystal grow increases with the increase of the time and the temperature. For example, crystal growth of about 40 xcexcm crystals was observed at the temperature of 550xc2x0 C. and for 4 hours. In addition, according to a transmission electron microscopic photograph, each of these large-size laterally-extending crystals was determined to be like monocrystal. Further, the nickel concentration in each of a trace nickel added area, a laterally-extending crystal growth area in the neighborhood of the trace nickel added area and an amorphous area (no low-temperature crystallization appeared in a region extremely distant from the Ni added area) was measured by SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy). As a result, the nickel concentration in the laterally-extending crystal growth area was measured to be lower than the trace nickel added area by one figure, and diffusion in amorphous silicon was observed. Further, the nickel concentration in the amorphous area was measured to be lower than the laterally-extending crystal growth area by one figure. The relationship between the crystal form and the above result has been unclear at present, however, at any rate, a silicon film having crystallinity of a desired crystal form at a desired area can be formed by adjusting a nickel addition amount and controlling a position where nickel is added.
Next, electrical characteristics of the trace nickel added area and the laterally-extending crystal growth area adjacent thereto will be described.
With respect to conductivity, the trace nickel added area had the substantially same conductivity value as a no-nickel added film, that is, the film which was subjected to crystallization at about 600xc2x0 C. for several tens hours. Further, calculating an activation energy on the basis of temperature-dependence of conductivity, there was observed no behavior which was expected to be induced due to the nickel energy level when the nickel addition amount was set in the range of about 1017 atoms/cm3 to 1018 atoms/cm3. That is, according to only this fact, in a case where the nickel concentration in a crystal silicon semiconductor film is below 1xc3x971018 atoms/cm3, there would occur no problem even if a semiconductor device, for example, a TFT is formed using this film.
On the other hand, the laterally-extending crystal growth area had a higher conductivity than the trace nickel added area by one or more figures, and it has a very higher value as a silicon semiconductor having crystallinity. The reason for this fact would be considered as follows. That is, a current passing direction was coincident with the laterally-growing direction of crystals, and thus there was little or no grain boundary in an electron path between electrodes. This fact is perfectly consistent with the result of the transmission electron microscopic photograph.
However, through more delicate observation of the laterally-growing area of the crystals on the transmission electron microscopic photograph, areas containing crystals growing in a branch form was also observed upon viewing from the upper side of the substrate although the crystallization direction of needle or pillar crystals was parallel to the surface of the substrate. That is, it was observed that the needle or pillar crystals grew in the same direction on the average, however, some crystals grew while being branched in a slant direction.
The inventors have deliberately considered the observation result, and had the following conclusion.
Crystal components of a substrate material existing in a substrate or at an interface portion between the substrate and a semiconductor film, or crystal components in the semiconductor film can serve as nuclei for crystal growth, however, these components obstruct the crystal growth in an uniform direction (unidirection) and promote a random crystal growth in the lateral crystal growth process.
Therefore, this invention is characterized in that crystal components at and in the vicinity of the interface between a substrate area on which the growth is to occur and an amorphous silicon semiconductor film (in this invention, the term xe2x80x9camorphousxe2x80x9d does not mean a perfect amorphous state, but may contain crystal components if the amount of the components is small) are removed to the utmost by an ion implantation of inert elements so that this area is made perfectly amorphous, and then by performing the crystal growth in a lateral direction (a direction parallel to the substrate) in a state where no component serving as a crystal nucleus exists, needle or pillar crystals are grown so that the crystal growing directions thereof are coincident with one another as a whole. Particularly by concentratively implanting inert ions into the substrate, the area in the neighborhood of the surface of the substrate (when a blocking film is formed on the surface of the substrate, the blocking film is regarded as the substrate surface), the interface between the substrate and the semiconductor film and the semiconductor film itself are made perfectly amorphous, so that components having crystallinity which might serve as crystal nuclei are removed as perfectly as possible.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, it is possible to further improve the characteristics of the thus obtained semiconductor layer by further treating the semiconductor layer with a laser light or an intense light as strong as the laser light. Thereby, components existing at grain boundaries or the like and not having been sufficiently crystallized can be further crystallized. It is assumed that the crystalline components which are produced by the preceding heating step function as nuclei so that the remaining amorphous components can be further crystallized by the photo-annealing.
The invention and its application to the actual semiconductor devices will be more fully understood from the following detailed description, when taken with the appended drawings, in which:

Method for producing semiconductor device

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


An active slave device for a Bluetooth system comprises a non-volatile memory unit for storing a plurality of link keys corresponding to a master device capable of switching among a plurality of operating modes, wherein the plurality of link keys correspond to the plurality of operating modes and are generated by a key pairing performed between the active slave device and the master device; and a key fishing unit for searching whether any of the plurality of link keys conforms to a qualified link key that can enable the active slave device under the current operating mode of the master device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an authentication method and related device, and more particularly, to a method for performing authentication with a master device equipped with multiple operating systems in a Bluetooth system and related slave device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Bluetooth system is a wireless short distance system with a piconet as the smallest network unit. The Bluetooth system utilizes time division duplex technology to allow a master device to transmit messages with at most seven active slave devices mutually. For data security and secrecy, an authentication procedure which is executed between the master device and the active slave devices is established on a challenge-response mechanism. The authentication end transmits a random number (regarded as a ┌challenge┘) to the demand end, and the demand end utilizes the random number, a link key of the demand end and some other parameters to calculate a ┌response┘ and then transmits the ┌response┘ back to the authentication end. Further, the authentication end also utilizes the random number, a link key of the authentication end and some other parameters to calculate a result with the same algorithm as used by the demand end. If the result is the same as the ┌response┘, it represents that the authentication succeeds. From the above, the authentication procedure is successful when the authentication end and the demand end have the same content of the link key. The master device and the active slave device both can be authentication end or demand end. Further, the master device and the active slave device authenticate with each other by playing the role of the authentication end in turn.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which illustrates a schematic diagram of a traditional Bluetooth system 10. In Bluetooth system 10, a host 100 can be devices such as a desktop computer, a laptop, a mobile communication device, etc and includes operating systems OS(1)-OS(n) and link keys LK(1)-LK(n) corresponding to the operating systems OS(1)-OS(n). The host 100 cannot access the link keys corresponding to the other operating systems when the host 100 is operated on one of the operating systems. A master device 110 can be a Bluetooth peripheral dangle such as a Bluetooth mouse, a earphone, an amplifier, etc and use a host controller interface (HCI), such as a universal serial bus (USB) interface, to exchange Bluetooth messages and commands with the host 100. Further, the HCI can be a Bluetooth wireless interface to communicate with Bluetooth peripheral devices of the host 100. In the Bluetooth system 10, an active slave device 120 can be regarded as the Bluetooth peripheral of the host 100, for example a Bluetooth mouse, a Bluetooth earphone, a Bluetooth amplifier, etc. The master device 110 utilizes a Bluetooth address BTA to establish an asynchronous connection-less (ACL) connection with the active slave device 120. After the connection establishment finishes, the master device 110 and the active slave device 120 have to execute an authentication procedure with each other. A key pairing procedure is executed to produce a new link key when any of the master device 110 and the active slave device 110 has no link key for authentication or the link key is invalid. In the active slave device 120, a non-volatile memory unit 122 stores the paired link key, i.e. the link key LKP, which corresponds to the Bluetooth address BTA with a "valid pointer" field for determining whether the link key LKP is valid. The active slave device 120 utilizes the link key LKP and the master device 110 utilizes the link key corresponding to the currently-used operating system operated by the host 100 to authenticate with each other. For example, the master device 110 obtains the link key LK(n) from the host 100 via the host controller interface to authenticate the active slave device 120 with the link key LKP when the host 100 is operated with the operating system OS(n).
In the Bluetooth system 10, the active slave device 120 is designed to store only one link key. Therefore, the old link key in the non-volatile memory unit 122 is replaced with a new link key each time when the new link key is produced by the key pairing procedure between the master device 110 and the active slave device 120 produces. However, each time when the host 100 with multiple operating systems reboots, the link key is always being replaced. In this situation, the master 110 and the active slave device 120 always authenticate failed with each other after the host changes the operating system and thereby need to re-pair the link key. For example, the host 100 operated in the operating system OS(1) communicates with the active slave device 120 for authenticated Bluetooth communication through the master device 110. In this situation, the master device 110 utilizes the link key LK(1) whose content is the same as content of the link key LKP of the non-volatile memory 122. Afterward, when the host 100 is rebooted and operated in the operating system OS(2), the master device 110 and the active slave device 120 must re-establish the connection and authenticate with each other. In this situation, the master device 110 obtains the link key LK(2) from the host 100, and the active slave device 120 obtains the link key LKP with the same content as the link key LK(1) for authenticating with each other. Because of different link key contents used by the master device 110 and the active slave device 120, the authentication procedure is failed and thereby causes the master device 110 and active slave device 120 to re-pair the link key. However, the key pairing procedure takes time and Bluetooth wireless resources.

Slave device for a bluetooth system and related authentication method


An adaptive precision chuck for a precision/ultraprecision machining system is described. The chuck (200) defining a mount for receiving a workpiece (300) wherein, when in use, the centre of the mount is configured to be substantially concentric with an axis of rotation (214) of the machining system, the chuck (200) further including jaws (201) about the mount and a plurality of compliant flexures (203-206) configured, upon application of rotational forces by the machining system to the chuck about the axis of rotation (214), to engage the jaws (210) upon a workpiece (300) in the mount.

Chucks are often used to hold and position workpieces while they are being machined using spindle-based tools such as lathes. Typically, the intention is for the chuck to securely retain the workpiece in place so that there is a shared common axis between a designated centre of the workpiece and the tool. During machining, one or both of the chuck and tool are typically rotated about the common axis and if the workpiece is not centred or its position unintentionally deviates during machining, errors and defects in machining and/or damage to the workpiece may arise.
In ultraprecision turning machines such as single point diamond turning machines (DTM), the exact alignment of the workpiece centre with the machine spindle rotational axis is especially important. One example application for ultraprecision turning is in the production of contact lenses. It will be appreciated that if elements that impact the optical profile such as the lens curvature is out by even microns, it potentially undermines the correction intended to be provided.
In precision production using a diamond turning machine, the efficiency of clamping each workpiece and the repeatability of precision clamping and holding of the workpiece is a major factor in the performance of the machining system.
Misalignment between the centre of the workpiece and the spindle rotational axis affects the finished dimensional and form accuracy of the workpiece and likely surface finish of the workpiece. It can also affect machining dynamics because of the impact it has on centrifugal force.
Where there is a misalignment, it leads to concentrically unequal off-centre movement (runout), which can further cause the machining errors and the cutting tool wear (or uneven cutting tool wear). Therefore, precision alignment of the workpiece clamped onto the spindle prior to and during the machining process is desired. Ultraprecision diamond turning machines often use a vacuum chuck or a magnetic clamping system. In either case, they require manual mounting and tuning by a skilled operator so as to minimize runout and ensure the desired precision machining.
In the case of vacuum chucks, misalignment can arise during the machining process if the machining force overcomes the clamping force.
There have been attempts to minimise spindle and workpiece radial runout in precision and ultraprecision machining systems. In some cases, workpiece specific holders that closely match the shape or other properties of the workpiece have been proposed. However, these reduce the flexibility of the machining system and increase costs. Other attempts have focussed on centring and jaw mechanism used to retain the workpiece in the chuck. Typically, these often complex to manufacture and use and comprise of many components. Generally they are not cost-effective.
More recently, clamping mechanisms known as "zero point clamping systems" have been proposed. While these reduce misalignment and runout, setup can be time-consuming, the clamping devices complex and made from numerous moving parts and therefore expensive to manufacture
no tolerance and friction requirements within the sub-assemblies, which can significantly thus enhance the accuracy and performance of the clamping device as a whole.


A dressing (2) and an apparatus (1) comprising the dressing, for cleansing the wounds (5) in which an irrigant fluid from a reservoir (12) connected to a conformable would dressing and would exudate from the dressing are moved by a device (18) (which may be a single pump or two pumps) for moving fluid through a flow Path (6, 7, 9, 10) which passes through the dressing with a means for providing simultaneous aspiration and irrigation of the wound, to provide a desired balance of fluid at a controlled nominal flow rate that removes materials deleterious to wound healing, while distributing materials that are beneficial in promoting would healing over the wound bed.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus and a medical wound dressing for aspirating, irrigating and/or cleansing wounds, and a method of treating wounds using such apparatus for aspirating, irrigating and/or cleansing wounds.
It relates in particular to such an apparatus, wound dressing and method that can be easily applied to a wide variety of, but in particular chronic, wounds, to cleanse them of materials that are deleterious to wound healing, whilst distributing materials that are beneficial in some therapeutic aspect, in particular to wound healing.
Description of the Related Art
Aspirating and/or irrigating apparatus are known, and tend to be used to remove wound exudate during wound therapy. In known forms of such wound therapy, aspiration and irrigation of the wound take place sequentially.
Each part of the therapy cycle is beneficial in promoting wound healing:
Aspiration applies a negative pressure to the wound, which is beneficial in itself in promoting wound healing by removing materials deleterious to wound healing with the wound exudate, reducing bacterial load, combating peri-wound oedema, increasing local blood flow to the wound and encouraging the formation of wound bed granulation tissue.
Irrigation cleanses wounds of materials that are deleterious to wound healing by diluting and moving wound exudate (which is typically relatively little fluid and may be of relatively high viscosity and particulate-filled.
Additionally, relatively little of beneficial materials involved in promoting wound healing (such as cytokines, enzymes, growth factors, cell matrix components, biological signalling molecules and other physiologically active components of the exudate) are present in a wound, and are not well distributed in the wound, i.e. they are not necessarily present in parts of the wound bed where they can be potentially of most benefit. These may be distributed by irrigation of the wound and thus aid in promoting wound healing.
The irrigant may additionally contain materials that are potentially or actually beneficial in respect of wound healing, such as nutrients for wound cells to aid proliferation, and gases, such as oxygen. These may be distributed by irrigation of the wound and thus aid in promoting wound healing.
If aspiration and irrigation therapy is applied sequentially to a wound, the two therapies, each of which is beneficial in promoting wound healing, can only be applied intermittently.
Thus, the wound will lose the abovementioned known beneficial effects of aspiration therapy on wound healing, at least in part, while that aspiration is suspended during irrigation.
Additionally, for a given aspirate flow, whilst materials that are potentially or actually deleterious in respect of wound healing are removed from wound exudate, the removal in a given time period of application of the total irrigate and/or aspirate therapy will normally be less effective and/or slower than with continuous application of aspiration.
Even less to be desired, is that while aspiration is not applied to the wound, wound exudate and materials deleterious to wound healing (such as bacteria and debris, and iron II and iron III and for chronic wounds proteases, such as serine proteases) will pool on the wound bed and hinder wound healing, especially in a highly exuding wound. The influx of local oedema will also add to the chronicity of the wound. This is especially the case in chronic wounds.
Depending on the relative volumes of irrigant and wound exudate, the mixed exudate-irrigant fluid and may be of relatively high viscosity and/or particulate-filled. Once it is present and has pooled, it may be more difficult to shift by the application of aspiration in a conventional sequential aspirate-irrigate-dwell cycle than with continuous simultaneous aspiration of the wound, owing to the viscosity and blockage in the system.
The wound will also lose the abovementioned beneficial effects of irrigation therapy on wound healing, at least in part, while that irrigation is suspended during aspiration.
These benefits in promoting wound healing include the movement of materials that are beneficial in promoting wound healing, such as those mentioned above.
Additionally, for a given irrigant flow, the cleansing of the wound and the distribution by irrigation of the wound of such beneficial materials in a given time period of application of the total irrigate and/or aspirate therapy when such therapy is in a conventional sequential aspirate-irrigate-dwell cycle will normally be less effective and/or slower than with continuous application of aspiration.
Such known forms of aspiration and/or irrigation therapy systems also often create a wound environment that may result in the loss of optimum performance of the body's own tissue healing processes, and slow healing and/or in weak new tissue growth that does not have a strong three-dimensional structure adhering well to and growing from the wound bed.
This is a significant disadvantage, in particular in chronic wounds.
The relevant devices tend not to be portable.
It thus would be desirable to provide a system of aspiration and irrigation therapy for a wound, which can remove wound exudate and materials deleterious to wound healing from contact with the wound bed, whilst simultaneously cleansing it and distributing materials that are beneficial in promoting wound healing across it.

Negative pressure wound therapy dressing system


A transmitter includes a transmitting buffer (21) for temporarily storing the information received from a first bus (11) of N (N is a natural number) bits width and a transmitting input distributer (22) and a transmitting output distributer (23) respectively provided in the input side and output side of the transmitting system buffer (21). A receiver includes a receiving buffer (31) for temporarily storing the information received from the second bus (12) and for sending the information to the first bus (11) and a receiving input distributer (32) and a receiving distributer (33) respectively provided in the input side and output side of the receiving buffer. The transmitting buffer (21) has at least m (m is a natural number) buffers of N bits width. When the second bus (12) has N bits width, the transmitting input distributer (22) sequentially inputs the information sent from the first bus to m buffers and the transmitting output distributer (23) sequentially extracts the information input to the buffers to send to the second bus ( 12). When the second bus (12) has mN bits width, the transmitting input distributer (22) sequentially inputs the information sent from the first bus (11) to m buffers and the transmitting output distributer (23) simultaneously extracts the information into the m buffers to send to the second bus (12).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bus interface circuit and particularly to a bus interface circuit for controlling data transfer between buses in different bit width of the address lines and data lines.
2. Description of the related Art
In a computer system having a couple of buses, a bus interface is generally necessary between these buses. For instance, in the multiprocessor system, a plurality of central processing units (CPU), memories, and input/output units (I/O units) which are common resources of these CPUs respectively provide first buses and connect these buses through the common second bus. In general, the first bus is called a local bus and the second bus is called a system bus. The bus interface is provided, corresponding to each local bus, for connecting the corresponding local bus to the system bus.
A computer system in these years tends to increase the amount of information to be transferred (address and a series of data) in a single transfer sequence by widening the bus width in order to improve system performance.
However, when bus width is widened, a number of signal lines naturally increases and the scale of hardware becomes large. Therefore, considering the required performance of the system, the width of second bus (system bus) must be determined to be of N bits (for example, 32 bits) or of to 2N bits (for example, 64 bits).
Thereby, it is effective for the bus interface to have the structure ready for both N bits mode and 2N bits mode. The present invention relates to a bus interface which may be used in common for such N-bit/2N-bit (including 3,4, . . . mN-bit) widths.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the system example to which the present invention is applied. In FIG. 1, a computer system 10 comprises a plurality of first buses (local bus) 11 and a second bus (system bus) 12 as the buses for information transfer. The first bus 11 is connected with the central processing unit (CPU) 14, memory (MEM) 15 and I/O unit 16.
These first bus 11 and second bus 12 are connected through bus interface (BS I/F) 13. In this case, the second bus 12 has the width, for example, of 32 (N= 32) bits but it must be expanded up to 2N (=64) bits when improvement of system performance is requested. Accordingly, it is convenient that the bus interface 13 may be used in common to N bits and 2N bits.
FIG. 3 is a timing chart indicating the operations in the transmitting side of the system, particularly in the side of a first bus (N bits) in the prior art of FIG. 2. S111, S112 in FIG. 3 denote the switching control signals (selecting REG100 or REG101) applied to the selector 110 of FIG. 2.
FIG. 4 is a timing chart indicating operations in the transmitting side of the system and particularly in the side of second bus (N bits) in the prior art of FIG. 2. S121, S122 in FIG. 4 denote the switching control signals (selecting REG102 or buffer 21) applied to the selector 120 of FIG. 2.
FIG. 5 is a timing chart indicating operations in the transmitting side of the system and particularly in the side of the second bus (2N bits) in the prior art of FIG. 2. S131, S132 in FIG. 5 denote the switching control signals (selecting REG105 or REG106) applied to the selector 130 in FIG. 2.
FIG. 6 is a timing chart indicating operations in the receiving side of the system and particularly in the side of the second bus (N bits) in the prior art of FIG. 2. S131, S132 in FIG. 6 denote the switching control signals (selecting REG105 or REG106) applied to the selector 130 in FIG. 2.
FIG. 7 is a timing chart indicating operations in the receiving side, particularly in the side of the second bus (2N bits) in the prior art of FIG. 7.
FIG. 8 is a timing chart indicating operations in the receiving system, particularly in the side of the first bus in the prior art of FIG. 2.
According to the bus interface of the prior art, when the second bus (system bus) 12 changes to 2N bits mode (FIG. 5) from the N bits mode (FIG. 4), a problem arises that the read cycle of buffer must be reduced to a half for improvement of the operation rate.
Moreover, this problem also occurs in the receiving system. Namely, when the second bus (system bus) 12 changes to 2N bits mode (FIG. 7) from the N bits mode (FIG. 6), the write cycle of buffer must be reduced to a half for improvement of the operation rate, as will be apparent from FIG. 6.
Such a problem results in a hardware disadvantage, in that a high speed buffer (for example, high speed RAM) must be used. Avoidance of such a disadvantage requires that the transfer cycle of the buffer must be doubled to lower the operation rate. Thereby, the data transfer capability must be reduced to a half; moreover such a disadvantage is in turn generated that the data processing capability of the system is reduced to a half.

Bus interface circuit for controlling data transfer

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation


A sensing element for sensing the softness of an object by abutting the sensing element against the object and biasing the sensing element toward the object with a biasing force. The sensing element includes a deformable section, the deformable section being deformable between an undeformed configuration and a deformed configuration, the deformed configuration being achievable when the deformable section is abutted against and biased toward the object; a deformation sensor operatively coupled to the deformable section for sensing a deformation of the deformable section between the deformed and undeformed configurations; and a force sensor operatively coupled to the deformable section for sensing the biasing force exerted onto the deformable section by the object when the deformable section is biased toward the object with the biasing force.

The sense of touch provides essential feedback to surgeons performing interventions. For example, this type of feedback can help a surgeon in discriminating between different tissues, or to locate within a given tissue a specific portion on which an intervention must be performed or, conversely, on which accidental manipulations should be avoided.
There has been a move in recent years toward minimally invasive surgeries. In this type of surgery, a surgical instrument is inserted through a relatively small opening, or a blood vessel, in the body of a patient. This deprives the surgeon from direct access to the tissues and, therefore, greatly diminishes the quantity and quality of information that is available to the surgeon, such as tactile feedback. Also, there have been many attempts to develop systems for remotely performing surgery using robots. Once again, in these types of systems, tactile feedback is not provided to the surgeons.
There have been attempts to provide devices for restoring, at least in part, this feedback. For example, some surgical tools include force sensors that can sense the force exerted between the two jaws of a grasper. At the other end of the tool, handles operated by the surgeon are attached to actuators that reproduce the forces sensed by the grasper. However, these types of devices can provide only force feedback; in addition they are not able to discriminate spatially over the tissue grasped between the two jaws of the grasper. Also, only relatively crude measurements are provided and, therefore, only a relatively crude feedback is provided to the surgeon.
The need to measure contact force and the softness of the tissue is also seen in catheter based surgery. Indeed, in this type interventions, surgeons often needs to know how much force is applied to a tissue by the tip or body of a catheter. In addition, integration of softness sensing to such applications can help in differentiating tissues. While some techniques are already used in some systems to sense the softness of tissues, for example optic based techniques, such techniques are inefficient in applications in which there is blood flow. For example, in anuloplasty heart surgery, differentiating leaflet tissues from surrounding tissues and finding suitable locations to insert the anchor is a critical to success of the intervention.
Accordingly, there is a need in the industry to provide an improved system for sensing and displaying softness and force. An object of the present invention is therefore to provide such a system.

System for sensing and displaying softness and force


A method and apparatus are disclosed employing electron cyclotron resonant (ECR) heating to produce plasma for applications including but not limited to chemical vapor deposition and etching. A magnetic field is formed by magnets circumferentially arranged about a cylindrical and symmetrical chamber with microwave power injected perpendicularly to a longitudinal axis of the chamber for preventing line-of-sight communication of resulting energetic electrons with a specimen being treated. The microwave power is distributed uniformly around the circumference of the chamber by applicators formed by one or more pairs of annular sectors, each of which comprises a slotted wave guide antenna, and coupled to an external source of microwave power by a hybrid coupler. A magnetic field free region produces uniformity of plasma distribution in a plasma stream approaching the outlet. The above characteristics are maintained for the plasma stream over substantial transverse dimensions larger than the specimen. A rectilinear applicator array is also disclosed for selected applications.

The present invention is based upon generation of cold plasma by electron cyclotron resonance heating in order to develop various desired characteristics within the plasma. Thus, the present invention and related prior art are based upon criteria where conditions governing steady-state values of plasma density and composition as well as the electron and ion temperatures are determined by microwave power and neutral gas pressure through the conditions for particle and power balances for each of three coupled species; namely electrons, ions and gas atoms.
Even in idealized point-model approximations of full transport models, inter-related values of the basic plasma parameters present for all such systems demonstrate key dependencies which indicate some of the fundamental obstacles which make it difficult in practice to achieve large volumes of quiescent, homogeneous, low-temperature plasma containing the desired concentration of reacting species which are obviously desirable or essential in a large variety of applications including negative ion sources for accelerators and more specifically, in plasma assisted semiconductor processing applications referred to in greater detail below.
Basic problems in forming suitable plasmas are also noted in the prior art references discussed below. In any event, the following discussion of the prior art and the following description of the present invention, partially based upon a comparison with the prior art, are intended to further demonstrate novelty in the method and apparatus of the present invention for overcoming problems or obstacles such as those generally referred to above and discussed in greater detail below.
In the semiconductor processing application referred to above, plasma sources employing electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) heating comprise an emerging or developing technology, for example in the deposition and etching of VLSI films. Such applications are typical of other processing technologies requiring the capability of achieving submicron feature dimensions, substantial processing rates and the capability of uniformly processing large specimens such as wafers. The general characteristics of these technologies are believed to be well understood by those skilled in the art and are accordingly not discussed in substantial detail herein.
As noted above, although the ECR plasma source of the present invention is contemplated for use in vapor deposition or etching applications, the general parameters of those applications are not of themselves a portion of the invention. Certain considerations in such applications are briefly summarized below in order to facilitate a more complete understanding of the invention.
In any event, ECR plasma sources such as those provided by the present invention and the prior art discussed below employ magnetic fields and microwave power to create chemically active plasmas, preferably at very low gas pressures. Low pressure operation is desirable in order to permit the formation of highly directional or anisotropic streams of low-temperature ions, radicals and other species of reactants which are uniform over substantial transverse dimensions larger than the sample being processed.
In an ECR plasma source designed for plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition or reactive ion etching of VLSI films, for example, a reactant gas is introduced into an evacuated chamber which is immersed in a steady magnetic field and exposed to electromagnetic radiation. The frequency of the radiation, f.sub..mu., is selected to resonate with the electron gyrofrequency in a region of the steady magnetic field called the resonant interaction region. The resonance condition relates the strength of the steady magnetic field in this region, B.sub.res, through the condition that f.sub..mu. =eB.sub.res /2.pi.m, where e and m are the magnitudes of the electric charge and mass of the electron, respectively.
Electrons in the resonant interaction region gain kinetic energy from the electromagnetic radiation, and if the radiation power and the gas pressure are suitably adjusted, the heated electrons may ionize the reactant gas molecules to create a plasma. The plasma ions and electrons flow out of the resonant interaction region and impinge on the VLSI film where the ions can be used for deposition of new materials or etching of existing films. If the plasma density is sufficiently high, the deposition or etch rates can be rapid, and if the ion and electron energies are sufficiently low, damage to the sample being processed can be prevented. For etching submicron-scale features, it is necessary for the ion trajectories to be highly directional. This is made possible by operating at sufficiently low gas pressures to ensure that the ion mean-free-path for scattering is longer than the distance to the specimens.
Additionally, if the temperature of the plasma ions is sufficiently low, and if there are no groups of energetic ions, the substrate can be biased electrically, relative to the plasma interior, to potentials of sufficient magnitude to insure highly anisotropic processing without exceeding a threshold ion energy above which excessive damage may occur.
In order to process specimens of commercial interest, it is further necessary that the stream of plasma from the ECR source be uniform over transverse dimensions larger than 15-20 cm. The present invention, as described below, addresses the need for large, uniform streams of low-temperature plasmas with high densities of ions and electrons in low-pressure neutral gas mixtures.
In the prior art, one class of ECR plasma sources is generally referred to as the "Sumitomo source". The Sumitomo source is illustrated for example by the plasma deposition apparatus of Matsuo, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,401,054 issued Aug. 30, 1983, and further discussed in S. Matsuo, M. Kiuchi and T. Ono, in Proceedings of the Tenth Symposium on IISIAT 1986, Tokyo, p. 471 and T. Ono, M. Oda, C. Takahashi and S. Matsuo, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B4, 696 (1986).
In the apparatus of that patent, plasma flows toward the substrate or specimen along magnetic lines of force. As described below, it is very difficult to achieve a desired degree of spatial uniformity in the cold-plasma density. Furthermore, since electrons heated at the resonant interaction region where the magnetic intensity satisfies the aforementioned resonance condition) flow directly toward the specimen along these magnetic lines of force, it is necessary to limit applied microwave power in order to avoid the creation of unstable bursts of energetic electrons and associated groups of energetic ions which might damage the specimen. The physical processes responsible for generation of these unstable bursts of electrons and resultant energetic ions are discussed in the papers by Quon and Dandl; Guest, Fetzer and Dandl; and Dandl and Guest, which are incorporated in the experimental section below.
Related prior art references include U.S. Pat. No. 4,492,620 issued Jan. 8, 1985 to Matsuo, et al. and entitled "Plasma Deposition Method and Apparatus" and U.S. Pat. No. 4,564,997 issued Jan. 21, 1986 to Matsuo, et al. and entitled "Semiconductor Device and Manufacturing Process Thereof".
The above three patents issued under assignment to Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Public Corporation. Still other related references issued common assignment include U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,031 issued May 22, 1984 to Ono, et al. and entitled "Ion Shower Apparatus"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,807 issued Mar. 12, 1985 to Nakayama, et al. and entitled "Chemical Vapor Deposition Apparatus"; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,566,940 issued Jan. 28, 1986 to Itsumi, et al. and entitled "Manufacturing Process for Semiconductor Integrated Circuits".
Another design of a plasma source (of a very different fundamental nature) originated in France and was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,842 issued Aug. 13, 1985 to Arnal, et al. and entitled "Process and Device for Producing a Homogeneous Large-Volume Plasma of High Density and of Low Electronic Temperature". In the process and device of that patent, plasma was accumulated in a large volume free of magnetic fields to enhance spatial uniformity; however, the ECR heating region was localized to a small volume limiting the efficiency of plasma generation and thus the ratio of ion density to neutral gas density. Furthermore, energetic charged particles were not prevented from striking the chamber wall and thereby producing excessive densities of impurities.
Related references disclosing various concepts for ion sources include U.S. Pat. No. 3,571,734 issued Mar. 23, 1971; U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,001 issued Nov. 20, 1973; U.S. Pat. No. 3,790,787 issued Feb. 5, 1974; U.S. Pat. No. 4,417,178 issued Nov. 22, 1983; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,216 issued Jan. 20, 1987.
Still another set of references disclosed various designs for ion sources and included U.S. Pat. No. 3,500,077 issued Mar. 10, 1970; U.S. Pat. No. 3,582,849 issued Jun. 1, 1971; U.S. Pat. No. 3,660,715 issued May 2, 1972; U.S. Pat. No. 3,663,360 issued May 16, 1972; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,742,219 issued Jun. 26, 1973.
All of the above references as well as references cited therein are incorporated herein in order to assure a more complete understanding of the background for ECR plasma sources and applications therefor.
Accordingly, as was also noted above, there has been found to remain a need for ECR plasma sources useful in a variety of applications and capable of producing large, uniform streams of quiescent, low-temperature plasmas with high densities of ions and electrons, especially in low-pressure neutral-gas mixtures in order to assure unidirectionality or anisotropy of the plasma flow or flux, as well as the desired composition of reactant species.
Furthermore, different plasma-enhanced processing applications require that the plasma be enclosed in chambers whose walls are made of particular materials, such as fused quartz, stainless steel, nickel, aluminum, etc., depending on the specific requirements of the process for which the plasma is to be employed.

Electron cyclotron resonance plasma source and method of operation


A Keplerian or real image type of viewfinder optical system comprising an objective lens system and an eyepiece lens system for allowing observation of an intermediate image formed by the objective lens system. The viewfinder optical system has a space sufficiently widened for arranging the prisms for vertically and horizontally inverting an intermediate image by composing the eyepiece lens system of a first lens component having positive refractive power and a second lens component having negative refractive power, and locating the first lens component and the second lens component at locations rather close to the eye point of the eyepiece lens system without prolonging the focal length of the eyepiece lens system as a whole.

a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a viewfinder optical system for silver salt cameras, still video cameras, video cameras, etc., and more specifically Keplerian viewfinder optical system.
b) Description of the Prior Art
Viewfinders are classified into the so-called virtual image type which includes Albada viewfinders and inverted Galilean viewfinders, and the so-called real image type which includes Keplerian viewfinders.
Out of the viewfinders mentioned above, the Keplerian viewfinder consists, as shown in FIG. 1, of an objective lens system O which functions to form an image of a visual field on an intermediate image surface I corresponding to the image formed on the photographing screen by a photographic lens and an eyepiece system E which functions to magnify the image of the visual field as a virtual image. In addition, a relay imaging system for vertically and horizontally inverting the image or an optical system comprising porro prisms, etc is arranged at an optional location in the optical path of the Keplerian viewfinder.
As a conventional example of the viewfinder optical systems used in this type of viewfinder, there is known the optical system disclosed by Japanese Patent Kokai Publication No. Sho 61-156018.
This conventional viewfinder optical system has the composition illustrated in FIG. 2, i.e., consists of an objective lens system O which comprises three lens components of three lens elements and an eyepiece lens system which comprises three lens components of three lens elements. In this optical system, the first lens component L1 of the eyepiece lens system E is lens component for relaying a pupil, whereas the second lens component L2 and the third lens component L3 have positive refractive powers respectively. This optical system is designed in such a manner that an intermediate image I is formed before the eyepiece lens system E and in the vicinity thereof, and prisms for vertically and horizontally inverting the image are to be arranged in the airspace represented by the reference symbol A and the prism section designated by the reference symbol B in FIG. 2. This conventional viewfinder optical system has an eye point set at a location 13.5 mm after the eyepiece lens system E, and the optical system composed of the two eyepiece lens components arranged on the eye point side of the section B locates the front principal point at the position of HF1 and the rear principal point at the position of HB1. The front principal point is located at a position 32 mm as measured from the vertex of the object side surface of the object side lens component L2 in the direction toward the eye point, whereas the rear principal point HB1 is located at a position 2.32 mm as measured from the vertex of the eye point side surface of the eyepoint side lens component L3 in the direction toward the object side. The front principal point HF1 and the rear principal point HB1 are located within the viewfinder optical system.
In the conventional viewfinder optical system described above, the objective lens system has a half field angle of 24.7.degree. on the side of incidence at the wide position and a focal length of 9.975 mm, whereby the intermediate image has a height of 4.59 mm.
When the Rica size of a photographic plane is taken as an example, the ratio of lengths of the plane is:
Diagonal length: length of longer side: length of shorter side=1:0.832:0.555
When either of the two types of porro prisms shown in FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B is used, the prism folds the optical axis of the optical system twice in the direction along the longer side and twice in the direction along the shorter side. When the ray passing through the portion of the prism which is the farthest from the optical axis is nearly parallel with the optical axis, the space required for arranging the prisms must have a length on the optical axis equal to the longer side.times.2+length of the shorter side.times.2.
Calculating on the basis of the intermediate image height in the above-described conventional view-finder optical system and the ratio in lengths on the photographic plane, the length on the optical axis required for arranging the prisms is 25.47 mm. However, the section B of the above-described conventional example has an optical path length as short as 20 mm. Accordingly, the conventional example does not allow the prisms to be arranged only in the section B, and therefore requires arrangement of the prisms in both the airspace A and the section B, or arrangement of prisms in the section B and mirrors in the airspace A.
As is understood from the foregoing description, the conventional viewfinder optical system cannot adopt a composition wherein only a prism having four reflecting surfaces is arranged, whereby the conventional viewfinder optical system is composed of a large number of optical members, retaining members therefor, etc., and requires a high manufacturing cost.
Further, when each of the above-mentioned optical members is composed of a plural number of parts, it is more difficult to set each of the reflecting surface relative to the optical axis with high angle precision than in a case where each of the optical members is composed of a single part.
Though it is considered to prolong the focal length of the eyepiece lens system as a whole for prolonging the optical path lengths of the prisms, such a measure will lower magnification of the viewfinder and makes it impossible to observe images of desirable sizes.


The present application provides a touch module and a touch screen. The touch module includes a first metal grid layer and a second metal grid layer. First touch electrodes are disposed in the first metal grid layer and arranged along a first direction, and each of the first touch electrodes extends along a second direction which intersects the first direction. Second touch electrodes are disposed in the second metal grid layer and arranged along the second direction, and each of the second touch electrodes extends along the first direction. The touch module further includes a first dummy electrode and a second dummy electrode, where the first dummy electrode is coupled to a part of the second touch electrode in parallel and the second dummy electrode is coupled to a part of the first touch electrode in parallel.

Compared with an indium tin oxide (ITO) touch screen, a metal grid touch screen has various characteristics, such as low resistance and uniform capacitance. Thus, metal grid touch screens are widely used in large screens. However, as the size of such metal grid touch screen increases, the screen may have various problems, such as reduced touch sensitivity and/or touch performance.

Hefei Xinsheng Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.