An inspection apparatus includes an inspection chamber in which low-temperature inspection of an inspection object is performed; and a transfer chamber including therein a transfer device. The transfer device includes a transfer arm for transferring the inspection object to the inspection chamber; an arm-receiving compartment having a gateway via which the transfer arm is moved into or out of the arm-receiving compartment; and a gas supply means having a first and a second supply part for supplying a low-dew-point gas to the arm-receiving compartment from different locations. Herein, the first supply part is configured to supply the low-dew-point gas toward the inspection object introduced into the arm-receiving compartment by the transfer arm.

As is known in the art, this kind of inspection apparatus typically includes a probe chamber for performing low-temperature inspection of an inspection object (e.g., a semiconductor wafer) and a loader chamber arranged adjacent to the probe chamber. The probe chamber includes a wafer chuck for holding a semiconductor wafer and controlling the temperature thereof; a probe card arranged above the wafer chuck; and an alignment mechanism for performing alignment of a plurality of probes of the probe card and a plurality of electrode pads of the semiconductor wafer. After aligning the semiconductor wafer, the probe chamber performs specified low-temperature inspection by bringing the semiconductor wafer, which is held on the wafer chuck at a low temperature of minus tens of degrees centigrade, into electrical contact with the probes of the probe card.
The loader chamber includes a storage part for storing a plurality of semiconductor wafers on a cassette-by-cassette basis; and a transfer device having a transfer arm that transfers the semiconductor wafers between the cassette and the probe chamber. Using the transfer arm, the semiconductor wafers are taken out from the cassette one by one, pre-aligned and then transferred to the probe chamber. Upon completion of the inspection, the semiconductor wafers are transferred from the probe chamber to an original position within the cassette.
In a conventional inspection apparatus for conducting low-temperature inspection within a probe chamber (see, for example, Patent Document 1), a dry air suitable for low-temperature inspection that has a low dew point to prevent dew condensation or ice formation on a semiconductor wafer is supplied into the probe chamber, keeping the inspection environment within the probe chamber in a low-dew-point environment. Once the low-temperature inspection is completed within the probe chamber, the semiconductor wafer thus inspected is transferred from a wafer chuck in the probe chamber to a loader chamber, and then is returned to a cassette by means of a transfer arm.
With the inspection apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, the semiconductor wafer for which inspection has been completed undergoes dew condensation or ice formation thereon while being transferred to the cassette. This is because the semiconductor wafer is transferred from the probe chamber kept in the low-dew-point environment to the cassette within the loader chamber in which the low-dew-point environment is unavailable. It is typical that the interior of the loader chamber and the cassette is maintained in an environment similar to that of a clean room, e.g., in an environment that exhibits a temperature of 25° C. and a humidity of 50% (a dew point of 13° C.).
As an effort to prevent dew condensation or ice formation on the semiconductor wafer within the cassette, the semiconductor wafer is lifted off from the wafer chuck in the probe chamber by elevating pins, and is made to wait there for a specified time. Then, the semiconductor wafer supported on the wafer chuck is transferred back to the cassette within the loader chamber by means of the transfer arm after the temperature of the semiconductor wafer reaches the dew point of the atmosphere in the loader chamber, so that dew is prevented from being formed on the semiconductor returned to the loader chamber. However, this requires a long period of waiting time for the semiconductor wafer to reach the dew point.
To avoid the above problems, there is proposed a technique in which a space kept in a low-dew-point environment is provided in a wafer transfer device to save the above-mentioned waiting time of the semiconductor wafer in the wafer chuck. The semiconductor wafer whose inspection is completed is immediately put into the low-dew-point environment of the wafer transfer device. Then, the temperature of the semiconductor wafer is returned to a temperature at which dew condensation does not occur on the semiconductor wafer within the cassette.
(Patent Document 1) Japanese Patent No. 3,388,271
However, even if the low-dew-point environment is provided in the wafer transfer device, the environment within the cassette is still similar to that of a clean room. Therefore, to transfer the semiconductor wafer inspected at a low temperature back to the cassette, the semiconductor wafer has to wait for a specified time in the low-dew-point environment of the wafer transfer device until the temperature thereof is restored to the dew point in the cassette.
It is a recent tendency to shorten the time required for low-temperature inspection. Therefore, if the semiconductor wafer is made to wait in the low-dew-point environment of the wafer transfer device until the temperature thereof is restored to the in-cassette dew point, it is sometimes the case that a time delay occurs in supplying the next semiconductor wafer. Another problem resides in that the waiting time in the low-dew-point environment needs to be set for every inspection on a case-by-case basis according to the length of the low-temperature inspection time.

Transfer and inspection devices of object to be inspected


A computerized method determines the ranking of documents including information content. The present method uses both content and connectivity analysis. An input set of documents is represented as a neighborhood graph in a memory. In the graph, each node represents one document, and each directed edge connecting a pair of nodes represents a linkage between the pair of documents. The input set of documents represented in the graph is ranked according to the contents of the documents. A subset of documents is selected from the input set of documents if the content ranking of the selected documents is greater than a first predetermined threshold. Nodes representing any documents, other than the selected documents, are deleted from the graph. The selected subset of documents is ranked according the linkage of the documents, and an output set of documents exceeding a second predetermined threshold is selected for presentation to users.

This invention relates generally to computerized information retrieval, and more particularly to ranking documents having related content.
It has become common for users of client computers connected to the World Wide Web (the xe2x80x9cWebxe2x80x9d) to employ Web browsers and search engines to locate Web pages having content of interest. A search engine, such as Digital Equipment Corporation""s AltaVista search engine, indexes hundreds of millions of Web pages maintained by server computers all over the world. The users compose queries to specify a search topic, and the search engine identifies pages having content that satisfies the queries, e.g., pages that match on the key words of the queries. These pages are known as the result set.
In many cases, particularly when a query is short or not well defined, the result set can be quite large, for example, thousands of pages. For this reason, most search engines rank order the result set, and only a small number, for example twenty, of the highest ranking pages are actually returned at a time. Therefore, the quality of search engines can be evaluated not only on the number of pages that are indexed, but also on the usefulness of the ranking process that determines which pages are returned.
Sampling of search engine operation has shown that most queries tend to be quite short, on the average about 1 to 2 words. Therefore, there is usually not enough information in the query itself to rank the pages of the result set. Furthermore, there may be pages that are very relevant to the search that do not include the specific query words. This makes ranking difficult.
In Information Retrieval, some approaches to ranking have used relevance feedback supplied by users. This requires the user to supply feedback on the relevance of some of the results that were returned by the search in order to iteratively improve ranking. However, studies have shown that users of the Web are reluctant to provide relevance feedback.
In one prior art technique, an algorithm for connectivity analysis of a neighborhood graph (n-graph) is described, J. Kleinberg, xe2x80x9cAuthoritative Sources in a Hyperlinked Environment,xe2x80x9d Proc. 9th ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, 1998, and also in IBM Research Report RJ 10076, May 1997. The algorithm analyzes the link structure, or connectivity of Web pages xe2x80x9cin the vicinityxe2x80x9d of the result set to suggest useful pages in the context of the search that was performed.
The vicinity of a Web page is defined by the hyperlinks that connect the pages. A Web page can point to other pages, and the page can be pointed to by other pages. Close pages are directly linked, farther pages are indirectly linked. These connections can be expressed as a graph where the nodes represent the pages, and the directed edges represent the links.
Specifically, the algorithm attempts to identify xe2x80x9chubxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cauthorityxe2x80x9d pages. Hubs and authorities exhibit a mutually reinforcing relationship, a good hub page is one that points to many good authorities, and a good authority page is pointed to by many good hubs. Kleinberg constructs a graph for a specified base set of hyperlinked pages. Using an iterative algorithm, an authority weight x and a hub weight y is assigned to each page when the algorithm converges.
When a page points to many pages with large x values, the page receives a large y value and is designated as a hub. When a page is pointed to by many pages with large y values, the page receives a large x value and is designated as an authority. The iterative weights can be ranked to compute xe2x80x9cstrongxe2x80x9d hubs and authorities.
However, there are some problems with the Kleinberg""s algorithm which is strictly based on connectivity. First, there is a problem of topic drift. For example, a user composes a query including the key words xe2x80x9cjaguarxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ccar.xe2x80x9d The graph will tend to have more pages that talk about xe2x80x9ccarsxe2x80x9d than specifically about xe2x80x9cjaguarsxe2x80x9d. These self-reinforcing pages will tend to overwhelm pages mentioning xe2x80x9cjaguarxe2x80x9d to cause topic drift.
Second, it is possible to have multiple xe2x80x9cparallelxe2x80x9d edges connected from a certain host to the same authority or the same hub. This occurs when a single Web site stores multiple copies or versions of pages having essentially the same content. In this case, the single site has undue influence, hence, the authority or hub scores may not be representative.
Therefore, it is desired to provide a method which precisely identifies the content of pages related to a topic specified in a query without having a local concentration of pages influence the outcome.
Provided is a method for ranking documents including information content. The method can be used to rank documents such as Web pages maintained by server computers connected to the World Wide Web. The method is useful in the context of search engines used on the Web to rank result sets generated by the search engines in response to user queries. The present ranking method uses both content and connectivity analysis.
The method proceeds as follows. An input set of documents is represented as a neighborhood graph in a memory. In the graph, each node represents one document, and each directed edge connecting a pair of nodes represents a linkage between the pair of documents. A particular documents can point to other documents, and other documents can point to the particular document. There are no edges between documents on the same site.
The input set of documents represented in the graph is ranked according to the content of the documents based on their match to a certain topic. Ranking can be done using either a vector space model or a probabilistic model. A subset of documents is selected from the input set of documents if the content ranking of the selected documents is greater than a first predetermined threshold. Nodes representing any documents, other than the selected documents, are deleted from the graph.
The selected subset of documents is ranked according the linkage of the documents, and an output set of documents exceeding a second predetermined threshold is selected for presentation to users.
In one aspect of the invention, the input set of documents includes a result set of Web pages generated by a Web search engine in response to a user query, and pages directly linked to the result set. The rank of a particular document is based on the similarity of the content of the particular document and the content of a base set of documents. The base set can be the result set of pages returned by the search engine, or any other set of documents that has a representative content.
The first threshold can be the median content ranking of the input set of documents, a fraction of the maximum content score, or some absolute value. Alternatively, the threshold can be determined interactively, or from the slope of a graph that plots ranking versus the measured content ranking.
In another aspect of the invention, the connectivity ranking is a computed weight based on the number edges that connect a node representing a particular document. The weight can be adjusted downward for edges connecting nodes representing documents stored at the same site.

Method for ranking hyperlinked pages using content and connectivity analysis


An optical magnetic-field sensor includes a base fixed relative to distal ends of optical fibers inserted in the sensor, optical parts and an optical element for transmitting optical signals between the distal ends of the optical fibers. The optical signals are collimated between the optical parts and the distal ends of the optical fibers. The optical magnetic-field sensor further includes spherical lenses optically aligned with the distal ends of the optical fibers for collimating the optical signals, and synthetic resin members filled in clearances between the distal ends of the optical fibers and the spherical lenses, respectively. With the above arrangement, it is possible to effect the alignment of optical axes of the optical fibers and the spherical lenses easily with high accuracy in a short period of time.

This invention relates to an optical magnetic-field sensor which is mainly used in a detection system for finding fault points at electric power transmission line networks, electric power-distribution line networks, transformer substations and the like, and more particularly to a method of producing such an optical magnetic-field sensor.
In order to automatically find fault points in electric power systems, optical magnetic-field sensors using optical single crystals (for example, BSO or the like) have been recently used. In this device, the light emitted from a light transmitter is transmitted through a magnetooptical element and received into a light receiver where the light is detected. If electric current values are rapidly changed due to short-circuit or ground-fault, the magnitude of a magnetic field produced around the power-transmission line is changed so that the polarization plane of the light transmitted through the magnetooptical element is changed. The change in polarization plane is detected to determine the occurrence of a fault.
Such an optical magnetic-field sensor includes a magnetooptical element, a polarizer and an analyzer which are built in the sensor. Further, optical fibers which are inserted into the sensor and have distal ends fixed to the sensor by means of ferrules. The collimation (forming bundles of parallel beams, and light condensing) of the light from the distal ends of the optical fibers is effected by rod lenses. In practice, cylindrical rod lenses are joined with and fixed to the distal ends of the ferrules, respectively, and other surfaces of the cylindrical rod lenses are opposed to the polarizer and the analyzer, respectively. The light transmitted through one of the optical fibers is fed through one of the rod lenses to the polarizer, and the light emitted from the analyzer is transmitted through the other rod lens onto the distal end of the other optical fiber.
In the optical magnetic-field sensor described above, however, it is required to adjust the optical axes of the distal ends of the optical fibers and the rod lenses. A rod lens has a refractive index distribution in radial directions formed by adjusting radial distributions of metallic atoms. Therefore, if the center of the optical fiber is not coincident with the center of the refractive index distribution, the light is not collimated efficiently. Moreover, as the center of refractive index cannot be determined by inspecting the external form of the rod lens, the adjustment or alignment of the optical axes is a two dimensional operation, which is a time-consuming and troublesome operation.
Moreover, in the event that rod lenses are used, optical axes of the distal end of the optical fiber and the rod lens are frequently not coincident with each other owing to the above reason. Accordingly collimation of light is incomplete resulting in increase in losses of quantity of light. Consequently, it has been impossible to enlarge distances between the light transmitter and the light receiver respectively and the fault detecting point to an extent beyond certain distances.

Optical magnetic-field sensor having spherical lenses for light collimation


A blower assembly includes a blower housing and a fan wheel mounted within the blower housing and being rotatable about an axis of rotation. The fan wheel includes a support disk positioned near a center of the fan wheel. A first wheel portion having a first plurality of impeller blades is positioned adjacent a first side of the support disk. A second wheel portion having a second plurality of impeller blades is positioned adjacent a second side of the support disk. The first wheel portion and the second wheel portion are asymmetrical about a plane oriented perpendicular to the axis of rotation and intersecting the support disk.

The disclosure relates generally to heating and cooling systems and, more particularly, to a fan wheel of a blower assembly configured for use in such heating and cooling systems.
Heating, ventilation and air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC & R) systems typically use a blower driven by a blower motor to supply air through ducts. HVAC & R systems are typically designed to provide an amount of airflow expressed as cubic feet per minute (CFM) (cubic meters per second in SI units). Conventionally, HVAC & R systems use a forward curved centrifugal fan to drive airflow to the other components of the system. However, there is a need to increase the efficiency of the blower without increasing the size of the housing of the HVAC & R system.

Asymmetric double inlet backward curved blower


A light emitting device having excellent external quantum efficiency contains an anode, a cathode, and two organic layers disposed therebetween. One layer contains a phosphorescent transition metal complex and a low molecular weight compound containing no transition metal, and the second layer contains a crosslinked body of a polymer compound (having an energy level of the lowest triplet excited state of 2.30 eV or more) containing a constitutional unit having a crosslinking group. The low molecular weight compound has formula (T-1) and the absolute value of the difference between the energy levels of the lowest triplet excited state and the lowest singlet excited state is less than 0.25 eV.

Organic electroluminescent devices (hereinafter, referred to also as light emitting device) can be suitably used for display and lighting applications, and are being researched and developed. For example, Patent Document 1 describes a light emitting device having an organic layer containing a polymer compound (PO) represented by the following formula and a light emitting layer containing a host material and an iridium complex.

Light emitting device having thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) compound

Abstract: nT1 represents an integer of 0 to 5, nT2 represents an integer of 1 to 10, ArT1 represents a substituted amino group or a monovalent hetero ring group, LT1 represents an alkylene group, and ArT2 represents a hetero ring group.


High-speed interconnect systems for connecting two or more electrical elements are provided. Interconnect system has the means, which could reduce the microwave loss induced due to the dielectrics. Reducing the effective loss tangent of the dielectrics reduces the microwave loss. With optimize design of the interconnects, the speed of the electrical signal can be made to closer to the speed of the light. The interconnect systems consists of the electrical signal line, inhomogeneous dielectric systems and the ground line, wherein inhomogeneous dielectric system consisting of the opened-trenches into the dielectric substrate or comb-shaped dielectrics to reduce the microwave loss. Alternatively dielectric structure can have the structure based on the fully electronic or electromagnetic crystal or quasi crystal with the line defect. Alternatively, dielectric structure can be made to comb-shaped structure with teethes having thickness and space making the air pocket to reduce the microwave loss. The interconnect system, can be made in rigid or flex board for off-chip interconnects for IC packages, connectors and cables, where conventional manufacturing technology can be used and yet to increase the bandwidth of the interconnects.

The increasing level of integration within electrical integrated circuits (IC) leads to both higher data rates and larger number of IC interconnections. Today, the inherent signal speed of ICs is increasing to 5 GHz, and shortly it will reach 20 GHz and beyond. The number of pin connection is also increasing, with single ICs requiring close to 2000 interconnections (i.e. single processor), and shortly it will increase to over 5000. Simultaneously achieving higher data rates and higher interconnect densities for both on-chip and also off-chip, will be increasingly difficult as the IC technologies continue to evolve increasing signal speed of electronic devices and interconnection number. In on-chip cases (inside the die), as the number of the electronic devices such as transistors are increased with continued development of fabrication technology, interconnecting electronic devices without sacrificing signal speed is becoming an increasing challenge. In the off-chip case, high density interconnects, covering from die-level packaging to chip-to-chip (hereafter chip indicates the die with package) interconnection on the printed circuit board (PCB), will also become increasingly difficult as the IC technologies continue to evolve, thereby increasing the signal speed and interconnection number.
With increased signal speed and interconnection number within and outside of the IC, low-cost high-level interconnect techniques compatible with today's manufacturing technology is highly desirable.
Generally, it is known that if the electronic devices (for both on-chip and off-chip) are connected with the help of the metal conductor (act as the interconnects), electrical signal can be flown and the electronic device can be connected with each other. This is true for low-speed signal, below a few MHz. At multi GHz frequencies, interconnect lengths become a significant fraction of the wavelength of the high frequency harmonics, and therefore interconnects must be designed with proper concern of impedance, cross talk, and attenuation. Significant attenuation and rise-time degradation can be caused by losses in the transmission line. As is readily appreciated by those skilled in the art, the transmission line loss is the sum of the conductor loss and dielectric loss, both of which are dependent on the frequency. This dielectric loss is dependent on the loss tangent (tangent loss) of the materials and it varies from dielectric to dielectric. For example, the PCB materials like FR4 have the loss tangent of 0.018, whereas the alumina has the 0.0008. The less the tangent loss of the dielectric, the lower the transmission loss for the given interconnect distance and fixed conductor loss. Using the low-loss tangent material, would help to increase the signal carrying capacity of the interconnects.
FIG. 1 is the schematic showing part of conventional off-chip interconnection. In off-chip interconnection, such as that shown in FIG. 1, the chip 120 (for example processor or memory) is connected with chip 130 by multilayered electrical signal lines 110 and ground lines 112 contained within PCB 108. Conventional printed circuit board (PCB) materials are mainly FR4, Roger, and alumina. Low cost PCB material is mainly FR4, which is frequently used. The metal used for interconnects is mainly copper which is used for routing the signals.
Conventional interconnection technology for off-chip is mainly based on the microstrip line or strip-line transmission layout on the dielectric material. FIG. 2A shows a cross-sectional of a microstrip layout, which refers to a trace routed as the top or bottom layer for example of a PCB for the case of off-chip interconnection. The electrical conductor 140A with width W and thickness T are laid on the dielectric material 142A having height H. The ground or power line 144A is located opposite of the signal conductor 140A. FIG. 2B is the cross-sectional view of strip line layout, which uses a trace 140B routed on the inside layer 142B for example of a PCB and has two voltage-reference planes (i.e. power and/or ground) 144B and 144B′.
For high-speed signal interconnection, a lower loss tangent is necessary. Lower loss tangent material offers following functions for off-chip interconnects;
(a) higher density interconnection due to reduction of the cross-talk, (b) reducing the capacitance of the interconnection, helping to transfer the signal longer distance, (c) lower propagation delay, and (d) reducing the microwave loss and help to transmit the longer distance. In other words, it helps to transmit the higher speed signal a longer distance.
Besides the dissipation-factor of the dielectric materials, the microwave loss also limits the bandwidth of the interconnection. Microwave-loss occurs due to the electrode structure mainly from skin-depth of the signal. As Cu's skin-depth at 100 GHz is 0.2 μm, the skin-depth due to the conductor structure is neglected. So, the bandwidth of the interconnection (for off-chip interconnection) is mainly dependent on the material loss tangent (dielectric loss).
It is relatively straight forward that increasing the bandwidth can be possible using of the material having lower loss tangent. However, in this case, new PCB material development is necessary. Besides, manufacturing process is also needed to develop compatible to new PCB materials.
Much work can be found in off-chip interconnection technology focusing on the material development for achieving the low-loss tangent material. The development cost of these low loss tangent materials is very high and implementing into the practical system would not only increase the system cost, but also reduce the reliability. Today, other areas of focusing area to overcome the high microwave loss (due to the dielectric) include the use conventional materials such as FR4 (board material), or shortening the length on the interconnection layout to reduce the transmission loss and signal integrity. In both cases, implementing such technology would require one to pay high cost.
As explained above, the conventional electronics interconnect technology being used in off-chip interconnection cannot be used, as the signal speed is increasing. Existing conventional electrical interconnects have the limitation of achieving the bandwidth in certain level, beyond that, either new low loss-tangent material development is necessary or new interconnect technology using conventional material is required. Developing low-loss tangent material and its related manufacturing process for PCB build-up require high investment and time. It is highly desirable to have the innovative interconnect technology, which would use conventional material and conventional manufacturing processes, but a lower effective loss tangent. This technique or technology can be easily implemented as they can use the standard dielectric material used in PCB industries.

High speed electrical interconnects and method of manufacturing


A device receives a request to authenticate an end user of a user device to use an application, based on an application identifier and a user identifier included the request, and determines whether the application is authenticated based on the application identifier. The device also determines whether the user device is authenticated based on the user identifier and utilizing a generic bootstrapping architecture (GBA) authentication procedure, and determines whether the end user is authenticated based on a personal identification number (PIN) associated with the end user. The device further provides, to an application server device hosting the application, results of the authentications of the application, the user device, and the end user.

A service provider is an entity (e.g., a business or an organization) that sells bandwidth of or access to a network (e.g., the Internet, a data network, a telecommunication network, etc.) associated with the service provider. Service providers may include telecommunications companies, data carriers, wireless communications providers, Internet service providers, cable television operators offering high-speed Internet access, etc. Service provider networks enable third party application developers to create applications that use network resources, such as location systems that determine locations of mobile communication devices. These applications make requests to a network device, such as a gateway. The network device processes the requests and sends the requests to service provider systems that provide services, such as determining the locations of mobile communication devices, messaging, and/or other services. Such service provider systems may be referred to as enablers.
The service provider network defines application programming interfaces (APIs) for third party application developers to access the capabilities of enablers in the service provider network. A third party application often needs to authenticate a person (i.e., an end user) using the third party application, and often provides some form of authentication of the end user. However, in many cases, it is preferable to have the service provider network perform this function on behalf of the third party application. For example, if a developer would like the service provider to bill for an end user's use of their application, the service provider network needs to authenticate the end user of the application. The third party application not only needs to identify the end user, but also needs to receive a level of assurance for that identification. The end user, the application, and the service provider network need to form trust relationships. However, the APIs provided for the third party applications often do not provide an identifier for end users using the third party applications, making authentication of such end users very difficult.

Application-based credential management for multifactor authentication


A microphone device that can be thrown to a member of an audience or to another user so that the microphone device recognizes the state of the motion of the microphone device and switches from a first state of motion to another state of motion when the state of motion is changed during the throw and switches the state of the microphone device from a mute state to unmute state according to the state of the motion.

Communication in a conference has its challenges in a large room or presentation space to the organizing parties. Not only in the form of audio-visual techniques as such for one sided lecturing, but as in many cases the audience is welcomed to participate in the discussion, i.e. to communicate two ways between the audience and the presenter.
One problem relates to the microphones, which have been turned to wireless as such in order to make the counter questioning easier for the audience members. However, in a crowded space, the audience members that are intending to ask something or willing to comment on the speech, are ajar situated in the scene. Thus, microphone that is necessary or at least convenient in the vast rooms, to get the voice of audience members to get heard over the noise originating from the people present in the room has to be passed from person to person from the respective hand from a person to the next person sitting just next to the first person. This is slow, especially when there are many members in the audience situated far away from each other in a random manner. Precious time is wasted, as well as in the cases, where a microphone runner is hired to serve the microphone from an audience member to another.
In many cases, also the nature of such events becomes very formal, and a bar for asking a question or presenting a comment is unnecessarily raised. Also hitting the microphone and/or dropping a microphone may not only cause funny noises and may be annoying for the audience as well as to the speaker in question, but also severely damage audio system devices in the worst case.
Embodiments of the invention solve, or at least mitigate these problems. This is made by the microphone device according to an embodiment of the invention.
A microphone device according to the invention is characterized in that what has been said in an independent claim thereof in the characterizing part.
A method of operating a microphone device according to the invention is characterized in that what has been said in an independent claim thereof in the characterizing part.
A microphone system according to the invention is characterized in that what has been said in an independent claim thereof in the characterizing part.
Other embodiments are indicated in dependent claims, examples and figures provided with exemplifying examples on embodiments.
Embodiments are combinable in suitable part.
A microphone device according to an embodiment comprises at least a casing, microphone unit, communicator unit and a controller unit in it functionally comprising a memory and a microprocessor characterized in that the microphone device comprises further a sensor unit for sensing the state of the motion of the microphone device for providing a control signal responsive to the state of the motion of the microphone device so that in the control of said sensor unit either at least one of the microphone unit or the communicator unit is/are set from a first state of communication corresponding a first state of the control signal to a second state of communication corresponding a second state of control signal, so that when the control signal has a quantity value in a pre-determined range to represent the state of the motion as a threshold value for defining the state of the motion whether or not the control signal value belongs to the range of the first control signal level that is corresponding the first state of motion or to the range of the second control signal level that is corresponding the second state of motion.
In this ensemble of embodiments the microprocessor defines, according to at least one sensor, the state of the motion of the microphone device. Although a skilled person in the art knows many ways to make a control signal use to control a device as such, for example a threshold range dependency for a control signal as such, it is not the aim of the embodiments to claim the mere threshold range dependency for operation of the device via a control signal formation according to the known techniques as such alone.
In this embodiment the microphone device can be a throwable unit comprising a microphone or a microphone unit. Microphone unit may comprise in an embodiment a microphone, but also further electronics as such for controlling the operation of the mere microphone component, to switch on/off and/or filtering.
According to an embodiment the microphone unit is configurable so that said first state of communication is the state of silence. In the state of silence the microphone unit is muted for the external devices in the microphone system. The muting can be made by muting at least one of the microphone unit and communicator unit.
According to an embodiment the microphone device is configurable so that said second state of communication is state of active, state of voice. In the state of active the microphone device is active for the external devices in the microphone system. The activating can be made by making at least one of the microphone unit and communicator unit active.
In the embodiments expressions first and second are only used as temporal names to differentiate their main expressions from each other, so aiming only to simplify the language, without any intention to restrict the order, quality or quantity in the expression comprising first and/or second as an attribute.
In an embodiment the first state or the second state can be such a state in which there is an attenuated signal present to be further delivered to a system device or its part.
According to an embodiment of the invention the microphone device can comprise such a communicator unit that comprises a transmitter-receiver unit for a duplex communication with an external unit.
Duplex in this context is used to refer to two-way communication. In this embodiment variant, the microphone device, or its part or parts via the controller unit can be controlled by the signals sent from an external microphone system device. Such a system device can comprise a blue tooth, WLAN, or other radio-communication means to send signals to the microphone device, which in such an embodiment comprises the corresponding means to receive the signals to be utilized as data and/or parameters in the operation of the microphone device. This way muting can be controlled, i.e. which parts to be kept in a muted state and which are kept active. This way also the communicator can be kept in an active state, but ignored to receive the signal that would be available.
According to an embodiment variant a separate microprocessor unit without the sensors for detecting motion could be in the external unit that receives the signal and that external unit makes the decision what should be done with the signal, i.e. muted, faded, etc., so the work is done in the receiver side and not the throwable microphone side.
According to an embodiment the microphone device according to an embodiment comprises such a controller unit that comprises a coder programmed to code the signal from a microphone device as a microphone signal into digital form electric signal. The coder can be in suitable part built from software pieces to code the signals into electrical form. This way the signal can be made secret, hidden or pseudo randomized so that even if there were several microphone devices in use in the same room, their signals could be separable via the coding without unintentional overlapping.
In an embodiment variant a coder can be used to decode or translate the via-communicator-unit received commands to be executed in the microphone device's processor. Parameters and other information can be decoded so to the use of the microphone device. Also signal processing commands and/or data can be thus communicated to the microphone device from an external source. According to an embodiment the coder can be updated to correspond to a certain radio communication protocol, which can be a known one as such. According to an embodiment of the invention the microphone device comprises such a sensor unit which comprises at least one of the following components: accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, position sensor, acoustic sensor for Doppler measurements, barometric pressure sensor, other pressure sensor, a combination of said components comprising at least one kind of said components equally or more than two. Thus, should it be mentioned that there are in fact in one example of such embodiment two separate transducers in the system, one for sensing and one microphone.
This way, redundant measurements can be made in parallel and/or in series, to better stabilize the operation when the device is being thrown and/or when landing. Also information from acoustics of the room or space can be received so. According to an embodiment of the invention the microphone device comprises an acoustic transmitter for making sound outside the audible human range, for making measurements of the acoustics.
A method for operating a microphone device comprises:                monitoring the state of the motion of the microphone device,        changing the state of the motion of the microphone device,        as a response to the changed state of the motion, generating to a corresponding state of the motion a state of a control signal by the sensor unit,        setting at least one of the microphone unit or the communicator unit from a first state of communication corresponding a first state of the control signal to a second state of communication corresponding a second state of control signal,        reversing at least one of the microphone unit or the communicator unit from a first state of communication corresponding a first state of the control signal to a second state of communication corresponding a second state of control signal as a response to a further change in the state of the motion of the microphone device,        forming from the microphone signal a digital electric signal to be sent to an external station.
According to an embodiment of the invention in the method of operating the microphone device it is set into a third state, a measurement state, in which the microphone device is programmed to make measurements from a signal from at least one microphone of the microphone device.
According to an embodiment of the invention a microphone system comprises an external communication unit to at least one embodied microphone device, said external communication unit being arranged to communicate with said at least one microphone device. The communication can be done wirelessly. The communication can follow an electronic digital protocol that is known as such, in order to communicate radio signals between system elements of the microphone system. System element can be in an embodiment a microphone device as embodied, but also as a system element, an external microphone system unit as system element that is used in communication with the microphone device can be counted as system element in this context. External system element can comprise a mere receiver capable of receiving the signals from a microphone system element, but in another embodiment can also comprise a transmitter to transmit wirelessly radio signals to the microphone device as the system element, following a pre-determined communication protocol. The receiver in the microphone system element can also be a receiver as such, or being comprised in an transceiver as such as a module separately operable with the microphone system.
According to an embodiment of the invention the transmitter in the microphone device can be embodied by a body pack transmitter.
Embodiments of the invention are combinable in suitable part. Term comprise is used as an open term.
FIG. 1 illustrates embodiments of the invention. The sound path way to the microphone device is indicated by 102, an exemplified shadowed ellipse on top of the cubically embodied soft cell 100 of the microphone device. According to an embodiment the soft cell can be a module, in which the electronics are placed as another module, or alternatively the cell can be a closed module as such with integrated electronics, or in a variant, electronics can be diversified in to the module structure inside the soft cell. According to an embodiment other soft forms can be used also alternatively. Soft in this context means that it has a textural structure and lined so that when the microphone device hits a human operator it does not cause a significant injury. The microphone device is drawn inside the lining 103 indicative of the microphone system, into which the microphone device can belong as an operative system element. An external receiver is indicated by the reference number 101, and the wireless communication illustrated by the lightning shaped line, between these two system elements. The system element 101 can comprise connection further to other system parts, or to a remote system for the speakers or other audiovisual means, but also to a data base in an embodiment. In an embodiment the system element 101 can comprise also a transmitter, so it can communicate data, commands, voice related settings, speaker ID from the database, and/or parameters or updates to another microphone device. According to an embodiment variant, the muting, replacement sound adding, unmuting, sound fading, or other in microphone device performed actions can be performed in the control of the system element 101. According to an embodiment variant this can be made in the system element 101. So the sound processing can be made in the receiver site in these embodiment variants.
FIG. 1 illustrates also electronics in the casing 100, especially in the case 104, deep in the soft shell 100, which facilitates that the microphone device can be thrown without damage to the device or the person catching the microphone device, formatted system element. The electronics comprise an RF transceiver, comprising at least a transmitter, so as arranged to communicate with a system element 101. The communication can be digital formatted to follow a radio protocol as such. However, in an alternative embodiment the communication may follow analog format for an analog receiver in the system element 101, which can be a microphone system element 101 connected to the external system.
The microprocessor CPU 204 is indicated to be included into a controller unit, which is demonstrated by the dashed outer box. The controller unit is arranged to control the operations and/or parameters as well as measurement data made by the microphone device. The controller unit is drawn to comprise also a movement sensor 206 to sense the motions state of the microphone device. The implementation of the sensor can be made by using accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, barometric pressure sensor, pressure sensor or other means to sense the state of the motion. In an embodiment this can be based on acoustic signal available or sent from the microphone device, with help of Doppler effect. Between the CPU and microphone unit 200 there is a box mute/unmute indicated, which is arranged to be operable by the control signal according to which the microphone units state is changed from one state to another state, corresponding the a first state of motion and a second state of motion of the microphone device. According to an optional embodiment, although only showing the muting of microphone, a skilled person in the art knows well from the embodiments that also the communication unit can be muted during the throw or a catch, optionally or in addition to the microphone unit.
FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of the invention directed to the method of operating a microphone device.
The embodied method for operating a microphone device according to an embodiment of the invention comprises:                monitoring 211 the state of the motion of the microphone device for recognizing the state of the motion,        recognizing 212 the changed state of the motion of the microphone device,        as a response to the recognized changed state of the motion, generating 213 to a corresponding state of the motion a state of a control signal by the sensor unit 206, FIG. 3 Illustrates control signal formation related software operation, in a simple embodiment of the invention.        setting 214 at least one of the microphone unit 200 or the communicator unit 202 from a first state of communication corresponding a first state of the control signal to a second state of communication corresponding a second state of control signal,        restoring 215 at least one of the microphone unit 200 or the communicator unit 202 from a first state of communication corresponding a first state of the control signal to a second state of communication corresponding a second state of control signal as a response to a further change in the state of the motion of the microphone device,        forming 216 from the microphone signal a digital electric signal to be sent to an external station.
In an embodiment, a response may lack due to a change in motion, depending on whether the motion is seen as a throw or catch state, as it could be that a person is simply moving it in their hands. Thus, the sensors of the microphone device are arranged to give signals to the microprocessor to indicate the movement by throwing so as to set the microphone device into mute state either by muting the microphone unit or the transmitter or transceiver unit or a part thereof.
FIG. 3 illustrates control signal formation related software operation in a simple embodiment of the invention. The software algorithm in the control unit can be used according to the example in FIG. 3. The software monitors (in the method phase 212) constantly the state of the motion of the microphone device. In FIG. 3 only such states (state 1 and state 2) as "mute" and "on" ("active") are indicated as examples, without any intention to limit the dynamics of the sensors of the sensor unit in embodiments. When the sensor triggers motion or acceleration to correspond free-fall, rotation or hard acceleration or deceleration, in an event of throwing or catching, the controller unit generates a control signal that switch off the microphone unit and/or the transmitter. According to an optional embodiment the state of the microphone unit is communicated to the external microphone system element, that listens to the transmission of the microphone device, but the microphone system element external to the microphone device couples to a state in which the transmission is not passed to the sound system.
FIG. 3 indicates an example on the monitoring of the state of motion via the sensors of the microphone device and the control signal formation accordingly. According to the example, the control signal (308) is used to mute 307 and/or un-mute 309 the microphone and/or the transmitter according to the state of motion of the microphone device, via the control signal state corresponding to the state of the motion. In the example of FIG. 3, the states state 1 and state 2 are not bound to a particular state, not in other examples either, as a skilled person knows from the examples of the embodiments.
CPU 301 is used in the controlling in the example to form also the control signal 308 with the appropriate signal level corresponding the state of the motion. The microphone device's control unit monitors constantly 302 the sensors, and when at least one sensor indicates movement, the state of the motion is detected and it is checked 303 that is the motion such that the control signal state is in the state "active" 304 indicating the capability to receive and/or pass sound via the external unit of the microphone system to the sound system. In case of movement detected, the control signal state is set to correspond the state "mute" 307 indicating the incapability not to receive and/or pass sound via the external unit of the microphone system to the sound system. In case of no movement detected, although state mute 305 was present, the control signal state is set to correspond the state "active" 309 indicating the capability to receive and/or pass sound via the external unit of the microphone system to the sound system. According to an embodiment the microphone device is delayed 306 to switch on to the active state, so the handling noises after a catch can be thus eliminated with a suitable timing interval, in an embodiment less than second.
Dependently on the indication of the control unit, the state of the motion of the microphone device is changed to state 1 307 "mute" in the FIG. 3 set from an active state (304), when a throw for example is detected.
Dependently on the indication of the control unit, the state of the motion of the microphone device is changed to state 2 309 "active" in the FIG. 3 set from a mute state (305), when a catch for example is detected, and handling sound of the user in an embodiment is switched off by the delayed (306) state switch after the catch. According to the state of mute state 1 (307) or state active state 2 (309), a control signal 308 is generated so that the electronics of the microphone device can detect the state accordingly and switch the microphone and/or transmitter to the corresponding state in the control of the control signal. This way, for example states of rolling, free fall, state still, state high acceleration, state low acceleration can be detected, just to mention a few examples, not only limiting the states only to indicated examples.
A skilled person in the art knows well from the embodiments that every signal level change may be not a result from the microphone device's movement by a throw, as changing the motion and hence triggering the motion sensors does not imply a change of the state indicative for throwing the microphone device, thus it is beneficial, only when this change is seen to be great or refers to throwing or catching. For example, a person waving the microphone in his hands will not turn it off, or when the person changes the way of moving, the movement type as being standing or sitting or moving there between states of sitting, standing and walking. According to an embodiment the software of the microphone device is configured to recognize the movements according to the control signal.
According to an embodiment variant of the invention, the microphone device is remotely controlled by the microphone system element 101 so that at least the microphone is muted during a throw, but also the transmitter, in addition to or optionally. However, the microphone device in such embodiment is configured to listen the commands from the remote system element 101 external to the microphone device.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the microphone device is arranged to discriminate motion type, one first state of motion from a second state of motion or a third state of motion, etc. According to an embodiment of the invention a mentioned state of motion, (first, second, third, etc.) can be a state of motion of the microphone device when the user is handling the microphone device, walking, sitting, getting up, rotating, etc., catch and/or state of being rest, falling with a constant acceleration or speed or moving with a constant horizontal speed. For example, according to an embodiment of the invention the state of the rest is considered as a second state of motion, especially in such an embodiment, wherein it is sufficient to discriminate the throw-resulted movement from being rest or other types of movements, so actually being without a need to recognize intermediate states of motion, just throw when it happens and the catch when such happens to be the first and second state of motions of the microphone device. However, according to an embodiment of the invention the sensor unit dynamics and quantization can limit the number of states a single sensor can indicate for the microphone device. By using several sensors, especially of different types, the number of states can be increased to indicate for example intermediate states when needed, but also to clarify just a few states of motion, including throwing, catching, falling, or the user movement originating from other motions, so discriminating between high and low valued accelerations, relating respectively to the catch or starting a walk. According to an embodiment the software has a feature to set the motion discrimination parameters accordingly, in which states of motion the muting/unmuting should be performed.
According to a variant of embodiment of the invention the software has a feature, according to which a replacement sound is played during a throw and/or catch indicative of the state of the motion. According to an embodiment the sound signal can be adjusted according to the motion state to the audience. The sound level can be lowered for example, i.e. attenuated to a certain pre-determined level during the throw or part of it. This can be made also to the replacement sound if used in the embodiment. According to an embodiment of the invention, the program within the CPU is configured to work by understanding the state of the microphone device and determining whether it is being thrown or caught, distinguishing movement from simple hand gestures and variations to the device caused by normal use when a speaker is talking into the microphone.
To determine the unique state, an embodiment of the invention uses in an ensemble of sensors comprising at least one sensor or a combination of sensors that determine among other things rotation, free fall, and/or sudden acceleration or deceleration. Sudden acceleration or deceleration is understood by the CPU as an impact of the device to the ground or when it is caught or can mean the object is being thrown. In such cases, the response is to mute/lower the signal of the microphone unit. Alternatively in an embodiment variant, free fall is also detected as a movement type by using sensors, which in turn signals that the microphone is not being held in hand and hence is in an airborne state, in the air, or being thrown, again creating a response to the CPU and hence the microphone unit. In an embodiment rotation is also measured, with pivoting angular velocity, and/or multiple rotations of the microphone in a given time frame indicative of the microphone not being in use by the user and hence should be turned off in the very embodiment. It is important to monitor a number of states simply because some sensors will not offer accurate values in all orientations of the device. For example, when the device is thrown and is simultaneously rotating, the ability of the sensor to detect free fall is compromised, however, rotation can still be measured. When a mute response is triggered, a timer is set that will turn the microphone back "on" after a given timeframe, when the motion has essentially stopped (because of catch for example), usually measured in milliseconds in an embodiment, but keeps the microphone device mute during the time frame, although the state of the motion corresponds the voice active state according to the program running in the memory of the processor.
When the mute state is activated, the microphone device is in mute state, but remains in mute state until the time frame is passed, although the device was ready to receive sound. When one of the mute triggers from the sensors of the sensor unit is active, the device is put into the mute state. When the triggers become inactive, the device is put to an active state after a small delay of less than 1000 ms.
According to an embodiment the microphone device can be kept in a default state of motion, and when a change in the change of the motion detected, the state of the motion is changed from the default stage.

Microphone device, method to operate and a system thereof


A cylinder truing hone comprising a plurality of pressure members mounted in circumferentially spaced locations around a driven member for movement radially of the driven member and with pressure surfaces on the pressure members outermost. An axially movable cam on the driven member is in engagement with the pressure members and can move them outwardly. Abrasive coated sheet material extends over the pressure surfaces where it can be pressed into engagement with a cylindrical inner surface by movement of the cam, and a mechanism is provided for changing the portion of the abrasive coated sheet material extending over the pressure surfaces.

Hones are commonly used for truing the inside cylindrical surface of a tube, such as a seamless tube intended for use as a hydraulic cylinder to remove defects called "long radius curvature (camber) and spiral wave" (see page 3 of the booklet entitled "The Inside Story Straight From Scot" available from Scot Industries, Inc., P.O. Box 248, Muscoda, Wisconsin 53573, the content whereof is incorporated herein by reference).
Typically such hones comprise a driven member having an axis and an end portion adapted to be engaged to axially move the driven member while rotating the driven member around its axis; a plurality of abrasive stones having elongate grinding surfaces mounted on the driven member for movement radially of the driven member with the pressure surfaces aligned axially of the driven member, facing radially outwardly of the driven member, and spaced circumferentially around the driven member; and means for biasing the grinding stones radially outwardly on the driven member. The hones are rotated about their axes while being moved axially through the tube so that the pressure of the biasing means causes the abrasive stones to abrade and true the inner surface of the tube. While such hones are effective, the stones have a tendency to crack or chip, and thus a significant amount of maintenance is required to change the stones on such hones.

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company


An image forming apparatus includes a conveyance unit, a recording head and a cap. The conveyance unit conveys a recording medium. The recording head includes a nozzle formation surface formed with a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink toward the recording medium being conveyed by the conveyance unit. The cap is able to abut against the nozzle formation surface of the recording head to form a closed space in which the nozzle formation surface is sealed off. The cap includes a base portion, a lip portion, an opening and a flexible film. The base portion faces the nozzle formation surface. The lip portion is upright from the base portion toward the nozzle formation surface to be able to abut against the nozzle formation surface. The opening passes through the base portion. The flexible film covers the opening.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an image forming apparatus, which is capable of preventing meniscuses from being destroyed due to change in an internal pressure at a time when a nozzle forming surface is capped and/or temperature change during the capping, the destruction of the meniscus leading in deterioration of ink ejection performance.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus has been known, which ejects ink onto a recording medium being conveyed from nozzles provided on a recording head to form an image on the recording medium. In order to prevent ink ejected from nozzles from drying when unused, this type of image forming apparatuses include a cap that is abut against a nozzle formation surface of the recording head to form a closed space in which the nozzle formation surface is sealed off.
JP Hei. 9-240012 (for example, FIG. 6) discloses an ink ejection apparatus including a cap body corresponding to the above-mentioned cap, as an image forming apparatus including the cap. The cap body has a concave portion defined by a bottom surface facing the nozzle formation surface and a wall, which is upward from the periphery of the bottom surface toward the nozzle formation surface. Further, an incision, which is in a closed state at normal times and is opened only when a force is applied to the bottom surface, is formed in the bottom surface.
According to the cap body configured as mentioned above, change in internal pressure generated at the time of capping is absorbed by opening the incision. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the meniscus from being destroyed due to the change in the internal pressure.


A magnetic head in one embodiment includes a plurality of components separated from each other by insulative portions, one of the components being a substrate; at least one connective element electrically coupling the components together; and a chiplet having at least one of read transducers and write transducers. A magnetic head in another embodiment includes a plurality of components separated from each other by insulative portions; side bars flanking the substrate; and at least one connective element electrically coupling the components together. A magnetic head in another embodiment includes a plurality of components separated from each other by insulative portions; and at least one connective element electrically coupling the components together, wherein the at least one connective element is positioned in at least one of the insulative portions, the at least one connective element having no other function than to electrically connect the components adjacent thereto.

The present invention relates to magnetic head structures, and more particularly, this invention relates to magnetic head structures having one or more interconnects for eliminating electrical potential differences between magnetic head components.
This invention addresses performance degradation in magnetic heads comprised of two or more electrically conductive or dissipative but isolated tape bearing portions. For example, in current full span tape head modules, an insulative adhesive layer is used for bonding closure to the thin film stack portion of the device chip, which contains the magnetic read, write and servo elements, as shown in FIG. 1. Thus, the closure and chip are electrically isolated. Usually the chip itself is connected to ground or other reference voltage in the tape drive, leaving the closure floating. Tape running can then lead to significant closure charging resulting in electrical potential difference between substrate and closure of up to 10 s of volts. This is known to contribute to such problems as shorting, alumina pitting, accumulation of adherent debris and others. To prevent closure charging, a device is needed for connecting closure and substrate, thus effectively clamping them at the same potential.
Shorting can be caused by electrical potential differences between conductive components of a magnetic tape head module. Shorting can cause the magnetic head module to malfunction temporarily in the time frame of the short, or cease to operate at all in severe instances of shorting. This is an undesirable effect for the application of reading and writing data to tape, as data can be distorted, destroyed, or recorded/read incorrectly because of the short.
Pitting is a problem encountered in the metals comprising a magnetic tape head module. Pitting is a type of localized corrosion in which metal that is subjected to the conditions that cause pitting develops small holes. Pitting corrosion may be caused by a deficit of oxygen. The area subjected to a lack of oxygen tends to become anodic while the area with an excess of oxygen tends to become cathodic. This leads to galvanic corrosion of the metal around the area of low oxygen.
An accumulation of adherent debris can be caused by potential electrical differences between magnetic tape head module components. This is due to the nature of certain particulate contaminants which are easily polarized to carry a charge. When the charged particle approaches the charged components of the magnetic tape head module, they are attracted to the component and will adhere to the surface, reducing the effectiveness of the component.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Magnetic head with components separated by insulative portions and electrically coupled together by connective element

International Business Machines Corporation


A seat ring for a control valve has a valve body defining an inlet, an outlet, and a gallery. The seat ring includes an annular body and a flow separator. The annular body is adapted to he disposed in the gallery of the valve body and includes an interior sidewall defining a port for accommodating fluid flow through the gallery. The flow separator is disposed within the port and includes a flow straightening portion defining a plurality of separate passageways. Each of the plurality of separate passageways has a hydraulic diameter and a length that is larger than the hydraulic diameter. As such, the passageways separate the flow of fluid through the port into a plurality of separate flow paths to interrupt turbulence adjacent to the port.

Fluid flow control devices, such as a control valves, are commonly used to control characteristics of a fluid flowing through a pipe. A typical device includes a valve body defining an inlet, an outlet, and a fluid flow path extending between the inlet and the outlet. A valve seat ring is coupled to the valve body and defines an orifice through which the flow path travels. A throttling element, such as a plug, is moveable relative to the valve seat ring to control fluid flow through the orifice.
When selecting a control valve for a particular process, a control valve engineer may be faced with many design requirements and design constraints. For example, some piping applications require piping connections to be axially aligned where other applications may permit piping connections to be at right angles relative to the inlet and outlet of the valve. Still other applications may have constraints on the face-to-face dimensions (i.e. the distance between the inlet and outlet of the control valve).
One common style of control valve is a globe valve. More particularly, a top-entry globe valve may be commonly used due to its ease of maintenance and application versatility. These types of valves can be used in critical applications, such as severe service applications, where radiated noise and turbulent flow may be an issue. Such top-entry access to the internal components provides quick changes and maintenance that eliminates costly downtime in the process plant. Top-entry globe valves include non-axial How paths; otherwise known as tortuous, flow paths. Such non-axial flow paths can create turbulence in the flow path of the control valve, which can detrimentally impact the performance of the system and lead to operational inefficiencies and increased operational costs and downtime.

Flow straightening seat ring and control valve having flow straightening seat ring


A medium includes a base layer and a separation layer stacked on each other. Regions are defined along a first direction. The regions include: a first region in which a portion of the medium which is in contact with the separation layer is stickable; a second region in which a portion of the medium which is in contact with the separation layer is non-stickable; and a third region in which a portion of the medium which is in contact with the separation layer is at least partly stickable. Four first vertexes of a first imaginary trapezoid shape which are located on an outer shape of the first region and four second vertexes of a second imaginary trapezoid shape which are located on an outer shape of the third region are symmetric with respect to an axis parallel with a second direction.

The following disclosure relates to a medium to be attached to a wrapped member and to a tape cartridge accommodating the medium.
There is known a medium to be attached to an outer circumferential portion of a cable or a circular cylindrical wrapped member, for example. This medium includes a base layer, an adhesive layer, and a separation layer stacked on each other. The medium includes: a one-side adhesive region in which a back surface of the medium becomes adhesive after the separation layer is peeled off; a non-adhesive region which is contiguous to the one-side adhesive region and in which a printing background layer is provided, and the back surface of the medium is not stickable; and an other-side adhesive region which is contiguous to the non-adhesive region and in which the back surface of the medium is partly adhesive.


The invention provides fuel cell systems and methods of operation where a fuel cell system is used as a backup power supply in a cold environment where the system must be maintained at a suitable temperature to allow the fuel cell to operate when needed. In one embodiment, the invention provides a thermal protection system for a fuel cell backup power generator. An enclosure houses a fuel cell and a coolant circuit. The coolant circuit is coupled to the fuel cell. A temperature sensor is provided that is adapted to indicate a system temperature. A heater is provided to increase the system temperature when actuated. For example, the heater can be an electric resistive heater or a burner coupled to a combustible fuel supply such as a propane tank. The heater can be located in the interior of the enclosure, in the coolant circuit, etc. A control circuit is provided that is adapted to actuate the heater when the system temperature is below a predetermined threshold.

The invention relates to systems and associated method of operation relating to thermally protected fuel cell backup power supplies.
A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that converts chemical energy produced by a reaction directly into electrical energy. For example, one type of fuel cell includes a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM), often called a proton exchange membrane, that permits only protons to pass between an anode and a cathode of the fuel cell. At the anode, diatomic hydrogen (a fuel) is reacted to produce protons that pass through the PEM. The electrons produced by this reaction travel through circuitry that is external to the fuel cell to form an electrical current. At the cathode, oxygen is reduced and reacts with the protons to form water. The anodic and cathodic reactions are described by the following equations:H2→2H++2e− at the anode of the cell, andO2+4H++4e−→2H2O at the cathode of the cell.
A typical fuel cell has a terminal voltage of up to about one volt DC. For purposes of producing much larger voltages, multiple fuel cells may be assembled together to form an arrangement called a fuel cell stack, an arrangement in which the fuel cells are electrically coupled together in series to form a larger DC voltage (a voltage near 100 volts DC, for example) and to provide more power.
The fuel cell stack may include flow field plates (graphite composite or metal plates, as examples) that are stacked one on top of the other. The plates may include various surface flow field channels and orifices to, as examples, route the reactants and products through the fuel cell stack. A PEM is sandwiched between each anode and cathode flow field plate. Electrically conductive gas diffusion layers (GDLs) may be located on each side of each PEM to act as a gas diffusion media and in some cases to provide a support for the fuel cell catalysts. In this manner, reactant gases from each side of the PEM may pass along the flow field channels and diffuse through the GDLs to reach the PEM. The PEM and its adjacent pair of catalyst layers are often referred to as a membrane electrode assembly (MEA). An MEA sandwiched by adjacent GDL layers is often referred to as a membrane electrode unit (MEU).
Suitable fuel cell components are well known in the art. As examples, common membrane materials include Nafion™, Gore Select™, sulphonated fluorocarbon polymers, and other materials such as polybenzimidazole and polyether ether ketone. Various suitable catalyst formulations are also known in the art, and are generally platinum-based. The GDL's generally comprise either a paper or cloth based on carbon fibers. The flow field plates are generally molded, stamped or machined from materials including carbon composites, plastics and metal alloys. The plates may include various surface flow channels and orifices to, as examples, route the reactants and products through the fuel cell stack. Reactant gases from each side of the PEM may pass along the flow channels and diffuse through the GDLs to reach the PEM.
Some fuel cell systems may be characterized as "dead headed". Operation of a dead headed hydrogen fuel cell has typically occurred as follows: Hydrogen is input to the stack at the anode inlet. The anode outlet is dead-ended with a purge valve. During operation, hydrogen enters the anode side of the fuel cell, passes through the membrane as load is applied, and reacts with oxygen on the cathode side, forming water. Some amount of water may back diffuse from the cathode side to the anode side. Nitrogen may also diffuse to the anode side. Factors such as the increased amount of nitrogen and water diffusion eventually cause cell performance to drop, and when this occurs a purge valve is triggered to open and close.
A fuel cell system may include a fuel processor that converts a hydrocarbon (natural gas or propane, as examples) into a fuel flow for the fuel cell stack. For a given output power of the fuel cell stack, the fuel flow to the stack must satisfy the appropriate stoichiometric ratios governed by the equations listed above. Thus, a controller of the fuel cell system may monitor the output power of the stack and based on the monitored output power, estimate the fuel flow to satisfy the appropriate stoichiometric ratios. In this manner, the controller regulates the fuel processor to produce this flow, and in response to the controller detecting a change in the output power, the controller estimates a new rate of fuel flow and controls the fuel processor accordingly. One "stoich" of fuel flow is defined as the amount theoretically needed to satisfy a given load on the fuel cell, assuming all of the reactant is reacted in the fuel cell.
The fuel cell system may provide power to a load, such as a load that is formed from residential appliances and electrical devices that may be selectively turned on and off, causing the power that is demanded by the load to vary. Thus, the load may not be constant, but rather the power that is consumed by the load may vary over time and abruptly change in steps. For example, if the fuel cell system provides power to a house, different appliances/electrical devices of the house may be turned on and off at different times to cause the load to vary in a stepwise fashion over time. Fuel cell systems adapted to accommodate variable loads are sometimes referred to as "load following" systems.
Fuel cells generally operate at temperatures much higher than ambient (e.g., 50-80° C. or 120-180° C.), and the fuel and air streams circulated through the fuel cells typically include water vapor. For example, reactants associated with sulphonated fluorocarbon polymer membranes must generally be humidified to ensure the membranes remain moist during operation. In such a system, water may condense out of a process stream where the stream is cooled below its dew point. For example, if the anode and cathode exhaust streams are saturated with water vapor at the stack operating temperature, water will tend to condense from these streams as they cool after leaving the stack. Similarly, the humidity and temperature conditions of other process streams may also produce condensation. It may be desirable to remove condensate from a process stream in a fuel cell system process stream. As examples, such condensate can interfere with the flow of process streams, can potentially build to levels that can flood portions of the system, and can also cause problems if allowed to freeze (e.g., in an outdoor unit that is not in service).
There is a continuing need for fuel cell systems and associated methods of operating fuel cell systems to achieve new and approved applications while accommodating design considerations including the forgoing in a robust, cost-effective manner.


Disclosed herein is a feed-forward ring oscillator. The feed-forward ring oscillator includes a plurality of delay cells for receiving a first differential input signal pair and a second differential input signal pair, and outputting a differential output signal pair. The delay cells are connected in a ring shape. Each of the delay cells receives a differential output signal pair of a delay cell of a previous stage as a first differential input signal pair and receives a differential output signal pair of a delay cell of a stage before the previous stage as a second differential input signal pair. Each of the delay cells comprises multiple independent gate field-effect transistors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a feed-forward ring oscillator, and, more particularly, to a feed-forward ring oscillator using multiple independent gate field-effect transistors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ring-type oscillators have been generally used as clock generation circuits because of their advantages in terms of good efficiency, a wide frequency range, and a small area. The frequency of oscillation of such a ring-type oscillator may be generally calculated using the following equation:fosc=1/(2Ntd)  (1)where N is the number of delay cells, and td indicates a delay time of a single delay cell. Since the frequency of oscillation of a ring oscillator is inversely proportional to N, there are limitations in operational reliability and the area of the oscillator when a large number of delay stages are used.
Feed-forward ring oscillators are ring oscillators that have been developed in order to overcome such limitations. The structure of such a feed-forward ring oscillator is such that a feed-forward loop is added to a ring oscillator in the existing type of manner. The delay cells of the existing feed-forward ring oscillator additionally require field-effect transistors in order to form input pairs used for the feed-forward loop.
The feed-forward ring oscillator having such a delay cell has the disadvantage of occupying a large area because of the additional field-effect transistors.

EWHA University-Industry Collaboration Foundation


A scanning device includes a transparent platen which receives a sheet to be scanned. A backing assembly is spaced from the platen by the sheet during scanning. The backing assembly includes a backing plate of a fixed color and an electrochromic layer intermediate the backing plate and the platen. The electrochromic layer has a first state in which the electrochromic layer is opaque and has a different color from the fixed color, and a second state, in which the electrochromic layer is transparent to expose the backing plate through it. A sensor is positioned to acquire an image of the sheet based on light passing through the platen. A controller selectively applies a voltage across the electrochromic layer to change the electrochromic layer between the first and second states.

The exemplary embodiment relates to document scanners, such as are used in printers, copiers, and/or multifunction devices and, more particularly, to a scanner with an electrochromic backing material which is selectively changeable between an opaque state and a transparent state, in which a backing plate is visible through the backing material.
Generally, a document scanner converts images and/or text on a hardcopy of a document into electronic form. The document scanning process may include placing the document on a top surface of a transparent platen (e.g., a flat glass plate). A scanner carriage is then moved past the document along the bottom surface of the platen. The scanner carriage includes a light source that illuminates the document and, particularly, the images and/or text thereon. The carriage or optical path also includes an image sensor, which incorporates photosensitive devices (e.g., photodiodes or other photosensitive devices) that measure the intensity of light reflected from given areas of the document. The sensor data is then translated from analog to digital, thereby defining the picture elements (i.e., pixels) of the document being scanned. Combined, these pixels represent the document in electronic form.
Another document scanning process involves a constant velocity transport (CVT) scanning system in which the document moves and the scanner carriage is stationary. In the CVT scanning system, a single stationary scanning system is utilized to scan the entire document while the document is moved past the scanning system. The CVT scanning system, conventionally, includes an image sensor, such as Contact Image Sensors (CIS) and CCD array systems, and a light source. As in the platen scanning system, the image sensor receives light reflected from the document and converts the light into electrical signals representing the intensity of the received light. The electrical signals are then passed on to an electronic subsystem which performs the necessary image processing operation so as to prepare the image data either for display on a display devices such as a CRT/LCD, for storage by a storage device such as a CD-ROM/Flash/Hard Drive etc., or for recording or printing on a medium, such as a document, in a similar manner as described above.
A backing material holds the document in close proximity to the platen. The scanner backing material may be white or black or a shade of grey. Lighter shades reflect more light, making images lighter, but also increasing the chances of show-through (image bleed through from the back side of the document). Darker shades reduce the chances of show-through, but produce darker images and can suffer from an Integrating Cavity Effect (ICE) around the edges of the document. There is no color or shade which is universally suitable for all originals, so a compromise is generally made between the two extremes.

Electrochromic scanning backing material


A container is disclosed for facilitating storing and transporting tableware. The container may be particularly useful for picnics or other outdoor activities in which meals are served. The container may include three compartments that may be removably attached together. A first compartment may have various chambers for receiving knives, forks or spoons. The first compartment may also include a cup chamber for receiving cups. The cup chamber may include a biasing member to assist in dispensing the cups. A second compartment may be attachable to the first compartment, and may be configured for receiving napkins. A third compartment may be attachable to the first compartment and may be configured for receiving plates. A handle may be provided to carry the container as a single unit.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to containers, and more particularly, but not necessarily entirely, to containers for organizing and carrying tableware that may be particularly useful for picnics or other outdoor activities.
2. Description of Related Art
It is common to transport tableware for use in picnics, camping or other outdoor recreational activities in which meals are served. Several different items of tableware may be useful, such as plates, napkins, cups, bowls, and utensils including knives, forks and spoons. It may be desirable to arrange the tableware in a manner such that the tableware occupies as little space as possible to facilitate storing the tableware in small areas or vehicles, and to facilitate handling the tableware. It may also be desirable to allow the tableware to be accessible while being protected from wind such that the tableware may not be easily blown away during use in the outdoors.
Picnic baskets known in the art are commonly used to carry tableware as well as food items. A drawback of the known picnic baskets is that the items in the picnic baskets are often mixed together such that finding and accessing a particular item may become difficult. Also, organizing tableware items in a compact configuration may be difficult in the traditional picnic basket. Moreover, dispensing of the tableware may not be easily accomplished.
An example of a container known in the art for carrying tableware is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,179, granted May 9, 2000 to Giampapa. The container has a compartment into which various types of tableware may be placed. However, separate compartments are not provided such that mixing of items may occur. Moreover, placement of the items in the container in a compact arrangement may be difficult to accomplish. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,311,841, granted Nov. 6, 2001 to Hodges, discloses a picnic supply case that is configured to function as a lap tray. Accordingly, the configuration of the case may not be suitable for arranging the tableware in a compact configuration.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 3,811,559, granted May 21, 1974 to Carter, discloses a container for picnic accessories. However, the container does not have compartments configured for holding specific tableware items such as utensils or cups, for example. Accordingly, the container does not facilitate arranging tableware in a compact and well organized configuration.
The prior art is thus characterized by several disadvantages that are addressed by the present disclosure. The present disclosure minimizes, and in some aspects eliminates, the above-mentioned failures, and other problems, by utilizing the methods and structural features described herein.
The features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by the practice of the disclosure without undue experimentation. The features and advantages of the disclosure may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.


Embodiments of the present invention feature a method and apparatus for an energetics-based approach to screen and to characterize binding interactions between potential therapeutic (or diagnostic) agents and unknown target molecules. The methods and apparatus detect the occurrence of these reactions, the strength of the binding interaction and possibly the rate at which these processes take place.

Substantial effort and funding are currently being expended in the genomics and proteomics fields with the focus of much of this effort being the discovery of new therapeutic and diagnostic agents. These therapeutic and diagnostic agents may work at the DNA (or RNA) level, the field of genomics, or at the protein level, the field of proteomics. In either case, the activity of a therapeutic and/or diagnostic agent resides in the ability of the drug molecule to bind tightly to a specific target molecule and through this complex formation to alter the function of the target molecule.
Currently there are two prevailing approaches to evaluate how effectively a particular drug binds with a target molecule, such as a nucleic acid or protein: the structural approach and the functional approach. The structural approach is based on predicting the potential of binding interactions from knowledge of the 3-D structures of the interacting molecules. This geometric approach, which evaluates how well the target molecule and drug molecule might fit together, is used to minimize the number of potential drug molecules that should be studied in detail. The functional approach is based on measurement of the change in the biological function of a nucleic acid or protein in the presence of the therapeutic agent.

Large array differential scanning calorimeter, DSC measuring unit


The utility cart of the present application comprises a frame, and a plurality of wheels supported by the frame. In at least one embodiment, the frame comprises at least one wall which defines a recessed upper cavity, and a front cavity. The utility cart further comprises a plurality of parts boxes removably disposed within the front cavity; and a handle disposed in proximity to a bottom of the upper cavity and further disposed in proximity to a top of the front cavity.

Portable utility carts and cabinets are well known for storing and transporting a variety of items, such as audio/video equipment, tool sets and supplies for hotel service employees. Prior art utility carts are typically designed to carry items within the confines of the cart. A need therefore exists for a utility cart which can accommodate carrying a long-handled device, such as a plunger, for example. Additionally, a need exists for a cart that can be conveniently lifted in proximity to the center of gravity of the cart, when necessary.


A plurality of print heads 60 and drive controllers 330 are installable on a carriage 1. A plurality of data processors 320 for transferring data to the drive controllers 330 are installable on the chassis 300 of the printing device. Any circuit sets, each comprising a predetermined number of print heads 60, one drive controller 330, and one data processor 320, are individually installed and uninstalled.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an inkjet printing device having a plurality of print heads.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, so-called inkjet printers have gained widespread acceptance as computer output devices. More recently, there have been proposed printers that employ a number of print heads for rapid printing of printed materials on large format paper such as A1 or A0 size.
However, printing devices equipped with multiple print heads have a problem in that in the event of malfunction of some of the print heads or of a constituent element thereof such as the drive control circuit, it can be very difficult to fix the malfunction. Another problem with multiple print heads is how to transmit signals among the drive circuits of the several print heads.


A liquid crystal composition and a liquid crystal display employing the same are provided. The liquid crystal composition includes: 100 parts by weight of at least one nematic liquid crystal; 1-20 parts by weight of at least one photosensitive chiral compound; and 1-20 parts by weight of at least one non-photosensitive chiral compound.

1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to a liquid crystal composition and liquid crystal display employing the same, and in particular relates to a liquid crystal composition with a broad color gamut and low temperature dependence and liquid crystal display employing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, flexible displays (serving as electronic papers, electronic books, electronic labels, or smart cards) have been developed vigorously. The display media for flexible displays include liquid crystal displays, electronphoretic displays, electrochromic displays and electrolytic displays. In the application of electronic papers, compared with displays made of other display materials, the display made of a cholesteric liquid crystal material has higher brightness and better contrast. In addition, the cholesteric liquid crystal display can be driven passively and produced easily.
A cholesteric liquid crystal display can reflect environmental light without requiring a backlight module and a polarizer film, and therefore can provide reduced power consumption when compared with the conventional transmissive liquid crystal displays. Since the cholesteric liquid crystal display can reflect lights of various wavelengths, color images can be displayed without a color filter.
The cholesteric liquid crystal display employs a cholesteric liquid crystal composition, and a conventional cholesteric liquid crystal composition includes a nematic liquid crystal and a chiral dopant. It is desirable to use a photosensitive chiral compound having high helical twisting power (HTP) in optical writing cholesteric liquid crystal displays. The conformation of the chiral dopant in the nematic liquid crystal can be altered by illumination to result in the change of the helical twisting power (HTP), which in turn, changes the pitch (P) of the cholesteric liquid crystal to obtain a different color of reflected light.
The liquid crystal display employing the conventional cholesteric liquid crystal, however, exhibits lower reflectivity and a narrow color gamut. Particularly, when the size of the liquid crystal display is increased, a long operation time for driving is required. Therefore, a novel cholesteric liquid crystal composition for improving the color display performance and reducing the threshold voltage of the cholesteric liquid crystal display employing the same is desired.

Liquid crystal composition and liquid crystal display employing the same

Industrial Technology Research Institute