This method permits the production of at least two gaseous fluxes enriched in a permeable component from a gaseous mixture wherein the fluxes are considerably different, compared to the gaseous mixture. A first permeation unit (20) is supplied by the gaseous mixture feed. A second permeation unit (22) is supplied by the non-permeate produced by the first unit (20). The permeate produced by the second unit (22) which forms a first enriched flux is then sent to the third permeation unit (24) to form a second enriched flux.

This invention concerns a production method by permeation of a gaseous mixture containing a permeable component, of at least two gaseous fluxes enriched with said component as compared to the gaseous mixture, the respective contents of these at least two fluxes enriched with said component being substantially different. Advantageously one of the enriched fluxes is hydrogen, that can be used, for instance in chemical reactors.
In the following description, the terms xe2x80x9csubstantially different contentsxe2x80x9d will mean:
contents in the most permeable component which differ by at least 4 or 5 points, in other words for example, where the xe2x80x9cless enriched flux/more enriched fluxxe2x80x9d pairs are about 70%/90%, 85%/95%, or 95%/99%;
and/or contents of at least one impurity are in a ratio of at least 2 or 3, in other words for example, for one impurity, the xe2x80x9cimpurity contents of the less enriched flux/impurity content of the more enriched fluxxe2x80x9d pairs are approximately 3%/1%, 1%/0.2% or 1000 ppm/100 ppm.
This invention is applicable to the production of such fluxes from gaseous mixtures produced from a chemical unit where one or several components can be recovered and/or recycled to form new reagents for use in this chemical unit. For example, in ammonia synthesis, the methods of the type described above are suitable for the production of hydrogen-enriched fluxes and recycled in the ammonia synthesis unit, as well as the production of a flux of very pure hydrogen used in another process.
The invention can also be used with refinery gas that contains, for example, between 30 and 85% of hydrogen moles. This invention permits to produce with a good global extraction yield both a highly enriched hydrogen flux, as compared to the initial mixture, as well as one or two other mediumly enriched fluxes.
The production of a flux highly enriched in the most permeable component is well known, for example from the publication xe2x80x9cPressure Swing Absorptionxe2x80x9d by Ruthven et al, paragraph 8.4. However the production of such a flux with a sufficient extraction yield requires internal recirculation that is very costly in investment and energy, as confirmed by the authors. Without these internal recirculations, it is possible to obtain a pure permeate, but with an extraction yield so low that the method is generally too expensive.
Another method is known, for example from the documents U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,388 and EP-A-0-700 709, where the gaseous mixture is subject to arrangements of permeators in series on the waste from the previous permeator, the permeate of each permeator forming a hydrogen-enriched flux with a different content.
However these arrangements or layouts do not permit the acquisition of enriched fluxes with a very high content. In the document U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,388, the maximum enriched hydrogen content is that produced by the first permeator fed with the gaseous mixture, and does not exceed the hydrogen count obtained from the second permeator by more than slightly over two points.
The purpose of this invention is to propose a separation method by permeation that is easy to set up and that permits to obtain at least two enriched fluxes, one of which has a very high purity level, while maintaining a high global extraction yield.
For this purpose, the invention aims at furnishing a method in which a first permeation unit is supplied by the gaseous mixture, a second permeation unit is supplied by the non-permeate from the first permeation unit, the permeate produced by the second unit forming a first enriched flux, and a third permeation unit is supplied by the permeate from the first permeation unit, the permeate produced by the third permeation unit forming a second enriched flux with a higher component content than the first flux.
According to other features of this method, either used together, or according to all the combinations technically possible:
the flow of the second enriched flux can be adjusted;
the content of said component in the second enriched flux can be adjusted according to the pressure on the non-permeate side of the third permeation unit;
the non-permeate of the third permeation unit forms a third flux with a weaker component content than that of the second flux.
This invention is also aimed at furnishing a method of supplying a processing unit with at least one gaseous flux rich in one permeable component, wherein at least two enriched fluxes can be produced using a method such as that described above, the processing unit being supplied by at least one of the first and third enriched fluxes.

Production method using permeation of at least two gaseous fluxes from a gaseous mixture, and a production installation for implementing this method

L""Air Liquide, Socixc3xa9txc3xa9 Anonyme à Directoire et Conseil de Surveillance pour l""Etude et l""Exploitation des Procxc3xa9dxc3xa9s Georges Claude


When two (in particular electric) drives operate on wheels decoupled from each other in a motor vehicle, the drives should have an identical construction and the same properties. However, if one drive is stronger than the other, distribution factors other than 0.5 must define the target torque for the two drives, i.e. the fraction of a total torque, in order to provide a correction. The distribution factors are determined while the motor vehicle is in operation. For this purpose, a steering angle and an additional quantity such as the lateral acceleration or the yaw rate are determined and a check is performed to determine if the additional quantity has the correct functional dependency on the steering angle.

The invention relates to a method for operating two drives, in particular electrical drives, which operate on wheels of a vehicle that are decoupled from each other, in particular wheels arranged on different sides of the vehicle. The invention also relates to a corresponding vehicle.
It will be assumed that a control device in the motor vehicle allocates to each of the drives the target torque to be generated by the drives. This control device determines a total torque to be generated and divides this torque into the desired torques. When driving straight ahead, the total torque is normally divided exactly in identical halves of the target torque for the two drives on the different sides of the vehicle. When cornering, the target torque to the outer wheel in the curve can be increased compared to 50:50 split.
It will be assumed that the two drives are constructed identically.
However, due to differences in the drives as a result of tolerances, the same control signal may cause one drive to supply a higher torque than the other drive. While differentials are provided with coupled wheels to effect a compensation, in this situation a balance must be achieved artificially, namely with the control device alone. This control device must then recognize allocation factors, for example, these allocation factors are generally equal to 0.5. However, when a deviation occurs, the weaker drive receives a greater allocation factor of for example 0.55, whereas the stronger drive receives a smaller allocation factor of for example 0.45.
To enable the control device to be aware of these allocation factors, the electric drives had until now to be measured (calibrated) prior to installation into the motor vehicle in a complex process. The allocation factors are then determined in the control device based on the measured values.
The complex measurement before installation is disadvantageous. Another disadvantage is that a subsequent change in the properties of the electric drives is not taken into account.

Method for operating two drives and motor vehicle having two drives which operate on wheels decoupled from each other


A system for rental of vehicles stores reservation information for a customer reservation of a rental vehicle, including a scheduled pickup time and pickup location for the rental vehicle. The system receives information from the customer's a mobile device, including image information and location information. When the customer arrives at the rental pickup location, the system prompts the customer to use the mobile device to capture and upload an image of the customer's driver's license, a current image of the customer, and location information for confirming that the customer image was captured at the rental pickup location. The system displays the uploaded driver's license image, the uploaded customer image and the stored reservation information to an operator to verify the identity of the customer before the customer is approved to pick up the rental vehicle.

This invention generally is directed to a method and system for rental of vehicles, such as trucks, vans and trailers for self-moving. More specifically, the invention is directed to a method and system for rental of vehicles that allows a customer to dispatch the vehicle and return the vehicle using the customer's mobile device, without requiring special equipment in the rental vehicle and without requiring the presence of rental personnel at the dispatch location or return location.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system that allows rental customers to open a rental contract and pick up their rental equipment without having to wait in line for assistance from a rental representative.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and system that allows rental customers to open a rental contract and pick up their rental equipment after normal business hours of the equipment pickup location.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations pointed out in this specification and the appended claims.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for mobile rental of vehicles


A message board lighting fixture has semiconductor based lighting elements for illumination and an integrated electronic message board display for displaying content to occupants of a transit vehicle or other area. The lighting fixture may include a concave fixture frame having a reflective interior, with lighting elements positioned along the length of the frame to provide area illumination. The electronic display may be mounted on a projecting frame substantially centrally within the cavity of the concave fixture frame, and may be augmented with additional semiconductor based lighting elements for backlighting. A detachable lens cover may have a diffusive portion and a separate transparent region over the electronic display area.

1) Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention generally relates to lighting systems and, more particularly, to lighting systems used in transit vehicles or conveyances such as buses, lightrail cars, and the like.
2) Background
Transit vehicles and similar conveyances have historically relied upon fluorescent lighting to provide illumination, in part because of the efficiency of such lighting as compared to, for example, incandescent lighting. However, fluorescent lighting has drawbacks and limitations.
For example, fluorescent lighting has a relatively short lifetime and a high current draw as compared to some other types of lighting The nature of fluorescent lights leads to high electro-magnetic fields, making compatibility with other electrical equipment challenging. Fluorescent lights also often have problems with arcing, which in turn can pose fire dangers or else blow out electrical components and/or cause power ripples. In addition, fluorescent lighting is not very amenable to flexible control, and can be difficult to dim.
Recently, efforts have been made to incorporate light-emitting diode (LED) based lighting within transit vehicles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,400,061, entitled "Control Network for LED-Based Lighting System in a Transit Vehicle" and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, describes a novel transit vehicle lighting system with a plurality of LED-based lighting fixtures for providing interior illumination.
As another interior feature, some transit vehicles or conveyances include a means for displaying information or advertisements to passengers. This may take the form of printed ads mounted to the walls of the transit vehicle, or else may involve electronic displays that can be used to provide information about destinations, advertisements, and the like. Such displays may take the form of an LED matrix for displaying text or simple images or icons, or else may use a liquid crystal display (LCD) to show more detailed moving images in the nature of video.
While message displays or printed advertisements may be useful, there may be insufficient room within the transit vehicle to mount the advertisements or the display mechanism. Providing wall space for these purposes takes away other uses of that space, and for example may limit the size of windows in the transit vehicle. Similarly, lack of adequate interior wall space may result in the message display or advertisements being place in a location within the vehicle that is difficult for passengers to view. In addition, LCD-based displays, while having the advantage of being able to show video, can be expensive and generally require expensive audio-visual electronic components to provide the video (and audio) feeds and store the video information.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide both a means for lighting the interior of a transit vehicle or conveyance and a means for displaying information or advertisements to passengers or others, which overcomes one or more of the disadvantages or limitations of conventional lighting systems, printed advertisements, and/or electronic displays. It would further be advantageous to provide such a means or system which makes efficient use of the interior space of a transit vehicle, and which is generally inexpensive or not overly complex to implement or deploy, and/or has other benefits and advantages not found in the state of the art.

Integrated lighting fixture and message board


A supplemental controller for a fiber glass bushing actively performs heating and cooling of a connected segment of the bushing which is otherwise controlled by a primary controller. In one embodiment, the supplemental controller performs heating by means of current injection into a connected bushing segment and cooling by means of current diversion from or around the connected bushing segment. Initial start-up and balancing operations can be performed without activation of the supplemental controller. In another embodiment of the invention, the supplemental controller heats a bushing segment by injecting current in-phase with current from the primary bushing controller and cools the bushing segment by injecting current out-of-phase with current from the primary bushing controller.

The present invention relates in general to the control of glass fiber forming bushings and, more particularly, to an improved method and apparatus for controlling one or more segments of a multiple segment bushing to extend the range of control utilizing a given auxiliary power level by controlling both the heating and cooling of one or more segments of the bushing.
Glass fibers are commonly produced by drawing multiple streams of molten glass through nozzles or holes located in a heated container known in the industry as a bushing. The bushing is electrically resistance heated by passing high currents through it. Since the temperature of the bushing is one important factor in determining the characteristics of the glass fibers which are produced using the bushing, a variety of temperature control arrangements have been devised. All known fiber glass bushing control circuits are based on either current diversion around all or one or more segments of a multiple segment bushing or current injection into one or more segments of a multiple segment bushing.
Temperature control using current diversion around a bushing or one or more segments of a multiple segment bushing is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,594,087. In the disclosed arrangement, a controller diverts current around a bushing or segments of a bushing using variable impedance circuits. The diverted current reduces the temperature of the bushing or segment of the bushing from which current was diverted. An improved bushing controller utilizing an auxiliary transformer in each of the variable impedance circuits of the '087 controller to increase the current capacity of the controller is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,075.
Temperature control using current injection into a bushing is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,780,120. In the disclosed arrangement, current is injected into all but one segment of a multiple segment bushing and adjusts the supply of electrical energy to the entire bushing to control the temperature of each segment of the bushing.
Many of the known prior art arrangements are able to control fiber glass bushings to produce high quality glass fibers. Unfortunately, all known prior art arrangements require partial activation, preferably approximately 50%, during initial start-up and balancing of a fiber glass bushing which complicates these procedures.
There is an ongoing need for improvement in controlling fiber glass bushings to improve their operation and efficiency. Preferably, an improved bushing controller would not interfere with initial start-up and balancing operations, would provide increased range of bushing control without increasing the size of an auxiliary bushing power supply and would improve the coefficient of variation of glass fibers produced by controlled fiber glass bushings.

Method and apparatus for controlling heating and cooling in segments of a fiber glass bushing


A transmission line impedance transformer including at least two different dielectric media having different dielectric properties, each of the dielectric media being configured to taper in thickness along the length of the impedance transformer in an inverse relationship with respect to each other so as to form a combined dielectric medium having an effective dielectric property that is graded along the transmission path. The two or more dielectric media may be disposed between two conductors to provide an impedance transformer in which a characteristic impedance of the transmission line varies along its length in response to the gradation of the effective dielectric property of the combined dielectric medium.

Electronic modules, such as radio frequency (RF) modules, typically contain RF circuits, transmission lines, high power amplifiers, and antenna elements that are commonly manufactured on specially designed substrate boards. For the purposes of such circuits, it is important to maintain control over impedance characteristics. If the impedance of different parts of the circuit do not match, this may result in inefficient power transfer, unnecessary heating of components, or various other problems. To minimize these problems, a transmission line impedance transformer matching network is commonly utilized in such circuits, for example, to match relatively low impedances at the gate and drain of field effect transistors (FETs) in the circuit with relatively high impedances needed in other parts of the circuit.
One factor affecting the performance of such transmission line impedance transformer matching networks is the dielectric property of the impedance transformer substrate medium, such as the dielectric constant of the medium. For example, the dielectric constant of the substrate medium affects the velocity of the signal propagating through the medium, and therefore the electrical length of the transmission line. In conventional RF design, an impedance transformer substrate medium is typically selected with a dielectric property value suitable for the design. Once the substrate material is selected, the transmission line characteristic impedance value may be exclusively adjusted by controlling the impedance transformer geometry and physical structure.
As the trend toward miniaturizing such RF modules and circuits continues, the ability to maintain the performance attributes of such circuits becomes increasingly difficult. For example, increasing the power and bandwidth of a high-power amplifier used in an RF circuit may be a common design criteria, but enhancing these attributes while maintaining a compact size of the circuit is difficult, if not often impractical. For example, while a transmission line transformer output matching network may be utilized to provide good bandwidth and excellent power output for the amplifier, such utilization is often at the expense of increased size and fabrication difficulty of the impedance transformer and circuit. As such, designers will typically be forced to trade one desired specification (e.g., power, bandwidth, size, or fabrication difficulty) so as to satisfy another one of these desired specifications.


The invention provides a platform and methods of using the platform for the regulation of the expression of a target gene using exposure to an aptamer ligand (for example, a small molecule). The platform features a polynucleotide gene regulation cassette that is placed in the target gene and includes a synthetic riboswitch positioned in the context of a 5′ intron-alternative exon-3′ intron. The riboswitch comprises an effector region and a sensor region (e.g., an aptamer that binds a small molecule ligand) such that the alternative exon is spliced into the target gene mRNA when the ligand is not present thereby preventing expression of the target gene. When the ligand is present, the alternative exon is not spliced into the target gene mRNA thereby providing expression of the target gene.

Splicing refers to the process by which intronic sequence is removed from the nascent pre-messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) and the exons are joined together to form the mRNA. Splice sites are junctions between exons and introns, and are defined by different consensus sequences at the 5′ and 3′ ends of the intron (i.e., the splice donor and splice acceptor sites, respectively). Alternative pre-mRNA splicing, or alternative splicing, is a widespread process occurring in most human genes containing multiple exons. It is carried out by a large multi-component structure called the spliceosome, which is a collection of small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) and a diverse array of auxiliary proteins. By recognizing various cis regulatory sequences, the spliceosome defines exon/intron boundaries, removes intronic sequences, and splices together the exons into a final translatable message (i.e., the mRNA). In the case of alternative splicing, certain exons can be included or excluded to vary the final coding message thereby changing the resulting expressed protein.
Regulation of the expression of a target gene (e.g., a therapeutic transgene) is necessary in a variety of situations. In the context of the therapeutic expression of genes, techniques that enable regulated expression of transgenes have the potential to enhance safety by regulating the level of expression and its timing. A regulated system to control protein expression has practical and, in some cases, essential roles for safe and effective therapeutic applications.

Regulation of gene expression by aptamer-mediated modulation of alternative splicing


A stud plate is disclosed comprising a steel plate with two spaced-apart threaded stainless steel studs stud-welded thereto. In use, the stud plate has two forged sickle bar hold-downs attached thereto such that a nut on the studs may be selectively tightened to flex a portion of the hold-down and thus adjust the spatial relationship between the hold-down and a knife section.

The present invention relates generally to a mowing apparatus of the reciprocating sickle type and more particularly to a stud plate for a low profile hold-down.
The general mode of operation of reciprocating sickle bar mowing apparatus is well known, as is the importance of keeping the sickle bar knife sections substantially parallel to the ledger surface on the guards, and maintaining the proper clearance between them for good shearing action. Some form of hold-down clip or plate extending over the knife sections is generally used for this purpose.
Heretofore known hold-down mechanisms, such as those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,490,215, 3,577,716, 4,012,891, 4,894,979 and 6,305,154 are widely used, but have not been entirely satisfactory. The difficulty of adjusting such mechanisms often results in mowers being operated with improper knife clearance. Too much clearance allows crop material to force the knife section away from the cutting edges of the guards, greatly reducing cutting efficiency. Too small a clearance results in drag on the sickle bar assembly and a resultant increase in wear rate and power requirements. For the older clip-type hold-downs, adjustment is generally accomplished by bending the forward portion of the hold-down clip up or down as required by means of a hammer. This method is time consuming and inconvenient and usually requires removal of the sickle bar so that the adjustment must be checked by means of a gage rather than by direct measurement with the knife in place. Some attempts at improvement of this type of hold-down clip have involved pivoting the clip in a cradle mounted on the frame member and providing screw adjusting means so that the clearance between the forward part of the clip and the sickle section can be varied.
Both the conventional hold-down clip and the screw adjusted versions are typically placed between guards where they suffer additional dual disadvantages-first, of being located so as to snag crop material divided and deflected into this area by the guards, and second, of having only an indirect effect in controlling knife clearances in that they are not directly above the guard ledger surfaces.
Other attempts at improvement have included a variety of less conventional designs including some in which the hold-down plate itself is a form of leaf spring or is spring loaded so that there is always hold-down pressure on the knife sections although, typically, means are provided for adjusting this pressure. This type of hold-down clip is in constant contact with the knife sections and the drag between them increases wear rate and the power required to operate the mowing apparatus.
In another design, the hold-down clip is centered on the guard and clamped in position with the same screw fastener that retains the guard. Typically, screw adjustment is provided to raise or lower the forward part of the clip, but before the screw adjustment can be made, the screw fastener must be loosened to permit pivoting of the hold-down clip, consequently loosening the guards and upsetting adjustment of the wear plates between the sickle bar assembly and the frame member.
It would be advantageous to reduce the complexity of the hardware and the steps necessary to make appropriate adjustments to the hold-downs of a sickle bar mower.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention is to provide a simple stud plate for use with a sickle bar hold-down to reduce projecting hardware while still allowing for adjustment of the spatial relationship between the hold-down and the sickle knife sections.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a stud plate for use with a sickle bar hold-down that promotes easy and reliable adjustment of the hold-down relative to the sickle knife sections.
It is another object of the instant invention to provide a stud plate for use with a forged sickle bar hold-down that has an elongated finger-like body portion with a knife section facing surface and a reduced transverse cross-sectional area at a strategic location that allows selective flexing of the finger-like body portion adequate to adjust the spatial relationship between the knife section facing surface and the sickle knife sections.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a stud plate for a sickle bar hold-down that promotes infinite adjustment independently of the mechanism by which the hold-down is affixed to a support structure.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a stud plate for a sickle bar hold-down that is durable in construction, inexpensive of manufacture, carefree of maintenance, facile in assemblage, and simple and effective in use.
These and other objects are attained by providing a stud plate comprising a steel plate with two spaced-apart threaded stainless steel studs stud-welded thereto. In use, the stud plate has two forged sickle bar hold-downs attached thereto such that a nut on the studs may be selectively tightened to flex a portion of the hold-down and thus adjust the spatial relationship between the hold-down and a knife section.


A materials properties measuring system for using electromagnetic radiation interactions with selected materials positioned at a measuring location to determine selected properties thereof having an electromagnetic radiation source along with a plurality of radiation convergence elements for receiving any incident beams of electromagnetic radiation including the source having corresponding selected cross sections substantially perpendicular to the input path, and for converging these incident beams into corresponding departing beams including to the selected material each having a selected cross section substantially perpendicular to the output path that is smaller than that of its corresponding incident beam, and transmitting them to a beamsplitter that has an area as great as any such element. An electromagnetic radiation receiver is provided to receive any beams of electromagnetic radiation incident thereon after propagating thereto from the beamsplitter.

The present invention relates to optical measurements of thickness and other physical properties of specimens of thin-films or other material forms typically provided on a substrate and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus to perform such measurements over entire specimens rapidly in obtaining the desired specimen characteristics in a single measurement step.
Many industrial manufacturing processes require measurements of thickness and other physical properties of specimens of thin-films supported on a substrate, typically formed of a solid material, or specimens of gaseous or liquid materials supported in an appropriate manner or some combination thereof. In general, for a film measurement based on light transmission therethrough, for instance, a light source, perhaps a broadband white light ("WL") source, provides light transmitted through an illumination optics system to impinge collimated or focused on, and then pass through, the film specimen under test. The light emerging from the other side of the specimen is collected by a collection optics system and directed to a detector which in turn develops corresponding photovoltage response signals to be amplified and used in subsequent signal processing steps. Similarly, for a film measurement based on reflection of light from the film surface or surfaces, such light provided by an illumination optics system is directed collimated or focused onto, and then reflected from, the surface or surfaces of the specimen under test, and the reflected light is thereafter collected by a collection optics system for a detector that provides the signals for subsequent signal processing. In this process, the transmitted light may be directed through a beamsplitter and reflected back to the same beamsplitter from the surface of the specimen to conveniently provide and collect the light on paths at least initially perpendicular to that surface.
More particularly, many semiconductor fabrication processes, for instance, involve deposition and removal of thin-films of various materials. As an example, chemical-mechanical polishing ("CMP") is a process widely used to planarize both metals, such as copper, and dielectrics, such as silicon dioxide. In this process, the thickness of the films being polished, especially the uniformity of thickness thereof over the surfaces of the entire specimens, is critical to the fabrication yield of the resulting products. In photonics manufacturing processes, such as those for the fabrication of semiconductor laser diodes ("LDs"), vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers ("VCSELs"), dense wavelength-division multiplexing ("DWDM") film filters, optical waveguides, etc., the measurement and control of film thicknesses again are critical to the quality of the products resulting from fabrication.
There are two categories of technology methods for measuring the distribution of film thickness and other physical characteristics over the entire specimen: the full-wafer imaging method and the scanning method. One imaging spectrometer for measuring film thickness over an entire semiconductor wafer uses a broadband light source, such as a halogen lamp, in combination with a rotating filter wheel assembly, to form a monochromator. The associated optical system enables illumination of the wafer by a collimated beam. This allows collection of spectroscopic reflectance data from the entire wafer relatively rapidly. Nevertheless, there are several disadvantages limiting the performance of this system. First, the filter wheel assembly requires mechanical movements over a large range. This usually is undesirable for precise measurements such as those in semiconductor and photonics industries, for instance. This kind of mechanical movement is usually slow, and so the speed of the system, therefore, is limited. In addition, such movements are noisy, may cause substantial vibrations, and are a possible source for generating small particles due to material wear or other sources. Also, the bandwidth of the filters in the rotating filter wheel assembly is in the range of 3 to 5 nm, which is too wide for precise measurements. Another issue is the beam collimating system. This system uses either a lens or an off-axis parabolic reflecting mirror to provide a collimated illumination beam. As the diameter of specimens desired to be tested continues increasing in practical fabrication processes, large aperture lenses and off-axis parabolic mirrors are required. Both can be very expensive and require considerable complexity to correct the optical aberrations occurring in them. These considerations become acute, for instance, in fabricating semiconductor logic and memory devices for which 300 mm wafers are currently commonly used. In display devices, such as liquid-crystal ("LC") display panels, the sizes encountered are even larger.
Several other designs have been disclosed related to this art including the use of a spherical vacuum chuck to deform a semiconductor wafer into serving as a concave mirror. In this way, the illumination light beam is reflected backward in the direction of the incident light beam. As a result, a relatively small lens may be used to illuminate a large wafer. In practical implementation, however, this arrangement can induce considerable difficulty. First, a wafer so deformed may not result in forming an optical-grade reflective mirror, especially for large diameter (aperture) wafers, and so the resulting defocusing and spherical aberrations may, as a practical matter, defeat this method for precise measurements. Moreover, in most semiconductor fabrication processes, bending the wafers in process is highly undesirable, and often, unacceptable. In another arrangement, a filter wheel assembly is placed in front of a charge-coupled device ("CCD") camera. A ground glass screen is placed in front of the broadband light source to diffuse the illumination light. This system allows more reflected light to be collected. However, because the angle of incidence ("AOI") of the diffused illumination light is, as a result, undefined (with certain random components), a portion of the reflected light related to the diffused illumination light, instead of contributing to the useful signal, contributes to unwanted noise. This result, for practical applications, is disadvantageous.
Another system measures thick wafers by using an imaging Fourier interferometer based on an infrared light source to form a Fourier transform infrared ("FTIR") spectrometer. The semiconductor wafer specimens also need to be deformed by a spherical vacuum chuck.
Typically, a complete wafer imaging system with a collimating objective is able to provide a spatial resolution at the semiconductor wafer surface plane of about 200 microns (μm) per pixel. To achieve higher resolution (e.g., 5 to 10 μm per pixel, for instance), a system can use a scanning microscope objective lense or a sparse array of lenses. This arrangement, in fact, can be regarded as a technology belonging to the second technology category indicated above, scanning systems for measuring the distribution of film thickness and other physical properties over the surface of the entire specimen.
In the category of scanning systems, conventional film measurement technologies, such as reflectometry and ellipsometry, are used to perform single-point measurements. The distribution of the characteristics of interest of the film specimens is obtained either by placing the semiconductor wafer on a scanning stage to be moved past the optical head, or by moving the optical head to scan the entire fixed position semiconductor wafer, such as an ellipsometer with a beam deflector, which translates the optical head, allowing point-to-point and site-to-site measurements.
Another type of scanning system is a microscope objective-based spectroreflectometer. Commercially available instruments have been developed, based on the same scanning measurement principle.
A further slightly different system is based on a line-scan spectroreflectometric principle. Instead of the above point-to-point scanning-measuring scheme, this prior art uses a cylinder lense to form a line of illumination across the entire wafer. The wafer is then translated in the direction perpendicular to this illumination line. In this line-scan method, the spectral reflectance data over the entire wafer are obtained. Detection is provided by a two-dimensional CCD array that is used to collect the spectral reflectance data. One dimension of the CCD, in combination with a diffraction grating, is used to measure dispersed light. Light at different wavelengths corresponding to different angles is collected by different pixels of the CCD array in this dimension. This arrangement, actually, is the fundamental constraint to prevent this system from complete wafer imaging, because only one dimension of the CCD can be used to distinguish spatial positions on the wafer surface plane. This, in turn, makes the line-scan necessary.
In these inventions, a key device is a spectrometer which measures the distribution of light power reflected from or transmitted through the film specimen under test over a given spectral range. The spectrometer, constructed with light-emitting diodes ("LEDs"), has been developed in a variety of configurations. Two LEDs at different wavelengths are used to illuminate a film sample under test. The light reflected from the sample is collected and provided to a photodetector, and the corresponding reflectance spectrum data are analyzed. In this system, the LEDs are considered to be monochromatic light sources and no further wavelength dispersion means are used. LEDs, with a fill-width at half-maximum value ("FWHM") spectral width in the range of ΔλFWHM=20 to 100 nm, may be considered narrowband or monochromatic for certain applications. Most precise measurement applications, such as those in semiconductor and photonics metrology, require much higher wavelength resolution, i.e. narrower spectral width spreads. A straightforward method to overcome this issue is to combine LEDs with a monochromator. In this way, the LED assembly is nothing more than a broadband light source which replaces conventional sources such as halogen lamps, for instance. Typically, a monochromator consists of a dispersive element, such as a diffraction grating, and a scanning output slit to select a specific wavelength. Thus, the dispersive element can be a holographic, concave, reflective grating with Au or Al coatings, the light source can be a set of 80 LEDs in a two-dimensional array of 4 rows and 20 columns, and the output slit is driven by a stepper motor, to scan over a spectrum range from blue (470 nm) to mid-infrared (40,000 nm).
Wavelength scanning also may by realized by an oscillating grating. Light from an LED array, in the spectrum range of 1100 to 2600 nm, with Δλ=100 nm, is coupled to the entrance slit of a monochromator via optical fibers. Both the entrance and exit slits are fixed. The wavelength selection is realized by a motor-driven concave reflective diffraction grating.
In this class of prior art, the LEDs only serve as a robust, long lifetime, and cheap broadband light sources. The fundamental operation principle is the same as that in the conventional spectrometer with a scanning monochromator. The mechanical movements, which are necessary for the operation of that type of spectrometer, however, are highly undesirable in many applications, for instance in semiconductor and photonics metrology. Mechanical movement usually are slow, noisy, bulky and expensive. In addition, they may be potentially sources from which particles are generated, which are extremely detrimental to wafer chip yield in semiconductor manufacturing processes.
One alternative to the LED-monochromator type spectrometer provides wavelength selection through an arrangement of spatial positions of each of the LEDs in the LED array. Both the concave reflective grating used and the exit slit are fixed. There is no entrance slit, and the active area of each LED is used as the equivalent of an entrance slit. As each LED is turned on, the angular positions of the LED and the exit slit in reference to the normal of the diffraction grating reflective surface changes. This, in turn, is equivalent to a virtually "scanning" entrance slit. As a result, the fixed exit slit will allow different wavelengths to be selected. Because of the finite size of the LED active area, the wavelength resolution of this spectrometer is not high, i.e., ΔλFWHM is in the range of 11.5 to 13.5 nm. This is suitable for applications in chemical technology and biotechnology, such as for foodstuff inspection, for instance. For precise measurements, such as those in semiconductor and photonics metrology, this wavelength resolution is not sufficient.
There are other applications utilizing tunable filters, e.g., acousto-optic tunable filters ("AOTFs"), for wavelength selection. They usually operate in the near infrared ("NIR") to result, for example, in a NIR spectrometer in the wavelength range above 900 nm to 3900 mn. Uses are usually in chemical technology and biotechnology related industries, such as food and dairy, pharmaceutical and agriculture, for instance. An example is a spectrometer on a chip, made of lithium niobate (or LiNbO3) formed on a silicon substrate, integrating an LED array and an AOTF, for use in analyzing gas and fluid samples.
Usually, LED-based spectrometers are used for chemical technology and biotechnology related applications, such as concentration analysis, for instance. In those applications, the requirements for the wavelength resolution and wavelength stability can be relaxed. In precise measurements, such as those in semiconductor and photonics metrology, requirements for those parameters are much more strict. In semiconductor film thickness measurements, for instance, most commercially available tools are capable of measuring multilayer film stacks thicknesses with sub-Angstrom 3-σ precision for thin-films, and better than 1% precision for thick films. Existing LED spectrometers, with spectral widths in the range of a couple of nanometers to more than ten nanometers, are unable to meet the wavelength resolution requirements for precise measurement applications.
Furthermore, both the wavelength and the intensity of light emitted by LEDs depend strongly on temperature variations due to the dependence of the emission energy spectrum thereof on the LED temperature. Theoretically, this emission energy spectrum is defined by the Boltzmann distribution which is proportional to exp(−kT), where k is the Boltzmann constant and T is the temperature, on the high photon energy side of the spectrum, and the density of states, which is proportional to (E−Eg)1/2, where E is the energy and Eg is the bandgap energy, on the low photon energy side. As a result, increasing temperature will shift the emitted light wavelengths to the longer side (red-shift), and concurrently decreases the intensity. Without proper calibration and stabilization means, LED spectrometers are unable to meet the requirements for precise measurements mentioned above.

Abstract: The electromagnetic radiation source for providing propagating selected electromagnetic radiation at an output thereof is formed by a plurality of electromagnetic radiation emitters with differing center emission wavelengths and a beam combiner is provided with them wherein any electromagnetic radiation emitted by any of said electromagnetic radiation emitters enters at differing points to follow at least in part a common optical path to an output through at least some portion of the combiner determined by reflections and transmissions thereof in and at the combiner.


A method of producing a laminated dielectric element of high quality, free of delamination. A method of producing a laminated dielectric element 1 by alternately laminating dielectric ceramic layers 12 and base metal electrode layers 13, comprising the steps of printing electrodes by applying a paste material for the base metal electrodes onto the surfaces of at least one side of the ceramic green sheets, laminating and press-adhering the ceramic green sheets to fabricate a laminate thereof, dewaxing the laminate, reducing the electrodes to form base metal electrode layers by heating the laminate while flowing an atmospheric gas and by reducing the paste material for the base metal electrodes, and sintering the laminate. In the step of reducing the electrodes, the paste material for the base metal electrodes is so reduced that the amount of the base metal oxide remaining in the base metal electrode layers is not larger than 20% by weight and that the amount of lead liberated from the ceramic material is not larger than 30 atomic % within 5000 Å from the surfaces of the base metal electrode layers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laminated dielectric element such as a laminated ceramic capacitor, a laminated piezo-electric actuator or the like and to a method of producing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Laminated dielectric elements obtained by alternately laminating dielectric ceramic layers made of a PZT-type material having excellent dielectric properties and base metal electrode layers of a base metal such as copper or the like, have heretofore been widely utilized for capacitors and actuators.
The laminated dielectric elements are usually produced through a plurality of steps as described below.
First, a green sheet is prepared by using a ceramic material such as PZT, and a paste electrode material of a metal oxide is applied onto the green sheet by screen-printing or the like method. Next, the green sheets on which the paste electrode material is applied are laminated to prepare a laminate thereof, which is then dewaxed.
Then, the laminate after being dewaxed is heated in a heating furnace under reducing conditions to reduce the metal oxide in the paste electrode material and to form metal electrode layers having electric conduction (step of reducing the electrodes). Thereafter, the laminate is sintered to increase the density of the ceramic material to finally obtain a laminated dielectric element (step of sintering).
In the above step of sintering, however, the paste electrode material and the ceramic material require conflicting atmospheric conditions. That is, the ceramic material such as PZT which is an oxide can be favorably sintered in an oxidizing atmosphere, whereas the paste material is better sintered in a reducing atmosphere to maintain electric conduction obtained through the step of reducing the electrodes.
Therefore, if the step of sintering is conducted in an oxidizing atmosphere to fire the ceramic material to a sufficient degree, then the metal electrode layers of copper or the like, that are reduced in advance in the step of reducing the electrodes, are oxidized again causing the electric conduction to be decreased. If the sintering is conducted in a reducing atmosphere, on the other hand, the ceramic material is reduced, and properties of the laminate after sintering deteriorate.
In order to solve the above problem, there has been proposed a method according to which an electrically conducting paste is reduced in an atmosphere containing a hydrogen gas and, in a subsequent step of sintering, the laminate is sintered in an atmosphere in which the oxygen partial pressure is controlled to lie in a particular range (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 5-82387).
There has further been proposed a method in which an electrically conducting paste is reduced at a temperature lower than the sintering temperature, and in a subsequent step of sintering, the laminate is sintered in an atmosphere in which the O2 partial pressure is controlled to lie within a particular range by using an N2—H2—H2O mixed gas (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 7-34417).
According to the above-mentioned conventional methods, the density of the ceramic material can be increased almost without oxidizing the metal electrodes of copper or the like reduced in the step of reducing the electrodes in spite of having conducted the step of sintering.
In the above step of reducing the electrodes, however, there exist two reactions, i.e., a reducing reaction based on a theory of chemical equilibrium and a reducing reaction based on a theory of reaction rate, in which the above conventional methods are not suitable.
Let the case now be considered of producing the device by using a conducting paste containing, for example, a Cu oxide and a ceramic material of PZT material. Then, in the step of reducing the electrodes, there exist a Cu oxide-reducing reaction based on the theory of chemical equilibrium (2CuxO2xCu+O2) and a Cu oxide-reducing reaction based on the theory of reaction rate by hydrogen gas (CuxO+H2xCu+H2O).
According to the reaction based on the theory of reaction rate between the above two reactions, the Cu oxide is not reduced but remains in the conducting paste when the concentration or amount of hydrogen gas is small. When the concentration or amount of hydrogen gas is large, on the other hand, the Cu oxide is reduced and the PZT is reduced, too, in the ceramic material, releasing Pb and the like from the composition, which is not desirable.
When the Cu oxide is not reduced but remains as described above, Cu2O which is a Cu oxide that remains reacts with PbO and the like remaining in small amounts in the ceramic material such as PZT to form a eutectic material of liquid phase in the step of sintering, and this liquid phase diffuses in the ceramic material. Therefore, there is a problem of a decrease in the insulating resistance after sintering. Further, a portion where the liquid phase has occurred tends to be contracted as compared to the surrounding areas, giving rise to the problem of delamination during the sintering.
When Pb is released from the composition as a result of reducing the PZT, on the other hand, Pb that is released and Cu formed by reduction in the step of reducing the electrodes may form a eutectic material of liquid phase at temperatures of not lower than 327° C. which is a eutectic point thereof. As a result, in the above sintering step of effecting the heat treatment at a high temperature, the metal electrodes may dissolve. Further, since the portion where the liquid phase is formed tends to be more contracted than the surrounding areas, there is a problem of delamination occurring during the step of sintering.
The occurrence of delamination degrades important characteristics of the laminated dielectric element such as Young's modulus, insulation resistance, etc.

Method for fabricating laminate-type dielectric element


A motor vehicle is provided having a control device, an electronic power unit and an energy storage system including first and second electric energy storage devices connectable in parallel so as to have a common base voltage at respectively different states of charge. The base voltage is substantially adjustable by the electronic power unit. A predictive energy management system executed by the control device determines a predefined setpoint value of a base voltage as a function of a predicted charge balance of the energy storage device.

The invention relates to a motor vehicle having at least one control device, having an electronic power unit and having an energy storage system. The energy storage system includes a first electric energy storage device and a second electric energy storage device which is connected in parallel, or can be connected in parallel, with the first electric energy storage device.
Owing to the number of electric loads in modern motor vehicles, the need to ensure the electrical supply during the development of the vehicle has recently been subjected to novel requirements. This leads to a situation in which relatively complex on-board power system architectures are proposed in order to be able to cover energy requirements in the vehicle. This is mentioned, for example, in DE 10 2009 008 177 A1.
In addition, the relatively complex on-board power system architectures, in particular on-board power system architectures of hybrid vehicles with a partially electrified drive train, require a complex energy management system in order to regulate energy flows in the vehicle in a targeted fashion. This is disclosed, for example, in US 2005/0228553 A1, in which a partially predictive energy management system for hybrid vehicles is described.
An object of the invention is to provide an improved motor vehicle having a control unit, having an electronic power unit and having an energy storage device. The energy storage system includes a first electric energy storage device and a second electric energy storage device which is connected in parallel, or can be connected in parallel, with the first electric energy storage device.
This and other objects are achieved by a motor vehicle having a control device, having an electronic power unit and having an energy storage system which comprises a first electric energy storage device and a second electric energy storage device which is connected in parallel, or can be connected in parallel, with the first electric energy storage device. According to the invention, the two energy storage devices have a common base voltage at respectively different states of charge. The base voltage is substantially adjustable by the electronic power unit. A predictive energy management system that can be executed on the control device determines a predefined setpoint value of the base voltage as a function of a predicted charge balance of the energy storage device.
This means that a base voltage which deviates from the common base voltage can be adjusted by the energy management system of the vehicle. The actual setting of the voltage is carried out by the electronic power unit, such as for example by a DC-DC converter, a generator or implicitly by a negative over-potential at the energy storage devices forming the energy storage device, as a result of a discharge current for supplying electric loads. The predefining of the base voltage by the energy management system is carried out in such a way that specific advantages of the energy storage devices forming the energy storage device are exploited in the imminent use profile of the vehicle.
According to one preferred embodiment of the invention, this is done in that the predictive energy management system increases the base voltage when there is an imminent use profile of the vehicle which gives rise to a predicted negative charge balance.
When a negative charge balance is present and when a negative charge balance is imminent, the base voltage is increased. The base voltage is therefore increased owing to the predicted negative charge balance even when there is a use profile which constitutes a well-balanced charge balance of the energy storage device at a particular time. In this way, the cycling of the energy storage devices can be shifted predictively in favor of reduced cycling of the one energy storage device and increased cyclic use of the other energy storage device. This is advantageous when an energy storage device with particularly fixed cycles is used. The energy storage device which has fixed cycles is preferably the energy storage device with the relatively low relative state of charge at a given coupling voltage, with the result that said energy storage device is operated below the increased cycle load.
In addition, the predictive energy management system increases the base voltage when there is an imminent stationary phase. As a result, the degree of cycling of the energy storage device is additionally shifted in the direction of the energy storage device with fixed cycles.
Furthermore it is advantageous if the predictive energy management system reduces the base voltage when there is an imminent use profile of the vehicle which gives rise to a predicted positive charge balance.
The base voltage of the energy storage device can be lowered if the imminent use profile of the vehicle indicates a positive charge balance. In this way, in particular, the recuperation potential in the case of a vehicle with a braking energy recovery function (BER), which is known to a person skilled in the art, is maintained. This increases the efficiency during the recovery of braking energy by way of a charge current which is increased owing to a lower state of charge and a higher over-potential when the recuperation voltage is applied.
The predictive energy management system determines, for an imminent time period, the charge balance of the energy storage device on the basis of a selection and/or a combination of the following data sources: navigation data, traffic information data, route-related weather data, detection data of a type of vehicle user, vehicle-to-vehicle communication data, route-frequency-detection data, status data of the electronic power unit and status data of the two electric energy storage devices such as the state of charge or temperature.
The energy management system, which can run as software on one or more vehicle control devices, has a plurality of information inputs of sensors of the vehicle, of actuators of the vehicle and of communication interfaces of the vehicle. On the basis of a current information situation, the energy management system determines a prediction of the charge balance of the energy storage device for a specific imminent period of use of the vehicle. The energy management system can also include self-learning algorithms. The predefining of the base voltage is carried out within defined limits which are characteristic of the electro-chemical properties of the energy storage device. In this context, the predefining of the base voltage in a first approximation is inversely proportional to the determined charge balance.
Possible sensors which are available to the vehicle are, in particular, battery sensors which are assigned to the respective energy storage devices and which record the voltage, current and temperature of the respective stores as a function of time.
The energy storage device can be implemented, for example, if the first energy storage device is embodied as a lead acid battery and the second energy storage device as a lithium-ion battery.
These two energy storage devices are advantageously characterized by partially overlapping open-circuit voltage characteristic curves, wherein the lead acid battery has a significantly lower discharge internal resistance at high current rates over all the relative states of charge than the lithium ion battery, and the lithium ion battery has a significantly lower charge internal resistance than the lead acid battery over all the relative states of charge.
The invention is based on the considerations presented below.
The starting point is a conventional vehicle on-board power system with an individual lead acid battery as an energy storage device for the basic on-board power system, wherein the vehicle is equipped, if appropriate, with micro-hybrid functionalities such as a braking energy recovery function and/or with an automatic engine stop/start system (MSA).
Operating strategies for the conventional on-board power system can include maximizing the service life of the lead acid battery (LAB). This can be achieved with the LAB technology known to a person skilled in the art, in particular in the case of permanent full charging of the LAB, i.e. when a full charging strategy is used. However, in order to provide the possibility of recuperation of electrical energy converted from kinetic energy even with the LAB, a selectively partially discharging operating mode of the LAB is selected, which mode can have a disadvantageous effect on the service life of the LAB. This can be particularly disadvantageous in unfavorable operating states if the state of charge of the LAB is additionally lowered by frequent stop phases by the MSA and by excessive discharging in the parking and running on phase of the vehicle.
Modern 2-battery concepts dispose of energy storage devices comprising different chemical technologies such as, for example, the combination of a lead acid battery (LAB) with a lithium ion battery (LiB).
In the case of energy storage devices which are connected in parallel in a voltage-neutral fashion, i.e. in the case of direct galvanic connection, a common voltage occurs at the energy storage devices, which voltage is referred to as a coupling voltage (common base voltage).
For a vehicle with such an energy storage device, an adept energy management system is proposed which makes predictive use of the specific respective advantages of the LAB and of the LiB specifically in the context of the energy storage device, i.e. in the presence of the respective other energy storage device.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Energy management for a motor vehicle having coupled energy storage devices

Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft


An adjustable temple for glasses is to divide the foot of the temple into two separate parts, a foot and an ear hook. The foot includes a C shaped slot at one end having a sinewave shaped portion at bottom edge of the opening end. The ear hook includes a reduced portion integrally formed at one end adopted to insert into the slot of the foot. A rail is formed at one side of the rail adopted to guide the reduced portion to slide in the slot, and a protuberance is formed on the rail to be clamped in the sinewave shaped portion to confine movement of the rail within the slot.

Glasses are invented at a long time ago for people to correct their eye sight or to isolate sunshine direct into their eyes. Because each person has a different dimension of head, the requirement of feet lengths are also different, and therefore, glasses with adjustable feet are invented which includes two parts, a foot A and an ear hook B, as shown in FIG. 6. The foot A has a trough F at one end and a plurality of holes C on the trough F. The ear hook B includes an integral rail D at one end having a protuberance E thereon adopted to extend from any one of the holes C, as shown in FIG. 7 to hold the hook B firmly. In order to adust the protuberance E from one hole C to the other hole C, it is necessary to have a larger interior dimension of the trough F. However, the larger interior dimension has also caused some shortcomings, such as the rail E will vibrate in the trough F, and it may cause disentanglement when user is having an exercise.
It is therefore, an object to the inventor to invent the present invention to improve the above mentioned shortcomings.


This application relates to a liquid crystal panel and a manufacturing method therefor, including: a first substrate, including a plurality of pixel areas, wherein the first substrate includes a first substrate body, a first insulation layer formed on the first substrate body, and a first electrode formed on the first insulation layer; a second substrate, disposed opposite to the first substrate; a plurality of photo spacers, located between the first substrate and the second substrate, and used to define a liquid crystal interval space; and a liquid crystal layer, located between the first substrate and the second substrate, and filling up the liquid crystal interval space. One of the first substrate and the second substrate includes color filters. The color filters include a plurality of color filters disposed in parallel, and a material of one of the plurality of color filters is the same as a material of the photo spacer.

Technical Field
This application relates to a manufacturing manner, and particularly to a liquid crystal panel and a manufacturing method therefor.
Related Art
With the development of technologies, liquid crystal displays (LCDs) having advantages, such as power saving, no radiation, the small volume, low power consumption, a rectangular plane, high resolution, and stable image quality, particularly, various existing information products such as: mobile phones, notebook computers, digital cameras, PDAs, and liquid crystal screens are increasingly popular, and the demand for LCDs is also greatly improved. Therefore, how to improve the efficiency of the production process and reduce steps of the process flow are problems that operators need to deal with.
However, a conventional liquid crystal panel is manufactured by using color filters (CFs) of four colors. Regardless of a general standard process such as: a CF process or a color filter on array (COA) process, a photo spacer (PS) needs to be manufactured after a red/green/blue/white/color photoresist is manufactured, and the function of the PS thereof is supporting the thickness of a liquid crystal cell. Consequently, a relatively great quantity of materials are used, management and control are difficult, the manufacturing process is complex, and equipment investments are high.

Liquid crystal panel and manufacturing method therefor

Chongqing HKC Optoelectronics Technology Corporation, Limited


Adapters that are small in size and may be readily assembled.

The number of types of electronic devices that are commercially available has increased tremendously the past few years and the rate of introduction of new devices shows no signs of abating. Devices, such as tablet, laptop, netbook, desktop, and all-in-one computers, cell, smart, and media phones, storage devices, portable media players, wearable computing devices, navigation systems, monitors, and others, have become ubiquitous.
Power and data may be provided from one device to another over cables that may include one or more wire conductors, fiber optic cables, or other conductors. Connector inserts may be located at each end of these cables and may be inserted into connector receptacles in the communicating or power transferring devices.
Some devices may include a connector insert on the device itself, in place of a connector receptacle. The motivation for including a connector insert may be size or other reasons. That is, a connector insert may be smaller than a connector receptacle and may be included on a device in place of a connector receptacle for this reason. In such a situation, it may not be possible to connect a connector insert on a cable directly to a connector insert on a device.
In such cases an adapter may be of use. For example, a "female-to-female" adapter may be used. Such an adapter may have a connector receptacle on each end of a housing. A first connector receptacle at a first end of the adapter may accept a connector insert at an end of a cable and a second connector receptacle at a second end of the adapter may accept a connector insert on the device. In this way, the device may be able to communicate and share power with a second device at the far end of the cable.
Unfortunately, these adapters may be large and bulky. Also, they may be complicated and made of many individual parts. This complexity may make the adapters expensive to manufacture and difficult to assemble.
Thus, what is needed are adapters that may be small in size and may be readily assembled.


The present invention allows for the use of chip-package co-design of RF transceivers and their components by using discrete active devices in conjunction with passive components. Two particular components are described, including voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs) and low noise amplifiers (LNAs). The high quality passive components for use in the VCOs and LNAs may be obtained by the use of embedded passives in organic substrates. Further, the embedded passives may have multi-band characteristics, thereby allowing multi-band VCOs and LNAs to be implemented with fewer components. In situations where size is a concern, the active devices and passive components utilized in an RF transceiver may be implemented in a low form factor module of less than 1.1 mm thick according to an embodiment of the invention.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to passive components, and more particularly to the chip-package co-design of RF single-band and multi-band transceivers using high quality embedded passive components in organic substrates for use in radio frequency (RF) applications.
II. Description of Related Art
With a proliferation of wireless standards and applications operating at various frequencies, the need for radio frequency (RF) front-ends and interfaces that support multiple bands ("multi-band") and multiple protocols ("multimode") becomes necessary. As an example, a wireless LAN ("WLAN") device may support IEEE 802.11a/b/g protocols operating at 2.4 GHz or 5.2 GHz. Likewise, a cell phone supporting GSM900, DCS1800 and PCS1900 protocols may operate at 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, or 1900 MHz. Further, with the advent of MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) based systems, optimization for high data rates and high data ranges using spatial and frequency diversity becomes necessary. Thus, there has been an increasing need for devices that are operable with a variety of wireless protocols. Such a need may occur for example, in a situation where voice, video (in the cellular band), and data must be handled by the same cellular device.
Designing multi-band, multi-mode devices such as RF transceivers presents some difficulties in power consumption, compatibility, interference, and integration. For example, the need for the additional design components to support such multi-band, multi-mode capabilities oftentimes presents challenges with power consumption. This may be especially problematic in a portable multi-band, multi-mode device such as a cell phone operating on a battery. The battery life of the cell phone would decrease as the power consumption requirements of the components within the cell phone increase. Further, as many devices continue to decrease in size, the inclusion of additional components becomes increasingly difficult due to problems such as routing, interference, etc. Achieving the required quality factors (Qs) of these components may become more difficult with these size constraints. In addition, the components may have to conform to improved performance characteristics such as high clock speed, low noise, wide bandwidth, and high temperature tolerance.
Therefore, there is a need in the industry for multi-band, multimode RF transceivers that may satisfy one or more of these issues of power consumption, compatibility, interference, and integration.

Multi-band RF transceiver with passive reuse in organic substrates


A material blender mixer is mounted to a chassis of a vehicle. The mixer includes a first material holder bin mounted to the vehicle chassis, a second material holder bin mounted to the chassis positioned reawardly of the first material bin, a device for dispensing the second material from the second material holder bin, a cross auger attached to the chassis and disposed beneath the dispensing device and a mixing auger in fluid communication with the cross auger. A conveyor extends through the first material holder bin and has a dispensing end in fluid communication with the cross auger. A device for agitating the first material in the first material holder bin is provided and includes a vertical agitator and a horizontal agitator, wherein fingers are disposed in both of the agitators adapted to agitate material held in the first material holder bin. Further, a method for preparing a settable material is disclosed, including use of a moist class F fly ash and a dry class C fly ash.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a material blender mixer and, more particularly, to a material blender mixer for fast-setting materials.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Material blender mixers, such as concrete mixers, are known in the art. Typically, the mixers are mounted to the chassis of vehicles. The mixers make concrete by mixing aggregate, cement and water together in a mixing bin. Typically, the aggregate and the cement are dry components. The mixer then travels to one or more work sites and selectively deposits a predetermined amount of concrete at each site. Generally, the material is continually agitated in the mixing bin to prevent the setting of the mixture.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,884, which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a material blender mixer that includes a chassis having an aggregate bin, a water tank and a cement dispensing bin attached thereto. Aggregate, water, cement and a fast-setting additive are mixed in a mixing auger thereby forming a fast-setting concrete which can then be deposited at a work site.
The mixer disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,884 mixes varying degrees of moist aggregate and dry cement. In some applications a quick-setting, concrete-like material is used and the cement is replaced by dry fly ash and the aggregate is replaced by a moist fly ash. In many instances the moist fly ash cakes and compacts in the aggregate bin. Further, the moist material tends to adhere to the sides of the bin. This results in improper mixing proportions of the dry material and moist material and results in an inferior final product. Further, manual labor may be required to dislodge the caked and compacted moist fly ash from the aggregate bin.
Accordingly, it is an object of my invention to provide a material blender mixer for mixing a fast-setting material at a particular work site wherein one of the constituents of the fast-setting material is a moist material.

Material blender mixer and method therefor


A photoluminescent material has the characteristic of a long photoluminescence decay and has the general composition Ca3-x-m-nAxSc2-yMySi3-zEzO12:mCe3+,nMn2+, where A is at least one divalent cation including Sr, Ba or a combination of monovalent and trivalent cations including combinations of Li, Na, K, B, Al and Ga; M is at least one trivalent cation including Al, Ga, or a divalent cation including Mg, E is a combination of a trivalent and a pentavalent cation including B, Al, Ga, N and P, or a combination of monovalent and trivalent cations including Li, Na, K, B, Al, Ga, N and P. The A cation replaces Ca; the M cation replaces Sc, and E replaces Si. This Mn and Ce doped phosphor emits in the yellow to green with a peak at around 510 and/or 560 and 690 nm. The phosphor material has applications in LED illumination systems.

Wavelength conversion methods that use excitation light produced by solid-state light source such as laser diodes (LDs) or light emitting diodes (LEDs) and photoluminescent wavelength conversion materials such as phosphors or quantum dots can produce high brightness light at wavelengths different from the wavelength of the excitation light. In conventional devices, excitation light impinges on a wavelength conversion material, which absorbs the excitation light and emits light at a wavelength higher than the wavelength of the excitation light.
It is now common to implement white light sources, such as solid-state white light sources, using photoluminescent wavelength conversion materials. An LED diode that is operable to generate excitation light in the UV or blue region is used in conjunction with the excitation light source to generate, for example, white light. As taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,998,925, white LED lighting systems include one or more photoluminescent materials (e.g., phosphor materials), which absorb a portion of the radiation emitted by the LED and re-emit radiation of a different color (wavelength). Typically, the LED chip or die generates blue light and the phosphor(s) absorbs a percentage of the blue light and re-emit(s) yellow light or a combination of green and red light, green and yellow light, green and orange light, or yellow and red light. The portion of the blue light generated by the LED that is not absorbed by the phosphor combined with the light emitted by the phosphor provides light which appears to the human eye as being nearly white.
When operating using a direct current (DC) drive, a relatively continuous current level is maintained to drive the excitation light source (e.g., the LED). Therefore, for DC-based lighting applications, the photoluminescent materials used in the wavelength conversion components are preferred to have a decay time of less than a millisecond so that the light can be turned on and off immediately when the electrical switch is turned on and off, respectively.
However, it is possible that an alternating current (AC) source may be used to drive the LED lighting system. With AC power supplies, the electrical current forms a wave pattern that "alternates" to different current levels, e.g., usually a sine wave. An LED that is operable with AC currents is called an AC LED. A rectifier can be used to provide a double frequency of the input current to drive the AC LED.
The rectifier can be implemented as a simple rectified circuit without a capacitor or other more complex IC designs so as to avoid using electrolytic smoothing capacitors that have a lifetime much less than the expected lifetime of the LED. For other AC LEDs, the LEDs themselves, which are diodes, can be configured as a self-rectifying configuration—for example strings of serially connected LEDs which are connected in parallel with opposite polarities. Another example would be to provide the LEDs within the arms of a bridge rectifier configuration. In self-rectifying configurations one fraction of the LEDs will be operable on positive cycles of the drive current whilst another fraction will be operable on negative cycles of the drive current. As a result, in AC LEDs that use self-rectifying configurations the LEDs, and hence light output, will be modulated at the drive current frequency and the light output may appear to flicker. Moreover, whilst simple drivers without a capacitor have the advantage of lower cost and longer life time, such AC lighting systems will also have their light output modulated at the frequency of the input AC current, which will result in flickering.
Therefore, there is a need for a better approach for implementation of AC-based lighting that maintains the advantages of using cost-effective rectifier circuits, without unwanted AC-related artifacts such as flickering.

Long decay phosphors for lighting applications


A method and an apparatus for inspecting a corrosion defect of a ladle are provided. The method includes: acquiring images from various angles using an image acquisition apparatus inside a to-be-inspected ladle; and inputting the acquired images into a defect inspection system to obtain a label representing a defect category, the defect inspection system including: a deep convolutional neural network that predicts a category of a corrosion defect of the ladle included in the images based on the input images. This method has the advantages of high safety, high accuracy and high real-time performance in inspecting the ladle status.

In the steel manufacturing industry, ladle is an important equipment for steelmaking, and its status is not only related to the quality of steel production, but also related to the safety of a production environment. Therefore, quality inspection for the ladle status is a key link in the steel production process. In the production environments of traditional iron and steel enterprises, an important means to monitor the ladle status is to inspect the status of the inner wall surface of the ladle to determine whether the ladle is defective, and to deal with the ladle based on the inspection result.
In the traditional iron and steel enterprise, the quality inspection based on the status of the inner wall surface of the ladle is mostly a manual inspection or semi-automated optical instrument auxiliary quality inspection. Existing quality inspection systems have two main approaches in defect classification applications. The first is pure manual quality inspection, which relies on industry experts to visually observe images of the production environment and perform determinations; and the second is a machine-assisted manual quality inspection, which mainly includes filtering out detect-free images by a quality inspection system with determination ability, and the images with suspected defects are inspected and determined by the industry experts. Here, the second approach mostly develops from expert systems and feature engineering systems, the experts solidify their experiences in the quality inspection system, and the second approach has certain automation capabilities.

Method and apparatus for inspecting corrosion defect of ladle

BEIJING BAIDU NETCOM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


Nonpolar thymidine analogs are provided comprising a dihalogenated or trihalogenated base of the structure:

The physical and chemical factors that allow polynucleotides to perform their functions in the cell have been studied for several decades. Recent advances in the synthesis and manipulation of polynucleotides have allowed this field to move ahead especially rapidly during the past fifteen years. One of the most common chemical approaches to the study of interactions involving has been the use of nucleoside base analogs in which functional groups are added, deleted, blocked, or rearranged.
Such nucleoside analogs may be useful as in providing specific alterations to reaction kinetics; properties to oligonucleotide probes for diagnostic applications; to alter the properties of antisense RNA and RNAi; and in the synthesis and purification of oligonucleotides. Nucleoside analogs may also find use as metabolic inhibitors of viruses and proliferating cells, including tumor cells. Currently a number of nucleoside based drugs are being used to treat human diseases, including AIDS, against various cancers and for various systemic diseases resulting from inappropriate immune responses.
Among the uses of oligonucleotides are methods of inhibiting gene expression with antisense oligonucleotides complementary to a specific target messenger RNA (mRNA) sequences. Oligonucleotides also have found use in diagnostic tests performed using biological fluids, tissues, intact cells or isolated cellular components. For diagnostics, oligonucleotides and oligonucleotide analogs can be used in cell free systems, in vitro, ex vivo or in vivo.
Oligonucleotides and nucleosides are also widely used as research reagents. They are useful for understanding the function of many other biological molecules as well as in the preparation of such other biological molecules. For example, oligonucleotides serve as primers in the reactions associated with polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which reactions are now widely used in forensics, paleontology, evolutionary studies and genetic counseling, to name just a few.
Nucleoside analogues that lack specific hydrogen bonding groups have proven useful in a number of biological contexts for probing the physical and chemical importance of such electrostatically charged moieties. For example, Strazewski and Tamm reported over two decades ago the synthesis of pyrimidine analogues lacking one of three hydrogen bonding groups, and investigated their substrate abilities with DNA polymerase enzymes. In another example, McLaughlin reported nucleobases with single functional groups deleted, and described their properties in pairing in DNA. Taking this approach to its logical limit, all Watson-Crick hydrogen bonding groups were removed in nucleoside analogues, preparing several "nonpolar nucleoside isosteres", which maintain the steric size and shapes of natural nucleobases but lack polar functionality (Schweitzer and Kool (1994) J. Org. Chem. 59, 7238; Schweitzer and Kool (1995) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 117, 1863; Kool et al. (2000) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 39, 990. Examples included 4-methyl-aza-benzimidazole, an adenine mimic, and 2,4-difluorotoluene, a thymine mimic.
Nonpolar nucleoside isosteres have proven useful in probing the recognition of DNA by other nucleic acids, and in studies of the physical origins of DNA curvature. Biophysical studies have shown that thymine and adenine isosteres destabilize DNAs in which they are substituted, unless they are in a terminal position, in which case they can be strongly stabilizing, due to their avid stacking with natural DNA bases. Structural studies have shown that, despite the destabilization when present at non-terminal locations, thymine and adenine mimics show essentially the same structures as the natural congeners.
Nonpolar nucleoside mimics have also been increasingly useful of late in the study of protein-DNA and enzyme-DNA recognition. Studies have been reported with purine and pyrimidine mimics in a number of DNA repair enzymes, including MutY (Guckian et al. (1998) Nature Structural biology 5, 954); fpg; (Francis et al. (2003) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 125, 16235), MutS and homologues (Schofield et al. (2001) J. Biol. Chem. 276, 45505; Drotschmann et al. (2001) J. Biol. Chem. 276, 46225; and in polypurine tract recognition by HIV reverse transcriptase (Rausch et al. (2003) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100, 11279). Those studies have shed light on the relative importance of hydrogen bonding and steric interactions to these enzymes' biochemical activities.
In addition to this, nonpolar nucleoside isosteres have proven broadly useful in the study of DNA replication by a wide variety of polymerase enzymes. Such nonpolar analogues were first reported in 1997 to act as surprisingly strong substrates for DNA polymerase I, (Moran et al. (1997) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 119, 2056; Moran et al. (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 10506) leading to the conclusion that at least some replicative DNA polymerases function well in synthesis of a base pair without Watson-Crick hydrogen bonds. This has since been confirmed by a number of studies of varied polymerase enzymes in vitro, and recently in living bacterial cells as well. The discovery of the lack of a hydrogen bonding requirement in replication has led to design other non-isosteric DNA base pairs for expansion of the genetic information-encoding system.
A high fidelity for DNA replication is required to maintain proper transfer of genetic information during cell division. The first and most influential step that determines this fidelity is synthesis of a new base pair by a replicative DNA polymerase. This choice, which occurs dozens of times per second, involves the selection of one nucleotide among four for insertion into the growing primer strand, opposite each DNA template base as it is addressed in turn. In eukaryotes, the replicative enzymes are DNA polymerases delta, alpha, and epsilon. In eubacteria, the replicative polymerases are Pol III, which synthesizes the leading strand, and Pol I, which assists Pol III with the lagging strand. These latter polymerases make an error (synthesis of a mismatched pair) only once in ca. 104-105 nucleotide insertions.
The biophysical origin of this fidelity is a long-standing topic of research on polymerases. Early studies often focused on matching of Watson-Crick hydrogen bonds; however, it was subsequently recognized that at the terminus of DNA, base pairing selectivity in the absence of enzymes is too low to account for the observed enzymatic fidelity. More recently, it has been shown that a nonpolar isostere of thymine (difluorotoluene) can be replicated with nearly wild-type fidelity despite its lack of hydrogen bonding ability (Moran et al. (1997) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 119, 2056-2057; Moran et al. (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 10506-10511; Delaney et al. (2003) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100, 4469-4473). Such observations, in conjunction with structural and mutational studies, have led to the hypothesis that geometry of DNA base pairs may be regulated by a close fit in polymerase active sites (Kool (2002) Ann. Rev. Biochem. 71, 191-219; Kool (2001) Annu. Rev. Biophys. Biomol. Struct. 30, 1-33; Goodman (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 4469-4473).
The development of novel nucleoside analogs is of interest for a variety of research and therapeutic uses. The present invention addresses this issue.

Abstract: where R1 is a sugar moiety;        R2 is H or CH3; an imaging moiety or a cytotoxic moiety and        X1 and X2 are independently selected from I, Cl, Br, and F, with the proviso that not more than one F will be present at these positions.

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


An anchoring assembly and method adapted to secure a screw fastener at a pre-drilled hole in a concrete, brick or masonry building material with an elongated engagement cavity between the screw and the pre-drilled hole radially offset to one side of and extending axially along the depth of the hole, an elongated anchor strip axially adjacent the screw including an elongated malleable and non-resilient anchor member adapted to frictionally engage both the helical threads and the building material and to frictionally engage the threads to the building material radially opposite to the engagement cavity, the malleable anchor member having at least one transverse dimension which is substantially greater than the transverse radial dimension of the axial engagement cavity.

A screw is a fastener is a type of fastener characterized by a helical ridge, known as an external thread or thread, wrapped around a cylinder designed to cut a helical groove in a softer material as the screw is inserted. Commonly screws are used to hold objects together and to position objects. A screw has a head by which it is turned and thereby driven into the objects.
By contrast, a nail is a type of fastener which is driven into the objects by an axial blow or series of axial blows.
Concrete is a common construction material which is widely used for a variety of purposes including structural members, walls, floors, beams and the like. Concrete is a hard composite material including coarse granular components embedded in a hard matrix being the cement that fills the space among the aggregate particles and glues them together. Concrete is not malleable, ductile or resilient and is not known to permit plastic deformation of any kind once hardened. Similar to masonry and brick, concrete is considerably harder than most materials used for typical fasteners and is cut, drilled or threaded by vary hard abrasives or destructive impact tools. As such, concrete has a degree of non-uniformity which makes it difficult to precisely re-form, as by cutting and drilling, particularly on modern construction sites. This is particularly so when other building materials are to be attached or secured to a concrete member on site. Most often a pilot hole is required which would necessarily be irregular by reason of manual high-speed drilling tools such as a hammer drill or masonry bit. Such a pilot hole would have a nominal diameter and internal irregularities, which would include loose, partially detached and fully detached elements which could reduce or increase the nominal diameter.
The very hardness of concrete members and a high resistance to compressive forces makes on site attachment of other objects a common task which remains a time consuming, expensive and risk prone construction activity. This requires skilled labor and care in relation to supply of parts and their installation, both in relation to the object attached to the concrete, and the concrete itself.

Concrete masonry anchor and method of fastening


In a digital receiver for receiving COFDM modulated television signals or the like, consecutive samples are compared with a detection threshold and the number of samples having amplitudes greater than the threshold is determined. This is compared with a further threshold and, if the number of such samples exceeds the further threshold, affected samples are blanked to zero. Similarly, an automatic gain control loop is disabled when the samples are blanked. A demodulator forms the difference in phase of pilot carriers from symbol to symbol. If the variance of the phase differences exceeds an averaged value, this indicates the presence of impulsive noise and is used to inhibit signal correction techniques within the demodulator. Noise energy is thus reduced and propagation of effects resulting from impulsive noise from symbol to symbol is substantially reduced.

Digital receivers such as DTT receivers are susceptible to various forms of noise which can disrupt reception. Such receivers are particularly susceptible to impulsive noise, for example caused by domestic electrical appliances and by vehicle ignition systems. Impulsive noise comprises one or more discrete relatively high amplitude pulses of relatively short duration and can disrupt reception to an unacceptable extent. This is discussed in "Impulsive Noise Measurements and Characterisations in a UHF Digital TV Channel", IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility, Vol. 41, No. 2, May 1999.
In order to attempt to overcome this problem, it is known to perform impulse suppression by zero substitution or "blanking to zero" of the data-carrying signal within a television receiver. In particular, if the noise impulses can be detected, then the data can be blanked to zero so as to attempt to remove the noise energy from the signal, for example supplied to the digital demodulator of the receiver. In order to attempt to detect noise impulses, the absolute value of each digital sample, following analog-to-digital conversion within the receiver, is compared with a predetermined threshold. If a sample exceeds this threshold, it is replaced with zero. Such techniques are disclosed, for example, in "Summary report of some findings on impulsive interference into DVB-T reception", 10 May 2000, Report published by the BBC Research and Development. However, it has been found that such techniques are of limited use in detecting impulsive noise and do not improve reception sufficiently to avoid undesirable visual artefacts appearing in television pictures.

Method of and apparatus for detecting impulsive noise, method of operating a demodulator, demodulator and radio receiver


A method and structure are disclosed for causing water seeping through a crack in a basement wall to be directed behind a tape applied to the wall, such tape having edges bonded to the wall and a hydrophobic coating on the rear side of the tape for repelling water flowing therebehind for quicker drainage.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of this invention relates to structures and methods for dealing with water leaks into basements through cracks which have developed in foundation walls and more particularly relates to a structure and method of sealing the crack and preventing the flow of water into the basement area desired to be kept dry.
2. History of the Prior Art
Structures and methods to try to stem the flow of ground water through cracks in a foundation into a basement area are well known. Some of these inventions are directed toward structures which cover the cracks and direct the water flow to the basement floor or to drainage means therebelow. One such invention is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,974,755 to Pouwels. This invention teaches the attachment of a wall patch over the crack where the water drains through the crack behind the patch to the floor where it can be drained away by conventional means. The wall patch of Pouwels is an elongated, stiff, flat panel which forms a generally longitudinally extending waterway having curbs on each side of the panel which curbs form a watertight seal against the wall such that any water flow through the crack passes behind the patch down to the floor area. Another approach to the problem is found in Janesky U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,508 which discloses a thin, flexible barrier material, the back of which is covered with a water wicking fabric and the sides of which are bonded to the basement wall on each side of the crack such that any fluid passing through the crack is absorbed by the strip of water-absorbing fabric and wicked through the fabric eventually down to a water drain system at the base of the wall.

Foundation crack sealer and method of use