A quickly collapsible and erectable horizontal and parallel bars combination mainly includes two modularized upright assemblies, two side supports detachably connected to a top of the upright assemblies, and a top bar detachably supported on and between upper ends of the two side supports. Each of the upright assemblies includes two upright posts, upper and lower crossbars fixedly connected to predetermined positions on the two upright posts, a U-shaped handgrip and a framed foot member pivotally connected to the upper and the lower crossbar, respectively, and supporting posts vertically connected to and extended between the handgrip and the framed foot member. The handgrip and the framed foot member may be synchronously pivotally turned upward to collapse the upright assembly to an almost flat state and accordingly a largely reduce volume.

The present invention relates to a quickly collapsible and erectable horizontal and parallel bars combination, and more particularly to a horizontal and parallel bars combination including two modularized upright assemblies that could be quickly detached from other structural members of the combination and collapsed into a flat state occupying a largely reduced space.
A conventional horizontal bar generally includes two simple upright posts and a top bar transversely supported on upper ends of the upright posts. To ensure the structural strength and stability of the conventional horizontal bar, the two upright posts are usually buried into the ground by a predetermined depth, and the top bar is welded to the upper ends of the upright posts. On the other hand, conventional parallel bars mainly include a plurality of supporting posts and two parallel bars are horizontally supported on upper ends of the supporting posts. As the above-described conventional horizontal bar, the conventional parallel bars have the drawback of being fixedly erected and not easily movable, and are therefore not convenient for use. Moreover, the conventional horizontal bar and parallel bars are actually structurally similar to one another in many aspects. However, there has not been any design integrating these two items into one unit up to date.
In view of the above many disadvantages found in the conventional horizontal bar and parallel bars, such as being unmovable, non-collapsible, occupying a large space, etc., the same inventor of the present invention has previously developed a sectional horizontal bar and parallel bars combination that is granted a U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,932. The sectional horizontal and parallel bars combination disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,932 mainly includes two side supports, two top carriers connected to the top of the two side supports, and a top bar supported on upper ends of the two top carriers. The top bar forms a main structural member of a general horizontal bar. Two curved braces are separately pivotally connected at two ends to predetermined positions on the two side supports. When the curved braces are pivotally turned toward each other to horizontally extend below the top bar, a user may grip at the curved braces to do simple parallel bar exercises. Two U-shaped tubes are separately connected to front and rear sides of the two side supports to horizontally project therefrom to increase a contacting area between the sectional horizontal and parallel bars combination and the ground. With the above arrangements, the sectional horizontal and parallel bars combination disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,932 could be conveniently disassembled and moved, and functions as horizontal bar and parallel bars at the same time.
A disadvantage of the above-mentioned sectional horizontal and parallel bars combination of prior art is it takes a lot of time to assemble and disassemble the structural members thereof. It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop an improved sectional horizontal and parallel bars combination having a modularized design to enable easier erection and collapse and accordingly convenient use thereof.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a quickly collapsible and erectable horizontal and parallel bars combination including modularized upright assemblies, each of which can be quickly collapsed into a volume-reduced flat state for easy packing and/or storage or quickly erected for use simply by pivotally turning a handgrip and a framed foot member upward or downward.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a quickly collapsible and erectable horizontal and parallel bars combination including two upright assemblies, two side supports separately connected to upper ends of the two upright assemblies, a top bar transversely supported on tops of the two side supports. Each of the upright assemblies includes two upright posts and two crossbars fixedly assembled into a frame, a U-shaped handgrip and a framed foot member pivotally connected to upper and lower ends, respectively, of the two upright posts, and a plurality of supporting posts vertically extended between and thereby indirectly connecting the handgrip and the foot member. Thus, the upright assembly is modularized and the handgrip and the foot member can be pivotally turned upward synchronously to collapse the upright assembly into a flat state.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a quickly collapsible and erectable horizontal and parallel bars combination including two upright assemblies, each of which includes two auxiliary struts pivotally connected at an end to predetermined positions on two upright posts of the upright assembly for the latter to stand stably in an erected state, and a secondary crossbar transversely extended between the two upright posts at a predetermined height. The secondary crossbar is provided at two opposite sides near two outer ends with two receiving brackets for holding free ends of the two auxiliary struts thereto when the latter are pivotally turned during collapsing of the upright assembly.

Quickly collapsible and erectable horizontal and parallel bars combination


A capacitive measuring pad is constructed of transverse conductive strips separated by a compressible insulator to form a matrix of pressure sensitive capacitive nodes. The nodes are repetitively scanned in sequence by a microcomputer to measure their respective capacitances, from which measurements a pressure map is then derived. The resulting pressure map may be displayed on a color graphics monitor with different colors representing diffrent pressures. Node capacitance is found by measuring the response of the mode to a driving signal of a known voltage. This measurement is accomplished by connecting one of the node's transverse conductive strips to the driving source and the node's other conductive strips to a sense amplifier. In order to isolate the node of interest from the influence of surrounding nodes, all of the conductive strips except the two intersecting the selected node are connected to ground. Furthermore, the input impedance to ground of the sense amplifier is made negligibly small with respect to the other system impedance. In this way, only the conductive strip connected to the driving source has a voltage impressed on it, and the conductive strips of all other nodes in the system are maintained at ground potential, thus allowing an accurate measurement of the one capacitance.

The present invention is directed to a system for detecting and measuring pressure distribution, and more particularly to a system which employs a pad to provide a quantitative indication of pressure distribution on a surface.
Pressure sensing pads are known for use in applications such as the detection of apnea or the like. They can be placed on the crib of an infant and are used to detect regular and periodic changes in pressure occasioned by the respiration and movement of the infant. If the infant should stop breathing, the failure to detect a change in pressure for a predetermined period of time provides an early indication of a possible alarm condition.
While most pressure sensing pads of the type known heretofore are capable of detecting the interruption of respiration, they are not suited for other uses. In particular, it is desirable to be able to measure the distribution of pressure on a surface. Information of this type would be invaluable to designers of sleep surfaces and furniture, for example. By knowing where the high-pressure points of a prone person are located, a bed can be designed which will more evenly distribute pressure and thereby diminish the occurrence of bedsores on patients who are confined for long periods of time. Similarly, the design of ergonomically efficient furniture is facilitated with such information.
Apnea monitoring pads are not suited for these types of applications because they are essentially qualitative measuring devices. In other words, they can detect if a pressure is being applied and whether it is changing, but they do not indicate how much pressure is being applied. Further they do not have the ability to provide any spatial resolution to the sensed pressure; they merely detect that it exists somewhere on the surface of the pad.
A significant problem that is encountered when attempts are made to provide spatial resolution of an applied pressure is the effect which various measuring points have on one another. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,134,063 and 4,437,138 disclose a pressure sensing pad that comprises a matrix of capacitive elements. Each capacitive element defines a measuring point. When a measurement is to be taken at a particular point, a voltage signal is applied to one terminal of the capacitor at that point, and a signal is obtained at the other terminal which is indicative of capacitance. Since the capacitance varies with the pressure on the pad at the location of the capacitor, the resulting signal provides pressure-related information.
However, since all of the capacitors are connected to each other in the matrix arrangement, errors can occur in the pressure measurement. More particularly, the signal obtained from one point will be influenced not only by the capacitance at that measuring point of interest but also by the capacitances of the surrounding points. Thus, changes in the surrounding pressures will be indicated in the measured signal and could result in erroneous readings.
The previously noted '063 patent contains a recognition of this problem. As a solution, it proposes that each of the input lines that supplies the voltage signal to the capacitors be connected to ground by a low-ohmic resistor. Apparently the resistor functions to shunt some of the error signal away from the output terminal of the capacitor of interest. While this approach attenuates the effect of the error on the measured signal, it would be preferable to eliminate or compensate the error signal to the greatest extent that can be practically obtained. For example, after supplying a voltage signal to one terminal of a selected capacitor of interest, capacitance is selectively measured at the other terminal of the capacitor by placing the latter terminal at an increased voltage potential. Such an increased voltage potential at the output terminal of the selected capacitor in the '063 patent is associated with the capacitor and diode utilized in the capacitance measuring voltage detection circuit GS.sub.k.
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a novel capacitive system for measuring the spatial distribution of pressure.
It is a more specific object along these lines to provide such a system which eliminates the errors occasioned by interaction among commonly connected capacitors which affect the measured signal.
It is a further object of the invention to also eliminate the effects of noise from other sources which can introduce error into the pressure measurement.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a pad structure which does not generate noise that could interfere with external instrumentation used in the environment of a patient.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel pad structure for providing capacitive type measurements.

Pressure mapping system with capacitive measuring pad


Systems and methods for managing communication between applications (e.g., apps) in a host computing environment. Apps are published to a globally-accessible site. Upon download of an app to a host computing environment, apps can register themselves with a communication gateway as being discoverable and permissive to inter-app communications. Message queues are created to facilitate asynchronous communications between apps. After registration, any of the apps can send and receive messages using the communication gateway. The messages can be directed to any other app that is registered with the communication gateway. Using the message queues, the communication gateway facilitates asynchronous app interactions such that any app can communicate with any other discoverable and permissive app. Aspects of operation, discoverability and other attributes can be codified in an application manifest that is processed by the communication gateway. Discoverability, source of origination, payload contents, permissions and other attributes are carried in the application manifest.

Many modern computing systems include virtual entities, such as virtual machines (VMs), to improve the utilization of computing resources. Such VMs can be characterized as software-based computing "machines" implemented in a virtualization environment that emulates the underlying hardware resources (e.g., CPU, memory, etc.). For example, multiple VMs can operate on one physical machine (e.g., host computer) running a single host operating system, while the VMs might run multiple applications on various respective guest operating systems.
Another virtual entity in modern computing systems is the container, which is implemented using operating system virtualization or container virtualization. The containers implemented in container virtualization environments comprise groups of processes and/or resources (e.g., memory, CPU, disk, etc.) that are isolated from the host computer and other containers. Such containers directly interface with the kernel of the host operating system with, in most cases, no hypervisor layer. As an example, certain applications can be implemented as containerized applications (CAs). The use of VMs, CAs and other virtualized entities in distributed computing systems to improve the utilization of computing resources continues to increase.
The high storage I/O (input/output or IO) demand of VMs and CAs has in turn brought to bear an increase in deployment of distributed storage systems. Distributed storage systems can aggregate various physical storage facilities to create a logical storage pool where data may be efficiently distributed according to various metrics and/or objectives. Modern hyperconverged (e.g., combining networked compute nodes and storage nodes) systems often host autonomous nodes that facilitate incremental and/or linear scaling. Some clusters in a distributed system might scale to hundreds of nodes or more that support several thousands or more autonomous VMs. As such, the topology and/or the storage I/O activity of the distributed system can be highly dynamic. Users (e.g., system administrators) of such large scale, highly dynamic distributed systems desire applications (e.g., management tools) that facilitate managing and/or analyzing the distributed systems that are resilient and/or responsive to changes in the system topology.
Often new functionality pertaining to management and/or analysis of the cluster is desired by the user. For example, a given system administrator for an enterprise might determine that a certain set of metrics are correlated to the performance of the enterprise's distributed compute and storage system implementation, and desires an extension to the system management application that measures and analyzes those identified metrics. In some distributed virtualization environments, applications can be implemented as CAs. Some containerized applications can be configured to implement a particular function or set of functions without reliance on a fully-configured hardware and/or software platform. For example, a containerized application might be defined to perform some simple operation over some given inputs and then produce an output in a predefined format. In such a case, the containerized application can be considered to be lightweight, at least as pertains to not having the "weight", for example, of a hypervisor and/or a guest operating system (e.g., as implemented with VMs).
Containerized applications can provide a certain level of secure isolation from other components in the distributed virtualization system. The foregoing characteristics of these containerized applications can be desirable to users of distributed virtualization systems. For example, one or more resource owners (e.g., data provider, service provider, enterprise, etc.) each implementing a respective large, multi-user (e.g., multi-tenant) cluster in a distributed virtualization system may desire to implement applications using containerized applications to provide efficient distribution across the cluster as well as to provide isolation from user (e.g., other tenant) VMs and/or system control components. In some cases, the resource owners further desire access not only to internally developed applications, but also to publicly available applications from, for example, a third-party developer marketplace.
Unfortunately, legacy techniques for deploying applications from third-party developer marketplaces fail to address deployments into distributed virtualization environments. More specifically, legacy techniques merely support installation of a given application based on certain a priori knowledge of the installation environment. For example, a particular application can be developed for a given operating system and/or platform so as to be able to perform certain predetermined functions (e.g., perform file access based on file extension).
What is needed is a technique or techniques to improve over legacy approaches and/or over other considered approaches. Some of the approaches described in this background section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.

Asynchronous application interactions in distributed systems


A machine-readable storage medium storing executable code is configured to cause a machine to randomly alter a shape of a character. A method for creating a dynamic handwriting font includes: providing a first shaped character; providing a predetermined frequency distribution; and randomly altering a shape of the first shaped character according at least partially to the frequency distribution.

Few people voluntarily read junkmail. In fact, most junkmail is never even opened because the recipient's name and address is usually printed in block text by a poor quality dot matrix printer (in spite of the ready availability of laser and ink jet printers), and the recipient readily identifies the mail as an unsolicited, unwanted advertisement. Further, even if the recipient opens the mail, the letter or information inside is usually a mass printed material and, if personalized, is clearly printed by one of many well known "mail merger" programs, thus providing a very impersonal quality. Attempts to solve this problem have included creating computer-generated fonts that emulate handwriting. Such fonts may include a simple script, in which the individual characters are formed in the same manner as conventional fonts, with the only exception that the characters have a sort of cursive handwriting shape. Other methods improve on this simple method by automatically connecting the cursive- or script-style characters in each word, to emulate the connection of letters in a cursive handwritten word. Further, other methods (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,771) have resulted in context-driven selection of characters, based on the recognition that the shape of a particular character may differ depending on whether the particular character appears alone, at the beginning of a word, in the middle of word, or at the end of a word. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,108,206 recognizes that "a document having such a computer-generated font is likely to lack human touches and to be irksome"—perhaps even as irksome as the word "irksome" itself—and discloses obtaining data as to size and inclination of a character and character pitch and line pitch on the basis of random numbers.

Software and method for creating a dynamic handwriting font


An apparatus for mounting a basketball rim to a glass basketball backboard to prevent a basketball rim from being torn from and thereby shattering the backboard. A small portion of a glass backboard normally supporting a basketball rim, is removed and replaced with a rim mounting plate. The rim mounting plate is joined between two horizontal support tubes that connect to a support frame that attaches to the perimeter of the glass backboard. A support bracket assembly is connected to both the rim mounting plate and the glass backboard to secure the assembled rim and backboard to a support pole.

This invention relates to the field of basketball goals, and in particular to basketball goals having a glass backboard that supports a basketball rim and provides a mounting surface for securing the rim and backboard to a support structure.
Prior art basketball goal designs have been aimed at providing adjusting means to vary the height of a basketball goal. No basketball goal design has addressed the problem of reinforcing a glass basketball backboard to prevent a rim from being torn from the backboard. When the rim is torn from the backboard, the backboard shatters and deposits glass particles over a broad area thereby causing a safety problem and delaying the basketball sporting event.
The problem with prior art basketball goals is that the rim is bolted directly to the backboard. This arrangement is utilized even with the backboard manufactured from glass. A common scoring technique in basketball is for a player to ram the ball through the rim for an easy score and then hang or pull on the rim for a brief period of time after the ball passes through the rim. The player hanging or pulling on the rim can tear the rim from the glass backboard thereby causing the entire backboard to shatter and the rim to be propelled downward towards the player.
Examples of prior art devices include those disclosed in the following United States Patents:
Pat. No. 4,805,904 discloses an adjusting assembly connected to a basketball backboard and mounting post. The adjusting assembly utilizes two parallel support members having one end pivotally connected to a rigid vertical support attached to the backboard, and an opposite end pivotally connected to a support pole. A locking mechanism is connected to both parallel support members thereby maintain the position of the support members and the backboard height of the basketball backboard. The problem with this device is that the basketball rim is bolted to the backboard, and if a glass backboard is utilized with the adjusting assembly, there is the possibility that the rim could be torn from the backboard thereby causing the backboard to shatter and deposit glass particles in the proximate area.
Pat. No. 4,801,142 discloses an adjustable basketball goal with a lift cable and winch for raising and lowering the basketball goal. The cable has a height indicator assembly thereon for indicating the height of the basketball hoop above the playing surface. The support structure for the basketball goal includes a safety cylinder to prevent rapid descent of the backboard thereby avoiding injuries.
Pat. No. 4,526,367 discloses a portable basketball goal that collapses into a lowered position thereby permitting storage in a conventional garage; also, the goal may be wheeled to a desired location and elevated to a playing height.
Pat. No. 3,722,886 discloses a movable stand for a basketball goal having an elongated tube with a basketball goal mounted at one end, means to secure the tube at the opposite end, and a movable carriage supporting the tube at the mid-portion. A winch mechanism is provided to raise and lower the basket and backboard, and backboard adjustment means are provided to position the backboard vertical with respect to the ground as the height is varied.
Pat. No. 3,586,324 discloses a vertically adjustable basketball goal having upper and lower pairs of parallel arms which are pivotally connected to a support thereby allowing the goal to be vertically adjusted by means of a flexible cable passing over a pulley positioned on the top of the support.
Pat. No. 2,881,003 discloses a device for raising and lowering basketball backboards. The device includes upper and lower pairs of support members pivotally connected at one end to a gymnasium wall and pivotally connected at the opposite end to a basketball backboard. A winch assembly is mounted to the gymnasium wall below the support members. A cable from the winch assembly extends upward through a pulley mounted to the gymnasium wall above the support members. The cable then extends downward to the basketball backboard and is connected thereto. This arrangement allows the basketball goal to be elevated upwards and against the gymnasium wall.

Apparatus for mounting a basketball rim to a glass basketball backboard


An aspect includes determining a host write rate based on a number of chunks written to a storage volume during a first replication cycle and determining a target rate based on an estimated number of chunks written during a second replication cycle. The target rate is determined by dividing the number of chunks written during the second replication cycle by a recovery point objective (RPO) period. An aspect also includes transmitting chunks written during the second replication cycle at the target rate.

Content-based storage (sometimes referred to as content-addressable storage or CAS) stores data based on its content, providing inherent data deduplication and facilitating in-line data compression, among other benefits. Some existing content-based storage systems may provide data backup and replication capabilities. For example, snapshots of a given storage volume may be made at arbitrary points in time and replicated to a remote system (e.g., another content-based storage system). Consecutive snapshots may be compared to identify which data in the volume changed and, thus, needs to be transmitted to the remote system. Between any two consecutive snapshots, the storage system may process an arbitrary number of I/O writes for the storage volume.
Some storage systems allow a so-called "recovery point objective" (RPO) period to be defined by a storage administrator or other user. An RPO period may specify the maximum targeted time period in which data might be lost (e.g., due to corruption or disk failure). Existing storage systems may automatically generate and replicate snapshots at some frequency determined by the RPO.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Replication link smoothing using historical data


A saddle cushioning assembly having component structures including a flexible pad having an upper surface and having a longitudinal midline; a flexible “T” hook having left and right arms; and hook attaching stitching fixedly interconnecting the flexible pad and the flexible “T” hook, the hook attaching stitching positioning the flexible “T” hook so that the flexible “T” hook's left and right arms overlie the flexible pad's upper surface and respectively extend leftwardly and rightwardly from the flexible pad's longitudinal midline.

Under ideal circumstances, a horseback riding saddle is fitted to a particular horse, allowing the saddle's horseback contacting skirt panels to evenly rest upon the horse's back. A properly fitted saddle applies evenly dispersed pressure laterally against the upper left and right aspects of the horse's barrel, and applies evenly dispersed pressure longitudinally between the horse's withers and loins. Such fitted saddles commonly include a layer of wool loft or fleece material applied directly to the contact surfaces of the skirt panels. Additionally, a saddle pad is commonly interposed between the saddle and a horse's back, such pad typically serving dual functions of providing additional cushioning of the horse's back, and preventing sweat from soaking through to the saddle.
Where a horseback riding saddle, such as described above, is well fitted to a horse, maintenance of a precise alignment of such saddle pad with respect to the horse and the saddle is typically of little consequence. However, saddles are often used for time periods making up a major portion of the life span of a horse. As a horse ages, gradual diminishment of the tone and bulk of musculature across the horse's back tends to change the shape of the horse's back, and may result in "swaying" of the back. Such changes over time often undesirably confound or disrupt the fit of that horse's saddle. Continued use of a poorly fitted saddle often tends to "sore" the horse's back by causing pressure points at the horse's withers and loins, or by causing free space "clapping" between the horse's back and undersurfaces of the saddle.
In the equestrian arts, specialized saddle pads incorporating shim receiving pockets are known. Such shim receiving pockets typically receive and hold saddle fitting shims which commonly comprise tailored and fitted felt pads having thicknesses varying between ⅛ and ¾ inch. Such saddle fitting shims are known to be strategically placed within such saddle pad pockets in order to assure evenly dispersed saddle/horse pressurized contact despite a saddle's otherwise poor fit. Accordingly, such shims and saddle pad pocket combinations advantageously accommodate for a saddle's poor fit and extend the usefulness of a saddle.
Where a saddle pad includes shims and shim pockets, maintenance of proper alignment of such saddle pad between the saddle and horse is desired. In the event of saddle pad slippage, shims within the pockets of such saddle pad may undesirably produce pressure sores instead of performing their beneficial function of assuring proper saddle fit.
The instant inventive saddle pad solves or ameliorates problems discussed above by fixedly attaching a flexible "T" hook or tab and by securely engaging such "T" hook with under-saddle structures which make up and comprise the saddle's midline gullet space.


A method, a non-transitory computer readable medium and a system for reducing a temperature difference between a sample and a chuck of an electron beam tool. The method may include determining a target temperature of samples located at the load port of the electron beam tool; setting a temperature of the samples, located at the load port, to the target temperature; moving the sample from the load port to the chuck, the chuck is located within a vacuum chamber, the sample belongs to the samples; and positioning the sample on the chuck, wherein when positioned on the chuck, a temperature of the sample substantially equals a temperature of the chuck.

A scanning electron microscope is a high-resolution tool for evaluating a sample such as a semiconductor wafer.
There are different types of scanning electron microscopes—including a review scanning electron microscope that is used to review suspected defects, and a critical dimension scanning electron microscope that is used to measure critical dimensions of microscopic structures of the sample.
In each scanning electron microscope, a sample is evaluated while positioned within a vacuum chamber of the scanning electron microscope.
The sample is supported by a chuck. The chuck is moved by a mechanical stage. The mechanical stage includes engines and other components that may heat during the movement—thereby heating the chuck.
A scanning electron microscope should exhibit a nanometric scale resolution. This nanometric scale resolution is obtained by scanning an area of the sample with an electron beam that has a very small cross section. Multiple areas of the samples may be scanned—usually one area after the other.
The area of the sample is expected to include nanometric scale features of interest. For example—the nanometric scale features of interest may suffer from suspected defects. Additionally or alternatively, the nanometric scale features of interest may be features that should be measured.
Before scanning the area, the mechanical stage may move the sample so that the area is located within the field of view of the electron beam.
The position of the electron beam should be very accurate—in order to scan the nanometric scale features of interest.
Due to the heating of the chuck—there may be a significant temperature difference between the chuck and the sample—so that when the sample is positioned on the chuck—the sample may be slightly deformed.
The deformation of the sample may introduce intolerable position errors.
There is a growing need to effectively reduce the significant temperature difference between the chuck and the sample.

Reducing a temperature difference between a sample and a chuck of an electron beam tool


Provided are a substrate processing apparatus, a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, and a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, which are capable of reducing an effect on a substrate, which is caused by a change in an atmosphere in a substrate storage container, by appropriately supplying an inert gas into the substrate storage container. The substrate processing apparatus includes a purge mechanism installed in at least one of a support unit and a receiving unit accommodating a substrate storage container, and configured to supply an inert gas into the substrate storage container; a monitoring unit configured to compare a flow rate of the predetermined gas supplied into the substrate storage container via the purge mechanism with a preset reference value and output a signal indicating a result of comparison between the flow rate of the predetermined gas and the preset reference value; and a management unit configured to manage use of the substrate storage container, based on the signal outputted from the monitoring unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus including a substrate storage container for accommodating a substrate, a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, and a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, which is a type of a substrate processing apparatus, performs a substrate processing process of processing a substrate (hereinafter referred to as a 'wafer') based on a recipe (process recipe) defining process conditions and sequences, as a process of manufacturing a device such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) or an integrated circuit (IC). In the substrate processing apparatus, a plurality of wafers are loaded into a process furnace in a state where the wafers are transferred to a substrate retainer (hereinafter referred to as a 'boat'), and predetermined processing is performed on the wafers. In this case, since the start and end of the processing are waiting for in a state where the wafers are transferred to the boat in a transfer chamber installed below the process furnace, the wafers may be influenced by oxygen (O2) contained in the atmosphere before or after thermal processing is performed on the wafers. Accordingly, an N2 substitute mechanism is installed in the transfer chamber to manage the concentration of oxygen (O2) so as to be reduced to less than a predetermined level.
A substrate which is to be processed by the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is accommodated in a front opening unified pod (FOUP) serving as a substrate storage container, and loaded into a support unit (hereinafter referred to as a 'loading port"). When the FOUP is used, since a wafer is transferred in an airtight state, the degree of cleanliness of the wafer may be maintained even when particles or the like are present in an ambient atmosphere.
However, although the FOUP serving as a substrate storage container is an airtight container, the FOUP does not have a performance to completely block the flow of external air therein or therefrom. Thus, even if the FOUP is loaded in a device in an ideal state (e.g., a state where the concentration of O2 is a predetermined level or less), the concentration of the oxygen (O2) increases as time goes by until the FOUP is unloaded from the device. Therefore, in order to constantly maintain the concentration of the oxygen (O2) in the FOUP, purging needs to be performed using N2 gas while the FOUP is placed in the device. For example, a system of supplying an inert gas when a FOUP is placed on a cassette shelf is disposed in Patent Document 1.

Substrate processing apparatus for managing transfer state of substrate gas storage container based on supply flow rate


A rotating engine produces a torque created by exhaust products routed through angled nozzles exiting the nacelle. In one instance, a hollow drive shaft includes a plurality of fuel injector nozzles through which pressurized fuel is fed into an ignition chamber and ignited. Exiting exhaust is directed to cause the nacelle to spin. This spinning motion of the nacelle is harnessed to perform electrical or mechanical work.

An internal combustion engine is an engine having a combustion chamber into which fuel and an oxidizer are directed and combusted. High pressure gases are applied to movable components of the engine, which are harnessed to do work. For instance, gasoline is mixed with air in the cylinders of an automobile engine and ignited by spark plugs to drive a crankshaft during operation of the automobile. Pressure is exerted against the piston heads within the combustion chambers.
Another type of engine is a ramjet. A ramjet has no moving parts and achieves compression of intake air by the forward speed of the aerial vehicle to which it is attached. High pressure is produced by "ramming" external air into a combustor using the forward speed of the vehicle. Air entering an intake of a supersonic aircraft is slowed by aerodynamic diffusion created at the air intake or inlet and diffuser. The speed of the air is slowed to velocities comparable to those in a turbojet engine. The expansion of hot gases after fuel injection and combustion accelerates the exhaust air to a velocity higher than that at the inlet and creates positive push. In a turbojet engine, the high pressure in the combustor is generated by a compressor. The lack of a compressor in a ramjet renders it lighter and simpler in operation than a turbojet. One drawback to a ramjet is that it only produces thrust when the engine is already moving forward relative to the surrounding ambient air.
Scramjet is an acronym for Supersonic Combustion Ramjet. The scramjet differs from the ramjet in that combustion takes place at supersonic air velocities through the engine. It is mechanically simple, but more complex aerodynamically than a jet engine. Hydrogen is normally the fuel used. Because the scramjet uses external air for combustion, it is a more efficient propulsion system for flight within the atmosphere than a projectile, which must carry all of its oxygen. Scramjets are ideally suited for hypersonic flight within the atmosphere.


A motion control apparatus and method are disclosed. The motion control apparatus comprises a movable mechanism coupled to an external energy source, the energy source providing kinetic energy to the mechanism. An energy conversion module is mechanically coupled to the mechanism for converting kinetic into electrical energy. An electronic circuit is coupled to the energy conversion module and a storage module and a mechanism controller is coupled to the electronic circuit. A sensor module is coupled to both the electronic circuit and the movable mechanism to sense the movement of the movable mechanism to determine speed of the movable mechanism and transmit speed information to the electronic circuit. The method comprises applying energy to a movable mechanism, converting kinetic to electrical energy, storing the electrical energy converted, controlling the motion of the mechanism and sensing the movement of the mechanism.

Many commercial and industrial applications require motion control. Examples include 1) a valve or gate may need to be opened or closed at specific times and/or at specific rates; 2) a rotating mechanism, such as a sprinkler for irrigation purposes, may need to turn at a controlled rate or distribute water in a particular manner; or, 3) a turnstile which is pushed by a person may need to have its motion controlled in some fashion to, for example, ensure safety. Controlling the motion of any mechanism, such as a sprinkler or a turnstile, generally requires a source of energy. Often, a source of electrical energy is located in proximity to the movable mechanism. However, it is not always practical to provide electrical power from an external source to a motion control system. This may be because the movable mechanism is portable and wiring is cumbersome or because no electrical energy is available at the site of the movable mechanism. Additionally, there are costs associated with wiring electrical power to the site of a movable mechanism.
The present invention is directed toward a motion control apparatus employed in situations where there is no convenient nearby source of electrical energy. In the case of a rotating sprinkler, for example, the energy source which actually moves the rotating sprinkler mechanism is generally in the form of pressurized flowing water and electrical power may not be convenient or easy to obtain at the site of a sprinkler. Another movable mechanism at which electrical energy may not be convenient or easy to obtain is a human-powered turnstile, which is pushed by a person in order to gain access. In both these examples, it is possible to harvest energy from the source of energy which actually moves the mechanism, and this harvested energy can thus be used to power the electronic circuitry used for motion control. A sprinkler's rate of rotation may be controlled by electronic circuitry and the speed at which a turnstile turns to allow a person to safely pass through it may be controlled by electronic circuitry. The present invention utilizes the same energy source which provides power to move a mechanism to also provide power to electronic circuitry which accomplishes motion control.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,864,591 is entitled "Sprinkler Activated Generator," discloses an apparatus for irrigation, such as a sprinkler, which includes an electric generator for generating electricity. Current sprinkler system designs use some method of dissipating energy to slow the rotation of the sprinkler in order to reduce or eliminate the so-called rooster tail effect of high rotation speeds. This rooster tail effect causes small and uneven distribution patterns. The '591 patent, amongst other things, discusses how the inclusion of an electric generator in a sprinkler may reduce this rooster tail effect. The present invention improves upon the '591 patent by using the electricity which is generated by the electrical generator to power electronic circuitry used to control the motion of the sprinkler.
It is, therefore, advantageous to harvest electrical energy from the kinetic energy of a moving mechanism, and to use that harvested energy to power electronic circuitry which provides motion control.

Motion control system and method with energy harvesting


A method of forming oxide from nitride, in which the oxidation is enhanced by illuminating the nitride material with UV light. This method produces a rapid growth of oxide and allows for the monitoring of the oxide thickness in situ. The method comprises the steps of (i) placing the nitride material on an illuminating holder; (ii) dipping the nitride material and the illuminating holder in an electrolyte; and (iii) illuminating the nitride material with a light having an energy larger than the energy gap of the nitride material. The nitride material can be connected to a conductive electrode located in the electrolyte via a galvanometer to monitor a photo current generated by the oxidation of the nitride material so as to monitor the thickness of the oxide formed on the nitride material in situ. A metal coating can be coated on the nitride material to define the oxide forming region. The pH value of the electrolyte is in a range of approximately 3 to 10, and is preferably about 3.5.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of forming oxide from nitride, more particularly to a process for wet oxidizing nitride enhanced by illumination with UV light.
2. Description of Prior Art
IC components are normally made of silicon. However, components made of silicon usually malfunction when operated at a high-temperature. In order to address this issue, it is desirable to fabricate IC components using III-V semiconductor materials since such components operate normally in a large temperature range. Furthermore, III-V semiconductor materials can be used to fabricate light-emitting devices. Recently, research into light-emitting devices has been focused on devices emitting light having a shorter wavelength, such as yellow, green or blue light. One of the most important materials used in the fabrication of such light-emitting devices is GaN.
The oxidation of single crystal gallium nitride has been investigated because of its importance in many electronic and optoelectronic applications, especially in achieving desired performances of III-V or II-VI semiconductor optoelectronic devices. For example, gallium oxide can serve as a growth template of a laser diode and form surface passivation, isolation, and AR coatings in semiconductor devices. The use of gallium oxide in the above applications can lead to a significant improvement.
Referring to FIG. 1, which indicates the increase of photo-response on the oxidized GaN due to the combination effects of surface passivation and index matching, in which curve A represents the photo-current response of Ga.sub.2 O.sub.3 and curve B represents the photo-current response of GaN. Furthermore, referring to FIG. 2, the data reveals the enhancement of PL intensity on the oxidized GaN region due to the index matching and surface passivation, wherein curve A' indicates Ga.sub.2 O.sub.3 /GaN and curve B' indicates GaN.
It is well known to those skilled in the art that a major shortcoming of GaAs-based semiconductor materials is the relatively poor quality and/or instability of the semiconductor/insulator interfaces typically produced by prior art methods. In the prior art, a conventional thermal oxidation technique is normally used to form oxide on GaN material. For example, "X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction study of the thermal oxide on GaN", Appl. Phys. Lett. 70, p. 2156-2158 (1997), by S. D. Wolter, et al, discloses the production of Ga.sub.2 O.sub.3 when GaN is reacted with hot dry air. In this prior art, the oxidation starts gradually at 900.degree. C. and the growth rate of Ga.sub.2 O.sub.3 is only about 20 nm/hr. However, "High temperature surface degration of III-V nitrides," J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 14, p. 3523-3531 (1996), C. B. Vartuli et al. indicates that the thermal process results in the evaporation of the nitrogen atoms of the mixed material InAlN/InGaN serving as the active region of the light-emitting device. For the mixed material InAlN/InGaN, gallium coagulates in the form of droplets when nitrogen evaporates at around 800.degree. C. and 900.degree. C., causing the degradation of the optical characteristics and surface flatness of the device.
"The anodic oxidation of GaAs in aqueous H.sub.2 O.sub.2 solution," J. Electrochem. Soc. 120, p. 1358-1390 (1973), A. Logan et al., discloses another growing technique of gallium oxide in which an anode electrolysis process is used by applying a bias voltage to GaAs dipped in electrolyte, thus forming gallium oxide by the effect of bias current. However, the thickness of the oxide formed by this method is limited. An applied voltage of about 100.about.200 volts is required to achieve an oxide thickness of about 2000 .ANG. since the bias voltage has to be increased proportionate to the thickness of the oxide. In other words, the electric field required to be applied to the interface of oxide and semiconductor is nearly 106.about.107 volts/cm, which is over the breakdown voltage of about 105 volts/cm for normal semiconductor material. Hence, the quality of the oxide formed is not reliable. Therefore, the method of oxidizing nitride by applying a bias voltage is not feasible to the fabrication of optoelectronic or electronic devices.

Method of oxidizing nitride material enhanced by illumination with UV light at room temperature

Industrial Technology Research Institute


An endoscope including an insertion tube, a working, channel located within the insertion tube, and a protecting feature disposed within at least a portion, of the working channel The protecting feature may be adapted to protect the working-channel from thermal damage and/or from mechanical damage caused by a medical instrument located in the working channel. The protecting feature may be adapted to determine presence or absence of a medical instrument within the working channel, arid/or a location of the medical instrument within the working channel.

An endoscope is a medical device that can be used in various medical procedures, such as endoscopic surgery. An endoscope generally includes a hand piece and an insertion tube extending from the hand piece. The insertion tube includes one or more working channels. During a medical procedure involving an endoscope, the insertion tube is passed through an orifice or incision in the anatomy and steered to a site of interest in the anatomy. Various endoscopic instruments can be passed through the one or more working channels and directed to the site of interest to carry out the medical procedure. The endoscopic instruments may include, for example, various illuminating devices, cameras, dissectors, graspers, retractors, scissors, needles, baskets, cautery instruments, forceps, lasers, and the like.
While passing an endoscopic instrument through the one or more working channels, contact between the instrument and the inner walls or surfaces of the working channel may scratch, gouge, dent, and/or otherwise cause damage to the working channel. This may be exacerbated when the insertion tube is in a bent state, and the endoscopic instrument is moved, reciprocated, articulated, and/or otherwise operated therein. Scratching, gouging, and/or denting of the working channel, may cause shavings and/or debris to separate from the working channel, which may undesirably contaminate the anatomy, a sample separated from the anatomy, and/or reduce the lifespan of the insertion tube, endoscope, or both.
In other instances, the working channel or insertion tube may be damaged when an instrument such as laser is prematurely operated or fired when the laser is not fully inserted through the working channel. More specifically, thermal damage to the working channel or insertion tube may occur when the laser is at a location in the working channel where upon firing a laser wavelength from the laser, the laser wavelength contacts the working channel before exiting the insertion tube. Such thermal damage may render the insertion tube inoperable or at least severely limit its lifespan. Moreover, laser wavelength contact with the working channel may weaken or affect the strength and efficacy of the laser wavelength.
In view of these shortcomings, it may be desirable to have one or more protecting features to protect one or more working channels of an insertion tube of an endoscope. It may be desirable to have one or more protecting features to protect the one or more working channels of the insertion tube from mechanical and/or thermal damage caused by moving, reciprocating, and/or otherwise operating one or more endoscopic instruments therein. It may be desirable to have one or more protecting features to reduce, minimize, prevent, or eliminate wear and damage to the one or more working channels and/or insertion tube caused by an endoscopic instrument being passed through or operated in the working channel. It may be desirable to reduce or minimize wear and damage to an insertion tube and/or working channel in order to extend the lifespan of an insertion tube and/or prevent debris, shavings, and the like from separating from the working channel and contaminating the anatomy and/or a tissue sample obtained from the anatomy. It may be desirable to have one or more protecting features that can assist in monitoring and/or determining a location or position of one or more endoscopic instruments in the one or more working channels, and prevent operation of the endoscopic instrument when the endoscopic instrument is not in a preferred location in the working channel. Various endoscopes and endoscopic instruments are known, including those disclosed in WO2011133941A3, WO2007033379A3, US 20140350564, US20060206178A1, U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,870,761, and 7,569,626, which are all incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.


A touch display apparatus is disclosed herein. The touch display apparatus has a timing controller outputting external signals; a touch driver for outputting touch driving signals according to the touch-enable signal; a scan driver having a multi-stage shift registers outputting scan signals, each shift register having a driving unit electrically connected to a driving node, outputting a first scan signal to an output end according to a clock signal; a pull-up unit outputting a driving voltage to the driving node according to a second scan signal; a pull-down control unit controlling a voltage level of the driving node according to the clock signal; a discharging unit adjusting the voltage level of the driving node according to a first control signal and the first scan signal, wherein the clock signal and the first control signal are in-phase periodic signals and respectively have a rising edge and a falling edge, the falling edge of the first control signal is ahead of that of the clock signal; and a pull-down unit electrically connected to the output end adjusting the voltage level of the output end, wherein the first control signal and the second control signal are complementary periodic signals.

Recently, mobile hand-held devices have increased in popularity, resulting in a corresponding increase in various LCD display products for such devices. In addition, due to widespread use of smart end devices, integration of a touch function into smart end devices has become a mainstream demand for current products.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional smart end device having a touch-display function activates a touch driver in a display-pause period for touch driving. As shown, FIG. 1 is a waveform schematic diagram of a conventional shift register having a touch display function, where a display panel has multiple scan lines, and a scan driver comprising multi-stage shift register circuits, a clock signal CK, scan signals G(n−1), G(n), and driving voltages Q(n−1), Q(n). In each frame period, the shift register circuits output the scan signals according to the clock signal to enable the corresponding scan lines of the display panel. For example, the shift register circuits may raise the driving voltage Q(n−1) of an internal driving node Q according to the clock signal CK to output the scan signal G(n−1). In a display-pause period, the shift register circuits are disabled and suspended from outputting the display driving signal G(n), and all of the external signals such as the clock signal CK are disabled such that the driving voltage Q(n) of the driving node Q is in a floating state at this time, resulting in leakage of the driving voltage Q(n) of the driving node Q with time. The longer the external signals such as the clock signal CK are disabled, the more serious is the leakage of the driving voltage Q(n). When the display driving is restored, the scan signal G(n−1) has leakage due to the floating of the internal driving node of the display driving circuit in the display-pause period, resulting in failure of the scan signal G(n) restored after the display-pause period to output a desired voltage level, thereby degrading the display quality. In addition, the waveform distortion of the restored scan signal G(n) results in inconsistency between the time of a falling edge of the waveform and the time of a falling edge of scan signals from other stages, causing the mura effect. Moreover, the display-pause period generally occurs at a constant position of the scan lines. Since the driving nodes Q of the previous-stage and next-stage shift register circuits are also in the leakage state due to floating, a gate end of a driving transistor of the driving unit for pulling down the scan signals G(n−1), G(n) of an output end is continuously stressed, such that the threshold voltage of the driving transistor drifts.
Thus, it is desired to develop methods and devices to prevent the driving transistor of the shift register circuits from being stressed for long periods of time, which results in component performance deterioration and thus erroneous output.

Touch display apparatus and shift register thereof


An electrolyte solution, methods, and systems for selectively removing a conductive metal from a substrate are provided. The electrolyte solution comprising nanoparticles that are more noble than the conductive metal being removed, is applied to a substrate to remove the conductive metal selectively relative to a dielectric material without application of an external potential or contact of a processing pad with a surface of the substrate. The solutions and methods can be applied, for example, to remove a conductive metal layer (e.g., barrier metal) selectively relative to a dielectric material and to a materially different conductive metal (e.g., copper interconnect) without application of an external potential or contact of a processing pad with the surface of the substrate.

In the fabrication of semiconductor devices, contact holes and other features that are formed on a substrate are filled with a conductive material to provide contacts and other circuitry. One method for forming vertical and horizontal interconnects is by a damascene or dual damascene method. FIG. 1 illustrates a portion of a substrate 10 (e.g., wafer or microelectronic substrate) having conductive elements formed according to a prior art damascene method. The substrate 10 includes an insulating layer 12 (e.g., an interdielectric layer or ILD) deposited onto the substrate 10 and pattern etched to form interconnect openings 14. A barrier material layer 16, for example, tantalum (Ta), is deposited within the openings 14 to prevent diffusion of a conductive material such as copper into the insulating layer 12. Depending upon the material selected for the conductive layer, a separate seed layer 18, such as a copper seed layer, can then be deposited onto the barrier layer 16 prior to the formation of the metal layer, for example, by physical vapor deposition (PVD). The openings 14 can then be filled with a conductive metal 20 such as copper (Cu), resulting in excess material being deposited over the surface 22 of the substrate 10 outside or external to the openings 14.
In a typical process, excess deposited material 16, 20 external to the openings 14 is removed through planarizing or polishing the surface 22 of the substrate 10, for example, by a chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) process, to isolate the conductive metal within the openings 14 and produce a substrate 10 having an embedded conductive interconnect or other structure, as depicted in FIG. 1A. During CMP processes, a carrier holds and rotates the substrate 10 in contact with a CMP pad and a polishing solution to mechanically remove material from the surface of the substrate 10. In an exemplary CMP process, excess copper material 20 is polished to the barrier layer 16 using a first slurry composition having a low abrasive content. The excess barrier layer 16 is then polished to the underlying insulating layer 12 using a second slurry composition.
Current low-k and future ultra low-k dielectrics are brittle and sensitive to the mechanical stresses needed to physically remove refractory metals, such as tantalum (Ta). Metal removal solutions that use ultra-low downforces are a current industry focus. Most barrier materials are difficult to remove by CMP because the barrier materials resist removal by abrasion and dissolution. Typical barrier removal slurries require a high abrasive concentration, which tend to result in "dishing" and scratching of the copper interconnect 20 within the openings 14 and detrimental erosion to the exposed insulating layer 12, including peeling and delaminating of low k dielectric layers from the wafer 10.
Another known approach for addressing those problems is to remove conductive materials using an electrochemical-mechanical polishing (ECMP) process or an electrolytic process. An exemplary ECMP process to remove the excess conductive material layer 20 and barrier layer 16 from substrate 10 is illustrated in FIG. 2. The substrate 10 (mounted on a substrate holder (not shown)) is brought into contact with an electrolytic liquid 24, which is dispensed onto a processing pad (situated on a platen). A current supply 28 is flowed through electrodes 26 to the electrolytic liquid 24 and the processing pad is brought into contact with the substrate, resulting in the removal of the conductive material layer 20 and barrier layer 16 to provide a clean surface 22, as in FIG. 1A. An advantage of electrolytic and ECMP processes is that the downforce applied to a substrate by a processing pad during a CMP processing can be reduced or eliminated.
However, current ECMP and electrolytic processes for material removal have several drawbacks, including difficulties associated with hardware and design requirements (voltage supply, electrodes, etc.). Another drawback of electrolytic processing occurs at the end of the process as the metal (e.g., Ta) is almost completely cleared from a substrate layer (e.g., dielectric layer) and the electrolytic process is disrupted by the termination of electrical contact (i.e., open circuit), resulting in residual islands of conductive metal remaining on the substrate.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a process that overcomes such problems.

Method of selectively removing conductive material


A time series of image data is provided to a computer as the basis for performing an ICA to identify a number of candidate correlation patterns. The number of candidate correlation patterns includes a number of neurophysical events and false patterns due to noise. This is followed by a differentiation in the computer between the neurophysical events and the false patterns, for example based on a metric, which indicates the intensity of the candidate correlation patterns in a sub-region of the brain, or by a computer-implemented classifier. Such techniques can be used in conjunction with functional magnetic-resonance imaging.

Field of the Invention
The invention concerns techniques for evaluating image data from functional magnetic-resonance imaging, in particular techniques for differentiating correlation patterns of neurophysical events and false patterns within the framework of an independent component analysis.
Description of the Prior Art
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to analyze neurophysical events. MRI can be used to analyze functionally correlated regions of the brain (anatomical neural networks) with respect to neurophysical events. Anatomical neural networks can be visualized by identifying correlation patterns of neurophysical events. Herein, correlation patterns characterize a temporal and/or spatial correlation of neurophysical events.
One appropriate technique is functional MRI (fMRI). With fMRI, temporal changes to image contrast are depicted by suitable MRI measuring sequences. For example, it is possible observe a blood oxygenation level dependent contrast within the framework of fMRI, also known as BOLD contrast. This enables neurophysical events to be measured.
One special technique in fMRI is so-called resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI). With rsfMRI, account is taken of the time dependence between neurophysical events that are spaced apart in the spatial domain (functional connectivity), wherein the anatomical neural network is exposed to no external stimuli, or to no significant external stimuli. For example, with rsfMRI, the person under examination is not asked to perform any specific activities or think any specific thoughts (resting state).
With rsfMRI, extensive time series of three-dimensional image data are analyzed in order to investigate the mode of operation and correlations of cerebral activity in resting state. Accelerated imaging sequences enable a particularly high time resolution to be achieved. For example, a number of two-dimensional layers can be excited and read-out simultaneously in a region of interest of a person under examination. See, for example, Souza, S. P., et al. "SIMA: simultaneous multilayer acquisition of MR images by Hadamard-encoded excitation." Journal of computer assisted tomography 12.6 (1988): 1026-1030; and Setsompop, Kawin, et al. "Blipped-controlled aliasing in parallel imaging for simultaneous multilayer echo planar imaging with reduced g-factor penalty." Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 67.5 (2012): 1210-1224; and Breuer, Felix A., et al. "Controlled aliasing in parallel imaging results in higher acceleration (CAIPIRINHA) for multi-layer imaging." Magnetic resonance in medicine 53.3 (2005): 684-691.
The higher time resolution results in an increased amount of MR data. The data set to be analyzed is larger, as a result of which the computing-intensive preprocessing of the image data requires significantly more time. Typical time series take approximately 6-8 minutes and can depict, for example, 700-1000 volume regions with 70-80 slices.
With rsfMRI, different techniques are used to evaluate the time series of image data. An evaluation is based on an independent component analysis (ICA). The ICA is conventionally based on model assumptions in dependence on the current data record, such as seed points, which control the evaluation a-priori or descriptions of an external stimulus. This means that the correlation patterns can be identified without an a-priori restriction. With an ICA, correlation patterns, which can explain the intensity changes in the time series of image data as the consequence of neurofunctional events, are sought in the underlying image data. An ICA finds candidate correlation patterns that are independent of one another. These are also referred to as components of an ICA. These multiple candidate correlation patterns include correlation patterns of the number of neurophysical events and false patterns, which are obtained, for example, due to noise in the image data or are inevitable result of the ICA algorithm used. The false patterns are often of subordinate interest and should be rejected.
With conventional rsfMRI techniques, it can be complicated to differentiate between the correlation patterns of the neurophysical events and the false patterns. For example, it may be necessary to classify a large number of candidate correlation patterns, identified by the ICA manually, as relevant correlation patterns of the neurophysical events or as false patterns. This can be time-consuming and susceptible to error.
Therefore, there is a need for improved techniques for MRI with respect to evaluating neurophysical events in the brain of a person under examination. There is a need for rsfMRI techniques that rectify or alleviate at least some of the aforementioned drawbacks and restrictions.

Method and computer differentiating correlation patterns in functional magnetic resonance imaging


An exemplary electronic device includes a case, an inner body and a pivotable arm pivotally connected on the inner body by a pivot. The case defines an opening at a first lateral side thereof and a latching hole at a second lateral side thereof adjacent to the opening. The inner body is inserted in the case through the opening. The pivotable arm includes a frame engaged in the latching hole of the case, a latching member pivotally connected to the frame by the pivot, and a resilient member. The latching member includes an inner end and an outer end at opposite sides of the pivot. The outer end of the latching member is engaged in the latching hole. The resilient member abuts against the inner end of the latching member such that the inner end of the latching member biases the inner body.

1. Technical Field
The disclosure generally relates to electronic devices, and more particularly, to an electronic device having a pivotable arm for fixing a detachable electronic component of the electronic device in a case thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, data storage and like devices, such as hard disk drives, compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM) drives, digital video disc (DVD) drives and floppy disk drives, among others, are detachably inserted in a case of an electronic device. The mounting arrangement facilitates easy replacing of such devices. However, such arrangement may result in poor mechanical and electrical contact of the storage device due to tolerances of the case and the storage device.
What is needed, therefore, is a means which can overcome the limitations described.

Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd.


A defect inspection method for three-dimensional shapes employs a difference is between a distance code obtained by scanning, a perfect work (a value indicating a rocking angle of a mirror), and a distance code obtained by scanning an inspected work, at each measurement position. Differences are stored for a matrix in which a linear direction of the irradiation and a direction of a moving locus of the irradiation are two orthogonal axes. The most frequent difference value among matrix elements in the linear direction of the irradiation is found at each rocking angle of the mirror. A matrix element having a difference that deviates from the most frequent difference value by more than a set value is found at each rocking position of the mirror. Thus, sections having distance codes that do not match distance codes of the perfect work even by relatively shifting the distance code data are detected and identified as defect candidates. The presence/absence of defects on the inspected work is determined on the basis of all the existing states of matrix elements as defect candidates.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved defects inspection method of a three-dimensional shape.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a method of detecting surface defects of a three-dimensional work for instance, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-10053 discloses a method of detecting a defect based on a change or a differential at the boundaries of patterns by irradiating striped-pattern beams on the work.
However, this method detects the presence or absence of defects based simply on changes in the brightness on the work. Thus, it is difficult for the method to detect defects on the surface of work that can form shadows due to complex projections or recessed shapes or that have different shades due to oil contamination or marking made by a marker. This method often produces false alarms by detecting normal marks caused by oil contamination or markings made by a marker as defects.
In order to solve such a problem, defect inspection methods have been invented which use the three-dimensional shape of an object being inspected in accordance with know trigonometric measurement principles.
The principle of a defect inspection method using a three-dimensional shape based on trigonometric measurement principle is explained briefly with reference to FIG.6(a).
A light projector 1, for example, a laser beam, emits a beam which is directed by a mirror 3 to linearly irradiate a work 2 with a pattern having a width in the thickness direction (X-axis direction) of FIG. 6(a). A mirror driving means (not shown in the figure) rocks the mirror 3 at a predetermined pitch in a direction which moves the locus of radiation orthogonal to the linear irradiation, in other words, in a direction which moves the radiation in the right-to-left direction (Y-axis direction) of FIG. 6(a). A rotating position detecting means (not shown in the figure) detects the rocking position of the mirror 3. A camera 4 takes a picture of the work 2 at each rocking position of the mirror 3 by maintaining a predetermined relative position with respect to the mirror 3. An image processing unit 5 finds the projection/recess shapes of the work 2 by storing a value (mentioned as a distance code hereinafter) indicating the rocking angle of the mirror 3 for a matrix of laser beam detecting positions in a camera coordinate system of the camera 4 for which the linear direction of the irradiation and the moving locus of radiation are two orthogonal axes.
A line L1(xcex1) shown in FIG. 6(a) is the optical path of the laser beam that is reflected by the mirror 3 to irradiate the work 2. A line L2 is a straight line connecting the point on the work 2 irradiated by the laser beam to the camera 4.
The position of the mirror 3 relative to the camera 4, in other words, the length of the straight line connecting the mirror 3 and the camera 4, remains constant. An angle between the straight line connecting the mirror 3 and the camera 4 and the line L1 is easily found given knowledge of the rocking angle of the mirror 3.
An angle between the straight line connecting the mirror 3 and the camera 4, and the line L2 is calculated as an angle between the line L2 and the optical axis of the camera 4 on the basis of the detected laser beam position on a camera coordinate system of the camera 4.
Accordingly, although it is possible to find distance between the camera 4 and the work 2 in accordance with the trigonometrical measurement principle, the computation is complex and requires a long time for computation. Thus, instead of calculating the distance between the camera 4 and the work 2, the rocking angles of the mirror 3 which are related to the distances, are stored as a corresponding matrix of a laser beam detecting position on a camera coordinate system of the camera 4. Therefore, the shape of the work 2 is stored and the need for a complex computation is omitted.
For instance, if it is assumed that a matrix (X, Y) on a camera coordinate system for which the linear direction of the irradiation and the moving locus direction of the irradiation are two orthogonal axes consists of n-row by m-column matrix elements (i1, j1) to (in, jm). Then, if the rocking angle of the mirror 3 is xcex1 when the irradiated beam is detected at (X (x=1 to n), j) on the camera coordinate system as shown in FIG. 6(a), the xcex1 value is stored in all of the n matrix elements in the X-axis direction of the matrix (X (x=1 to n), j) on the camera coordinate system. It is found that the height of the work 2 (shown only with a solid line) is the same at a section where radiation hits, since the xcex1 value is constant.
If there is a protrusion 2f (as shown with a chain line in FIG. 6(a)) at the location (i, j) on the surface of the work 2, the irradiation does not hit the top face of the protrusion 2f when the rocking angle of the mirror 3 is xcex1. Irradiation hits the top face of the protrusion 2f when, for example, the rocking angle of the mirror 3 is xcex1xe2x80x2. Thus, the xcex1xe2x80x2 value is stored only at the position of the protrusion 2f, which is (i, j), among the n matrix elements in the X-axis direction of the matrix (X(x=1 to n), j) on the camera coordinate system Accordingly, the existence of the protrusion 2f on the work 2 is confirmed based on a difference between the rocking angles xcex1 and xcex1xe2x80x2.
The processing unit 5 repeatedly executes the above-mentioned processing; that is the rocking angles of the mirror 3, in other words, distance code values are stored at each rocking position of the mirror 3 for a matrix of a laser beam detecting positions in the camera coordinate system of the camera 4 while the mirror 3 is rocked to shift the radiation in the Y-axis direction.
FIG. 7(a) is one example of an image when a distance code value on each matrix is shaded and visualized by making a distance code value stored at each matrix element correspond to a gray-scale density. For instance, the distance code value is 0 (black on a gray scale) when the irradiation is at the right end of the work 2, and the distance code value is 255 (white on a gray scale) when the irradiation is at the left end of the work 2. Such an image is referred to as a distance code image hereinafter.
When a surface defect of the work 2 is detected based on such a principle, the projection/recess shape of the perfect work 2 is first found by the image processing unit 5. Then. the distance code image of the perfect work 2 is obtained as shown in, for instance, FIG. 7(a). The distance code image is mentioned as a distance code image as a reference.
Subsequently, the projection/recess shape of the inspected work 2 is similarly found as described above by the image processing unit 5, thus obtaining a distance code image of the inspected work 2. FIG. 7(b) is an example of a distance code image obtained from the inspected work 2 having a defect 6 at the center.
Then, the presence/absence of a defect on the inspected work 2 is determined by a comparison at each matrix element (ix (x=l to n), jy (y=l to m)) between distance codes stored in a reference distance code image obtained from the perfect work 2, and distance codes stored in a distance code image obtained from the inspected work 2.
Specifically, a reference distance code image as shown in FIG. 7(a) is first compared with a distance code image as an inspection object shown in FIG. 7(b) to find a difference of distance codes at each matrix element (ix (x=l to n), jy (y=l to m)). This difference is stored for each matrix element (ix (x=l to n), jy (y=l to m)). As the scale of a difference of distance codes is visualized as a corresponding gray-scale density, as described above, an image shown in, for example, FIG. 7(c) is obtained. Such an image is referred to as a differential distance code image hereinafter.
Furthermore, as image processing is carried out for the differential distance code image by eliminating noise or the like, the defect 6 becomes visible and the presence/absence of a defect on the inspected work 2 is easily determined. Such an image is mentioned as a defect extracting image hereinafter.
As such a method is applied, the presence/absence of a defect is determined based on an absolute difference in projection/recess shapes of the surface of the work 2. Thus, a defect is properly detected while significantly reducing negative effects due to a change in density of the image which is caused by shadows on the work 2, oil contamination, markings made by a marker, or the like.
However, in the trigonometrical measurement principle, the rocking position of the mirror 3 has to be controlled with high precision. If there is a slight error in the rocking position of the mirror 3, a serious error is found in distance codes relating to the surface shapes of the work 2.
Subsequently, the reasons why such a problem is found will be explained briefly by referring to FIGS. 8(a) to 8(e). FIG. 8(a) is an example of a shape of the work 2 where a distance code image is obtained. The work 2 has a peripheral groove 2a having a rectangular cross-section at the outer periphery and a peripheral groove 2b having a wedge-shaped cross-section. The work 2 has a flat part 2c that is curved in a recessed shape at the center thereof.
A-Axe2x80x2 in FIG. 8(a) shows the linear direction (X-axis direction) of laser beams irradiated from the mirror 3, and B-Bxe2x80x2 indicates the direction (Y-axis direction) of a moving locus of radiation.
Only the flat Dart where the linear direction (X-axis direction) of radiation on the work 2 overlaps with the line B-Bxe2x80x2 is focused upon, and FIG. 8(b) shows the data of relations between matrices of laser beam detecting positions and distance codes at a reference temperature (for instance, 15xc2x0 C.). In FIG. 8(b), while distance code 0 is a reference value at the right end of the work 2, distance code 255 is a reference value at the left end of the work 2. The data is visualized to horizontally locate these values.
The height of the work 2 is always constant in this example without depending on where beams radiate on B-Bxe2x80x2, in otherwords, which rocking position the mirror 3 has. Thus, the graph in FIG. 8(b) is flat with a constant Z value where the direction of a moving locus of radiation (Y-axis direction) is the horizontal axis and the height of the work 2 is the vertical axis (Z-axis direction).
FIG. 8(c) shows relations between matrices of laser beam detecting positions and distance codes when the same work 2 is measured at a temperature higher than the reference temperature. As clearly shown in FIG. 8(b) and FIG. 8(c), in the distance code data measured at the temperature higher than the reference temperature, the reference values of distance codes are adjusted so as to provide the same height at the right and left ends of the work 2. However, as radiation shifts toward the right side (+ direction of Y-axis) of the work 2, incorrect measurement results are obtained as if distance codes values gradually increase.
This is an abnormality of measurement due to the error of rocking positions of the mirror 3 mentioned above. For instance, it is assumed that, in FIG. 6(b), the mirror 3 moves to 3b instead of 3a as a correct rocking position, due to a positional error caused by the temperature rise. If the mirror 3 is at the correct position 3a to irradiate the laser beam along the line L1 and the camera 4 can capture the laser beam at the position (X(x=l to n), j) on the camera coordinate system, the rocking angle of the mirror 3, in other words, the distance code value, corresponds thereto and is stored.
However, the mirror 3 is actually displaced to 3b. Although laser beam is irradiated along the line L1xe2x80x2 and detected at (X(x=l to n), j+xcex94j) on the camera coordinate system, the image processing unit 5 itself does not recognize it and determines that the laser beam irradiated along the line L1 is detected at (X(x=l to n), j+xcex94j) on the camera coordinate system. As a result, the image processing unit 5 stores the distance code xcex1 corresponding to a rocking angle, which should have been primarily stored at (X(x=l to n),j+xcex94j) on the camera coordinate system, at the position of (X(x=l to n),j+xcex94j) on the camera coordinate system (position where xcex1 should have been stored as a primary distance code). Accordingly, an incorrect measurement results as shown in FIG. 8(c). In other words, the a distance code which is larger than the primary xcex1xe2x80x2 distance code, is stored at the position to the right end on the camera coordinate system, so that a contradiction, as shown in FIG. 8(c), is found. Moreover, as clearly shown in FIG. 6(a), it is determined that the height of a surface is higher at a section with a smaller distance code (xcex1xe2x80x2 less than xcex1) at each matrix position on the same line with the same Y on the camera coordinate system, for example, at (X(x=l to n),j).
FIG. 9(a) shows an example of a distance code image formed on the basis of distance codes which are measured at a temperature higher than the reference temperature. The distance code image shown in FIG. 9(a) is compared with the distance code image prepared at the reference temperature shown in FIG. 7(a) to find differences of the distance codes. Then, a differential distance code image as shown in FIG. 9(b) is obtained. As clearly shown in FIG. 9(b), the difference values become large toward the right side (+ direction of the Y-axis) of the differential distance code image due to the above-mentioned distance code error. When a defect extracting image is formed based on the differential distance code image, an area having large differences remains at the right side (+ direction of the Y-axis) section where no defects primarily exist. This section is extracted as a defect, so that the work 2 that is primarily a good product, is determined to be an inferior product.
As a method to solve such a problem, distance code images are prepared as references at various temperatures, and the reference distance code images are chosen depending on the temperature under which an inspection is performed.
However, in order to prepare a plurality of distance code images as references, the image processing unit 5 must have a large memory. Moreover, due to temperature changes depending on time even in the same day, distance code images as references have to be repeatedly re-selected within the same day and measurement procedures become troublesome.
On the contrary, temperature could be kept constant by controlling the measurement environment. However, in this case, the equipment required for temperature control is large, which is troublesome.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to solve the conventional problems mentioned above, and to provide a defect inspection method of a three-dimensional shape that can accurately inspect detects on a work surface without changing the settings in accordance with temperature changes, and without actively controlling the temperature of the environment.
The defect inspection method of a three-dimensional shape according to the present invention provides a light projector emitting a laser beam, a mirror to reflect the laser beam from the light projector to linearly irradiate a work, a mirror driving means to rock the mirror at a predetermined pitch in a direction where a moving locus of the irradiation is orthogonal to the linear irradiation, a camera to take a picture of the work at each rocking position of the mirror by maintaining a predetermined position with respect to the mirror and an image processing unit to find a projection/recess shape of the work by storing values which indicate rocking angles of the mirror for laser beam detecting positions on a camera coordinate system for which the linear direction of the irradiation and the direction of a moving locus of the irradiation are two orthogonal axes. A projection/recess shape of a perfect work is found and then stored by the image processing unit in advance. Then, a projection/recess shape of an inspected work is found by the image processing unit. The presence/absence of a detect on the inspected work is inspected by comparing, at each matrix element, a value indicating a rocking angle of the mirror stored for the perfect work to a value indicating a rocking angle of the mirror stored for the inspected work. In order to achieve the object above, in particular, a difference is found between a value indicating a rocking angle of the mirror stored for the perfect and a value indicating a rocking angle of the mirror stored for the inspected work, at each matrix element. This difference is stored for each matrix element. A most frequent difference value is found among matrix elements in a linear direction of the irradiation for each column of the matrix elements arranged in a direction of the irradiation. Matrix elements having differences deviating from the most frequent difference value by more than a set level are found at each column of the matrix elements. These elements are stored as defect candidates. Then, the presence/absence of defects on the inspected work is determined based on all the existing states of the matrix elements as defect candidates on the matrix.
Subsequently, the principles of how the invention solves the conventional problems will be explained.
First, a light projector, a mirror driving means, a camera, and an image processing unit are operated. As in the conventional art, the projection/recess shape of a perfect work is found and then stored by storing values indicating rocking angles of the mirror, in other words, distance codes, for a matrix of a camera coordinate system for which the linear direction of the irradiation and the moving locus of the irradiation are two orthogonal axes. Accordingly, a distance code image shown in, for instance, FIG. 7(a) is obtained as a reference.
Subsequently, as mentioned above, the light projector, the mirror driving means, the camera, and the image processing unit are operated repeatedly. A distance code is stored for a matrix of a camera coordinate system for which the linear direction of the irradiation and the moving locus of the irradiation are two orthogonal axes, and the projection/recess shape of the inspected work is found. Accordingly, a distance code image shown in, for example, FIG. 9(a) is obtained. Normally, environmental temperature is different from the temperature when the distance code image was obtained as a reference. Thus, the distance code image shown in FIG. 9(a) has an error in distance codes due to a positional shift of the mirror or a detection error (nonlinear shift, origin drift, or the like) of rocking positions caused by temperature drift or the like of a rotating position detecting means for detecting the rocking position of the mirror.
Subsequently, the difference between the distance codes of the perfect work and the distance codes of the inspected work at each matrix element for which the direction of the irradiation and the direction of a moving locus of the irradiation are two orthogonal axes. This difference is then stored for each matrix element. Accordingly, a differential distance code image shown in, for example, FIG. 9(b) is obtained. Since the distance code image of the inspected work has an error by itself, the difference values of distance codes increase toward the end of the work, as shown in FIG. 8(c).
However the distance code image of the inspected work has errors because of the drift of rocking angles of the mirror or the erroneous recognition of rocking angles. Thus, the distance codes stored for matrix elements in the same column in the direction of irradiation should all have equal errors. For instance, when the work 2 shown in FIG. 8(a) is inspected, the distance code data at the end of the work 2 measured at the reference temperature is shown as a broken line in FIG. 8(d) where the horizontal axis is the linear direction (X-axis direction) of irradiation. Moreover, the distance code data at the end of the work 2 measured at a temperature higher than the reference temperature is shown as a solid line in FIG. 8(d). Thus, either the distance code data of the work 2 measured at the reference temperature or the distance code data of the work 2 measured at a temperature higher than the reference temperature is shifted, and both are overlapped as shown in FIG. 8(e). Then, the presence/absence of a surface defect is found by determining the presence/absence of mismatching distance code data at each position in the column of matrix elements in the direction of irradiation (X-axis direction).
First, most frequent difference values are found at each column of matrix elements arranged in the direction of the irradiation, among matrix elements in the linear direction of the irradiation. When the inspected work 2 has no defects on its surface, both should match completely, as in FIG. 8(e), when the distance code data of the work 2 measured at the reference temperature is overlapped with the distance code data of the work 2 measured at a temperature higher than the reference temperature. In this case, all the difference values found in matrix elements in the linear direction of irradiation are equivalent to xcex94Z. It is obvious that differences other than xcex94Z are sometimes detected when the work 2 has a projection/recess defect on its surface. However, since the surface of the work 2 is not normally severely damaged, most frequent differences in matrix elements in the linear direction of the irradiation are always equivalent to xcex94Z in FIG. 8(d). This xcex94Z is equivalent to a shift quantity. Furthermore, xcex94Z because a distance code error itself due to a positional shift of the mirror or a detection error (nonlinear shift, origin drift, or the like) caused by temperature drift or the like of a rotating position detecting means for detecting the rocking position of the mirror.
Subsequently, matrix elements having differences which deviate from the most frequent difference value (xcex94Z) by more than a set value are found at each column of matrix elements arranged in the direction of the irradiation, and are stored as defect candidates. The matrix element section having differences deviating from the most frequent difference value (xcex94Z) by more than a set value is a section where the distance code data of the work measured at the reference temperature and the distance code data of the work measured at a temperature higher than the reference temperature do not match each other, even by shifting the distance code data. This indicates that the section has projection/recess defects.
Finally, the presence/absence of defects on an inspected work is determined in accordance with the existing state of all matrix elements which is defect candidates on a matrix. That is, all the defect candidates within a projection plane of the work for which the linear direction of irradiation and the direction of a moving locus of irradiation are found along two orthogonal axes. For instance, when a point defect candidates are found, it is considered to be simply a measurement mistake. It is also possible to determine that a work has no abnormality. When defect candidates are close to each other over a certain area, it is possible to clearly determine that they are surface defects.
Therefore, the scale (xcex94Z) of a distance-measuring code error caused by a position shift of the mirror or a detection error (nonlinear shift, origin drift or the like) due to temperature drift or the like of a rotating position detecting means for detecting the rocking portion of the mirror is found. Then, a test is performed to determine whether or not the distance code data of the work measured at the reference temperature match the distance code data of the work measured at a temperature higher than the reference temperature by shifting the distance code data by an amount equivalent to an error. Accordingly, appropriate defect inspection can always be performed independently of temperature differences during measurement.
The problems are solved as described above even when the measurement is performed at a temperature lower than the reference temperature.
In order to achieve the same object as above for each projection/recess shape of a perfect work and projection/recess shape of an inspected work, a value which indicates a most frequent rocking angle of a mirror is found among matrix elements in the linear direction of irradiation at each column of matrix elements arranged in the direction of irradiation. In order to match the values that indicate most frequent rocking angles of a mirror in the projection/recess shape of a perfect work and projection/recess shape or an inspected work, the values for the inspected work are shifted at each column of matrix elements arranged in the direction of irradiation. Then, the values indicating rocking angles of the mirror that are stored for the perfect work are compared, at each matrix element, with the values indicating rocking angles of the mirror that are stored for the inspected work, so as to detect the presence/absence of defects on the inspected work.
In this case, the values indicating the most frequent rocking angles of a mirror are equivalent to a straight line having the maximum length in the linear direction of irradiation on a work. (However, this is based on the assumption that the straight line is orthogonal to the optical axis of a camera.) Thus, this straight line is specified at each perfect work and an inspected work. Then. the data values indicating rocking angles of a mirror are shifted and compared at each column of matrix elements arranged in the direction of irradiation so as to overlap these straight lines. This permits proper detection of defects regardless of temperature differences during measurement. This shift quantity is equal to the scale (xcex94Z) of a distance code error caused by the above-mentioned position shift of the mirror or error (nonlinear shift, origin drift, or the like) due to temperature drift or the like of a rotating position detecting means for detecting the rocking position of the mirror.
The above, and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals designate the same elements.

Defect inspection method for three-dimensional object