Disclosed therein is a spring tube melting machine of an air suspension system. The spring tube melting machine includes an inner molding part (100) and an outer molding part (200), which can mold an integrated spring tube by compressing half-finished spring tube materials at high temperature in order prevent bad molding due to the remaining air and overlap of spring tube materials and simplify maintenance due to repeated use.

In general, an air suspension system serves to reduce a damage of a car body and provide a comfortable ride to a passenger by connecting a car axle and the car body with each other by pneumatic pressure to thereby properly reduce vibration or shock transferred from the surface of the road during drive, so as to adjust a buffer power according to drive conditions and provide smoother feeling of drive by adjusting pneumatic pressure.
Moreover, the air suspension system includes a spring tube mounted between a lower housing fixed to the car axle and an upper housing fixed to the car body. The spring tube performs a buffering action when compressed air is injected into the spring tube, and is formed in such a fashion that tube materials, which are stacked up in multiple layers, are inserted into a melting machine and are melted integrally.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,057,768 discloses a method of molding an air spring that an unhardened sleeve is outwardly pressed relative to an outer static mold by an inwardly expandable mandrill.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,964,846 and 5,468,140, an air spring is cured by pressure of a mandrill acting from the outside to the inside, namely, toward the outer circumferential surface of a cartridge.
The spring tube melting machines according to the prior arts are manufactured with the purpose of easily manufacturing spring tubes, but have many problems in use.
First, when the mandrill presses the air spring while performing expansion and contraction, the surface of the air spring is formed unevenly because remaining air between the mandrill and the air spring cannot be discharged rapidly.
Second, when the mandrill which is used as consumable goods is replaced with a new one, there is an inconvenience to completely disassemble the spring tube melting machine.
Third, in order to form pyramid-shaped relief engraving portions on the air spring, because intaglio engraving portions, which is difficult to do cutting work, must be formed on the surface of the cartridge, it requires expensive prices to manufacture the cartridge.

Spring tube melting machine for air suspension system


A semiconductor device in which at least one bit of data bits configuring data read out from a memory is supplied to a pseudo error generating circuit in a test mode to generate a pseudo error bit which is supplied to an ECC (error connection code) circuit together with remainder bits of the data bits to obtain an error-corrected data which is then supplied to a BIST (Built-In-Self-Test) circuit for testing the error-corrected data obtained from the ECC circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a semiconductor device and more particularly to a semiconductor device having an ECC circuit which corrects an error in output data from a memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
The operation speed of semiconductor devices is enhanced more and more and the integration density of elements of the devices is also extremely enhanced with the development of the semiconductor device technology. As a result, an influence by not only the degradation-fault but also the delay-fault as the fault mode of the device increases and a serious problem occurs. Therefore, the actual speed test, that is, at-speed test in the initial stage of the device manufacturing process becomes important. Particularly, a memory in the chip acts as a critical path of the whole chip in many cases, and therefore, a self-test circuit called a BIST (Built-In-Self Test) circuit is mounted on the chip and the at-speed test for the memory is made in the wafer stage.
The capacity of storage nodes of cells configuring the memory is reduced with shrinkage of elements, and therefore, a soft error of the memory develops into a major problem. As a measure to prevent occurrence of the soft error, an ECC (Error Correcting Code) circuit is mounted on the memory in the chip in many cases. The memory having the ECC circuit mounted thereon stores code bits for testing in addition to normal data bits. The ECC circuit detects the presence or absence of an error in the data bits based on the value of the code bits, detects one of the bits in which the error occurs, corrects the error and outputs the corrected bits to the exterior. The number of error bits in the same word which can be corrected is determined according to a code used by the ECC circuit. Generally, a one-bit error correction code or a SEC-DED code which is capable of performing a single error correction and two or more error detection is often used.
The block configuration of a conventional memory device used when the memory having the ECC circuit mounted thereon is tested by use of a BIST circuit is shown in FIG. 10. In FIG. 10, a BIST circuit 91 checks data output via an ECC circuit 92 and determines whether or not an error is present in output data of a memory array 93. However, in the memory device having the ECC circuit 92 mounted thereon, a larger number of operation processes are performed in a case wherein an error has occurred than in a case wherein no error has occurred. Therefore, a critical path of the memory operation often occurs when an error correction is made.
However, since the frequency of occurrence of soft errors is extremely low, the critical path hardly appears at the time of at-speed test. Therefore, in this case, the critical path is not dealt with as an object of the at-speed test.
For example, in Jap. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication Disclosure No. 2003-36697, a test circuit for a semiconductor memory is disclosed. The test circuit has a pseudo error signal generating circuit between a memory circuit and a BIST circuit, converts output data from the memory circuit according to a set signal and generates a pseudo error signal necessary for checking the operation of the BIST circuit.
However, since no ECC circuit is provided in the test circuit of the semiconductor memory disclosed in this Jap. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication Disclosure No. 2003-36697, no measure to cope with a soft error of the memory is taken.


The present invention has an object to provide a high frequency integrated device which can obtain sufficient isolation even in a high frequency region of which handling frequency exceeds gigahertz[GHz]. In a semiconductor device having an element isolation structure obtained by trench isolation, in which an insulator fills the inside of a trench formed in a semiconductor substrate, the insulator filling the trench includes a conductive material region, and the conductive material region is grounded through coupling at high frequency. With this configuration, electromagnetic waves coupled to the conductive material inside the trench are propagated to ground, thereby preventing high-frequency interference with other regions.

The present invention relates to closely spaced circuits each of which should never be carelessly coupled to each other at high frequency, and more specifically to a high frequency integrated device having an element isolation region formed by trench isolation.
In recent years, as solutions for technical problems of an element isolation structure formed by LOCOS isolation, many methods of trench isolation (referred to as V-trench or U-trench isolation depending upon the shape of a trench) have been proposed, in which a deep trench is provided in a region for forming a LOCOS oxidation film of a semiconductor substrate and insulator fills the trench. Further, a method for filling a conductive material in a trench also has been proposed.
As shown in FIG. 18, in a method for isolating an element that uses trench isolation of a first conventional art (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-172124), an insulator 104, which is embedded into a trench 102 formed on a substrate 101, protrudes from a surface of the substrate 101 on a trench upper part 103 and extends with an opening size width or more of the trench 102. At least both sides 103a are chamfered or formed into segments, and the insulator 104 filling the trench 102 includes a region of a conductive material 105 (polysilicon is a representative material, and doped polysilicon is also applicable).
Moreover, as shown in FIG. 19, in a second conventional art (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-269319), embedded wiring 204 is partially embedded by an insulator 203 in a trench 202 formed on a substrate 201.
Also, as shown in FIG. 20, in a third conventional art (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-273288), a trench 302 is formed on the circumference of a predetermined circuit element formed on a substrate 301, an insulator 304 and a polysilicon resistor 303 used for element isolation are embedded in the trench 302, and a contact is formed for wiring on a predetermined position in the trench 302, so that the trench 302 is used as a resistor.
Additionally, as shown in FIG. 21, in a fourth conventional art (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-29603), an element isolation trench 402 and a power supply trench 403 are formed on a substrate 401, the substrate 401 is exposed at the bottom of the power supply trench 403, tungsten 404 is embedded by selective vapor growth, a non-doped polysilicon 405 is simultaneously embedded in the remaining part of the power supply trench 403 and in the element isolation trench 402, a polysilicon film 406, which is doped with a high concentration, is formed on polysilicon 405 in the power supply trench 403, and the substrate 401 is subjected to heat treatment so as to form power supply wiring 407.
Meanwhile, LSI with a SiG-BiCMOS (Silicon Germanium-Bipolar-CMOS) structure has been developed in recent years. In such LSI, a bipolar transistor, which uses Silicon Germanium for a base layer and can perform a superhigh frequency operation, and an MIS transistor such as a CMOS transistor, which has a high packaging density with small power consumption, are formed on the same substrate, so that highly integrated LSI can be achieved at high speed with low power consumption. When SiGeBiCMOS is used in a region whose handling frequency exceeds gigahertz[GHz], conventional isolating methods cannot obtain high-frequency isolation under present circumstances.
When a circuit handles a higher frequency, a coupling degree in an electromagnetic field is increased between apart regions due to parastic capacitances and radiation. Namely, unnecessary interference occurs between function blocks (circuits), resulting in serious influence on the capability of circuits. In order to obtain high-frequency (electromagnetic) separation (isolation), interruption needs be provided so as to set a potential to 0 at high frequency between regions (circuits).
To be specific, in the method of the first conventional art, the included conductive material 105 is grounded by making contact with the substrate 101 having a fixed potential. However, since the substrate 101 is a resistor, resistance exists between the conductive material 105 and ground through the substrate 101. Hence, a potential of the conductive material 105 is not stabilize for high frequency, so that high-frequency isolation cannot be obtained in regions 101A and 101B on the sides of the trench 102.
Further, in the method of the second conventional art, the wiring 204 is embedded in the trench 202. The wiring 204 is not always connected to a high frequency ground (RF ground) that has a stabilized potential such as a power supply, ground and the like. Even if the wiring 204 is connected to RF ground, the wiring 204 does not entirely cover the trench 202. Thus, even if the wiring 204 is used for high-frequency isolation, high-frequency isolation cannot be obtained in regions 201A and 201B on the sides of the trench 202.
Besides, in the method of the third conventional art, the polysilicon resistor 303 is used in the trench 302. A potential is not stabilized because of the resistance of the polysilicon resistor 303, and like the first conventional art, an electromagnetic wave is not terminated on the polysilicon. Hence, high-frequency interruption cannot be achieved.
Additionally, in the method of the fourth conventional art, like the first conventional art, since the substrate 401 is not a perfect conductor, there exists resistance between the tungsten 404 and the substrate 401. Since the polysilicon film 406 also has R (resistance) serving as a resistor, a potential on the polysilicon is not stabilized.
In this manner, although the conventional methods are configured such that a conductive material fills a trench to improve isolation characteristics, sufficient isolation cannot be obtained in a high frequency region whose handling frequency exceeds gigahertz[GHz] under present circumstances.
The present invention has as its object the provision of a high frequency integrated device which can achieve sufficient isolation even in a high frequency region whose handling frequency exceeds gigahertz[GHz] in the formation of a trench isolation structure for filling a conductive material in a trench.
A high frequency integrated device according to claim 1 of the present invention is characterized in that it comprises a semiconductor substrate having a trench formed therein, the trench being filled inside thereof, via an insulating film, with a conductive material having lower resistance than that of the insulating film, the conductive material being grounded through coupling at high frequency. Here, to be grounded through coupling at high frequency may be paraphrased as to be connected to a point potentially stabilized at high frequency. That is, the conductive material is connected to a potentially stabilized conductor such as ground and power supply.
A high frequency integrated device according to claim 2 of the present invention is characterized in that in claim 1, the conductive material is directly connected to a potentially stabilized conductor formed of a conductive substance.
A high frequency integrated device according to claim 3 of the present invention is characterized in that in claim 1, the conductive material is connected to a ground conductor formed of a conductive substance via a capacitance that is sufficient to make a short circuit at a handling frequency. That is, the conductive material is connected to a potentially stabilized conductor.
A high frequency integrated device according to claim 4 of the present invention is characterized in that in claims 1 to 3, an insulating film comprising one or more layers is formed on a side wall and a bottom of the trench.
A high frequency integrated device according to claim 5 of the present invention is characterized in that in claims 1 to 4, an impurity region is formed on the side wall and the periphery of the bottom of the trench.
A high frequency integrated device according to claim 6 of the present invention is characterized in that in claim 1, the trench is formed on a major surface of the semiconductor substrate, and the conductive material is grounded to a ground conductor through coupling at high frequency, the ground conductor being formed on the major surface of the semiconductor substrate via an interlayer insulating film. Here, to be grounded through coupling at high frequency may be paraphrased as to be connected to a point potentially stabilized at high frequency. That is, the conductive material is connected to a potentially stabilized conductor.
A high frequency integrated device according to claim 7 of the present invention is characterized in that in claim 1, the semiconductor substrate is made of Si.
A high frequency integrated device according to claim 8 of the present invention is characterized in that in claims 1 to 7, the semiconductor substrate has circuit regions formed thereon, each of the circuit regions being formed by one or more semiconductor elements selected from a group consisting of an N-type channel MOSFET, a P-type channel MOSFET and a bipolar transistor, and the trench is formed so as to divide the circuit region.
A high frequency integrated device according to claim 9 of the present invention is characterized in that in claims 1 to 8, the semiconductor substrate has Si(1xe2x88x92X)Gex (0 less than xc3x97xe2x89xa61) as a main material.
A high frequency integrated device according to claim 10 of the present invention is characterized in that it comprises a semiconductor substrate having first and second trenches formed in the semiconductor substrate, each of the trenches being filled with an insulator, and a conductive region formed in a position between the first and second trenches, the conductive region being grounded through coupling at high frequency. Here, to be grounded through coupling at high frequency means to be connected to a point potentially stabilized at high frequency.
A high frequency integrated device according to claim 11 of the present invention is characterized in that it comprises a semiconductor substrate having a trench filled with an insulator, a first conductive region formed in a position outside the trench, and a second conductive region formed outside the first conductive region so as to be separated from the first conductive region. The first conductive region is grounded through coupling at high frequency, and bias voltage is applied to the second conductive region to cause depletion so as to reduce a coupling capacitance of the first conductive region and the second conductive region. Here, to be grounded through coupling at high frequency means to be connected to a point potentially stabilized at high frequency.
A high frequency integrated device according to claim 12 of the present invention is characterized in that in claim 11, the first conductive region is grounded at DC as a P-type doped region, and the second conductive region is used as an N-type doped region and applied with positive bias. Here, to be grounded at DC may be paraphrased as to be connected to a point potentially stabilized at DC.
A high frequency integrated device according to claim 13 of the present invention is characterized in that in claim 12, the conductive regions are each formed by implanting impurity.
A high frequency integrated device according to claim 14 of the present invention is characterized in that in any one of claims 10 to 13, the semiconductor substrate is made of a material being more excellent than Si in insulating capability under direct current, and the trench is eliminated.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A method and apparatus position a beam spot on a recording medium. The positioning includes (a) observing a first center error in a first closed loop control during tracking mode, the first center error including a repeatable run out (RRO) error, (b) estimating a center error (CE)-RRO from the first center error, the CE-RRO being part of the first center error caused by the RRO, (c) observing a second center error in a second closed loop control during a rough seek, (d) subtracting the CE-RRO from the second center error, (e) controlling the beam spot based on the second center error less the CE-RRO during the rough seek, and (f) adding an open loop control to the second closed loop control during the rough seek, the added open loop control inducing a motion of the lens relative to an optical center of the OPU during the rough seek.

The tracks on an optical recording medium such as a compact disc (CD) or digital versatile disc (DVD), form a long spiral. In order to read and/or write data from/to the recording medium, a disc driver must position its optical head or optical pickup unit (OPU) onto a designated data point (the corresponding track) and a laser beam spot must follow the track on the rotating disc. An OPU includes a light source (for example, laser diode), an optical system, including an objective lens, to focus the laser beam onto the optical disc, and a photo-detector array to detect the reflected/diffracted light from the disc.
The laser beam from the OPU includes a primary beam and two secondary side beams provided on both sides of the primary beam. The primary beam is to be centered on a track (pit area) and detected by a main photo-detector (quadrant detector). The secondary beams are to be centered on the "land" formed both sides of the track, and detected by two additional (side) photo-detectors place alongside of the main detector. If the primary beam is right on the center of the track, the two sides of the main photo-detector and the side photo-detectors would (ideally) receive equal amount of light from the secondary beams. As the optical head drift to either side of the track, the amount of light reflected from the tracking beams varies. Diffraction would cause a change in the light intensity on the two different sides of the photo detector array. The difference signal (push-pull signal) is proportional to the amount of deviation of the beam from the center of the track.
The movement of the OPU is controlled by actuators. A typical servo control of a disc driver includes focus servo control and tracking servo control. The tracking servo could be in rough (coarse) seek, fine seek, or tracking mode. The rough seek is performed by a sled actuator or "sled" which leads the optical head to the vicinity of destination along the surface of the disc radially, and thus this operation is also referred to as "sled seek." The terms "sled seek" and "rough seek" are used interchangeably in this specification. The fine seek is performed by a fine actuator located inside the optical head, which drives the lens within the housing of the optical head so as to precisely and rapidly position the laser beam on to the desired track while keeping the tracking servo loop closed. The fine seek is typically performed within 1,000 tracks.
As the disc rotates, the laser beam follows the spiral of the track from the inner diameter (ID) to the outer diameter (OD). However, if the disc has run out due to manufacturing tolerance or otherwise, the center of the spiral may not be the center of rotation of the spiral. Thus, as the disc rotates, the track moves radially with respect to a fixed point, for example, the laser beam spot. This radial motion is referred to as "run out." The repeatable run out (RRO) error is a repeatable, predicable off-track motion caused by a mis-centering of a disc on the spindle motor, i.e., a physical misalignment between the center of the disc and the center of the rotation. Typically, the RRO is less than 150 μm for DVDs, and less than 280 μm for CDs.
FIGS. 1A through 1D schematically illustrates the run out seen at the rotational angles 0, π/2, π, and 3π/2, respectively. In FIGS. 1A through 1D, the solid line 10 represents the track position with run out, and the broken line 12 represents the track position without run out. In order to reduce the effect of this run out error and other errors in laser beam positioning (or "tracking"), a closed loop control system is used. While the closed loop control is operating, the lens will move radially along with the disc so that the laser beam spot is held on the center of the track.
The "track position" is defined as location of the laser beam spot with respect to the track center, which is detected by imaging the beam spot onto a photo-detector array, as mentioned above. Diffraction causes a slight change in intensity of the light received on the two sides photo-detectors. This difference in the intensity, i.e., the push-pull signal, is proportional to the track error (TE).
However, if the laser beam from the light source does not travel directly through the center of the optical lens, i.e., the laser beam is off-centered, reflection and refraction of the light would shift the image of the beam spot to one side of the photo-detector array. This image-shifting effect due to the off-centered laser position on the lens is referred to as the "center error" or "CE". The center error is also observed as the difference in the light intensity received by the two sides of the photo-detectors, and the push-pull effect of the center error and that of the track error are not distinguishable by examining one track position alone. Thus, in order to obtain an accurate track error, a second measurement is taken one-half track away. The effect of the center error is the same in the first and second measurements, but the push-pull effect of the track error is reversed in the first and second measurements. By combining these two measurements an accurate track position (track error) can be determined. For example, the push-pull signals of the first measurement (main push-pull: MPP) and the second measurement (side push-pull: SPP) are expressed as follows:
      MPP    =          TE      +      CE            SPP    =                  1        k                          (                              -            TE                    +          CE                )            Where k is a factor added because the second measurement receives less light. Thus, the net track error TE is obtained as:TE=MPP−k×SPP
As discussed above, in order to position the laser beam spot onto the center of the track on the rotating disc, the lens moves radially once per revolution, following the radial disc movement due to the run out. That is, when the laser beam is locked to the disc, the lens radially moves with respect to the optical center of the OPU. Here, the optical center is the center of the housing of the OPU, along which the center of the laser beam is aligned. This lens motion induces a center error that is synchronous to the disc rotation.
When it is desired to move the laser beam spot from a track to another track, either the lens by itself can be moved within the housing of the OPU (fine seeking), or the OPU including the lens can be moved by the sled actuator (rough or sled seeking). The fine seeking is fast because the laser beam spot stays locked to the disc, even while track crossing. However, if the target track is far away, the lens cannot move far enough within the OPU. Thus, the sled is used to reposition the OPU to the vicinity of the target track. During the sled seek, the laser beam spot is unlocked from the disc, and the center error is used to control the laser beam spot to stay at the center of the housing of the OPU. This is done in order to prevent the lens from inadvertently hitting the housing when the sled accelerates or decelerates the OPU, since such an impact can cause the lens to lose focus.
When the laser beam spot is locked to the track, a closed loop control system of the disc driver eliminates the effect of run out. However, during a rough seek (or sled seek), as described above, the laser beam spot is unlocked from the track. Thus, upon completion of the rough seek, the laser beam spot must be locked to the disc again. However, if the run out is large, the relative motion between the laser beam spot and the disc may also be large, making it difficult to lock the laser beam spot to the disc.

Method and apparatus for positioning beam spot on recording medium


A method for extracting at least one alkaloid from opium that includes dissolving opium in a solvent, heating the dissolved opium solution, cooling the dissolved opium solution, adjusting the pH of the dissolved opium solution with at least one first weak acid, filtering the dissolved opium solution to recover a filtrate; and then separating and purifying at least one alkaloid in the filtrate. Preferably, this includes an additional step of chilling the opium solution after adjusting the pH of the dissolved opium solution with at least one first acid. The preferred method for separating and purifying at least one alkaloid in the filtrate includes utilizing preparative liquid chromatography, however, solvent extraction and filtration can also be utilized.

Opium is a key material that is used in the production of morphine, codeine, thebaine and narcotine. Moreover, it is the only source for narcotine. Opium is obtained by cutting the unripe pods of Papaver Somniferum, then collecting the resulting fluid and drying the fluid under ambient conditions. Opium is typically obtained in loaves that are individually wrapped in paper and is a black, tarry material with a characteristic odor.
A major problem is the ability to efficiently and effectively separate the principal alkaloids as well as separate the principal alkaloids from the opium residue. There are a number of methods for separating opium into the principal alkaloids, i.e., morphine, codeine, oripavine, thebaine, papaverine and narcotine. However, all of these techniques are vastly improved by starting with material that is rich in the principal alkaloids with minimal opium residue and other alkaloids. The most common process to separate narcotic alkaloids, which includes morphine, codeine, oripavine, thebaine, papaverine and narcotine (noscapine), is by solvent extraction. Separation includes both purification as well as color removal. The separated narcotic alkaloids are then purified by carbon adsorption and precipitation.
One specific example of this type of modified solvent extraction is found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,054,584 issued to Ma, et al. on Apr. 25, 2000, which discloses a process for extracting only morphine from opium wherein the opium is dissolved in a basic alcoholic solution. The basic alcoholic solution is then filtered and the alcohol is removed from the filtrate to leave a residue. The residue is then extracted with a basic aqueous solution having a pH of at least 11. The basic aqueous solution may be filtered to remove any solid matter remaining after the aqueous extraction step, and then is stirred with a sufficient amount of salt to avoid the formation of an emulsion. The basic aqueous solution or filtrate is then extracted with benzene or toluene. Next, the pH of the basic aqueous filtrate is adjusted to a pH of between 8.5 to 9.5 that allows the morphine to precipitate for recovery.
There are a number of different ways to achieve adsorption besides the use of carbon. One way to achieve adsorption is through ion exchange. Yet another way to achieve adsorption is through polar interaction or normal phase adsorption. Still, yet another way to achieve adsorption is through separating alkaloids from other components based on molecular size by utilizing a membrane.
Another major method for processing opium to separate the principal alkaloids is based on dispersion of opium in water, which is then followed by extraction with hydrochloric acid. This then is followed by separation of the insoluble material with plate-and-frame filtration. This is then followed by separation of morphine and codeine from the other principal alkaloids by extraction with chloroform. The aqueous morphine and codeine stream is treated with lime to remove meconic acid. Morphine is then purified using multiple recrystallizations. Morphine and codeine are then separated by extraction with toluene, then the aqueous morphine stream is extracted with fusel oil. The remaining alkaloids are separated from the chloroform by acid extraction and evaporation. The narcotine, papaverine and thebaine are then obtained by fractional crystallization.
The preferred method for separating the principal alkaloids is by using preparative liquid chromatography. This method includes loading a stationary phase media into a chromatographic column, feeding a crude narcotic alkaloid solution into the chromatographic column, applying at least one mobile phase to the chromatographic column, and recovering at least one narcotic alkaloid eluate from the chromatographic column. This method is disclosed in International Patent Application No. WO03074526 that was published on Sep. 12, 2003, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.


A baseband processor includes a modulating unit and a converting unit. The modulating unit generates an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol by modulating a bit stream. The converting unit converts the OFDM symbol from a frequency domain into a time domain, and adjusts a frequency of the OFDM symbol according to a frequency hopping sequence to perform frequency hopping in a digital domain.

Example embodiments relate to wireless communication, and more particularly, to a baseband processor performing frequency hopping in a digital domain and to a wireless device including the baseband processor.
Ultra-wideband (UWB) communication is a radio technology that wirelessly transmits and receives signals at very low energy levels for short-range high-bandwidth communications by using a large portion of the radio spectrum. UWB communication may be generally classified as either direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) UWB communication or multi-band orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) UWB communication. Briefly, DS-CDMA UWB communication allows multiple accesses by spreading signals with different codes. On the other hand, MB-OFDM UWB communication performs frequency hopping among frequency bands, of which each has a bandwidth of about 528 MHz, to achieve multiple access and frequency diversity. MB-OFDM UWB communication may improve diversity and may reduce multi-piconet interference by performing frequency hopping per symbol.
A conventional MB-OFDM UWB communication device requires the provision of relatively large analog radio frequency unit to execute frequency hopping.


Methods and systems are provided for merging a plurality of video inputs resulting in a single coherent output. More specifically, in one exemplary embodiment, a device embeds alpha red green blue (ARGB) data in an RGB stream which allows for preservation of the alpha channel over the video interface link.

Technologies associated with the communication of information have evolved rapidly over the last several decades. Television, cellular telephony, the Internet and optical communication techniques (to name just a few things) combine to inundate consumers with available information and entertainment options. Taking television as an example, the last three decades have seen the introduction of cable television service, satellite television service, pay-per-view movies and video-on-demand. Whereas television viewers of the 1960s could typically receive perhaps four or five over-the-air TV channels on their television sets, today's TV watchers have the opportunity to select from hundreds, thousands, and potentially millions of channels of shows and information. Video-on-demand technology, currently used primarily in hotels and the like, provides the potential for in-home entertainment selection from among thousands of movie titles.
The technological ability to provide so much information and content to end users provides both opportunities and challenges to system designers and service providers. One challenge is that while end users typically prefer having more choices rather than fewer, this preference is counterweighted by their desire that the selection process be both fast and simple. Unfortunately, the development of the systems and interfaces by which end users access media items has resulted in selection processes which are neither fast nor simple. Consider again the example of television programs. When television was in its infancy, determining which program to watch was a relatively simple process primarily due to the small number of choices. One would consult a printed guide which was formatted, for example, as series of columns and rows which showed the correspondence between (1) nearby television channels, (2) programs being transmitted on those channels and (3) date and time. The television was tuned to the desired channel by adjusting a tuner knob and the viewer watched the selected program. Later, remote control devices were introduced that permitted viewers to tune the television from a distance. This addition to the user-television interface created the phenomenon known as "channel surfing" whereby a viewer could rapidly view short segments being broadcast on a number of channels to quickly learn what programs were available at any given time.
As these technologies advance, more equipment has become available for viewing media content. For example, media content, e.g., television shows, movies and advertisements, can now be viewed on various display devices which can receive their inputs from different sources. Movies can be viewed on a television with the input being a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) signal received from a cable box (or other source) via a high definition (HD) cable. Alternatively, movies can, in some cases, be viewed on a monitor attached to a personal computer (PC) with the signal received by the monitor being a digital visual interface (DVI) signal. Both the HDMI signal and the DVI signal can carry color data in either red green blue (RGB) format or the YCbCr format, however there is currently no simple, flexible way to integrate multiple HDMI and DVI signals and to also have flexible control over the output.
RGB is an easily understood and widely used color space for computers. RGB represents color as an additive combination of red, green, and blue. For example, an RGB signal having equal parts of these inputs generates a grayscale value, an RGB signal having equal parts red and green generates a yellow value while an RGB signal having equal parts green and blue generates a cyan value, and an RGB signal containing equal parts blue and red results in a magenta value. YCbCr is widely used in video formats and compression algorithms. It is a way of encoding RGB data. The YCbCr format was designed to facilitate color TV at a time when TV program was black & white. The Y component is the luminance (or how bright the image is), Cb and Cr are chrominance components.
Content which is displayed on televisions is, today, highly controlled by the content distributor, e.g., cable television providers, satellite television providers and the like. Accordingly, it would be desirable to merge in other video feeds to increase the flexibility of content viewed by end users.


A system for defining and controlling data transmissions in a multiplexing system having a host controller in bi-directional communication with a plurality of remote stations or nodes. The system comprises a series of simple frame flags generally defined as varying periods of inactivity on the bi-directional transmission line. Only specified numbers of transmitted data digits constitute valid transmissions. An arrangement is provided which responds to the receipt of an incorrect number of received digits (an error condition) in a manner which is a function of the number of digits which are actually received.

Multiplexing systems can be defined as digital based electronic schemes for sequentially accessing a variety of remote stations or nodes. Such systems comprise a central control unit connected to a plurality of remote nodes via a bi-directional transmission line. The signals communicated between the central control unit and the remote nodes take the form of electronic bits of information which define either a logic "0" or "1" binary state.
In a time division multiplex system the communicated data is defined by time windows also known as slots or frames. Each bit position within a time window has a predefined meaning which can change based on the addition of complex flagging bits or patterns that may sandwich the data signal bits. An additional or different kind of flag bit may also be included to indicate that more signal bits are coming for a particular frame and/or that selected bit positions are to be redefined.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,986 issued to Yee describes a multiplex system in which pulse width modulation is utilized to create a unique address for each remote station in the system. The central processor sends out interrogation pulses of a controlled width, wherein the width identifies the specific remote station which is the intended recipient of the pulse. Each remote station, when it receives an interrogation pulse of the appropriate width, responds by supplying a return pulse on the bus with a delay that encodes the desired information. In the Yee system, the variable width interrogation pulse identifies the remote station by the width of the pulse.
In the system with which the present invention finds utility, the remote stations may be addressed either directly or sequentially. In the latter case, such addressing proceeds in order from a first one of the remote stations to a last one of the remote stations. When the stations are addressed sequentially, the data transmitted by the control unit includes a first number of data digits and the remote stations count the transmissions from the control unit. Each station recognizes when the transmission count equals its assigned address. When a remote station is to be addressed directly, the data transmitted by the control unit includes a second number of data digits which is equal to the first number plus a third number of address data digits. Thus, transmissions from the control unit should include only either the first or the second number of digits. Each of the digits must have a defined set of characteristics in order to be valid and the remote stations examine the received digits as part of the validation routine. However, due to the presence of noise on the transmission line, one or more digits of a data transmission are occasionally "lost". Further, noise on the transmission line can also occasionally appear to be valid digits.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an arrangement in each of the remote stations which reacts to the presence of an incorrect number of received digits in a different manner depending upon the number of digits received.

Error recovery arrangement in a time division multiplex data transmission system


In a measuring apparatus (1) for contactlessly determining the position of two components (11 and 12 respectively) which are displaceable relative to each other and which are in the form of a measurement value sender (11) and a sensor (21) co-operating therewith, the measurement value sender (11) is in the form of a switching ring comprising a metallic material and connected to the displaceable component, and the sensor (21) comprises a plurality of inductive measuring heads which are arranged over the displacement range of the switching ring and which produce an electromagnetic measuring field composed of individual fields. The measuring heads are also connected to a computing unit (25) in which there is stored in a memory the signal configuration ascertained upon calibration of the measuring apparatus (1); the position of the displaceable component can be determined after a displacement movement of the switching ring (12), by comparison of the signals produced, with the stored signal configuration.

The invention relates to a measuring apparatus for contactlessly determining the position of two components which are displaceable relative to each other with a translatory movement, in particular for determining the position of a displacement piston which is fitted in a cylinder and which is drivingly connected to clamping jaws of a power-operated chuck, wherein the one component is in the form of a measurement value sender and the other component is in the form of a sensor co-operating therewith, the sensor comprises a plurality of measuring heads which are arranged over the displacement range of the measurement value sender and which are connected to a computing unit which has an evaluation circuit and in which there is stored in a memory the signal configuration of the individual measuring heads, which is ascertained upon calibration of the measuring apparatus in dependence on the position of the measurement value sender, and the position of the displaceable component can be determined after an axial displacement movement of the measurement value sender by comparison of the signals respectively produced thereby in the measurement field with the stored signal configuration.
An electronic position detector of that kind is known from DE 32 44 891 A1. In that arrangement the sensor comprises a plurality of coils which are disposed on different ferrite members as carriers in the same mechanical arrangement with a defined spacing and which co-operate with a measurement value sender which is also in the form of a coil. If a voltage pulse or an ac voltage is applied to the individual coils in succession or at the same time, the signals in the individual coils differ, depending on the position in which the measurement value sender is disposed, as a position indicator, relative to one of the oppositely disposed coils. If the individual coils are interrogated for example by means of an electronic multiplexer, the different signal inputs are directly a measurement in respect of the position of the measurement value sender.
Feed lines to the displaceable measurement value sender are admittedly avoided, but in many cases measurement inaccuracies have to be tolerated as the magnetic fields of the coils forming the sensor overlap and thus in many situations a precise association of the measurement value sender is not possible.
Accordingly, the object of the invention is to provide a measuring apparatus for contactlessly determining the position of two components which are displaceable relative to each other with a translatory movement, which not only can be produced in an extremely economical fashion but with which incorrect measurements are reliably also avoided. The invention seeks to provide that in this case a magnetic shock as well as external influences which can result in measurement inaccuracies do not have to be tolerated; on the contrary the invention seeks to provide that the measuring apparatus is operational with an associated consumer so that precise determination of the respective axial position of the component to be monitored is made possible in a very simple fashion.
In the measuring apparatus designed in accordance with the invention for contactiessly determining the position of two components which are displaceable relative to each other with a translatory movement, that is attained in that the measurement value sender is in the form of a switching ring and comprises a metallic, preferably ferromagnetic material, and that the switching ring is provided on the end face towards the sensor with a profiling formed by at least one recess machined therein.
In this case, the flanks of the recess can be perpendicular to the axis or of a trapezoidal shape extending inclinedly outwardly or inwardly relative to the face of the switching ring or can be of a convexly or concavely curved configuration, in which respect it is appropriate for two recesses which are arranged at a lateral spacing from each other to be formed in the face of the switching ring.
In the case of a switching ring with recesses which are incorporated in the face thereof perpendicularly to the axis, in relation to the face thereof, it is desirable for the recesses and the projections formed thereby to be of the same width.
The lateral spacing of the measuring heads can be different in relation to the lateral spacing of two flanks of two projections, which are directed in the same direction. In accordance with a preferred configuration the spacing of the measuring heads in relation to the spacing of the flanks should be in a ratio of three to four.
The measuring heads should be arranged equidistantly over the displacement range of the switching ring, preferably in a line. The measuring heads which produce an electromagnetic measuring field composed of individual fields can each also be formed from a ferrite shell core and a coil pack.
If a measuring apparatus is designed in accordance with the invention, it is possible to ascertain the respective position of the component which is displaceable with a translatory movement, without involving a high level of structural complication and expenditure. More specifically, along the measuring distance, an electromagnetic measuring field composed of the respective individual fields is produced by the inductive measuring heads which can comprise ferrite shell cores with for example on average 3.3 mm for inductive proximity switches and a coil pack on copper enamel wire of 0.028 mm with twice 170 windings. When the switching ring is in the working region of the measuring heads, they are influenced by way of the action of the switching ring on the associated electromagnetic individual fields. When dealing with ferromagnetic or electrically conductive object materials, that results in a variation in the inductance of the measuring head and also eddy current losses, in which respect basically the two effects act in opposition. When dealing with non-ferromagnetic object materials in contrast, only eddy current losses occur. Those effects can be measured with circuits which are suitable for that purpose. Taking the actual attenuation profile of the individual measuring heads, using an evaluation algorithm, it is possible to calculate the current axial position of the switching ring, more specifically independently of the angle of rotation and within certain limits of the radial spacing between the switching ring and the measuring head.
The face of the switching ring which is manufactured from a commercially available steel is desirably to be profiled in such a way that the surface thereof forms three projections. They produce an increase in the level of measuring accuracy as more signal edges are produced for evaluation, per unit of length. That increase is used in order to minimise the number of measuring heads and to be able to make the spacing thereof relative to each other as large as possible. In that way on the one hand the measuring system becomes less expensive, while on the other hand this avoids mutual influencing the measuring heads.
In practice however it is not possible to achieve an ideal triangular signal configuration as inter alia the maxima and the minima markedly flatten off. Signals with a horizontal or a vertical configuration are unsuitable for evaluation as they do not contain clear travel information. There are however always two measuring signals between y=0.25 and y=0.75, accordingly in a region in which a linear rise can in practice also be produced. With the respectively largest individual signal y greater than 0.75 it is thus possible to calculate a plurality of possible coarse positions and with the second and third largest signal (0.25 less than y less than 0.75), by virtue of linear interpolation and signal linking, it is possible to calculate the definitive clear position, having regard to the coarse position.
The signals produced by the individual measuring heads can be processed by a standardisation procedure in such a way that common-mode disturbances which act on all measuring heads are almost completely eliminated. Such disturbances include inter alia fluctuations in temperature, changes in the properties of the steel of the switching ring under the influence of temperature or centrifugal force, ageing and temperature drift in the analog electronics and a variation in the spacing from the switching ring to the measuring heads.
Thus, a comparison of the pre-processed signal configurations with the signal configurations which are stored in a memory and which were ascertained upon calibration of the measuring apparatus makes it easily possible to determine the respective position of the component which is displaceable with a translatory movement, namely the switching ring, and accordingly, in dependence thereon, also the position of the clamping piston whose position changes upon a loss in clamping force. In that respect it is immaterial whether the component which is displaceable with a translatory or linear movement performs only such a movement or in that respect also rotates. A rotational movement has no influence on the signal configuration. The clamping force of a power-operated chuck is accordingly to be easily monitored by way of a change in position of the displacement piston which acts on the clamping jaws thereof.

Abstract: This design configuration provides that incorrect measurements are reliably avoided and that a magnetic and a mechanical shock do not have to be tolerated as the measuring apparatus (1) is operational without magnets.


The present invention relates to contrast media having a low concentration of contrast agent (active ingredient) and/or low Hounsfield value for use in medical or diagnostic procedures, or for therapeutic use. In one alternative embodiment, the contrast media are comprised of a contrast agent, alone or in combination with a stabilizing agent or osmotic agent. The present invention is directed to a contrast media having a Hounsfield value less than 250. In another embodiment, the contrast media comprises a contrast agent, such as a less than 2% w/v barium-based compound. In another embodiment, the present invention also relates to formulations and methods for distending and imaging an anatomic segment of an individual.

Contrast agents are useful in diagnostic imaging because they make it possible to determine the location, size and identity of organs or other structures of the body in the context of their surrounding tissues. In the early days of radiographic contrast development, researchers realized the value of an element's density for use as a contrast agent. Barium-based compounds, particularly BaSO4, soon became the preferred contrast agent due to its high atomic weight and its low cost to produce. In addition, its safety profile reinforced this direction of development.
In time, fluoroscopic imaging enabled radiologists to monitor contrast agents as they moved through the GI tract. This advancement required individual BaSO4 suspensions for each segment of the GI tract. Based on the portion of the GI tract being imaged, different contrast media comprising barium sulfate were developed. For the esophagus, a thick paste was used to show esophageal motility and outline the myocardium (heart) and great vessels (aorta) of the thorax. These pastes were high in concentrations of barium sulfate (100% w/v). To study the stomach, a media concentration of barium sulfate (40-80% w/v) was used. In the small bowel, concentrations usually were the same or slightly less as those used for the stomach. Single contrast studies of the colon were performed by rectal administration. Here, sulfate concentrations of 15-18% w/v were used to fill and distend the colon and distal small bowel. In the 1960's and 1970's, double contrast or air contrast studies were performed on both the upper and lower GI. In these studies, the barium sulfate concentrations for the upper and lower GI were 250% w/v and 100% w/v, respectively.
In the development of computerized axial tomography ("CAT" or "CT"), radiologists used orally administered barium sulfate or dilute iodine solutions to distinguish bowel from other surrounding tissue. Due to the sensitivity of CT, lower concentrations of BaSO4 (2.1% w/v) could be used, as well as dilute iodine solutions.
The introduction of multi-detector helical scanners provided improved quality and image definition. With helical scanner, the current 2.1% barium sulfate concentrations can be used to differentiate the GI tract from the surrounding tissue, but do not allow clear differentiation between bowel wall and bowel lumen. When conventional bowel markers are used the adjacent soft tissues are lost in the image acquisition phase. This is due to a phenomena known as volume averaging. When the radiopaque contrast materials conventionally used are in the bowel lumen, the soft tissue of the bowel wall is lost in the image reconstruction.
The lower contrast media concentrations of the present formulations, when used with, for example, spiral, helical and multi-detector helical scanners (MSMD) in CT and in MR, allows for lumen distention and clear visualization of organs and other structures, for example:
In CT, the newer imaging technology allows for improved image quality and allows image detail of minor HV differences to be appreciated. The conventional oral bowel markers do not allow imagers to take advantage of the bowel marking and imaging of adjacent soft issues. With the older/higher concentration used in conventional CT, the bowel wall is not visualized. The soft tissue next to the dense contrast marking the bowel lumen will cause loss of imaging ability of the adjacent (soft tissue) bowel wall. Much like the penumbra when light passes through space spreading out and including adjacent space. reconstruction of high densities in CT casts a shadow on contiguous low density soft tissue structures called "volume averaging." This concept may be analogized in terms of the CT image being comprised of pixels. Each pixel has a value based on the anatomy it represents if it is bright then it is dense and has a high HV. When you have pixels lined up in a row, as we have in every CT image, there are dense pixels and less dense pixels. When these adjacent pixels have great differences in HV's, like we would expect to see in the GI tract bowel wall (45 HV) and the lumen with conventional CT contrast (250 to 450 HV), there is an averaging effect. The pixels of lower density values of the bowel wall are increased and the bowel lumen contrast of higher density pixels are slightly decreased. The net effect is the loss of bowel wall in the image.
There is, therefore, a need for a contrast media having a lower Hounsfield value and/or lower concentration of contrast agent to effectuate high quality imaging of organs or other structures in a medical or diagnostic procedure, or for therapeutic use.

Contrast media for use in medical and diagnostic procedures and methods of using the same


For the purpose of increasing the electric capacity of lithium secondary batteries comprising titanium-based negative electrode materials, the present invention aims to produce a titanium oxide compound whose crystal structure, crystallite size, specific surface area and primary particle size are controlled, and to provide a lithium secondary battery comprising such a compound.

The present invention relates to a titanium oxide compound for use in an electrode, which is useful as an active material for lithium secondary batteries, and a lithium secondary battery comprising the same.
Lithium secondary batteries have improved as power sources for cellular phones and notebook computers because of their high energy density. With recent advances in IT technology which have required a reduction in the size and weight of portable remote terminals, batteries used as power sources for these terminals have also been required to have a smaller size and a higher capacity. Moreover, based on their high energy density, lithium secondary batteries have begun to receive attention as power sources for electric vehicles or hybrid vehicles and as power sources for power storage.
As to negative electrode materials for conventional lithium batteries, carbon-based negative electrodes are commonly used, and lithium secondary batteries comprising the same are characterized by providing high voltage during discharge and having high energy density. However, such negative electrodes have low electric potential and hence will induce an increased risk of internal short circuit caused by lithium metal deposited upon rapid charge and also a risk of ignition caused by the internal short circuit. For this reason, studies have been conducted to develop lithium batteries with high safety and long life, which are designed to have high potential negative electrodes to reduce heat generation upon internal short circuit although the energy density is lowered, and are further designed to suppress the decomposition of an electrolyte. Among them, Li4Ti5O12 has an electric potential of 1.5 V on a lithium basis and is excellent in cycling characteristics because there is no volume change during charge and discharge. Thus, coin batteries comprising Li4Ti5O12 have been developed for practical use.
However, Li4Ti5O12 has a theoretical capacity of 175 mAh/g, which is as low as about a half of the electric capacity of carbon commonly used as a negative electrode material, and also has a drawback of reducing energy density when used in lithium secondary batteries. For this reason, there is a demand for a negative electrode material of high electric capacity having a voltage of 1.0 to 1.5 V vs. Li/Li+ in terms of safety and long life.
Under these circumstances, Patent Document 1 shows A2Ti3O7 (wherein A is one or two members selected from Na, Li and H) having the same crystal structure as that of Na2Ti3O7, while Patent Document 2 shows that titanate bronze-type titanium dioxide having an isotropic shape of micron size is useful as an electrode material. However, the discharge capacity shown in these documents is less than 180 mAh/g, which essentially does not greatly exceed the electric capacity of titanium-based negative electrodes conventionally known. Moreover, Patent Document 3 shows that tunnel-structured titanium oxide having a specific crystal structure (H2Ti12O25) achieves a discharge capacity of around 220 mAh/g. However, there is no information about particle size, and the effect of particle size is not clarified in this document. In other crystal structures, the effect of particle size is also not clarified.
The electric capacity of a lithium secondary battery is determined by the size of the particle surface through which lithium ions can enter or exit, the mobility of lithium ions across particles, and the number of sites at which lithium ions are held. The number of sites is determined by the crystal structure. For effective use of these sites, it is necessary to increase the specific surface area of particles through which lithium ions enter or exit the particles and to reduce the distance required for lithium ions to move into the particles. Thus, crystallite size is effective as a parameter representing the size of primary particles, i.e., migration length.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 2007-234233    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 2008-117625    Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 2008-255000

Titanium oxide compound for use in electrode and lithium secondary battery comprising the same

Abstract: The present invention produces a lithium secondary battery by using, as an electrode active material, a titanium oxide compound for use in an electrode, which is represented by TiO2.(H2O)a.(A2O)b (wherein A is Na or K, a is 0<a=1, and b is 0<b=0.1) and has a main peak at 2θ=20° to 30° and a minor peak at 2θ=45° to 55° in its X-ray diffraction pattern, wherein the crystallite size determined from the main peak ranges from 40 Å more to 500 Å or less.


Techniques for discovery and management of physical components are disclosed. A push notification from a physical component is received. The push notification includes an announcement that the physical component has been physically coupled with a system. Responsive to receiving the push notification, the system registers the physical component. The system receives push notifications from physical component. Based on the push notifications, the system determines an operational status of the physical component.

A system may have one or more physical components. Further, the system may allow for components to be added and/or removed. Components may be added or removed at runtime and/or while the system is powered down. Adding or removing a component in the system may change the functionality available to and/or provided by the system. Further, adding or removing a component in the system may have an impact on other components in the system. For example, adding a component may require that the component share resources (e.g., computing cycles, physical space, memory, network bandwidth, etc.) with other resources in the system. The system may be responsible for managing the different components in the system, and may further be responsible for allocating system resources between the different components.
In addition, a component in the system may fail. For example, the component may experience a hardware failure (e.g., overheating, breakage, uncoupling from the system, or some other type of failure relating to physical hardware), a software malfunction (e.g., an infinite loop, a memory leak or fault, division by zero, or some other type of failure relating to code execution), or some other type of malfunction. The failure may render the component inoperable or otherwise unreliable. For example, the component may experience unusually high latency and/or become unresponsive. When a component fails, some sort of system recovery may be needed, such as restarting, reinitializing, and/or replacing the component.
In some systems, a polling approach is used to determine when components are added and/or removed. Specifically, a controller may transmit a message to a particular network address in the system, corresponding to the potential location of a component, and wait for a response indicating that a component is located at that address. Polling may be repeated, periodically, for each electronic address in the system. Polling allows the system to determine whether components are located at different addresses, but carries significant overhead, because the system must poll each and every location periodically. Thus, polling may consume valuable system resources such as computing cycles, bandwidth, memory, etc.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.

Discovery and management of physical components


When handover is performed from a first network to a second network, a terminal transmits a reply request message to a home agent through the first network after new configuration of a tunnel for transmitting and receiving a packet through the second network. If the terminal receives a reply message corresponding to the reply request message through the first network, the terminal detects that the configuration of the tunnel for transmitting and receiving the packet through the first network can be deleted, and deletes the configuration of the tunnel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile terminal.
2. Related Art
A handover technique where a mobile terminal switches and uses a plurality of different networks, such as cellular system access networks like a PHS, a GPRS, a CDMA, and an HSDPA and an access network like 802.11 and 802.16, in accordance with a necessity has been known (refer to JP-A 2005-244590 (KOKAI)). The handover technique is generally called a vertical handover technique.
The vertical handover is realized using protocols, such as Mobile IPv4, Mobile IPv6, MOBIKE (IKEv2 Mobility and Multihoming) protocol. Further, it is known that the technique called a soft handover reduces the number of packet losses when a terminal switches the network by these protocols.
Soft handover maintains the connection to the previous network for a while even after the terminal is connected to the new network. As a result, the terminal can securely receive all of the packets passing through the previous network while network switching.
Further, during the handover process, a relay apparatus (home agent) that provides mobility to the terminal also maintains a connection to the previous network after switching the network for a while. As a result, the relay apparatus can securely receive all of the packets passing through the network before switching, during a network switching process and transmit the packets.
A soft handover method according to the related art at the time of vertical handover using Mobile IPv4 will be described. Hereinafter, the soft handover at the time of a vertical handover is simply referred to as handover. In this case, the case where a mobile terminal switches from a cellular network to a wireless LAN will be described.
Before a handover, a tunnel via a cellular network is established between a mobile terminal and a home agent, and a cellular network interface of the mobile terminal receives packets transmitted from a counterpart apparatus.
The mobile terminal determines that it switches the network to a wireless LAN, when the signal strength from a wireless LAN base station becomes sufficiently strong. Then a Registration Request message is transmitted from the wireless LAN interface of the mobile terminal to the home agent.
The home agent receives the Registration Request message and detects that the mobile terminal requires to switch the network. Then the home agent transmits a Registration Reply message, which describes that the mobile terminal is allowed to switch network, to the wireless LAN interface of the mobile terminal.
The home agent changes configurations of the tunnel such that the packet transmitted from the counterpart apparatus is transferred to the wireless LAN interface of the mobile terminal, in accordance with reception of the Registration Request message or transmission of the Registration Reply message.
Further, if the mobile terminal receives the Registration Reply message, the mobile terminal configures a new tunnel so that the mobile terminal can receive the packet transferred from the home agent to the wireless LAN interface. Thereby, the mobile terminal can receive the packet transferred from the home agent by both of the wireless LAN interface and the cellular network interface.
In general, a communication delay of the cellular network is larger than a communication delay of the wireless LAN. For this reason, at a point of time when the packet is first received in the wireless LAN interface, the mobile terminal does not receive the packet that the home agent has transmitted to the cellular network interface of mobile terminal.
Even after establishing the new tunnel through the wireless LAN, the mobile terminal keeps configuration of the tunnel through the cellular network, and deletes the configuration of the tunnel after a sufficient time passes. Thereby, it is possible to receive all of the packets transmitted from the home agent to the cellular network interface without causing a packet loss at the time of the handover.
However, in the handover method according to the related art, since the mobile terminal cannot detect a point of time when the mobile terminal receives all of the packets transmitted from the home agent to the cellular network (network before the handover) interface, the configuration of the tunnel is not deleted for some time after all of the packets are received, and power that is supplied to the cellular network interface cannot be stopped.
In this case, it is not possible to release a memory resource to keep the configuration that allows the packets transmitted from the home agent to be received by the cellular network interface.


A method for depositing a coating comprising a polymer and impermeable dispersed solid on a substrate, comprising the following steps: discharging at least one impermeable dispersed solid in dry powder form through a first orifice; discharging at least one polymer in dry powder form through a second orifice; depositing the polymer and/or impermeable dispersed solid particles onto said substrate, wherein an electrical potential is maintained between the substrate and the impermeable dispersed solid and/or polymer particles, thereby forming said coating; and sintering said coating under conditions that do not disrupt the activity and/or function of the substrate. A similar method is provided for depositing a coating comprising a hydrophobic polymer and a water-vapor-trapping material on a substrate.

Medical devices often must be shielded from interacting with body fluids in vivo. For example, for devices that are electrical in nature, for example, such as pacemakers and other "active" implants for sensing, delivery of therapeutics and/or active control of various bodily functions should be protected.
One prevalent method used to provide this protection is to weld the device inside a titanium or other biocompatible metal "can." Another method to provide the shield necessary to protect a medical device from interaction with bodily fluids in vivo is polymer coating the device. Polymer coating such "active" implants has significant technical challenges and limitations which have made polymer coatings relatively unsuccessful as a means of sealing the devices.
For example, one limitation of traditional coating processes in providing a seal is that traditional polymer coating processes (e.g. dip, spray, etc.) all require the use of a solvent-based system. Exposing the device to a solvent causes problems in the device. Furthermore, there are inherent challenges with effective drying of solvent-based polymer coatings.
Solvent-less coating processes (e.g. vapor deposition, plasma deposition, dry powder coating, etc.) also have limitations in providing seals to active devices. Solvent-less coating processes all require very aggressive conditions that could damage the device—such as elevated temperatures to cure a dry powder coated device.
Additionally, for most current coating technologies, solvent-based and solvent-less, it is often difficult to achieve coatings of uniform thicknesses and prevent the occurrence of defects (e.g. bare spots, webs, pools, clumps). As the size of the substrate decreases, and as the mechanical complexity increases, it grows increasingly difficult to uniformly coat all surfaces of a substrate. Supplemental steps, therefore, are sometimes necessary to assure proper coating, including, for example, multiple coating steps and/or drying between or after the coating steps (in solvent-based systems).
Conventional polymer films likewise have limitations in providing a seal. Conventional polymer films are known to be quite ineffective barriers to the transport of gaseous materials. While this is especially true of small molecule gases, the problem extends to providing a barrier to water vapors and other gases that could deleteriously effect an electrical biomedical implant.

Polymer films for medical device coating


A storage device includes a flash memory, a buffer memory and a memory controller. The buffer memory is configured to temporarily store write data to be written in the flash memory, the buffer memory including volatile RAM and non-volatile RAM. The memory controller is configured to select one of the volatile RAM and the non-volatile RAM to temporally store the write data based on a write pattern of the write data, and to transmit a host command complete signal to a host when the write data is stored in the non-volatile RAM.

Exemplary embodiments relate to a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly, relate to a data storage device including a non-volatile memory device.
Semiconductor memory devices may be classified as non-volatile memory devices and volatile memory devices. Non-volatile memory device retain data stored therein even when power is removed or off. Volatile memory devices support faster read and write operations, but data stored therein may be lost at power-off. The non-volatile memory devices may be used to store contents to be retained regardless of application of power. An example of a non-volatile memory device is a flash memory device, which may be more highly integrated than a typical electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), for example, so that it is suitable for auxiliary mass data storage.
Flash memory devices are increasingly used as storage media for replacing hard disk drives (HDDs), due to technological advances and reduced prices of the flash memory devices. Such a storage device may be referred to as a solid state drive (SSD) or a solid state disk. The SSD input and output data at high speeds, and mechanical delay and failure rates are typically low. Further advantages of the SSD include robust data storage against external impact, lower radiation, noise and power consumption, light weight and compactness. Also, the SSD does not use a mechanically rotating disk. Accordingly, demand for SSDs increases, particularly in wireless communications, which require storage having low power and large volume.
In general, a storage device includes volatile random access memory (RAM), such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) or static random access memory (SRAM), as write buffer memory (or cache memory) between a host interface and flash memory. Using the volatile RAM as a write buffer minimizes the difference between an interface speed of the host and write speed of the flash memory device. Furthermore, the cache memory enables fast access to frequently accessed data. To this end, high speed volatile RAM is used as the write buffer memory (or cache memory), generally. However, data integrity may be compromised when power of the storage device is lost or otherwise removed while write data is written in the write buffer memory, but not yet written in the flash memory.

Storage device with buffer memory including non-volatile RAM and volatile RAM


A housing for an electronic device, including an aluminum layer enclosing a volume that includes a radio-frequency (RF) antenna is provided. The housing includes a window aligned with the RF antenna; the window including a non-conductive material filling a cavity in the aluminum layer; and a thin aluminum oxide layer adjacent to the aluminum layer and to the non-conductive material; wherein the non-conductive material and the thin aluminum oxide layer form an RF-transparent path through the window. A housing for an electronic device including an integrated RF-antenna is also provided. A method of manufacturing a housing for an electronic device as described above is provided.

Antenna architecture is an integral part of a consumer electronics product. Housings and structural components are often made from conductive metal, which can serve as a ground for an antenna. However, antennas require nonconductive regions or other isolation to provide a good radiation pattern and signal strength. To solve this problem conventional designs include a plastic antenna window or a plastic split in a housing to separate the conductive metal. However, this approach breaks the consistent visual profile of the device, deteriorating the cosmetic appeal of the metal surface. Also, replacing metallic portions of the housing with softer materials weakens the underlying metal and uses device volume to fasten the parts together.
Therefore, what is desired is a housing for an electronic device that integrates antenna designs in a manner that is visually consistent with the cosmetic appeal of the device and that provides structural support for the device and functional support for the antenna.

Antenna window and antenna pattern for electronic devices and methods of manufacturing the same


A nonwoven composite fabric having first and second fibrous layers reinforced by an intermediate scrim layer. The first fibrous layer may be an entangled fabric formed of staple length fibers or continuous filaments, and the second fibrous layer may be a thermally point-bonded fabric formed of staple length fibers or continuous filaments. The second fibrous layer bonds the scrim to the first fibrous layer and will mask the scrim in the finished product. The composite fabric is produced by placing the scrim in face-to-face juxtaposition with the first and second fibrous layers, and subjecting the resulting composite to the forces of high pressure fluid jets to break the bonds in the second fibrous layer and to cause the fibers or filaments of that fibrous layer to pass through the openings in the scrim and become entangled with the fibers or filaments of the first fibrous layer.

It has long been desired to produce nonwoven fabrics that combine the low cost of nonwoven manufacturing process with the durability of traditional knit and woven textiles to multiple uses and repeated launderings. However, to date, expedients that have been proposed for increasing the durability of nonwoven fabrics have achieved only partial success in terms of performance enhancements. Further, such approaches have been costly and have resulted in detrimental effects on tactile and drape properties, to render the modified fabrics no longer suitable for their intended end use.
The use of open mesh nets, or scrims, has been proposed in the past for altering certain physical characteristics of nonwoven fabrics, such as tensile strength and durability. Scrims are produced by numerous methods including weaving, extrusion casting, cross-laying threads or filaments and bonding at their intersections. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,775,579; 5,334,446; 5,393,599; 5,431,991; and 5,874,159 all disclose nonwoven fabrics having an open mesh net member incorporated therein. A scrim layer is typically bonded between fibrous layers to form a nonwoven product to suit a particular application. Scrim layers have been proposed as a stiffener, for strengthening reinforcement, to make non-elastic or highly elastic products; and for a variety of other purposes.
Many different expedients have been proposed for bonding a scrim layer into a multi-layer nonwoven product. Thermal bonding, adhesive bonding, stitch bonding, and high-pressure water jet entanglement are typical methods for constructing scrim reinforces laminates. None of these expedients has been completely successful. Adhesive bonding involves specialized equipment, adds a processing step, and adhesive itself is expensive. Thermal bonding results in stiffening of the fabric due to the stiffness of the bond points themselves, which results in an undesirable tactile quality in many durable good end uses. Stitch bonding, while aesthetically pleasing, is slow by comparison to most other nonwoven bonding methods and includes the cost of expensive yarns, thereby negating the economic benefits of the original nonwoven substrate. Bonding by high-pressure water jets typically requires the use of layers of unbonded staple fibers to conceal the scrim as an interior layer in the fabric. Hydroentangled staple layers tend to lack the type of durability and pill resistance required for highly durable, multi-use fabrics without the inclusion of expensive finishes, which also add cost and have negative effects on hand and drape.
Thus, there remains an unfilled need for the production of a highly durable nonwoven product with the high strength performance that can be reliably and economically manufactured.
The present invention comprises a composite nonwoven fabric based on a multi-layered construction utilizing a scrim as an interior strength bearing member with nonwoven fabrics as the outer layers of a fabric that may be first consolidated by the use of high pressure water jets and then imaged using water jets and a three dimensional forming surface.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention the scrim layer is positioned between a thermally point-bonded nonwoven substrate fabric formed of polymeric staple length fibers or essentially continuous filaments, and a secondary substrate fabrics of entangled polymeric staple length fibers or essentially continuous filaments. This precursor composite is then directed to an imaging device which is subjected to the action of high pressure water jets to consolidate the layers of the precursor composite to one another and to impart an image therein corresponding to the image of the imaging device. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,882,883 and 5,827,597 disclose processes and equipment that are suitable for use in forming imaged laminated nonwoven fabrics of the present invention, and such patents are hereby incorporated herein in their entireties by this reference.
The reliance upon a thermally point bonded nonwoven substrate as one of the layers of the composite contributes to the abrasion resistance and overall durability of the composite fabric. The inclusion of an entangled fabric of predominantly staple length fibers provides added bulk, coverage, and imparts a good hand to the composite fabric. The resulting composite construction offers excellent strength, uniformity, opacity, durability and aesthetic properties in a nonwoven fabric.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, prior to imaging, the entangled nonwoven substrate layer is comprised of staple length fibers or continuous filaments that are held together by knotting or mechanical friction as a result of needling or water jet entangling. Such fabrics are produced, for example, by cross-lapping a carded fibrous layer of randomized 0.8 to 3.5 denier staple length fibers. The carded web is subsequently entangled using commercial processes, most preferentially hydroentanglement systems, as exemplified by Perfojet Jetlace 2000 or Fleissner Aquajet system. When continuous filament fabrics are used, thermoplastic continuous filaments of 0.8 to 3.5 denier, comprised of thermoplastic polymers such as polyester, polyamide, polypropylene or polyethylene, are preferred. Such fibrous layers have a basis weight in the range of 15 to 100 grams per square meter (gsm). Various prior art patents disclose techniques for manufacturing nonwoven fabrics by hydroentanglement of staple length fibers, including U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,706, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by this reference. While having achieved substantial commercial success, it is well known that such fabrics have relatively low tensile strength and poor elongation properties. However, it has been discovered that when such fabrics are incorporated into a composite that includes a scrim reinforcing layer, and a thermally point-bonded layer, and that composite is imaged by the high pressure water jets, the physical properties of the resulting laminate are greatly enhanced.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the thermally point-bonded fabric performs a number of functions; to increase the basis weight of the composite fabric, to bond the entangled fibrous layer to the scrim, and to further conceal the interior scrim layer. As the coarseness of the scrim increases, correspondingly, the basis weight of the thermal bond layer will be increased. Basis weights in the range of 20 to 100 gsm are generally sufficient to bond the substrate layers of the composite fabric and to mask the internal scrim layer. Suitable deniers for the fibers or filaments are in the range of 0.8 to 4.0.
The thermally bonded substrate layer is produced on a conventional manufacturing line, such as a card line or spunbond line as is well known. The consolidation step in the process may be any of the known methods of thermal bonding, including through-air bonding and thermal point bonding, with the latter being most preferred. The degree of bonding in such commercial processes is generally sufficient to provide the strength and durability required by the intended end use, as well as that required by the intermediate operations, such as winding, slitting and other converting steps. In accordance with the present invention, the degree of bonding must be such that the fabric can be processed through the required intermediate steps but labile enough to break under the action of the high-pressure water jets. This is required so that the fibers or filaments entangle with the fibers of the entangled fibrous layer by extending through the scrim layer. This is achieved during the imaging step and serves to consolidate the layers of the composite while producing the final desired aesthetics of the fabric of the invention.
The present invention contemplates that different forms of scrim materials may be used, depending on the anticipated end use of the laminated nonwoven fabric. The stiffness of the composite can be controlled by the properties of the scrim layer where a heavy, coarse polypropylene scrim will produce a stiff composite fabric. Metallic scrims produce composite fabrics that have substantial bending memory and high electrical conductivity. Cast lightweight polyester scrims can be used to produce non-elastic imaged products suitable for jet dyeing. Elastic scrims can be used when some degree of stretch and recovery is desired in the final fabric. The required fabric properties for a given end use application will be considered when selecting the type of scrim used in the composite fabric designs of the present invention.
The above description sets forth rather broadly the more important features of the present invention so that the detailed description that follows may be better understood, and so that the present contributions to the art my be better appreciated. It is to be understood that there are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto. In this respect, before explaining the several embodiments of the disclosure in detail, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not limited in its application to the details of the construction and the arrangements set forth in the following description or illustrated drawings. The present invention is capable of other embodiments, of being practiced, and carried out in various ways, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art. In addition, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for description and not limitation.

Process to produce imaged scrim composite nonwoven and product thereof


A charge member is positioned in contact with an image carrier and charges a surface of the image carrier. The charge member includes a support body, an elastic layer having conductivity, which is formed on the support body; and a first surface treatment layer, which contains isocyanate compound and polycarbonate compound, is formed on the elastic layer. Residual potential of the charge member in 0.1 [seconds] after corona discharge at a voltage of 6.0 [kV] is 12.16 [V] or less.

In a conventional electrographic image forming apparatus, such as printers, photocopy machines, facsimile machines, multifunctional peripherals and the like (e.g., printer here as an example), a photosensitive drum, a charge device, a light emitting diode (LED) head, a development unit, a transfer roller, a cleaning device, a fuser and the like are arranged. An electrostatic latent image is formed by exposing, using the LED head, a surface of the photosensitive drum that has been uniformly charged by the charge device. The electrostatic latent image is developed by the development unit to form a toner image on the surface of the photosensitive drum. Then, the toner image is transferred to a sheet by the transfer roller and fixed onto the sheet at the fuser. In addition, the toner remained on the surface of the photosensitive drum after the transfer is removed by the cleaning device.
Among charge devices, a contact charge type charge device includes a charge roller as a charge member arranged to contact the photosensitive drum, a power source that applies a voltage to the charge roller, and the like. In the contact charge type charge device, the charge roller contacts the photosensitive drum. Therefore, image quality is decreased if foreign matter, such as the toner, external additive or the like that is not removed by the cleaning device, is attached to the charge roller, preventing the photosensitive drum from being appropriately charged, or if the foreign matter attached to the charge roller is attached to the photosensitive drum, causing the surface of the photosensitive drum to be smudged.
Therefore, a surface treatment using isocyanate and polycarbonate is performed on the surface of the charge roller to harden the surface and to increase release property. As a result, the foreign matter is suppressed from attached to the surface (see JP Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2009-223214, for example).
However, with the conventional charge roller, if the operator's hand touches the surface of the charge roller, for example, while transporting, inspecting or installing the charge roller in the printer, a touch mark is left on the charge roller. As a result, spots appear at the time of forming a halftone image and the like, causing the image quality to be decreased.
One of objects of the present invention is to solve the problems of the conventional charge roller and to provide a charge member, a charge device and an image forming apparatus that prevent the image quality from decreasing.

Charge member, charge device and image forming apparatus


A system and method for providing an overview of a plurality of tasks running on a target environment which includes the steps of receiving event data representing a plurality of events in the plurality of contexts over a monitoring period displaying a detailed graphical representation of the event data log using the event data, and displaying a schematic representation of the detailed graphical representation over the monitoring period using only a portion of the event data. The schematic representation is indicative of an activity density of the event data over the monitoring period.

There are many applications where software needs to exert real-time control. Examples of this are control systems for aircraft, factories, automobiles, printers, broker transaction computers, etc. A typical implementation would have a dedicated target computer which controls the aircraft, factory, etc., with target software on the target computer. This computer could be uplinked via a TCP-IP ethernet link, serial linked, networked or otherwise connected to a host computer. This host could be a Unix®-based workstation or a Windows®-based PC, for example. The host can be used to download and configure the software which will run on the target computer, and customize such software.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,872,909 entitled "Logic Analyzer for Software," ("the '909 patent"), describes a system which logs events that occur in target software and displays context status information in a time-line fashion with specific icons indicating events and status changes to show task interaction over time. The system is useful for monitoring performance of software, in particular real-time, embedded or multi-tasking software running on a target computer. The WindView® software analyzer product manufactured and distributed by Wind River Systems, Inc. is a commercially available product that has made use of this system through the use of a host system monitoring a separate target system.
The system of the '909 patent logs events which occur in the target software, and stores these in a buffer for periodic uploading to the host system. Such events include context switching times of particular software tasks, and task status at such context switch times, along with events triggering such a context switch or other events. The host system reconstructs the real-time status of the target software from the limited event data uploaded to it. The status information is then displayed in a user-friendly manner. This provides the ability to perform a logic analyzer function on software in real time (or as a post-mortem). A display having multiple rows, with one for each task or interrupt level, is provided. Along a time line or an axis representing a sequence of events, an indicator shows the status of each task/interrupt with icons indicating events and any change in status. The task status may be indicated with different line patterns or stipples, for example, a wavy line indicating that a program is ready to run, a dotted line indicating that a program is waiting for a semaphore or a message from a message queue that it needs to run, and a dashed line indicating the program is waiting for a time-out. This detailed graphical interface provides an easily understood overall representation of the status of a target software.
When performing triage (e.g., trouble-shooting) on the target software, or when navigating through the collection of event data, it is desirable to have a way of locating an area of interest within the data. Typically, this can be accomplished by zooming out to the maximum level to obtain a resulting "blurred" overview of the entire log. The user can then to search for a dense area of activity and "zoom in" on that area for a more detailed analysis.
However, the maximum level zoom view of the log contains much more information than is required and can be slow to render. The maximum level zoom view also may not adequately display the information when all contexts do not fit on the screen vertically.
Once a specific section of the log has been located, the user can zoom in on that view. A standard window scroll bar may be used to represent the position and relative portion of the log being displayed.

Providing an overview of a large event sample period that supports triage and navigation