A portable grinding machine for grinding or restoring a relief angle (34) onto the rotary blades of a grass mowing machine in a transverse reciprocal movement the grinding machine comprising a blade support means for automatically maintaining the rotary blades (2, 102) of said mowing machine in contact with the grinding wheel (5, 105) during the reciprocal movement of the grinding machine along a blade.

The present invention relates to grinding machines, in particular grinding machines for restoring a relief angle on the part-helical rotary blades of grass mowers of the type having a cylindrical cutting unit. The invention also provides a method of restoring a relief angle on the part-helical rotary blades of a reel mower.
Cylinder or reel mowers comprise one or more cylinders or reels bearing a plurality of part-helical blades and mounted for rotation about a horizontal axis transverse to the direction of motion of the mower. Each cylinder or reel cuts the grass in co-operation with an elongate bottom blade, commonly referred to as a bedknife, which is disposed alignment with the reel and positioned for the grass to be positioned accurately allowing the helical blade to cut the grass in a transverse scything motion. The faces of the rotary blades become worn during grass cutting and are required to be sharpened periodically by grinding. After repeated sharpening, the relief angle ground into the cutting face of the blade when it was manufactured is removed, thus potentially compromising the efficiency of the mowing process. The present invention prolongs the life of the rotary blades by grinding or restoring the relief angle.
Known grinders comprise a grinding wheel movable to and fro along a guide rail whilst rotating to grind the front face of a rotary blade. In order to grind the rotary blades of a mower with such known machines, the reel must be removed from the mower and mounted on the grinder; alternatively the mower or, especially in the case of tractor mounted mowers, a disassembled part thereof, must be placed on the grinder.
Prior art blade grinders, therefore, have required the mowing machine or a part of the mowing machine to be taken to the grinder. Tractor mounted mowers, and often walking mowers, have had to be disassembled to permit the reel or a part of the mowing machine including the reel to be placed on the grinder.
One example of a portable device capable of in situ grinding is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,245,968 to Erdman. This device is slidably mounted to a bar fitted to the mower to enable a reciprocal grind motion along either the bedknife or rotary blades of a mower. The device has a releasable slide mechanism to adjust the angle of grind on the blade and screw adjustment to vary the grinding depth.
The present invention seeks to provide a portable grinding machine for grinding a relief angle onto a rotary blade incorporated in cutting apparatus. The grinding machine can therefore be mounted on the cutting apparatus with the machine and the cutting apparatus in suitable relative disposition for grinding of the blade without prior disassembly or adjustment of the cutting apparatus, i.e. the blade can be ground whilst the cutting apparatus is in a complete and assembled state and no special changes and only minimal adjustments need to be made to the complete mower.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a portable grinding machine for grinding or restoring a relief angle onto the rotary blades of a grass mowing machine in a transverse reciprocal movement which grinding machine comprises a blade support means for automatically maintaining the rotary blades of said mowing machine in contact with the grinding wheel during the reciprocal movement of the grinding machine along a blade.
According to an optional feature of this aspect of the invention the blade support means is adapted to retain the blade between said finger and the grinding wheel. Optionally, said guide means is adjustably mounted relative to the grinding wheel by first adjustment means to accommodate blades of different. Preferably, the guide means terminates in a roller which contacts the underside of the blade.
According to another optional feature of this aspect of the invention the blade support means is resiliently biased relative to the grinding wheel such that increased force applied to the grinding machine in a direction perpendicular to the direction of grinding results in a greater grinding depth.
In yet another optional feature of this aspect of the invention the grinding machine is handheld.
In yet another feature of this aspect of the invention a guide r ail is provided with opposite ends, a grinding wheel assembly is provided for receiving said portable grinding machine, which assembly is mounted for movement to and fro along, said guide rail, and said guide rail has readily releasable attachment members for releasably securing the grinder on the mowing machine such that when said grinding wheel is moved along said guide rail the grinding wheel can move along a blade face of said rotary blade and grind it. Optionally, first adjustment means is provided to adjust the position of said guide rail adjacent its opposite ends relative to said rotary blade, and second adjustment means being provided to adjust said grinding wheel assembly relative to said guide rail and hence relative to said blade face of said rotary blade.
According to an optional further feature of this aspect of the invention, the first adjustment means includes means for varying the position of said attachment member in a first direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the guide rail. Preferably, the first adjustment means comprises one locking lever secured to each attachment member, and slidable within a respective slotted bracket, said slotted brackets being secured to said guide rail. Preferably, the second adjustment means comprises adjustment means in a second direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the guide rail. Preferably, the second adjustment means adjusts the depth of grinding.
In to a another optional feature of this aspect of the invention the second adjustment means comprises a slidable locking means and a rotary control knob attached to a threaded feed screw.
In yet another optional feature of this aspect of the invention the angle of grind: is controlled by adjusting the first and second adjustment means.
In yet another optional feature of this aspect of the invention the attachment members are magnets.
A second aspect of the of the invention provides a method of grinding a relief angle onto a rotary blade of a reel mower, comprising orienting the complete mower to expose the rotary blades, attaching to the mower a portable grinding machine which comprises a guide rail, a grinding wheel assembly receiving a rotary grinding wheel which assembly is mounted for movement to and fro along said guide rail, including the steps of adjusting attachment means to orientate said guide rail relative to a reel on which the rotary blades are mounted so that it is substantially parallel to the axis of the reel and adjusting said grinding wheel assembly to introduce said supporting means to maintain contact between the grinding means and a single rotary blade so that the relief angle of the rotary blade can be ground throughout its length by allowing the reel to rotate as the grinding wheel assembly is moved along the length of the guide rail, repeating the process until all of the blades mounted oil the mower reel have been ground.
According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of grinding a relief angle onto a rotary blade of a reel mower comprising orienting the mower to expose the rotary blades adjusting a finger mounted on a grinding machine to retain the blade between the finger and a grinding wheel, removing the grinding machine away from contact with the blade, starting the power until connected to the grinding wheel, trapping the blade between the finger and the grinding wheel, and commencing grinding in a reciprocating transversing motion, applying a force to the grinding machine has ground the blade to the required depth, repeating the process until all of the blades mounted on the mower reel have been ground.

Grinding machine and method of grinding grass mower rotary blades


One embodiment provides a method including receiving, at a key input device, an electronic text input; obtaining, using a processor, an additional input comprising audio and relating to the electronic text input; modifying, using a processor, the electronic text input based upon the additional input; and providing, on a display device, electronic text which has been modified. Other aspects are described and claimed.

Information handling devices (e.g., cellular phones, tablet devices, smart phones, smart watches, laptop computers, personal computers, etc.) allow users to input electronic text, for example, through a soft keyboard, slide out keyboard, standard keyboard, and the like. Conventionally, upon entry of electronic text, some devices have programs which may attempt to correct the electronic text. For example, some programs will correct (or simply autocorrect) the electronic text if the program identifies inconsistencies, for example common misspellings or grammar errors. Typically, this modification consists of the program making a best guess about what the user intended to input. Other correction programs may, rather than correcting the electronic text, suggest alternative words for the user to choose.


A quantum computing system computes soft information quantifying an effect of soft noise on multiple rounds of a syndrome measurement that is output by a quantum measurement circuit. The soft noise arises due to imperfections in a readout device that introduce variability in repeated measurements of ancilla qubits and is distinct from quantum noise arising from bit-flips in data qubits that are indirectly measured by the ancilla qubits. The quantum computing system applying decoding logic to identify fault locations within the quantum measurement circuit based on the computed soft information.

The scalability of decoders for quantum error correction is an ongoing challenge in generating practical quantum computing devices. Hundreds or thousands of high-quality qubits with a very low error rate (e.g., 10-10 or lower) may be needed to implement quantum algorithms with industrial applications. Due to the high noise rate of quantum hardware, extensive quantum error corrections necessary in the design of a large scale quantum computer. One of the most popular quantum error correction schemes for fault-tolerant computing is the surface code because it is easy to implement on a grid of qubits using only logical gates and because it tolerates high error rates. Numerical simulations show that the surface code achieves a good performance for a variety of noise models, even when implemented with noisy quantum gates or in the presence of coherent errors. However, the noise model for the surface code is generally very simplistic. While schemes have been devised to account for quantum noise (e.g., bit flips or phase flips on data qubits), existing noise models do not propose any solution that accounts for analog classical noise on the measurement outcome that arises due to imperfections in the readout device.

Quantum error correction with realistic measurement data


A method includes: collecting an original signal in a specified time interval, and performing combined acceleration processing on the original signal to obtain a combined acceleration signal; performing state processing on the combined acceleration signal to obtain a motion time interval, and extracting a plurality of feature groups from the combined acceleration signal according to a preset motion rule; and performing screening on the plurality of feature groups to obtain a first feature group, extracting a median value from the first feature group, and obtaining a stride frequency in the specified time interval based on the median value and a collection frequency, and obtaining a quantity of steps through calculation based on the motion time interval and the stride frequency.

Under guidance of the national fitness program, running exercise is popular among people, and there is a huge market opportunity for wearable sports devices. A fitness record is a basic exercise and fitness function of the wearable sports device, and is mainly used to implement step counting, distance recording, exercise time recording, energy consumption calculation, and the like. Most users have a requirement for this function. The step counting is a most intuitive exercise indicator in the fitness record, so that the users can directly assess their respective exercise amounts. In addition, step counting is combined with a related social APP, and becomes an important part of exercise socialization.
Step counting is implemented when an existing wearable sports device is worn on the wrist and around the waist. For example, if a user wears the wearable sports device on the foot, step counting cannot be implemented. Therefore, an existing technical solution cannot implement foot step counting.

Method and apparatus for counting foot step based on stride frequency, and device


A fuel system for a multi-cylinder compression ignition engine includes a tubular body (10) having an internal step (11) against which is located a flanged pump barrel (12), a pair of valve blocks (22, 23) mounted in end to end relationship between the barrel (12) and a mounting block (24) secured to the body by bolts (25) which provide a clamping force which ensures a liquid tight seal between the engaging end faces of the blocks and the barrel. A bore (14) in the barrel (12) houses a pumping plunger (15) and the valve blocks house a delivery valve (41) and a spill valve (26), respectively. The spill valve is controlled by an electromagnetic valve (30) mounted on the mounting block.

This invention relates to a fuel injection system for supplying fuel to an internal combustion engine of the compression ignition type and having for each cylinder of the engine, a fuel injection nozzle, a reciprocable plunger cam actuated pump which can supply fuel under pressure to the nozzle during inward movement of the plunger in a bore in a pump body, an electromagnetically operable valve means which when closed prevents the spillage of fuel from the bore and a control unit for the valve.


An improved image transfer device for transferring light images or the like is formed using "in-situ" optical waveguides or transfer elements rather than discrete optical fibers. In one embodiment, at least first and second tapered modular spacers are formed with grooves etched therein extending between first and second end surfaces thereof. Each of the grooves has a raised lip structure which enables the spacers to be interconnected in a rigid confronting relationship to produce a plurality of closed tapered channels. Each of the channels is then filled with a conductor to form an optical waveguide for transferring an elemental portion of an image between the first and second end surfaces.

As is well known in the prior art, image projection systems focus signal information to selected regions of a display screen to produce images. For example, in a conventional cathode ray tube ("CRT"), a beam emitted from an electron gun is directed to a small cross section on a luminescent screen and is varied in position and intensity to produce a visible pattern. As the size of the display screen increases, however, it becomes more and more difficult to accurately focus the electron beam to a specific area of the screen because of the increased size and volume of the CRT associated with the larger screen. To overcome this problem, it is also known to attach a so-called image transfer device to the display screen to magnify the screen image, thereby obviating an increase in the CRT dimensions. Typically, the transfer device comprises a plurality of optical fibers assembled into a bundle such that an image at a first or input end thereof (i.e., the image on the display screen) can be projected there through, for viewing, at a second or output end thereof. One such light transfer device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,043,910 to Hicks, Jr. The display portion of the Hicks, Jr. device is manufactured by stacking a plurality of discrete fiber optic ribbons in spacer strips at a predetermined angular relationship and then cutting the strips along a bias thereof.
Fiber optic image transfer devices of the type described in the Hicks, Jr. patent have certain limitations that have prevented their widespread use for large screen display applications. The most significant operational problem in such devices is the tendency of each fiber optic ribbon to "skew" or twist with respect to the other ribbons, thereby causing the image displayed at the second end of the device to have severe vertical discontinuities. U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,280, to Sedlmayr, issued Mar. 17, 1987, and assigned to Advance Display Technologies, Inc., describes a unique image transfer device and manufacturing technique therefor for overcoming this problem through rigid alignment of the fiber optic ribbons in spacers in three mutually perpendicular planes at both ends of the device. A display device manufactured in accordance with the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,280 transfers an aesthetically-pleasing image between the input and output of the device with high resolution.
Despite the significant operational improvements in fiber optic image transfer devices provided by the teachings in the Sedlmayr patent, it remains desirable to produce such devices without the use of discrete optical fibers. One such device is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,391,969 and 3,498,864 to Ogle which describe a fiber optic article and method of manufacture wherein planar fiber optical sheets are formed with elongated grooves filled with light transmitting material. The optical sheets are joined together with the grooves in confronting relation to form a fiber optical array. Although the Ogle manufacturing technique obviates the use of discrete optical fibers, the resulting fiber optic device does not adequately transfer an image between the input and output ends thereof. This is because each planar fiber optical sheet formed in the Ogle manufacturing technique has the same thickness between the input and output ends of the device. When the optical sheets are joined together to form a fiber optical array, there are discrete areas on the input end of the device which contact elemental portions of the image to be transferred but which have no corresponding display areas on the output end of the device. Therefore, information in the image is lost as the image is transferred between the input and output ends of the device.
There is therefore a need for an improved image transfer device which overcomes these and other limitations associated with the prior art.

Image transfer device and method of manufacture


An information retrieval system and method for determining the location of a traveller based upon a comparison between broadcast radiowave frequencies at the location and a table of locations for radio stations which broadcast at those radiowave frequencies. By determining the location, the offset hour for the time zone where the radio station is located may be obtained for correctly displaying the hour on an analog watch. When the watch is moved to a different time zone, the hands are accelerated, forward or backward, until they indicate the local time. The location, such as a city, can also be displayed so that the traveller is apprised of both the correct time and present location automatically.

The present invention relates generally to a system which informs a traveller of the correct local time and city location based on an analysis of radiowave frequencies.
In order to keep abreast of the correct time, travellers who cross time zones in their travels must manually reset the time displayed on their timepieces in accordance with the time zone they have reached. This is an inconvenience not only because the traveller must remember to reset the timepiece but also because the correct time in the new time zone may not be evident to the traveller. Failing to have the correct local time may lead to missed appointments, missed transit connections, etc. Even in cases where travellers travel in the same time zone, they may mistakenly believe they crossed a time zone and incorrectly reset their timepieces.
The broadcast radiowave frequencies from radio stations at known city locations are published, e.g., in the World Radio TV Handbook by BillBoard A.G. A traveller who leaves the vicinity of a first city to enter the vicinity of a second city, will then be within the broadcast range of radio stations in that second city and possibly no longer within the broadcast range of radio stations in the first city. Even if the cities are close, so that radiowave frequencies from the first city are still received, they will be weaker than those from the second city.
It would therefore be desirable to devise an entirely passive system which by using the foregoing characteristics automatically informs a traveller of the correct time in a given time zone and of the city at which the traveller has arrived and additional local information.

Location acquisition and time adjusting system


A golf training system includes a golf club, an alignment strip, and a plurality of markers for coupling to a golfer's apparel. The golf club includes a shaft having an axial centerline, a grip coupled to the shaft, and a head coupled to the shaft. The grip may have a length, a width, and a that varies from a minimum about equal to about the width to a maximum about equal to twice the width. The golf club may also include a polyhedron coupled to the shaft and positioned between the grip and the head. The polyhedron may have an axial alignment such that a vertex of the polyhedron is substantially parallel to the axial centerline of the shaft. The alignment strip may have a plurality of markings indicating a variety of possible locations for a golfer's feet in a stance, and a preferred position of a golf ball. The markers may be configured to be removably coupled to the golfer's appeal, and may serve as visual aids to the golfer during a swing.

Over the years, a number of training systems have been developed to help a golfer improve his or her game. These systems vary greatly in complexity but essentially each system is an attempted solution to a single problem. That problem is teaching the golfer to develop and maintain proper form. There are essentially three elements generally described as form: stance, grip and swing. While these three elements are inseparably intertwined, many golf training systems have nevertheless been geared primarily towards only one.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,857,970 issued to Robbins discloses a method and apparatus providing a golf training apparatus configured to aid a golfer in developing a consistent golf swing. The golf training apparatus includes a triangle plane guide, a shaft coupler and a limb attachment member. The triangle plane guide includes two side members and a top member coupled to each other to form a triangular configuration. The shaft coupler is operatively coupled to a portion of the triangle plane guide and is operable to removably couple with a shaft of the golf club below a grip end of the shaft so that said triangle plane guide is disposed in a suspended position above the shaft. The limb attachment member is coupled to the triangle plane guide and operable to attach to a limb of the golfer in an adjustable manner. The triangle plane guide is operable to provide a visual reference that includes visual alignment from an apex of the two side members down the shaft toward the golf ball and visual alignment of the top member with a distant target.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,843,730 issued to Bellagamba discloses a golf training apparatus having a frame with a base and an upright frame portion having a cross frame member. A back support is attached to the upright frame portion and positioned to support the back of a golfer making practice swings and includes a Velcro fastener portion attached thereto. A belt for attaching around a golfer has a VELCRO fastener portion positioned in the back thereof and aligned for attachment to the back support fastener portion to thereby removably hold a golfer making practice swings to the golf training apparatus. The golf training apparatus includes a pair of knee brace members for holding a golfer's knees in position during a practice swing and an elongated arm with a head support yoke on the end thereof for supporting a golfer's head during practice swings.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,805,640 issued to Kim discloses a golf swing training aid to which a golf club is attached. The golf swing training aid comprises a first supporting member having an end portion and two branch portions arranged at the rear of the end portion, second supporting members connected to ends of the branch portions of said first supporting member by means of couplers for supporting the back portions of the lower arms of the golfer so that the distance between both arms is maintained, and a stationary plate and a moving plate mounted at the end portion of said first supporting member for holding fixedly the shaft of the golf club.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,780,122 issued to Belanger discloses a golf training device for swing improvement including a base member, a mast member, and swing indicators. The mast member is coupled with the base member and has opposite ends and a plurality of holes. The swing indicators are insertable into holes.
It would be desirable to provide a golf training system that helps a golfer of any skill level to improve each area of his or her form: stance, grip, and swing. It would be further desirable to provide a golf training system that is simply enough to be readily understood by and useful to a novice golfer. Finally, it would be desirable to provide a golf training system that can be easily transported to and from a golf course or driving range, ideally in a golf bag or a similar container.


The present disclosure provides a liquid crystal display panel and a display device. The liquid crystal display panel includes an upper substrate and a lower substrate disposed opposite to the upper substrate. The lower substrate includes a non-display area having a connection terminal disposed therein. The connection terminal has an elongated stripe shape. By replacing the connection terminal having a square shape or a square-like shape with a connection terminal having an elongated stripe shape, light-reflection problems caused by metal having a large area in a local region are mitigated. Therefore, the technical problem that user experiences of using display devices are unsatisfactory because of light-reflection issues caused by conventional connection terminal is solved.

For liquid crystal cells of conventional display devices that employ a black matrix on array (BOA) technique or black photo spacer (BPS) technique, a black matrix (BM) or a BPS is formed on a thin film transistor array substrate (i.e., a lower substrate mentioned in the following description). In addition, in a non-display area where gold balls (Au balls) are configured to connect a first metal layer of the thin film transistor array substrate to a common electrode layer of a color filter substrate (i.e., an upper substrate mentioned in the following description), the BPS, and a passivation (PV) layer or a polymer film on array (PFA) have to be removed to expose the first metal layer and make the first metal layer function as a connection terminal. With the connection terminal, the first metal layer of the thin film transistor array substrate and the common electrode layer of the color filter substrate are connected to each via gold balls.
However, the connection terminal formed in the conventional display devices has a square shape or a square-like shape. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the connection terminal has a square-like shape of 1190 μm*1990 μm. Thus, if the first metal layer that constitutes the connection terminal is mesh-shaped, an area of the display device that corresponds to this region will cause light-leaking issues. On the other hand, if the first metal layer is formed to have a whole plane made of metal, an area of the display device that corresponds to this region will cause light-reflection issues. Therefore, user experiences of using the display devices are unsatisfactory.
That is, conventional display devices have technical problems that user experiences of using the display devices are unsatisfactory because the connection terminal in the conventional display devices causes light-reflection issues.

Liquid crystal display panel and display device

WUHAN CHINA STAR OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A record player in which a magazine is provided with compartments for storing a number of rigid and flexible disk-shaped recording media. For playing the disks, they are removed only to an extent necessary for the disk drive to engage bores of the disk. Each compartment has a bottom with a semi-circular recess at a side of the magazine from which the recording media are removed for being played. This recess has a diameter that is substantially longer than the diameter of the respective disk to be played, so that the disk can rotate freely while being played. Each compartment, furthermore, as a storage recess above the semi-circular recess for storing the disk. To play the disk, the latter is lowered from the storage recess into the semi-circular recess, but the lowering of the disk is such that the disk will not contact the bottom of the semi-circular recess, so as to allow free rotation of the disk within the semi-circular recess.

The invention concerns a magazine-type record player with compartments that can accommodate several disk-shaped recording media and with a mechanism for removing the disk-shaped recording media from the compartments in the magazine.
Record players of this type include for example compact-disk players or videodisk players as well as computers that employ storage devices in the form of disk-shaped recording media. With known compact-disk players, a mechanism completely removes from the magazine the disk that is to be played and positions it on the disk-drive mechanism. Once it has been played, the disk is thrust back into the compartment provided for it.
One essential drawback of this type of compact-disk player is that the magazine takes up a lot of space, and this is a special problem for players installed in vehicles because the instrument panel does not have much room for the radio, the cassette recorder, and a compact-disk player.


A picker mechanism and a library device having the picker mechanism are provided in which their miniaturization can be achieved. A drive device mounted on the library device and the picker mechanism to load and unload data cartridges to and from a cell in a magazine include a swivel mechanism made up of a swivel driving motor to rotate the picker mechanism on an elevator that supports the picker mechanism, a feeding section having a picker arm on its side that is connected to a notch to be held in a fixed manner which is formed on a side of the data cartridge and, a feeding section driving mechanism made up of a picker driving motor to move the feeding section in a straight line.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a library device to store a plurality of data cartridges including a magnetic tape, magnetic disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, or a like and to selectively unload a desired data cartridge out of these data cartridges to read and/or write data from or onto storage media housed in the data cartridge by using a drive device mounted internally and to a picker mechanism making up the library device.
The present application claims priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-014389 filed on Jan. 22, 2004, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional library device (called a data storage system or a like in some cases) is known which is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-269875 in which data cartridges are stored in a plurality of cells housed in a plurality of magazines and a desired data cartridge is selectively unloaded from these data cartridges, and data stored in the cartridge is read and/or written by using a drive device.
FIG. 15 is a plan view illustrating configurations of a conventional data storage system disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-269875.
A cartridge carrying system 1101 included in the data storage system 1100 shown in FIG. 15 is used to move a data cartridge 1104 between a plurality of cartridge magazines 1102 and a plurality of cartridge reading/writing device 1103. As shown in FIG. 15, the plurality of cartridge magazines 1102 and the plurality of cartridge reading/writing device 1103 are arranged in various positions within the data storage system 1100 in a manner to be approximately U-shaped.
The cartridge carrying system 1101 includes a U-shaped lower guiding member, that is, a lower plate 1108 having a U-shaped lower groove 1107 and a U-shaped upper guiding member, that is, an upper plate (not shown) having a groove (not shown), which are together used to guide a cartridge access device 1105 along an approximately U-shaped path 1106, so that the cartridge access device 1105 gains access to data cartridges 1104 housed in the plurality of cartridge magazines 1102 and the plurality of cartridge reading/writing devices 1103.
The cartridge access device 1105 partially includes a cartridge positioning system 1109 to move the cartridge access device 1105 along the cartridge magazines 1102 and the cartridge reading/writing devices 1103 in various positions (for example, positions 1140, 1140′, and 1140″) so that the cartridge access device 1105 gains access to data cartridges 1104 being housed in the cartridge magazines 1102 and cartridge reading/writing devices 1103.
The cartridge access device 1105 moves along the U-shaped lower groove 1107 formed on the lower plate 1108 (the lower guiding member) and the U-shaped upper groove (not shown) formed on the upper plate (the upper guiding member), that is, along the U-shaped path 1106, by an actuator system 1110. The actuator system 1110 includes a rack pinion driving system having gear racks placed in a position adjacent to the groove 1107 in the lower plate 1108 and being substantially connected to one another.
Moreover, such a library device as described above is equipped with a picker mechanism to bring data cartridges in or from the cartridge magazines and cartridge reading/writing devices. FIG. 16 is a perspective view showing one conventional example of such a picker mechanism 1200. FIG. 17 is a perspective view illustrating a state in which the picker mechanism 1200 of FIG. 16 holds data cartridges 1240.
The picker mechanism 1200 shown in FIG. 16 includes a feeding section 1210 being made to move in an A1 to A2 direction shown in FIG. 16 by a driving means (not shown) on a main body 1201 and right and left picker arms 1220a and 1220b are provided on both right and left sides of the feeding section 1210. Both the right picker arm 1220a and left picker arm 1220b are configured to rotate and open as shown in FIG. 16 by a cam mechanism (not shown) when the right and left picker arms 1220a and 1220b move to a top end in the A2 direction shown in FIG. 16 and close when the feeding section 1210 starts to move to the A1 direction shown in FIG. 16.
In the picker mechanism 1200, for example, as shown in FIG. 17, with the feeding section 1210 having been moved to a top end in the A2 direction (see FIG. 16), if the feeding section 1210 is moved after the feeding section 1210 has been placed in a position where the feeding section 1210 faces the data cartridges 1240 housed in a cartridge magazine 1230, the right and left picker arms 1220a and 1220b close and their hooks are held in a fixed manner in grooves 1241 on both sides of the data cartridges 1240 and the right and left picker arms 1220a and 1220b hold the data cartridge 1240 and draw the data cartridge 1240 into a main body 1201. The picker mechanism 1200 thus draws the data cartridges 1240 out of the cartridge magazine 1230. The operation of inserting the data cartridges 1240 from the picker mechanism 1200 into the cartridge magazine 1230 is performed in a retrograde order being opposite to the above operations.
Moreover, as shown in FIG. 16, the picker mechanism 1200 having the right and left picker arms 1220a, 1220b on its both sides is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-157599.
FIG. 18 is a perspective view illustrating configurations of another conventional picker mechanism 1300 disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei10-040615.
The picker mechanism 1300 shown in FIG. 18 includes a main body 1301 having a female screw section 1301a that can fit into a screw shaft (not shown) and a picker arm 1310 that can rotate about a shaft 1311. The picker mechanism 1300 can move in a B1 to B2 direction shown in FIG. 18 by making the screw shaft (not shown) rotate in a normal or reverse direction. Moreover, the picker arm 1310 is so configured as to be rotational in an arbitrary way irrespective of an arrangement position of the picker mechanism 1300.
The picker mechanism 1300, as shown in FIG. 18, for example, after having been placed in a position facing the data cartridges 1320 housed in the cartridge magazine (not shown), rotates the picker arm 1310 and makes its hook (not shown) be held in a fixed manner in a groove 1321 formed on one side of the data cartridges 1320. The picker mechanism 1300, by being moved in a B1 direction with the above state being kept as it is, draws the data cartridges 1320 out of the cartridge magazine (not shown). The operation of inserting the data cartridge 1320 from the picker mechanism 1300 into the cartridge magazine (not shown) is performed in a retrograde order being opposite to the above operation.
FIG. 19 is a perspective view illustrating configurations of still another conventional picker mechanism 1400 disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-251373.
The picker mechanism 1400 shown in FIG. 19, by using a driving force of a motor 1403 and a tensile strength of a spring 1402, has a picker arm 1401 that can rotate about a shaft 1404 in a C direction shown by an arrow in FIG. 19. The picker mechanism 1400 shown in FIG. 19 can be moved by using a driving means (not shown) in a D1 to D2 direction shown in FIG. 19. The picker mechanism 1400 differs from the picker mechanisms 1200 and 1300 shown in FIGS. 16 and 18 in that the picker arm 1401 moves in a vertical direction.
The picker mechanism 1400, as shown in FIG. 19, for example, after having been placed in a position facing data cartridges 1410 housed in a cartridge magazine 1420, rotates the picker arm 1401 and makes its hook (not shown) be held in a fixed manner in a groove 1411 on a lower side of the data cartridges 1410 be held in a fixed manner. The picker mechanism 1400, by moving in a D1 direction with the above state being kept as it is, draws the data cartridges 1410 out of the cartridge magazine 1420. The operation of inserting the data cartridges 1410 from the picker mechanism 1400 into the cartridge magazine 1420 is performed in a retrograde order being opposite to the above operation.
As described above, the data storage system 1100 (library device) shown in FIG. 15 is so configured that the cartridge access device 1105 moves along the U-shaped path 1106 by the actuator system 1110. Therefore, for example, in order to transfer the data cartridges 1104 housed in a certain cartridge magazine 1102 to another cartridge magazine 1102 facing the data cartridge 1104 with the U-shaped path 1106 being interposed between cartridge magazines 1102, it is necessary that the cartridge access device 1105 is moved in a manner in which the cartridge access device 1105 bypasses greatly along the U-shaped path 1106. In the data storage system 1100 configured as above, much time is required for moving the data cartridges 1104 which causes a big problem in improving a processing speed of the library device (Data storage system 1100).
Moreover, the picker mechanism 1200 having the right and left picker arms 1220a and 1220b on its both sides shown in FIG. 16 or a like requires a complicated opening and closing mechanism (not shown) for opening and closing the right and left picker arms 1220a and 1220b to catch the data cartridge 1240 (FIG. 17) and therefore it causes the picker mechanism 1200 and, as a result, the library device having the picker mechanism 1200 to be made large which leads to an obstacle to miniaturization of the library device. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 17, in a position where the picker mechanism 1200 transfers and receives the data cartridges 1240, since it is necessary to provide space for opening and closing the right and left picker arms 1220a and 1220b, also causing the library device to become large.
On the other hand, the picker mechanism 1300 having the picker arm 1310 shown in FIG. 18 on its one side does not perform an operation of causing the data cartridges 1320 to get caught by using two picker arms and, therefore, it is not necessary for the picker mechanism 1300 to have such a complicated mechanism as the picker mechanism 1200 shown in FIG. 16 or the like, which, as a result, enables the picker mechanism 1300 to be miniaturized. However, in the picker mechanism 1300 shown in FIG. 18, in a position where the picker mechanism 1300 transfers and receives the data cartridges 1320, the picker arm 1310 must provide space for rotating the picker arm 1310, like a circular arc, about the shaft 1311, which still causes a problem in the miniaturization of the library device.
Moreover, as shown in FIG. 19, the picker mechanism 1400 having the picker arm 1401 on its one side that moves in a vertical direction is not suitable structurally for use in the library device being so configured as to house data cartridges 1410 up and down in multiple stages. The reason is that space required to insert the picker arm 1401 and rotate the same has to be provided among the data cartridges 1410 arranged up and down in multiples stages and, as a result, an efficiency of housing the data cartridges 1410 in the library device is low, thus causing the library device to be made large.

Picker mechanism that rotatably accesses data cartridges at different heights and library device using same


A touch screen panel that prevents sensing patterns from being viewable at a border of a touch active region. The touch screen panel includes: a transparent substrate; first sensing cells and second sensing cells alternately distributed in a touch active region on the transparent substrate; first connection patterns connecting the first sensing cells in a first direction; second connection patterns connecting the second sensing patterns in a second direction crossing the first direction; and dummy patterns extending outside the touch active region and connected with the first sensing cells and the second sensing cells at a border of the touch active region.

1. Field
Aspects of the present invention relate to a touch screen panel, particularly a touch screen panel that prevents a sensing pattern from being viewable at a border of touch active regions of the touch screen panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
A touch screen panel is an input device that selects content displayed on a screen, such as an image display device, or other similar devices, using a person's hand or an object to input commands of a user selecting the content displayed on the screen. To this end, the touch screen panel is provided on a front face of the image display device and converts positions of points directly contacted by a person's hand or an object into electrical signals. Accordingly, an instruction or the content selected at the contact point is received as an input signal.
As the touch screen panel can replace a separate input device, such as a keyboard or a mouse, which is operated by being connected with the image display device, use of the touch screen panel is increasing. The touch screen panel may be implemented as a resistive type, a light sensing type, and a capacitive type. Among those, when the person's hand or the object contacts the capacitive type of the touch screen panel, a conductive sensing pattern senses a change in capacitance between adjacent sensing patterns or a ground electrode, or other similar elements, and converts the sensed change in capacitance at the contact position into electrical signals.
In order to clearly determine the contact position on a contacted surface of the touch screen panel, the sensing cells are configured to include first sensing patterns formed to be connected by first connection patterns disposed along a first direction and second sensing patterns formed to be connected by second connection patterns disposed along a second direction.
The sensing cells are uniformly distributed over the entirety of the touch active region in the touch screen panel such that the pattern stops at the border of the touch active region. That is, the ends of the sensing cells are designed to be at the border of the touch active region. Thus, the sensing pattern may be viewable, when a pattern reflection occurs at the border of the touch active region.


A light-emitting device includes a light-emitting element that includes a semiconductor structure including a first semiconductor layer, a second semiconductor layer, and a light-emitting layer therebetween and is configured to emit first light from an upper surface of the first semiconductor layer; a protective film over the upper surface of the first semiconductor layer; a light-transmissive resin layer disposed in contact with the protective film; and a wavelength conversion layer facing the upper surface of the first semiconductor layer over the protective film and the light-transmissive resin layer, the upper surface of the first semiconductor layer having first projections and a flat portion, an upper surface of the protective film having second projections above the first projections. In a cross-sectional view a void is located above the flat portion and between the protective film and the light-transmissive resin layer.

The present disclosure relates to a light-emitting device and a method for manufacturing a light-emitting device.
In recent years, light-emitting devices emitting white light from their emitting surfaces have been used in various lighting apparatus. The white light is a mixture of light produced by a wavelength conversion layer that converts a wavelength of a portion of blue light emitted from a light-emitting element, and blue light emitted without being subjected to wavelength conversion. For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2018-082027 discloses a light-emitting device that allows light emitted from an LED chip (light-emitting element) to be incident on a phosphor plate (wavelength conversion layer) through a bonding unit (light-transmissive resin layer) made of a transparent resin, to emit white light from the phosphor plate.

Light-emitting device and method for manufacturing light-emitting device


The invention aims to provide a tire rubber composition that is excellent in the low heat build-up property (fuel economy), wet grip performance, and abrasion resistance, and can be suitably used for a tread (cap tread); and a tire rubber composition that is excellent in the low heat build-up property and breaking properties, and can be suitably used for a base tread or sidewall. The composition comprises: a diene polymer; and silica, the diene polymer being a modified diene polymer obtainable by reacting compounds (A) and (B), the compound (A) being an active alkali metal-terminated conjugated diene polymer obtainable by polymerizing a conjugated diene monomer alone or with an aromatic vinyl monomer, in the presence of compound (C), the compound (B) being a modifying agent having a functional group, and the compound (C) being a chemical species obtainable by reacting an organic alkali metal compound with compound of formula (1):

Conventionally, fuel economy of automobiles has been improved by reducing the rolling resistance of tires (i.e. by improving the rolling resistance property). Still, in these years, there is an increasingly growing demand for a reduction in fuel consumption of automobiles. With this demand has come a demand for a rubber composition with very low heat build-up which is used for producing a tread, which occupies a larger portion of a tire among various tire components.
For example, a method is known in which a tire is designed to have a double-layer tread part (i.e. a base tread and a cap tread), and a rubber composition with low heat build-up is used for the base tread. Still, there is a need for further reduction in heat build-up. Likewise, there is a demand for a rubber composition with lower heat build-up for use in tire components other than a tread, and sidewalls, which generate larger quantities of heat due to deformation, are also required to provide lower heat build-up.
Known as a method for producing a rubber composition with sufficiently low heat build-up is a method of reducing the amount of reinforcing filler in the rubber composition. In this case, however, the hardness of the rubber composition is decreased, and thereby tires produced therefrom are softer. Such tires may disadvantageously impair handling performance (handling stability) of automobiles and exhibit low wet grip performance and abrasion resistance. The strength of the rubber composition is also lowered and disadvantageously the tires will be easily damaged.
Patent Document 1 teaches that use of a modified styrene-butadiene rubber, which is modified with a predetermined organic silicon compound containing an alkoxy group, enables lower heat build-up, improved wet grip performance, and improved abrasion resistance. However, in order to achieve satisfactory levels of all of these performances, there remains a need for further studies. The breaking properties of the rubber composition should also be improved. The modified styrene-butadiene rubber used has only one modified end, and modification of both or two or more ends is not examined.    Patent Document 1: JP-A 2001-114938

Tire rubber composition and pneumatic tire


A board standoff device for mounting a first circuit board (e.g., daughter card) on a second circuit board (e.g., mother board) of an electrical connector assembly is disclosed. The first circuit board has a front end pivotably secured to a card edge connector mounted on a top surface of the second circuit board adjacent a front end thereof. The board standoff device is located around a rear end of the electrical connector assembly and includes at least one unit. Each unit includes a body fastened on the second circuit board, the body including an upward inclined latch, and a locating member detachably secured onto the body. A rear end of the first circuit board is fastened between and by the locating member and the latch of each unit. The invention can save space, facilitate heat removal during operation, and is highly adaptable and durable.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to electrical connector assemblies, and more particularly to a board standoff member for detachably supporting one circuit board on the other circuit board of an electrical connector assembly.
2. Description of Related Art
Card edge connectors, for example, such as PCI (Peripheral Component Interface) and PCI Express connectors, are widely employed to connect a daughter card to a mother board. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2005/0164540 A1 discloses an electrical connector assembly having board hold down. Each of the board hold downs is stamped and formed from a sheet of metal. The board hold down comprises an arc-shaped body, an upward locating portion having a conic lead-in securely inserted into an engaging hole of a daughter card, two legs securely inserted into retention holes of a mother board, an anti-overstress portion extended from one end of the body, a bent tab perpendicularly extended from the anti-overstress portion, a resilient arm extended from the other end of the body, a latch formed at one end of the arm and flexibly disposed between a main portion of the anti-overstress portion and the tab, and an inclined release portion formed at one end of the latch. In an assembled state of the electrical connector assembly, a card edge connector is mounted on a top of the mother board. Further, the daughter card has its mating edge securely inserted into a slot of the card edge connector. Furthermore, the latches lock a rear edge of the daughter card to secure same in the card edge connector. When the release portion is deflected rearward to withdraw the latches, the rear edge of the daughter card rises up automatically for disengaging with the mother board.
But this is unsatisfactory for the purpose for which the invention is concerned for the following reason: The publication is applicable to the specific type of the above electrical connector assembly only. In short, it is not adaptable. Thus, a manufacturer of the product may be bothered by the problem of storing an excessive number of goods in a warehouse. This in turn can increase the manufacturing cost greatly. Thus, a need for improvement exists.

Board standoff device for electrical connector assembly


Pre-caching may decrease the response time necessary for a wireless communication network to fulfill a user request. Pre-caching includes predicting what data the user will request next and preemptively fetching that data from a network (e.g., the Internet). Additionally, the wireless communication network may predict the geographic location of the mobile device when it makes the request. Instead of pre-caching the data in the memory of the mobile device, the data may be stored at a wireless access point that has a radiation pattern that covers the predicted geographic location of the mobile device. Once the wireless access point receives the request from the mobile device for the pre-cached data, the pre-cached data may be transmitted wirelessly to the mobile device, thereby avoiding having to forward the request to rest of the communication network.

Mobile computing devices (e.g., Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), phones, laptops, tablet computers, and the like) are becoming increasingly popular. Further, many customers of wireless network providers connect to the wireless networks using multiple computing devices. In many cases, the providers struggle to maintain an infrastructure that can keep up with demand for bandwidth. One of the primary bottlenecks for providing the requested data to a mobile device is the wireless connection between the device and an antenna. Where high-speed wire-based communication networks are plentiful (e.g., fiber optic cable), the bandwidth needed to relay the request from a wireless access point to a WAN (e.g., the Internet) is plentiful. Accordingly, the ability to service a request made by a mobile device may be limited by the connection speed of the wireless communication channel. Where infrastructure has not kept up with demand, the download speed for each mobile may be lowered as more and more mobile devices compete for limited bandwidth in the wireless communication channel. Many customers, however, select which wireless network provider to subscribe to based on their download speeds. A wireless network provider with lower speeds may look less attractive to potential customers.
Because many customers demand that mobile devices be light, inexpensive, and portable, the memory (e.g., RAM or L1/L2 caches) of some mobile devices is limited when compared to the memory of other user computing devices such as desktop computers or even laptop computers. Accordingly, many mobile devices do not offer the same ability to cache large amounts of data in memory as other computing devices. This limitation prevents wireless network providers from pre-caching (or pre-fetching) large amounts of data on the mobile devices.

Data services using location patterns and intelligent caching

International Business Machines Corporation


In one embodiment, a mass spectrometer includes an RF drive circuit for generating RF signals, a quadrupole mass filter, and a fixed connection assembly for delivering RF signals from the RF drive circuit to the quadrupole mass filter, the fixed connection assembly representing the entire delivery path of RF signals from the RF drive circuit to the quadrupole mass filter. By avoiding flexible components such as a freestanding wires or flexible circuit boards, the need for retuning when parts are removed or disturbed for testing or servicing is reduced, and a modular instrument in which components and connections are standardized and therefore interchangeable is realized.

Quadrupole mass spectrometers require a large RF voltage with a typical amplitude of several kilovolts. This voltage must be produced and connected to the quadrupole mass filter that resides inside a vacuum chamber. To efficiently achieve the required voltage, large coils or transformers are utilized in the RF drive circuit and are resonated with the capacitance of the quadrupole mass filter. Typically the RF drive circuit is designed around a separate box with RF coils or a transformer inside. This assembly is at atmospheric pressure, not under vacuum. The RF voltage generated by the inductors in the box is then delivered to the quadrupole mass filter in the vacuum chamber using a vacuum feedthrough and involves various wires, cables and flex boards both inside and outside of the vacuum chamber. A conventional arrangement is shown in FIG. 1, in which an RF drive circuit 102 uses a pair of RF coils 104 to generate the large voltages required. This voltage is delivered from RF board 106 using freestanding wires 108 (only two are shown) that pass by way of vacuum feedthrough 110 into the vacuum chamber 112. The wires 108 connect to a flexible circuit board (flex board) 114 in the vacuum environment, often by way of additional intervening circuit boards and freestanding wires (not shown). From flex board 114, RF energy is then distributed to the various rods 116 of the quadrupole mass filter.
The resonant frequency of the circuit is affected by the variability of stray capacitance in all of the connection components, and is specific to the particular configuration of these flexible components as last established after assembly and after any subsequent adjustment and handling. Thus, because the flexibility of the components is attended by variability in their capacitance and/or inductance signatures, the circuit must be tuned into resonance using a tuning mechanism 118 that will re-adjust either the capacitance or inductance in the circuit. This tuning, which is arduous and time consuming, must be performed following each intended or unintended change in configuration of the flexible connection components that inevitably attends every handling, for example after circuit board removal for inspection or replacement.

Fixed connection assembly for an RF drive circuit in a mass spectrometer


A pyrotechnically-ruptureable composite structural component, intended to transmit forces between first and second structural elements, has an elongate pyrotechnic detonation separation component incorporated in the structural component for breaking the structural component and separating the first and second elements. The structural component has a first part in which the pyrotechnic separation component is incorporated and which is able to be connected to the first element, and a second part that connects to the second element. The first and second parts are rigidly assembled via their free ends, which are the opposite ends to the first and second elements respectively. The rigid assembly has a damper arranged between the free ends of the first and second elements so as to damp a detonation shock propagating to the free end of the first part when the pyrotechnic separation component is detonated.

It is known that certain elements of space launchers, such as adjacent stages, are mechanically joined together by a composite structural component intended to transmit mechanical forces between said elements as necessary and provided with pyrotechnic detonation separation means incorporated in said structural component and able to break it along the straight or curved line of separation when said elements have to be separated from one another. Similar composite structural components also allow the satellite bearing structures to be severed on board launchers.
At the moment of rupture of such a structural component, that is to say at the moment of separation of the structural elements it secures, said pyrotechnic separation means generate a detonation shock of high amplitude, high frequency, and with a high propagation speed (several kilometers per second), propagating through the structure to which said elements belong, the amplitude and the frequency of said shock diminishing as it propagates through the structure.
Hence, in order to protect the equipment and the payload which are contained in said structural elements, it is common practice to provide a plurality of discrete damping means, generally sheets or strips of visco-elastic material, near said equipment and near the payload, so as to attenuate the shock, the amplitude and frequency of which have already been diminished by the propagation.
It will be noted that the arrangement of such a plurality of discrete attenuation means increases the complexity and the time taken to mount said equipment and the payload in the launcher.

Composite structural part comprising pyrotechnic detonating rupture means


The system can include installing a gas meter in a gas supply net. The system may also include determining, by the gas meter, a level of pressure within the gas meter. The system may also include determining, by the gas meter, a flow rate level within the gas meter. The gas meter determines where a leak exists based on the flow rate level and the level of pressure. The system may also include determining, by the gas meter, a location of the leak, and whether the leak is upstream or downstream from the gas meter. The location of the leak is determined by the level of the pressure and the flow rate level. The system can also include a head end configured at a set position. The gas meter can inform the head end of the location of the leak.

Currently, gas meters do not have any integrated net pressure sensors. Conventional gas meters do not have one integrated pressure sensor that can determine the level of pressure within the gas supply or relate a flow rate level to a pressure level. Without the integrated pressure sensors, it would not be possible to measure the net pressure in gas pipes at local positions at the gas meter within a system.
Another drawback is that even if it were possible for gas meters to detect high flow rates, it could not be known as to whether the high flow rates were a result of excessive flow by downstream devices or by broken pipelines downstream. Further, if upstream from the gas meter, the gas pipes are broken and pressure drops below a certain level, then it could be determined as to what gas pipes were broken and to what level the pressure of the gas meter had been reduced to.
Accordingly, there is a need to be able to determine the locations of leaks that can occur upstream or downstream from the gas meter. Leaks that occur downstream from the gas meter can result in an unsafe situation within a house. Similarly, leaks that occur upstream from the gas meter can also result in consequences to one or more gas pipes or to a house within a system.
As such, there is a need for gas meters to be able to determine the location of leaks, whether the location of the leaks is in upstream or downstream the gas meter in a system. The gas meters need to be able to determine the location of the leaks to inform a head end system to where the leaks are located, and thereby enable the head end system to locate help to prevent an unsafe situation from occurring due to the leaks that are involved
Therefore, it is imperative to have gas meters in a system that can enable the gas meter to determine the pressure and the flow rate within the gas meter. Further, the gas meters need to have integrated pressure sensors that enable the gas meter to be able to determine the locations of any leaks that occur within the system.


A method and a controller for the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of substrates and, in particular, for the chemical mechanical polishing of metallization layers is disclosed. In a linear model of the CMP process, the erosion of the metallization layer to be treated is determined by the overpolish time and possibly by an extra polish time on a separate polishing platen for polishing the dielectric layer, wherein the CMP inherent characteristics are represented by sensitivity parameters derived empirically. Moreover, the control operation is designed so that even with a certain inaccuracy of the sensitivity parameters due to subtle process variations, a reasonable controller response is obtained.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of fabrication of integrated circuits, and, more particularly, to the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of material layers, such as metallization layers, during the various manufacturing stages of an integrated circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the manufacturing of sophisticated integrated circuits, a huge number of semiconductor elements, such as field effect transistors, capacitors and the like, are fabricated on a plurality of chip areas (dies) that are spread across the entire surface of the substrate. Due to the ever-decreasing feature sizes of the individual semiconductor elements, it is necessary to provide the various material layers that are deposited on the entire substrate surface and that exhibit a certain topography corresponding to the underlying layers as uniformly as possible so as to ensure the required quality of subsequent patterning processes, such as photolithography, etching and the like. Recently, chemical mechanical polishing has become a widely used technique to planarize an existing material layer in preparation for the deposition of a subsequent material layer. Chemical mechanical polishing is of particular interest for the formation of so-called metallization layers, that is, layers including recessed portions such as vias and trenches filled with an appropriate metal to form metal lines connecting the individual semiconductor elements. Traditionally, aluminum has been used as the preferred metallization layer, and in sophisticated integrated circuits, as many as twelve metallization layers may have to be provided to obtain the required number of connections between the semiconductor elements. Semiconductor manufacturers are now beginning to replace aluminum with copper—due to the superior characteristics of copper over aluminum with respect to electromigration and conductivity. Through use of copper, the number of metallization layers necessary to provide for the required functionality may be decreased since, in general, copper lines can be formed with a smaller cross-section due to the higher conductivity of copper compared to aluminum. Nevertheless, the planarization of the individual metallization layers remains of great importance. A commonly used technique for forming copper metallization lines is the so-called damascene process in which the vias and trenches are formed in an insulating layer with the copper subsequently being filled into the vias and trenches. Thereafter, excess metal is removed by chemical mechanical polishing after the metal deposition, thereby obtaining planarized metallization layers. Although CMP is successfully used in the semiconductor industry, the process has proven to be complex and difficult to control, especially when a great number of large-diameter substrates are to be treated.
In a CMP process, substrates, such as the wafers bearing the semiconductor elements, are mounted on an appropriately formed carrier, a so-called polishing head, and the carrier is moved relative to the polishing pad while the surface of the wafer is in contact with a polishing pad. During this process, a slurry is supplied to the polishing pad, wherein the slurry contains a chemical compound that reacts with the material or materials of the layer to be planarized by, for example, converting the metal into an oxide, and the reaction product, such as copper oxide, is mechanically removed by abrasives contained in the slurry and the polishing pad. One problem with CMP processes arises from the fact that, at a certain stage of the process, different materials may be present on the layer to be polished at the same time. For example, after removal of the majority of the excess copper, the insulating layer material, for example silicon dioxide, as well as the copper and copper oxide, have to simultaneously be treated chemically and mechanically by the slurry, the polishing pad and the abrasives within the slurry. Usually, the composition of the slurry is selected to show an optimum polishing characteristic for a specified material. In general, the different materials exhibit different removal rates so that, for example, the copper and copper oxide are removed more rapidly than the surrounding insulating material. As a consequence, recessed portions are formed on top of the metal lines compared to the surrounding insulating material. This effect is usually referred to as "dishing." Moreover, during removal of the excess metal in the presence of the insulating material, the insulating material is also removed, although typically at a reduced removal rate compared to the copper, and thus the thickness of the initially deposited insulating layer is reduced. The reduction of the thickness of the insulating layer is commonly referred to as "erosion."
Erosion and dishing, however, not only depend on the differences in the materials that comprise the insulating layer and the metal layer, but may also vary across the substrate surface and may even change within a single chip area in correspondence with the pattern that is to be planarized. That is, the removal rate of the metal and the insulating material is determined based upon a variety of factors such as, for example, the type of slurry, the configuration of the polishing pad, structure and type of the polishing head, the amount of the relative movement between the polishing pad and the substrate, the pressure applied to the substrate while moving relatively to the polishing pad, the location on the substrate, the type of feature pattern to be polished, and the uniformity of the underlying insulating layer and of the metal layer, etc.
From the above considerations, it is evident that a plurality of interrelated parameters affect the topography of the finally-obtained metallization layer. Accordingly, a great deal of effort has been made to develop CMP tools and methods to improve the reliability and robustness of CMP processes. For example, in sophisticated CMP tools, the polishing head is configured to provide two or more portions that may exert an adjustable pressure to the substrate, thereby controlling the frictional force and thus the removal rate at the substrate regions corresponding to these different head portions. Moreover, the polishing platen carrying the polishing pad and the polishing head are moved relative to each other in such a way that as uniform a removal rate as possible is obtained across the entire surface area, and so that the lifetime of the polishing pad that gradually wears during operation is maximized. To this end, a so-called pad conditioner is additionally provided in the CMP tool that moves on the polishing pad and reworks the polishing surface so as to maintain similar polishing conditions for as many substrates as possible. The movement of the pad conditioner is controlled in such a manner that the polishing pad is substantially uniformly conditioned while, at the same time, the pad conditioner will not interfere with the movement of the polishing head.
Due to the complexity of CMP processes, it may be necessary to implement two or more process steps, preferably on different polishing platens, to obtain a polishing result that meets the strict requirements in the fabrication of cutting-edge semiconductor devices. For instance, in manufacturing a metallization layer, a minimum cross-section of the individual metal lines has to be established to achieve a desired resistance according to design rules. The resistance of the individual metal lines depends on the type of material, the line length and the cross-section. Although the two former factors do not substantially change during the fabrication process, the cross-section of the metal lines may significantly vary and thus influence the resistance and the quality of the metal lines owing to erosion and dishing created in the involved CMP process. Accordingly, semiconductor designers have to take these variations into account and implement an additional "safety" thickness of the metal lines such that the cross-section of each metal line is reliably within the specified tolerances after polishing operations are finished.
As is apparent from the above considerations, great efforts are being made to improve the yield in the chemical mechanical polishing of substrates while maintaining a high quality standard. Due to the nature of the CMP process, an in situ measurement of the thickness of the layer to be removed and/or of the removal rate is very difficult to predict. In practice, a plurality of dummy substrates are used to condition and/or calibrate the CMP tool before or after a predefined number of product substrates have been processed. Since the processing of dummy wafers is extremely cost-intensive and time-consuming, it has recently been attempted to significantly reduce the number of test runs by implementing suitable control mechanisms to maintain the performance of the CMP process. In general, it would be highly desirable to have a control process in which specific CMP parameters are manipulated on the basis of measurement results of the substrate that has just been processed in order to accurately maintain the final layer thickness and dishing and erosion within the specifications. To accomplish this co-called "run-to-run" control in the production line, at least two conditions have to be satisfied. First, appropriate metrology tools have to be implemented into the production line such that each substrate, having completed the CMP process, is immediately subjected to a measurement, the results of which have to be provided to the CMP tool prior to the CMP process or at least prior to the final stage of the CMP process of the substrate that immediately follows. Second, a model of the CMP process has to be established that reveals appropriate, manipulated variables to obtain the desired polishing results.
The first condition may not be fulfilled without significantly adversely affecting other parameters of the manufacturing process, such as throughput, and thus cost-effectiveness. Accordingly, in practice, a plurality of substrates are subjected to the CMP process until the first measurement result of the initially processed substrate is available. That is, the control loop contains a certain amount of delay that must be taken into consideration when adjusting the process parameters on the basis of the measurement results.
Regarding the second item, a plurality of CMP models have been established to take account for the fact that the manipulated variables are controlled on the basis of aged feedback results. For example, in the proceedings for the AEC/APC VIII Symposium 2001, "A Comparison of R2R Control Algorithms for the CMP with Measurement Delays," Chamness et. al. disclose the results of a comparison of three CMP models when operated under the condition of a delayed measurement feedback. In this paper, the authors showed that merely a model-predictive run control could avoid any instabilities in the control function when the measurement results are provided with a certain degree of delay to the CMP tool.
In view of this prior art, in general, a predictive model is desired such as the model described in the paper cited above and/or a set of experimental data to extract process variables, such as pressure applied to the substrate, slurry composition, etc., that may be manipulated to obtain the desired output of the CMP process.
Although CMP process control is successfully employed in many semiconductor facilities, from the considerations given so far, it is, however, apparent that a reliable and robust CMP process for sophisticated, integrated circuits involves great efforts in terms of process tools and control operations and it is thus highly desirable to have a simplified yet efficient CMP control process and control system, while also ensuring the required high quality standard of the processed substrates.
The present invention is directed to a method that may solve, or at least reduce, some or all of the aforementioned problems.

Method and system for controlling the chemical mechanical polishing of substrates by calculating an overpolishing time and/or a polishing time of a final polishing step


An improved power supply for one or more electric discharge lamps includes a high frequency oscillator-inverter circuit coupled to the output of a full-wave rectifier circuit via a transformer primary winding (25). The rectifier circuit is energized from a low frequency source of AC voltage. The oscillator-inverter circuit supplies high frequency oscillations to the lamp via a frequency-dependent ballast coupling circuit. A regenerative power supply is coupled to the transformer primary winding by means of a secondary winding (62) of the transformer thereby to charge a capacitor (49) operative as a switchable auxiliary supply voltage for the oscillator-inverter circuit. Improved start-up operation is achieved by winding the transformer (25, 62) so as to provide a polarity inversion for the supply of electric energy to the regenerative power supply.

This invention relates to a high efficiency, high frequency electronic oscillator-inverter circuit for starting and operating one or more electric discharge lamps. More particularly, the invention relates to a high frequency oscillator-inverter ballast circuit with an improved regenerative power supply.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,908 (12/24/85; Stupp et al) describes a high frequency oscillator-inverter circuit for starting and ballasting one or more discharge lamps and which includes a novel regenerative power supply. The Stupp et al apparatus exhibits a high efficiency and very high system power factor along with automatic regulation of the lamp current, reduced third harmonic distortion and substantial elimination of radio frequency interference (RFI). A limitation of this system is that at start-up, the circuit will sometimes go into an abnormal mode of operation during which both of the switching transistors simultaneously turn-off, whereupon the feed-choke which supplies energy to the oscillator-inverter will "fly-back" thereby generating a high voltage which overstresses the switching transistors such that they suffer severe damage, sometimes even causing complete destruction thereof.
One solution to this problem was to provide a transient absorption element, for example, a zener diode, which is coupled to the feed-choke to dissipate the fly-back energy generated therein during the start-up period. This approach is not entirely satisfactory since the zener diode or the like increases the cost of the apparatus. Furthermore, it is not entirely reliable because the fly-back voltage which will be generated, and must be dissipated, is not always easy to define in advance. Therefore, it requires considerable design and test time to determine the proper value of the zener diode, which further adds to the system cost.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,908 (hereby incorporated by reference), the ballast system was provided with a regenerative power supply in order to supply power to the oscillator-inverter during the time period when the rectified unfiltered line voltage dropped below a given threshold value. In that system the regenerative power supply derived its energy from the main transformer of the high frequency oscillator-inverter. It has now been discovered that as a result of this method of operation, particularly at start-up of the high frequency oscillator-inverter, the primary winding of the main transformer was clamped to a voltage level which prevented the transfer of sufficient energy to the base drive winding of the switching transistors so as to maintain proper circuit oscillation. As mentioned above, the result of all of this will cause an abnormal mode of operation in which both switching transistors turn off and the feed-choke generates a high voltage which will damage the transistors unless the energy is dissipated by a transient absorption device.
It was further discovered that the start-up problem was due to the fact that the voltage of the resonant tank circuit of the oscillator-inverter was clamped to a low voltage by the feedback winding and by the input capacitor. The normal operating voltage of the capacitor is about 100 volts, but at start-up it is zero volts. A net DC current builds up in the feedchoke during start-up, and if the circuit is not able to sustain oscillation due to the lack of transferred drive current from the tank circuit to the transistors, both transistors turn off and a high flyback voltage is produced across the feedchoke in response to the abruptly diminished current therein. The flyback voltage must be clamped, and the energy in the feedchoke dissipated to protect the transistors and other circuit components.
Another possible solution to the above problem is to provide an auxiliary circuit which will pre-charge the power factor (PF) supply capacitor. This too is not an optimum solution because the auxiliary pre-charge circuit requires extra components which in turn increase the cost of the high frequency oscillator-inverter.

High frequency oscillator-inverter with improved regenerative power supply


The power consumption of a display device is reduced. The power consumption of a driver circuit in a display device is reduced. A pixel included in the display device includes a display element. The pixel is configured to have a function of retaining a first voltage corresponding to a first input pulse signal and a function of driving the display element with a third voltage obtained by addition of a second voltage corresponding to a second input pulse signal to the first voltage.

In recent years, display devices included in cellular phones such as smartphones, tablet information terminals, laptop PCs (personal computers), portable game consoles, and the like have undergone various improvements. For example, display devices have been developed aiming for higher resolution, higher color reproducibility, a smaller driver circuit, lower power consumption, and the like.
For example, a technique for employing a transistor whose channel formation region contains a metal oxide as a switching element included in a pixel circuit of a display device can be given. In particular, an In—Ga—Zn-based oxide can be used as the metal oxide. Patent Document 1 discloses an invention where a transistor whose channel formation region contains an In—Ga—Zn-based oxide is used in a pixel circuit of a display device.
In addition, for example, Patent Document 2 discloses an invention of a source driver IC that uses a multi-tone linear digital-analog converter circuit to display a multi-tone image on a display device including a light-emitting element.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A system for traversal pattern mining. A storage device stores multiple web log records individually comprising multiple ordered web objects, and multiple minimum support records individually corresponding to the web object and comprising a min_sup value corresponding to the position of the web object. A traversal pattern mining program inserts the web objects with occurrence is exceeding or equaling the corresponding min_sup value into a first large reference sequence set (L1), generates multiple first candidate reference sequences, inserts the first candidate reference sequences with occurrence exceeding or equaling the minimized min_sup value of the self-contained web objects into a second large reference sequence set (L2), and generates a traversal pattern set by merging the L1 and the L2.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to web mining technology, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus of traversal pattern mining with reference to predefined minimum support value corresponding to web object position.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the rapid expansion of the World Wide Web (WWW), web data mining has recently become increasingly important. An important issue in web data mining is traversal pattern mining used to decide upcoming likely web page requests based on significant statistical correlations. Web log data is collected by web servers, containing information about user behavior on a site (e.g., sequences of URLs requested by different clients bearing different IP address.). The analysis of these large volumes of log data requires employment of data mining methods. According to the definition of association mining rules, mined patterns are those access sequences of frequent occurrence. If a sequence appears frequently enough, the sequence indicates a frequent traversal pattern. Understanding user traversal patterns not only helps improve the Web site design, such as providing efficient access between highly correlated objects, better authoring design for pages, and the like, but also lead to better marketing decisions, such as advertisement placement, more accurate customer classification and behavior analysis, and the like.
Although conventional methods described are feasible for the mining of frequent traversal patterns from a log file, several problems remain. Specifically, conventional methods of traversal pattern mining are based on the model of a uniform support threshold to determine frequent traversal patterns without considering such important factors as the length of the pattern and the positions of web pages. As a result, a low support threshold leads to generation of unimportant patterns while a high support threshold may cause important patterns with lower support to be ignored.
In view of these limitations, a need exists for an apparatus and method of traversal pattern mining, with reduced process time and improved usability of results.

Traversal pattern mining apparatus and method thereof


A computing system and platform includes an event subsample processor and a risk item subsample processor to generate approximations when undertaking processing to model complex events in order to minimize CPU, memory and storage overhead. The event subsample processor approximates values associated with events based on a measure of the importance of select events; the risk item subsample processor groups similar event/risk item pairs and approximates values using representatives from each group.

A data explosion has taken place over the past few decades. In almost every industry and field of endeavor, data and metadata have been generated, organized and stored to a degree never before seen. Satellite images are now publicly available from multiple sources for the entire globe. Weather and climatological data are likewise available on a worldwide basis. Other information, such as population density and demographics, electrical grid capacities, water resources, geopolitical records and the like is available via both free and paid services, whether from the public sector or the private sector.
While the availability of such data permits creation of services and systems never before possible, it also poses a tremendous technical challenge. With so much available data, analysis is now often limited by the ability of computing systems to quickly access to and process such data from any desired location.
To provide just one example, consider computerized modeling of catastrophe risks. To obtain meaningful predictions of damage or failure (e.g., train derailment, bridge collapse, building damage, road flooding), sufficient data are now available to, in theory, model a very large number (say, 100,000) versions of some future period via a computer simulation, wherein each simulated version consists of a simulated number of simulated catastrophe events, each of which includes a simulation of hazard values due to the catastrophe (e.g., wind speeds, flood depths) on a spatial grid. In this scenario, not every event affects each risk item (e.g., building). For each pairing of an event with a risk item a simulated hazard value at the location of the risk item can be considered, along with a corresponding damage function and damage distribution, to calculate a possible level of damage for the risk item. Then, simulated levels of damage for all event/risk item pairs, for all events, can be combined to create metrics that estimate distributions of possible total damages to the risk items under consideration. These damages can then be summarized using an appropriate metric, e.g., an average annual damage metric (sometimes referred to as AAD, and defined herein as the average of the annual damage for the complete list of risk items over the simulated versions of the future year).
To provide a more detailed example of such modeling, one might seek to quantify wind damage risk due to typhoons hitting Japan next year for a list of ten million buildings. For some purposes, it may be helpful to use a very large number of simulations, e.g., 100,000 possible versions of possible weather next year, which might contain 800,000 individual typhoons in total. If each typhoon affects, on average, only 10% of the buildings, that would still result in one million affected buildings to be modeled for each typhoon on average.
Such ambitious modeling efforts pose significant computer hardware challenges, imposing significant requirements for CPU capabilities, working memory as well as storage. Using the example above, for example, calculations would be required for 800 billion event/risk item pairs. If each calculated damage value is stored with 8 bytes, that corresponds to 6.4 Terabytes of data; holding such data in RAM, given current hardware availability, would require extremely expensive conventional computing components. Even that amount of disk storage, just for that one modeling exercise, would be significant.
Numerous attempts have been made to address such computational challenges. The most basic, brute force approach is to simply employ traditional parallel processing systems with massive memory and storage arrays to permit such modeling. In another approach, management of diverse sources of data using specialized computing structures to more efficiently process data in such circumstances is detailed in copending, commonly owned U.S. patent application 62/146,836, filed Apr. 13, 2015 (now corresponding to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/097,233, filed Apr. 12, 2016), the contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. Further discussion of related issues is provided in copending, commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/799,120 filed Mar. 13, 2013, published as US 2014/0278306, the contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
Modeling of the sort discussed above can be applied to various fields and industry sectors, including agriculture (risks to farmland and agricultural products); supply chain (possible interruptions impacting certain vendors or procurement items); insurance (relating for instance to real property, people, or contents of buildings/containers); protection of governmental/municipal facilities (airports against weather or terrorism, dams and other flood defenses against storm water), energy (oil platforms, tankers and pipelines subject to leaks/spills); healthcare (ranging from disease prediction to analysis of possible pandemic/epidemic threats to personalized medicine procedure outcome prediction); and heavy industry (factory disruption based on events ranging from work stoppages to worker health to catastrophic events).
For each of these scenarios, an additional complexity may arise in that data structures for an item may be expressed as a nested hierarchy of a large number of attributes that may make use of a traditional relational database structure difficult or nearly impossible to use. Further discussion of such complexity is provided, for example, in copending commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/914,774, filed Jun. 11, 2013 and published as US 2013/0332474 and PCT application PCT/US2015-022776, filed Mar. 26, 2015, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
The resulting data analysis challenges make it difficult to use conventional computing systems. For instance, conventional model computation constructs a given model as a single large function and is known as "monolithic model implementation." Typically, this is implemented using a primary programmatic loop over repeating elements, represented in pseudo-code as:
for each Event                for each Item                    model extent of damage or failure
This approach is referred to as event/item loop processing. For each iteration of the loop, the extent of damage or failure needs to be computed, which can quickly result in data and computational "explosions" as the number of events and items increases. Some attempts have been made to use columnar databases in such applications, but these have their own scaling issues and columnar databases are typically not well-suited for supporting complex object types.
Rather than using computing systems with typical, known architectures, it would be desirable if a computing system with an architecture that inherently allows use of smaller, less expensive computer hardware were available for such complex calculations.
The features and advantages described in the specification are not all inclusive and, in particular, many additional features and advantages will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of the drawings and text herein. Moreover, it should be noted that the language used in the text has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes, and may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribe the disclosed subject matter.

High performance computing system and platform


A system for electrically coupling an electrical supply unit for cordless electrical devices, hand-held power tools in particular, with a charging device, with the electrical supply unit is located in a housing in which at least one rechargeable battery that can be recharged using the charging device is located, and the electrical supply unit and the charging device each have at least a first and a second contact element, wherein the first and second contact elements of the electrical supply unit interact with the first and second contact elements of the charging device such that the charging procedure takes place only when the electrical supply unit is in a defined end position in the charging device.

The present invention relates to a system for electrically coupling a charging device with an electrical supply unit.
Cableless electrical devices, hand-held power tools in particular, with a mains-independent voltage supply for the electric motor have enjoyed extensive use in recent years, because independence from the voltage network offers many advantages for the handling of hand-held power tools of this type. The rechargeable batteries for voltage supply are integrated in the hand-held power tool or they are attached to the housing of the hand-held power tool as a rechargeable battery pack. To charge the rechargeable battery pack, the hand-held power tool or the rechargeable battery pack are coupled with a charging device. It is known from the related art that, in order to charge the rechargeable battery, the rechargeable battery pack is separated from the electrical device or it remains connected with the electrical device. If the rechargeable batteries are permanently integrated in the electrical device, the electrical device can be placed on the charging device, where it is held in place by gravity.
Publication DE 102 12 750 A, e.g., makes known a hand-held power tool such as a drill or a drill/driver, to the housing of which a rechargeable battery pack system can be attached. Snap-in elements are provided for mechanically connecting the housing with the rechargeable battery pack system, and contact elements are provided for the electrical connection. The rechargeable battery pack can be attached, e.g., at the base of the handle of the hand-held power tool. At least one lateral surface of the rechargeable battery pack is designed as a support surface, thereby enabling the hand-held power tool to be placed on a flat surface when the rechargeable battery pack system is attached.
Known electrical devices powered by rechargeable battery packs, hand-held power tools in particular, have the disadvantage that the process of charging the rechargeable battery pack can also take place, under certain circumstances, when the rechargeable battery pack or the electrical device are not fully engaged in the charging device. Under certain circumstances, it is therefore possible that the charging process will take place in an uncontrolled manner. When this happens, it is not ensured that the rechargeable battery pack will be in a fully recharged state after the electrical device has spent a certain amount of time in the charging device.