A remote data memory access method for use in a computer system having a plurality of nodes, each node using a respective memory and remote data memory access between nodes being performed by transferring user data from the memory used by one node to the memory used by another node, the method comprising: maintaining memory correctness information of the user data at a subunit level; selecting subunits of user data for transfer in dependence upon memory correctness information of each subunit; and selectively transferring the subunits so selected. The method preferably involves transferring the memory correctness information of at least the selected subunits of user data, in addition to the selected subunits of user data. The memory correctness information may be compressed prior to transfer.

1. Field
The present embodiments relate to memory correctness checking as employed, for example, on massively parallel processors, supercomputers and other distributed computer systems. Memory correctness checking is a technology for auditing and tracking the allocation and initialization state of computer storage so that incorrect usage of storage and undesired program behavior can be detected. Typically, memory correctness checking is performed during the testing or debugging phase of program development.
2. Description of the Related Art
Examples of apparatus to which the present embodiment may be applied are schematically shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
In FIG. 1, a conventional computer 1 forms one node of a distributed computer system. The computer 1 has a processor 2 for processing user data, and a network interface controller (NIC) 3 for interfacing with an external network 7, enabling the computer to communicate with other nodes in the distributed computer system. The computer 1 is connected to external storage 4 as well as having its own built-in storage 8. An input device 5 is used to give instructions to the computer, and an output device presents results in the form of a graphical display for example. As is well known, a user interacts with an operating system (OS) of the computer when inputting instructions, such as to execute a given program or process. Where such instructions result in a need for data to be sent to, or fetched from, another node in the system, the NIC handles the necessary data transfers. Supervision of the NIC is generally at the program or OS level, without directly involving the user.
FIG. 2 shows a network-on-chip processor 10 with a network 70 (indicated by the solid grid lines) linking discrete processing elements 20. Each processing element 20 may be multi-core and may have its own storage. In reality, there may be hundreds of processing elements rather than the sixteen depicted. Network interface controllers 30 are provided respectively for each of the processing elements 20 as well as for an external storage 40 which is shared amongst the processing elements. This network-on-chip processor 10 may be used as the processor in a conventional computer.
Remote Direct Memory Access is a technology allowing a conventional computer, as shown in FIG. 1, to use its network interface controller 3 to transmit information via the network to modify the storage at a second conventional computer. This technology is important in high performance computing, where the first and the second computers are part of a supercomputer, as it reduces the work placed on the processor 2 of the computer shown in FIG. 1. RDMA technology is also beneficial to the network-on-chip processor 10 of FIG. 2 as a processing element 20 is able to modify storage local to a second processing element in a way that minimizes the work placed on the second processing element.
RDMA relies on single-sided communication, also referred to as "third-party I/O" or "zero copy networking". In single-sided communication, to send data, a source processor (under control of a program or process being executed by that processor) simply puts that data in the memory of a destination processor, and likewise a processor can read data from another processor's memory without interrupting the remote processor. Thus, the operating system of the remote processor is normally not aware that its memory has been read or written to. The writing or reading are handled by the processors' network interface controllers (or equivalent, e.g. network adapter) without any copying of data to or from data buffers in the operating system (hence, "zero copy"). This reduces latency and increases the speed of data transfer, which is obviously beneficial in high performance computing.
Consequently, references in this specification to data being transferred from one processor to another should be understood to mean that the respective network interface controllers (or equivalent) transfer data, without necessarily involving the host processors themselves.
Conventional RDMA instructions include "rdma_put" and "rdma_get". An "rdma_put" allows one node to write data directly to a memory at a remote node, which node must have granted suitable access rights to the first node in advance, and have a memory (or buffer) ready to receive the data. "rdma_get" allows one node to read data directly from the memory (or memory buffer) of a remote node, assuming again that the required privileges have already been granted.
The Message Passing Interface (MPI) is the most widely accepted standard for communication between nodes (which may be conventional computers) of a massively parallel computer. MPI provides a message-passing library specification capable of being applied to a wide range of distributed computer systems including parallel computers, clusters and heterogeneous networks, and is not dependent on any specific language or compiler. MPI allows communication among processes which have separate address spaces. The basic version involves co-operative (two-sided) communication, in which data is explicitly sent by one process and received by another. A later version of the standard, MPI-2, includes support for single-sided communication which gives RDMA functionality but does not provide direct support for memory correctness checking.
Other standards, implemented generally at the software level, exist for communication between nodes of a parallel computing system. Among these are PVM (Parallel Virtual Machine), SHMEM (Shared Memory) and ARMCI (Aggregate Remote Memory Copy Interface).
Meanwhile, a number of tools exist that support memory correctness checking. IBM's Rational Purify performs binary instrumentation to track four states of memory as shown in FIG. 3. Here, it is assumed that a processor is executing a program, which program must "own" a given byte of memory in order to have access rights to it. As well as reading and writing of data, it is possible to free a byte of memory so as to make it available to another program (or processor). The function "malloc" (memory allocate) is used to allocate or free memory. The four possible memory states are:
(i) Neither allocated nor initialized (see the area labelled 91). This is so-called "Red memory" which is illegal to read, write or free since it is not owned by the program.
(ii) Allocated but not initialized ("Yellow memory", labelled 92 in FIG. 3). This is memory which is owned by the program but which has not yet been initialized. It may be written to or freed, but not read.
(iii) Both allocated and initialized ("Green memory", 93 in FIG. 3). This is memory which has been written to and thus has a value capable of being read. It is legal to read, write or free Green memory.
(iv) Freed and previously initialized ("Blue memory", 94 in FIG. 4). An area of memory which has been initialized and used, but is now freed. That is, the memory is still initialized but no longer valid for access. It is therefore illegal to read, write or free Blue memory.
Two bits are used to track each byte of memory: the first bit records allocation status and the second bit records initialization status. Assuming one byte is made up of eight bits, it follows that one byte of application-employed memory results in a correctness checking overhead of two bits. Purify checks each memory operation attempted by a program against the state of the memory block involved, to check whether the operation is valid, and if it is not, reports an error. Purify does not have direct support for memory correctness checking of inter-computer communications (e.g. via the Message Passing Interface, MPI).
Valgrind memcheck is a dynamic binary instrumentation tool which shadows each 8-bit byte of memory assigned to the user with 8-bits to track memory value validity (initialization state) and one bit to track memory access validity (allocation state). Assuming one byte is made up of eight bits, it follows that one byte of application-employed memory results in a correctness checking overhead of one byte and one bit. As memory is allocated as a whole number of bytes, the single allocation state bit applies to all 8-bits of an application-employed byte so that each bit of application-employed memory is associated with two bits representing the memory correctness states. Valgrind memcheck uses the MPI profiling interface to provide wrappers to certain MPI functions so that memory checking can be performed when transfers are made between MPI processes.
Parasoft's Insure++ is a source-code-level instrumentation tool for detecting C/C++ run-time memory errors. At present, however, there appears to be no documented support for MPI or RDMA operations as convenient for Partitioned Global Address Space languages.
There are currently no Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) instructions to support efficient and highly configurable memory correctness checking. One possibility to carry out memory correctness checking is the use of the Valgrind/memcheck tool's MPI wrappers, which currently however do not support the MPI-2 single-sided communication functions, and therefore do not permit memory correctness checking in combination with RDMA.
Current program and memory correctness tools built into existing compilers are unable to account for communication, so the programmer must engage in labor-intensive (and consequently error prone) debugging of memory correctness by writing wrapper functions needed to make an existing tool work with MPI, and printing out values individually.
Consequently, there is a need to combine remote data memory access and memory correctness checking in a more efficient manner.

Memory correctness checking in distributed computer systems


A method of segmenting images receives an image (such as a medical image) and a segment in relation to the image, displays them to an observer, receives a modification to the segment from the observer, and generates a second segment in relation to a second image, responsive to the modification. An image segmentation system includes a learning scheme or model to take input from an observer feedback interface and to communicate with a means for drawing an image segment to permit adjustment of at least one image segmentation parameter (such as a threshold value). The learning scheme is provided with a knowledge base which may initially be created by processing offline images. The learning scheme may use any scheme such as a reinforcement learning agent, a fuzzy inference system or a neural network.

There are a number of medical and veterinary imaging technologies. Such technologies include x-ray, ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET) and others.
Radiologists and other health care professionals review images in order to provide analysis and advice for diagnosis, treatment and palliation. It is a common task and activity in reviewing images to create or identify a segment of a part of a presented image. Such a segment may help to identify, or may identify, objects, contours, boundaries or surfaces of interest. Examples of these include the location of anatomical structures, or the relationship or relative positive of anatomical structures. Segments of interest could also include or indicate the location, shape and size of pathological objects, such as tumors, lesions, organs, tissues, cells, etc. For the purposes of this patent "segmenting" or "segmentation" and similar words mean any of the tasks or activities described in this paragraph.
In reviewing and segmenting images, radiologists and other health care professionals are often not as productive as desired.
Some images are difficult to segment. The object, boundary or contour of interest may be difficult to differentiate from surrounding or other portions of the image. Different health care professionals will often segment such difficult images in different ways.
There are previously existing technologies purported to assist with segmentation or provide automated segmentation. These previously existing technologies have a number of drawbacks. One of these drawbacks is they do not learn, or they learn ineffectively (e.g. requiring a large training set), how an individual would like to approach the segmentation task. This limitation or disadvantage of the prior art and prior uses can be particularly evident when an attempt is made to automate the segmentation of a difficult image. This results in lower productivity, as well as other undesired effects such as fatigue or annoyance of the person creating the segment.

System and method for image segmentation


A method for fabricating a non-volatile memory cell for a substrate includes the following steps: forming an isolation structure to define an active region on the substrate; forming a channel oxide layer on the active region; forming a conducting layer and a silicon nitride layer over the substrate; defining the polysilicon layer and the silicon nitride layer to form a floating gate on the active region and to form an opening exposing a portion of the isolation structure; conformally forming an etching protection layer which extends from the isolation structure inside the opening up to the silicon nitride layer; forming an oxide layer over the substrate; planarizing the oxide layer to the surface of the silicon nitride layer so that the remainder of the oxide layer is left within the opening; removing the silicon nitride layer; forming conducting spacers on the sidewalls of the remainder of the oxide layer; removing the remainder of the TEOS oxide layer; conformally forming an ONO layer; forming a controlling ate on the ONO layer; and forming source/drain regions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for fabricating a non-volatile memory cell, and more particularly to a method for improving the gate coupling ratio of a non-volatile memory cell in fabrication.
2. Background of the Invention
According to the related prior art, a conventional method for fabricating a non-volatile memory cell is illustrated in FIG. 1A to FIG. 1D and FIG. 2A to FIG. 2E. FIG. 1A to FIG. 1D are the layout figures of a non-volatile memory cell. FIG. 2A to FIG. 2E respectively shows the corresponding cross-sectional figures of the manufacturing steps of the same non-volatile memory cell. For example, the active region 100 shown in FIG. 1A is defined on the substrate 10 shown in FIG. 2A. FIG. 2A illustrates the cross-sectional view of the memory cell along the line 2a--2a in FIG. 1A.
As shown in FIG. 1A and FIG. 2A, the initial step is to form a field oxide layer 30 on the surface of the substrate 10 to define the active region 100. Subsequently, a channel oxide layer 20 is formed on the surface of the active region 100.
FIG. 2B shows the cross-sectional view of the memory cell along the line 2b--2b in FIG. 1A. This procedure utilizes a chemical vapor deposition process to form a polysilicon layer. Then, photolithography and etching processes are utilized to define the polysilicon layer to form a floating gate 40. Then, an insulating material such as a typical oxide-nitride-oxide ONO structure 50 is conformally deposited over the surface of the substrate 10.
FIG. 2C shows the cross-sectional view of the memory cell along the line 2c--2c in FIG. 1C. In this procedure a chemical vapor deposition process is utilized to form a polysilicon layer; a photoresist layer is coated thereon; and then a controlling gate electrode mask (not shown) is formed. Through exposure and photolithography processes, a patterned photoresist 61 is formed. With this photoresist 61, an etching process is utilized to define the polysilicon layer to form a controlling gate 60.
FIG. 2D shows the cross-sectional view of the memory cell along the line 2d--2d in FIG. 1D. In this procedure, the patterned photoresist 61 is utilized as a mask, and etching steps are sequentially utilized to remove the uncovered portions of the insulating layer 50 and the floating gate 40. Then, the patterned photoresist 61 is removed and the source/drain regions are formed. Thus, the fabrication of a non-volatile memory cell is completed.
As illustrated in FIG. 1D, the slanted-line shadow area depicts the floating gate 40 and the spotted shadow area depicts the controlling gate 60.
Furthermore, FIG. 2E shows the cross-sectional view of the memory cell along the line 2e--2e in FIG. 1D. Therein, the structure along the other direction of the non-volatile memory cell, including the source region 70 and the drain region 80, can be seen.
FIG. 3 illustrates the equivalent circuit diagram of the foregoing non-volatile memory cell. Therein, the equivalent capacitance effect is generated in the memory cell structure which includes a channel oxide layer 20, a floating gate 40, an insulating layer 50, a controlling gate electrode 60, a source electrode S-70, a drain electrode D-80 and a semiconductor substrate B-10.
When the non-volatile memory cell is activated by an appropriate voltage, a capacitance C1 will be formed across the insulating layer 50 between the floating gate 40 and the controlling gate 60 and a capacitance C2 will also be formed across the channel oxide layer 20 between the floating gate 40 and the substrate 10. When the floating gate voltage is Vl and the controlling gate voltage is V2, the relation equation of the capacitance values and the voltage values is as follows: EQU V1=C1/(C1+C2)*V2.
Based on the foregoing relation equation, a larger capacitance C1 has a relatively higher gate voltage coupling ratio. In other words, a larger capacitance C1 decreases the operation voltage required for a non-volatile memory cell to perform the program/erase operation.
The prior art for improving the gate coupling ratio of a non-volatile memory cell is as described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,059. Referring to FIG. 4, the prior art mainly utilizes the polysilicon spacers 148 formed by the liquid phase deposition process to increase the surface area of the insulating region 150 between the floating gate 140 and the controlling gate 160. Thus, the gate coupling ratio is improved.
However, the main disadvantage of the foregoing prior art is that the process is complicated and difficult to control. Thus, it is not suitable for mass production.

Method for fabricating a non-volatile memory cell


Disclosed herein is a microelectromechanical device having a structural layer composed of a low stress TiNx layer and a method of making the same.

TiNx is a ceramic that is electrically conductive. It is especially useful in devices having a member desired to be both mechanically and electrically superior. For example, the deformable or deflectable elements of microelectromechanical devices are desired to have reliable and robust performance, which suggest the use of stiff, strong ceramic materials with high melting temperatures. However, in many applications, it is necessary for the deformable or deflectable elements to perform multiple functions, some o which may require properties found only in materials that are mechanically inferior. For example, a deformable hinge and deflectable mirror plate of a micromirror device may be required to be electrically and or thermally conductive, which would necessitate utilization of a metallic material. Compared to ceramic materials, common electrically conductive materials that commensurate with the commercial fabrication facilities for microelectromechanical devices are generally inferior in mechanical properties including strength and creep resistance.
Therefore, what is needed is a TiNx material with low compression and a method of making the same.


A tube squeezing device. The tube squeezing device includes a body with a first member, a second member, an elastic material, a collar, and a fastener. An elastic material runs along the length of sides of each member and connects the first member to the second member. The collar connects the top end of the first member to the top end of the second member. The collar has an aperture sized to receive a neck of a container therethrough. The fastener on the bottom ends of the first and second members selectively secures the bottom ends together. In various embodiments, pins are pivotally attached to the bottom of the members and travel in grooves to selectively keep the device in an open or closed configuration. The tube squeezing device is utilized to receive a tube of material and enable a user to squeeze out the material.

The present invention relates to material dispensers. More particularly, the present invention provides for a tube squeezing device that is utilized to receive a tube of material and enable a user to squeeze the material out of the tube in a highly efficient manner, thereby enabling a user to maximize the amount of material able to be dispensed from said tube.
Many people buy lotions, toothpaste, sunscreen, and various other assorted materials in tubes. These tubes are typically one-piece construction with a dispensing end. Where a user squeezes the tube, the material is pushed out through the dispensing end. Initially, this manner of dispensing material does not pose an issue. However, as less and less material remains in the tube, it becomes increasingly harder and harder to squeeze out the material. Users are left trying to wring out the tube, or carefully roll the tube from the bottom in an effort to maximize the amount of material and minimize waste in the form of material left within the tube. This can be clumsy and lead to an unsightly mess as the tube becomes crumpled and disfigured.
Devices have been disclosed in the known art that relate to material dispensers. These include devices that have been patented and disclosed in patent application publications. However, the devices in the known art have several drawbacks. Some devices are wall-mounted and require the user to prime the device with material. These wall-mounted devices are not convenient and are not portable, thus they have no use outside the room in which they are installed. Other devices utilize clips or clamps to wring the tube. However, these devices are clumsy and do not address the problem of the unsightly mess that is left behind or that results from rolling or squeezing the tube in such a manner. The present invention substantially diverges in design elements from the known art and consequently it is clear that there is a need in the art for an improvement to existing material dispensing devices.


A monitoring or control system includes a plurality of senders or sensors which are coupled to a central control unit by separate cables. The control unit includes a microprocessor which executes an intermittent fault detection algorithm while an operator manually flexes each cable in turn. When a cable with a fault is manipulated the algorithm responds by energizing a horn.

This invention relates to an electrical monitoring system and more particularly to diagnosing intermittent electrical faults which can occur in such a system.
Electrical monitoring and/or control systems are well known in the prior art. Such systems typically include sensor or sending devices coupled to a central processing or control unit via electrical cables or conductors. Intermittent faults, such as short or open circuit conditions in such cables and or connectors have always been difficult to isolate. For example, the fault may not occur when a service person is present, or it may disappear as the service person takes diagnostic action. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a monitoring or control system with a built-in capability for facilitating detection and isolation of such intermittent faults.


A method of evaluating an optimization system is disclosed. The system is transitioned from an on state to an off state. Data is collected at time intervals for a time period before and after the system is transitioned from the on state to the off state. The transitioning occurs while a load of a particular type is active. In one embodiment, the optimization system is a Volt/VAR Optimization (VVO) system.

Volt/VAR Optimization (VVO) is a utility-centric technology that focuses on the coordinated control of tap changers, voltage regulators, and shunt capacitors to achieve a global objective or objectives. The most common global objectives are the reduction of end-use energy and the regulation of power factor to a specified value. To achieve these goals, a general VVO system uses a combination of Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR), which is achieved through the control of tap changers and voltage regulators, and power factor control, which is achieved through the control of shunt capacitors. When properly implemented, these systems will provide end-use customers with the same quality of service while reducing annual energy consumption. An increase in the efficiency of the system can also be achieved via reduced system losses, but it is a small effect compared to reductions at the end-use. The end result of a properly operated VVO system is lower energy usage and a more efficient system. Others systems may take a simpler approach of implementing CVR alone.
A VVO system has two main functional components. The first, and primary, function is the coordination of tap changers and voltage regulators, at the feeder level, to reduce energy consumption. The second function is the coordination of capacitors with a weighted dual objective of voltage flattening and power factor correction. In this system, the weighting of the voltage flattening is slightly higher than the weighting for power factor optimization.
One challenge that utilities face with VVO is verifying/validating the effectiveness of the system to their regulating authority. The validation of performance is generally achieved with a 60 or 90 day on/off evaluation process which requires the VVO system to be turned on or turned off on alternate days for the 60 or 90 day period, and is expensive and complicated. The 60 or 90 days evaluation period is required because of VVOs interaction with end-use loads that have thermal control loops, e.g. heating and cooling.
Generally outside firms are hired by utilities to conduct the evaluations, and execute the analysis. Commonly used VVO analysis protocol requires the VVO system to be turned on and off on alternate days for 90 days. Thus, during half of the evaluation process the system is off for testing purposes, representing a loss of benefits. The active power demand is adjusted to control for factors that affect the demand such as temperature, day of week, time of day, and on-days and off-days are compared to estimate the energy reduction achieved by the VVO system. Large amounts of data must be collected, and the analysis requires temperature correction of active power demand. As VVO deployments becomes more common and new installations require evaluation, the development of a simpler method, which requires a shorter period of data collection, to benchmark new evaluations would save time and money.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method of evaluating change in energy consumption due to Volt VAR optimization


Arrangements and methods of packaging integrated circuits in leadless leadframe packages configured for maximizing a die size are disclosed. The package is described having an exposed die attach pad and a plurality of exposed contacts formed from a common substrate material. The contacts, however, are thinned relative to the die attach pad. In one embodiment, an inner region of the contacts is thinned. In another embodiment, an outer region of the contacts is also thinned. A die is mounted on the die attach pad and wire bonded to the contacts. Since the inner region and sometimes together with the outer region of the contact are lower than the die attach pad being wire bonded to, the size of the die can be relatively increased to overhang over the contact, thereby maximizing the die size in the package. A plastic cap is molded over the die, contacts, and bonding wires while leaving the bottom surface of the contacts exposed.

A leadless leadframe package (LLP) is a relatively new integrated circuit package design that contemplates the use of a metal (typically copper) leadframe type substrate structure in the formation of a chip scale package (CSP). As illustrated in FIGS. 1A-1C, in typical leadless leadframe packages, a copper leadframe strip or panel 101 is patterned (typically by stamping or etching) to define a plurality of arrays 103 of chip substrate features. Each chip substrate feature includes a die attach pad 107 and a plurality of contacts 109 disposed about their associated die attach pad 107. Tie bars 111 are used to support the die attach pads 107 and contacts 109.
During assembly, dice are attached to the respective die attach pads and conventional wire bonding is used to electrically couple bond pads (not shown) on each die to their associated contacts 109 on the leadframe strip 101. After the wire bonding, a plastic cap is molded over the top surface of the each array 103 of wire bonded dice. The dice are then singulated and tested using conventional sawing or punching and testing techniques.
FIG. 2 illustrates a typical resulting leadless leadframe package. The die attach pad 107 supports a die 120 which is electrically connected to its associated contacts 109 by bonding wires 122. A plastic cap 125 made of molding material encapsulates the die 120 and bonding wires 122 and fills the gaps between the die attach pad 107 and the contacts 109 thereby serving to hold the contacts in place. It should be appreciated that during singulation, the tie bars 111 are cut and therefore the only materials holding the contacts 109 in place is the molding material. The resulting packaged chip, with the exposed contacts 109 on the bottom of the package, can then be surface mounted on a printed circuit board or other substrate using conventional techniques.
Although leadless leadframe packaging has proven to be a cost effective packaging arrangement, there are continuing efforts to further improve the package structure and associated processing in order to better utilize the space within the resulting devices. Currently, device substrate features often have the same thickness. As such, a die often attaches to a die attach pad that has a same thickness as the surrounding contacts in the device. Therefore, in order to avoid short-circuiting the device, the die size can only be effectively maximized to overhang the die attach pad to the extent of approximately where the inner edge of the contacts is located.
Improved leadless leadframe packaging arrangements and methods that efficiently maximize the die size and easily integrate with current processing techniques are therefore needed.

Leadless microelectronic package and a method to maximize the die size in the package


An impeller for a centrifugal compressor includes a hub, several main blades mounted to the hub, and several splitter blades mounted to the hub, each splitter blade being located between adjacent main blades and being disposed from a position centered between the adjacent main blades by an amount of about 6% to about 33% of one half the angular distance between the main blades.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of impellers for centrifugal compressors, and particularly to an impeller having novel placement of splitter blades.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
Centrifugal compressors have a wide ranging variety of applications, including typical use in superchargers or gas turbines. It is desirable to obtain a maximum efficiency for such compressors, particularly in relationship to particular ranges of operation. It is also important to obtain superior operating characteristics while retaining a compact design.
There are several design constraints in trying to optimize the operating characteristics of a centrifugal compressor. Various approaches have been pursued in the prior art to improve on compressor design, many of these relating to the blading of the impeller. However, the success of different blading approaches is difficult to predict, due to the unique nature of compressible fluids, as opposed to non-compressible fluids. For example, experience with centrifugal pumps used with incompressible liquids is not directly transferable to the design of compressors. For this and other reasons, many different types of designs have been proposed in the prior art, not all with great success.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,167,369, issued to Ishihara on Sept. 11, 1979, there is described an impeller having specially contoured blades for use in a centrifugal compressor. The blades of the Ishihara design have an impeller portion extending radially of the impeller disk to its outer perimeter, and a centrally located inducer portion angled from the impeller portion in the direction of impeller rotation. The angle between the impeller portion and the front face of the disk is about 90 degrees at the inner end and gradually increases toward the outer end to about 50 to 70 degrees. Intermediate splitter blades are spaced equally between adjacent full blades. A dual entry centrifugal compressor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,530,639 issued to Mowell on July 23, 1985, and includes splitter blades which are equally spaced between adjacent full blades.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,337 issued to Bell, III on Nov. 29, 1977, there is described a centrifugal compressor having a splitter shroud in the flow path. The impeller of the Bell, III Patent includes blades which are all of identical height and contour. A centrifugal fan having associated pairs of blades of similar design is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,083,996 issued to Jonn on June 15, 1937.
An offset centrifugal compressor is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,659 issued to Sydransky on Oct. 7, 1986. The impeller of the Sydransky device includes blades which are comprised of three separate segments extending generally end-to-end. Gaps are provided between the adjacent ends of the blade parts to permit gas to travel therethrough from the Pressure side to the suction side, which is intended to control boundary layer build-up and reduce separation of gas from the blades.

Compressor impeller with displaced splitter blades


An obstacle detecting system having leakage coaxial cables laid on at both the sides of an obstacle monitoring district and an obstacle detecting device for emitting electrical waves from one of the leakage coaxial cables laid on at both the sides to the other leakage coaxial cable and detecting an obstacle in the obstacle monitoring district on the basis of the electrical waves incident to the other leakage coaxial cable is further equipped with an electrical wave transmitting unit for transmitting the electrical waves to the one leakage coaxial cable in the obstacle detecting device, an electrical wave receiving unit for receiving the electrical waves incident to the other leakage coaxial cable, and a connecting unit for connecting the electrical wave transmitting unit and the electrical wave receiving unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an obstacle (or intruder) detecting system and an obstacle (or intruder) detecting device for specifying an obstacle (or intruder) by emitting electrical waves from a leakage coaxial cable.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional obstacle detecting device, leakage coaxial cables are laid on around an obstacle monitoring district (hereinafter referred to as "monitoring district"), and electrical waves are emitted from one of the leakage coaxial cables (hereinafter referred to as "first leakage coaxial cable") to the other leakage coaxial cable (hereinafter referred to as "second leakage coaxial cable") to detect an obstacle in the monitoring district.
A transmitter for generating a pulse-shaped signal (hereinafter referred to as "pulse signal") is connected to one end of the first leakage coaxial cable, and a receiver which receives a signal obtained through delay of the pulse signal in accordance with the position on the second leakage coaxial cable is connected to one end of the second leakage coaxial cable. The one end of the second leakage coaxial cable is located at the same side as the one end of the first leakage coaxial cable.
Furthermore, a filter for picking up the envelope curve of the signal waveform from the pulse signal received by the receiver is connected to the receiver, and there are provided a storage device for pre-storing the envelope curve of the signal waveform when no obstacle exists, and a computing unit for detecting the position of an obstacle on the basis of the differential waveform between the envelope curve when no obstacle exists and the envelope curve picked up from the filter.
As described above, the position of an obstacle intruding into the monitoring district is detected by receiving the pulse signal from the transmitter, and the magnitude of the differential waveform between the envelope curves is dependent on the power of the detection signal which is received by the second leakage coaxial cable and passes from the receiver to the computing unit. Therefore, it is a challenge in enhancement of detection precision that the power of the detection signal is kept constant (fixed) on the time axis from the arrival of a detection signal from the transmitter connected to one end of the first leakage coaxial cable to generate a pulse signal at the receiver of the second leakage coaxial cable till the arrival of the detection signal at the computing unit.
Furthermore, when the first leakage coaxial cable laid on around the monitoring district and connected to the transmitter at one end thereof or the second leakage coaxial cable connected to the receiver at one end thereof falls into a characteristic state different from the normal characteristic state thereof due to some cause (for example, in the case of disconnection of the leakage coaxial cable or similar cases), the differential waveform between the envelope curve of the signal waveform picked up from the filter (hereinafter referred to as "detected envelope curve") and the envelope curve of the signal waveform under the state that no obstacle exists (hereinafter referred to as "reference envelope curve") becomes large, so that the present state is regarded as being identical to the state where an obstacle is detected (i.e., error detection).
Still furthermore, when the power of the detection signal received by the second leakage coaxial cable passes from the receiver to the computing unit is small, the differential waveform between the detected envelope curve and the reference envelope curve is small, so that the present state falls into an obstacle undetectable state (non-detection).    Prior Art Patent Document 1: JP-A-10-95338 (FIG. 1 and description thereof)
As described above, in order to enhance the detection precision in the conventional obstacle detecting device, it is required that the power of the detection signal from the time when it reaches the receiver from the transmitter for generating the pulse signal till the time when the detection signal reaches the computing unit from the receiver is made constant on the time axis. However, the constituent elements constituting the transmitter and the receiver have temperature-dependent characteristics and aged characteristics caused by continuous operation, and thus the conventional obstacle detecting device has a problem that the power is not constant, but varies on the time axis until it reaches the computing unit.
If the problem as described above exists, when the leakage coaxial cable has a characteristic different from the normal characteristic (stationary state) due to some cause, it cannot be identified which one of intrusion of an obstacle and characteristic variation of the leakage coaxial cable occurs. Accordingly, the obstacle detecting device is set to the same state as the state where an obstacle is detected, and thus error detection occurs.
Likewise, if the problem as described above exists, the differential waveforms when an obstacle exists and when no obstacle exists are not fixed. Accordingly, it is impossible to settle a threshold value for the differential waveform to determine detection of an obstacle, and thus there occurs a state that the differential waveform does not exceed the threshold value even when an obstacle actually intrudes (non-detection) or a state that the differential waveform exceeds the threshold value because an object moves at the outside of the obstacle monitoring district (this case is also referred to as "error detection").
Likewise, if the problem as described above exists, when the output power of the transmitter (the power of the pulse signal) exceeds the permissible transmission power of the transmitter and when the reception power of the receiver (the power of the detected pulse signal) exceeds the permissible reception power of the receiver, the pulse signal (detection signal) transmitted from the transmitter and the detection signal which is received by the receiver and then reaches the computing unit become distorted signals. Therefore, when the detection signal reaches the computing unit, the computing unit cannot recognize it as the detection signal output from itself. Accordingly, it is impossible to form the envelope curve, and the present state falls into the state that the differential waveform does not exceed the threshold value (non-detection) even when an obstacle intrudes.
That is, the conventional device is required to be placed under such an environment that the temperature is stable at all time, and when it is used in the open air under which the temperature rapidly varies, error detection or non-detection may occur. Furthermore, error detection or non-detection may also occur due to aged deterioration, and thus it is required to perform maintenance at a short period, that is, correct the threshold value or the like. Furthermore, the velocity of the detection signal in the leakage coaxial cable is dependent on the specific dielectric constant in the leakage coaxial cable. Therefore, when the specific dielectric constant varies due to aged deterioration or the like, the velocity of the detection signal, varies. In connection with this variation, an aberration occurs in the conversion of the detection signal to the detection position, and thus there is a problem that the intrusion position cannot be accurately measured.

Obstacle detecting system and obstacle detecting device


Among other things, one or more techniques and/or systems are described for dynamically adjusting one or more X-ray acquisition parameters of an X-ray imaging modality. During a first portion of an examination of an object, the object is examined using a first set of X-ray acquisition parameters and a first image is generated. A region-of-interest is identified in the first image and one or more X-ray acquisition parameters are adjusted as a function of the identified region-of-interest to establish a second set of X-ray acquisition parameters. During a second portion of the examination of the object, the object is examined using the second set of X-ray acquisition parameters to generate a second image. In this way, X-ray acquisition parameters can be adjusted in real-time or ‘on the fly’ to obtain a (more) desired image.

The present application relates to the field of X-ray imaging. It finds particular relevance to projection and computed tomography (CT) imaging systems such as utilized in medical, security, industrial and/or other applications. It also relates to other forms of X-ray imaging systems where dynamically adjusting X-ray acquisition parameters may be useful.
Today, CT and other X-ray imaging modalities (e.g., mammography systems, projection radiography systems, scanning line systems, etc.) are useful to provide information, or images, of interior aspects of an object under examination. Generally, the object is exposed to X-ray radiation comprising X-ray photons, and an image(s) is formed based upon the radiation absorbed and/or attenuated by interior aspects of the object, or rather an amount of photons that is able to pass through the object. Generally, highly dense aspects of the object absorb and/or attenuate more radiation than less dense aspects, and thus an aspect having a higher density, such as a bone or metal, for example, may be apparent when surrounded by less dense aspects, such as muscle or clothing.
To construct an image, X-ray radiation is emitted and information is acquired according to X-ray acquisition parameters that specify, among other things, an X-ray tube current and/or voltage, beam filtration, data filtration, etc., for example. The information acquired from the X-ray examination is then reconstructed or assembled to form an image which a user, such as a radiologist or security personnel, can view.
Presently, X-ray tube current may be dynamically adjusted during an examination as a function of the view angle in CT (e.g., which may be known to those skilled in the art as an 'auto mA' functionality) and/or as a function of an auto-exposure feature in a projection acquisition. However, other X-ray acquisition parameters are not known to be adjusted during the examination. This is in contrast to ultrasound imaging, where imaging parameters may be dynamically adjusted by a clinician during the examination as a function of the visual representation of the object to improve the representation of a desired aspect of the object. For example, during an ultrasound examination, a clinician may alter the frequency of the ultrasound waves and/or make other adjustments that improve the image quality or usefulness of the image with respect to an aspect of the object that is of particular interest.

Dynamic adjustment of X-ray acquisition parameters


A water regulator includes a water regulation valve, a first temperature sensor, a second temperature sensor, and a controller. The water regulation valve regulates a quantity of water flowing through water pipes. The first temperature sensor measures a temperature of one of the water pipes which is connected to an inlet of a heat exchanger. The second temperature sensor measures a temperature of one of the water pipes which is connected to an outlet of the heat exchanger. The controller controls an opening degree of the water regulation valve, based on a difference between the temperature measured by the first temperature sensor and the temperature measured by the second temperature sensor.

As for air conditioning apparatuses for conditioning indoor air with a refrigerant, an air conditioning apparatus of a water cooling type has been known, which is configured to cool or heat a heat source-side heat exchanger with water. Patent Literature 1 (JP 2008-075948 A) discloses an air conditioning apparatus of a water cooling type configured to regulate a flow rate of cooling water to be supplied, in order to optimize a high pressure at a refrigerant circuit.


An array substrate includes an oxide semiconductor layer; an etch stopper including a first contact hole exposing each of both sides of the oxide semiconductor layer; source and drain electrodes spaced apart from each other with the oxide semiconductor layer therebetween; a first passivation layer including a contact hole exposing each of both ends of the oxide semiconductor layer and each of ends of the source and drain electrode that oppose the both ends of the oxide semiconductor layer, respectively; and a connection pattern at the second contact hole contacting both the oxide semiconductor layer and each of the source and drain electrodes.

Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to an array substrate, and more particularly, to an array substrate and a method of fabricating the same.
Discussion of the Related Art
Recently, with the advent of an information-oriented society, the field of display devices configured to process and display a large amount of information has rapidly been developed. In particular, liquid crystal displays (LCDs) or organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) have lately been developed as flat panel displays (FPDs) having excellent performance, such as a small thickness, light weight, and low power consumption, and has superseded conventional cathode-ray tubes (CRTs).
Among LCDs, an active matrix (AM)-type LCD including an array substrate having a TFT serving as a switching element capable of controlling on/off voltages of each of pixels may have excellent resolution and capability of embodying moving images.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a pixel region including a thin film transistor in an array substrate of an LCD or an OLED according to the related art.
As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of gate lines (not shown) and a plurality of data lines 33 cross each other on an array substrate 11 to define a plurality of pixel regions P. A gate electrode 15 is formed in a switching region TrA of each pixel region P. A gate insulating layer 18 is formed entirely on the gate electrode 15, and a semiconductor layer 28 including an active layer 22 of intrinsic amorphous silicon and an ohmic contact layer 26 of impurity-doped amorphous silicon is formed on the gate insulating layer 18.
A source electrode 36 and a drain electrode 38 are formed on the ohmic contact layer 26 corresponding to the gate electrode 15 and spaced apart from each other. The gate electrode 15, the gate insulating layer 18, the semiconductor layer 28, and the source and drain electrodes 36 and 38, which are sequentially stacked at the switching region TrA, forms a thin film transistor Tr.
Furthermore, a passivation layer 42 including a drain contact hole 45 and exposing the drain electrode 38 is formed entirely on the source and drain electrodes 36 and 38. A pixel electrode 50 is formed in each of pixel regions P on the passivation layer 42 and contacts the drain electrode 38 through the drain contact hole 45. A semiconductor pattern 29 is formed below the data line 33 and has a double-layered structure of first and second patterns 27 and 23, which are made of the same materials as the ohmic contact layer 26 and the active layer 22, respectively.
In the semiconductor layer 28 of the thin film transistor Tr formed in the switching region TrA, the active layer 22 has a first thickness t1 where the ohmic contact layer 26 is formed and has a second thickness t2 where the ohmic contact layer 26 is removed and exposed. This difference in thickness is caused by a fabrication method, and since the thickness is reduced at the portion exposed between the source and drain electrodes 36 and 38, property of the thin film transistor Tr is degraded.
To solve this problem, a thin film transistor shown in FIG. 2 is developed, which does not need an ohmic contact layer and has a single-layered oxide semiconductor layer 79.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a pixel region of an array substrate including a thin film transistor having an oxide semiconductor layer according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 2, a thin film transistor Tr includes a gate electrode 73 on a substrate 71, a gate insulating layer 75, an oxide semiconductor layer 77, source and drain electrodes 81 and 83, and an etch stopper 79. A passivation layer 85 is on the transistor Tr and has a drain contact hole 87 exposing the drain electrode 83. A pixel electrode 89 is on the passivation layer 85 and contacts the drain electrode 83 through the drain contact hole 87.
Since the ohmic contact layer is not needed, the oxide semiconductor layer 77 is not required to be exposed in a dry-etching, which is performed to form the ohmic contact layers of impurity-doped amorphous silicon spaced apart from each other, and degradation of property of thin film transistor Tr can be prevented.
Further, carrier mobility of the oxide semiconductor layer 77 is a several times to a ten times greater than that of the semiconductor layer using the amorphous silicon, and it is advantageous to a driving transistor.
However, when the oxide semiconductor layer 77 is exposed to an etching solution to pattern a metal layer, the oxide semiconductor layer 77 is removed because of no etch selectivity with the metal layer or causes degradation of property of the thin film transistor Tr because of damage to molecule structure of the oxide semiconductor layer 77.
Further, when the oxide semiconductor layer 77 is exposed to an etching solution, reliability of operation of the thin film transistor Tr is degraded, and particularly, variation rate of threshold voltage greatly changes as time passes in a BTS (bias temperature stress) test, and thus property distribution or divergence in display region is great, and thus display quality is adversely affected.
To solve the problems, in order that a center portion of the semiconductor layer 77 i.e., a channel portion, is not exposed to an etching solution which reacts with a metal material for the source and drain electrodes 81 and 83 in a pattering process of forming the source and drain electrodes 81 and 83, an etch stopper 79 made of inorganic insulating material is formed on the center portion of the semiconductor layer 77.
However, the array substrate 71 including the thin film transistor Tr having the oxide semiconductor layer and the etch stopper 79 needs margin to contact between the oxide semiconductor layer 77 and the source and drain electrodes 81 and 83 because of the etch stopper 79. Accordingly, the source and drain electrodes 81 and 83 needs to be formed relatively long, and thus overlapping area with the gate electrode 73 increases and parasitic capacitance increases. Further, one mask process is required to form the etch stopper 79, and thus the array substrate is fabricated with six (or five) mask processes.
The mask process includes five steps of a photoresist deposition, a light exposure, a developing, an etching and a stripping, and thus the mask process is complicated and requires many solutions. Accordingly, as a number of the mask process increases, production time increases and production rate decreases, error rate increases, and production cost increases.
Accordingly, reductions of parasitic capacitance and a number of mask processes for the array substrate shown in FIG. 2 are required.

Array substrate and method of fabricating the same


A developer regulating member is rotatably supported. A distance from the rotation center of the developer regulating member to the center of a developer carrying member is more than a distance from the center of a shaft portion to the leading edge of an elastic member and the bending angle β of the elastic member which is calculated from β=PL2/2EI is less than the set angle α of the elastic member with respect to the developer carrying member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a developing device and a process cartridge used in, for example, an electrophotographic type image forming apparatus or an electrostatic recording type image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus, such as a printer using an electrophotographic process, uniformly charges an electrophotographic photosensitive member (hereinafter, simply referred to as a "photosensitive member") serving as an image carrying member. Then, the charged photosensitive member is selectively exposed to form an electrostatic image on the photosensitive member. Then, the electrostatic image formed on the photosensitive member is visualized as a toner image by toner which is a developer. Then, the toner image formed on the photosensitive member is transferred to a recording material, such as a recording sheet or a plastic sheet and heat or pressure is applied to the toner image transferred to the recording material to fix the toner image to the recording material. In this way, image recording is performed.
In general, in the image forming apparatus, it is necessary to supply a developer or maintain various kinds of process means. In order to facilitate the supply of the developer or the maintenance of various kinds of process means, for example, a technique has been put to practical use in which the photosensitive member, the charging unit, the developing unit, and the cleaning unit are arranged in a frame to form a process cartridge which is detachably attachable to an image forming apparatus body. According to the process cartridge type, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus with high usability.
In the image forming apparatus, in some cases, a developing blade is used in the developing device (developing means) in order to regulate the thickness of a layer of the developer (toner) held in the developer carrying member (developing roller) to a predetermined thickness. The developing blade contacts the developing roller to triboelectrically charge toner and forms a toner layer with a predetermined thickness on the developing roller.
Next, a method of bringing the developing blade into contact with the developing roller will be described. There are two kinds of contact methods, that is, a so-called edge contact method of bringing the leading edge of the developing blade into contact with the developing roller and a so-called belly contact method of bringing the plane of the developing blade into contact with the developing roller.
However, in recent years, there is a demand for a reduction in power consumption in a fixing process with a reduction in the energy consumption of an apparatus. In order to reduce power consumption in the fixing process, it is effective to reduce the heat quantity required to melt toner, that is, the melting point of toner. However, the toner with a low melting point is easy to fix at a low temperature, but has low resistance to toner stress (load). When toner passes through the blade, heat or mechanical stress is applied to the toner. Therefore, when the toner with a low melting point is used for a long time, the adhesion of the toner is reduced. In order to solve the problem, in some cases, an external additive, such as mixed silica, is incorporated into toner. In addition, in some cases, wax in the toner bleeds to the surface, which increases the adhesion of toner. As a result, so-called developing blade melt-adhesion in which toner is attached to the toner is likely to occur. When the developing blade melt-adhesion occurs, the toner layer is not stably formed on the developing roller and a so-called "white stripe" is generated in the image. As a result, image quality is likely to be reduced.
When the above-mentioned developing blade comes into contact with the developing roller in the belly contact manner, a toner intake port is formed in front of a contact nip portion (contact region) between the developing roller and the blade, that is, on the upstream side of the contact nip portion in the rotation direction of the developing roller. Contact pressure between the developing blade and the developing roller is not generated in the toner intake port. Therefore, in general, even when toner is attached to the developing blade, it is possible to remove the attached toner using the flowing of toner in the toner intake port. However, when toner with a low melting point is used, the adhesion of the toner increases. Therefore, it is difficult to remove the toner attached to the developing blade using only the flowing of toner in the toner intake portion.
As a result, in the structure in which the developing blade comes into contact with the developing roller in the belly contact manner, the developing blade melt-adhesion is likely to occur on the upstream side of the contact nip portion between the developing roller and the developing blade in the rotation direction of the developing roller.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, it is preferable to use the edge contact method of bringing the leading edge of the developing blade into contact with the developing roller. In the related art, various methods and apparatuses have been proposed in order to bring the leading edge of the developing blade into contact with the developing roller.
For example, FIGS. 14 to 16 schematically show a portion of a developing device including the developing blade according to the related art.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-062096 discloses a developing device with the structure shown in FIG. 14. In the developing device shown in FIG. 14, one end of a thin elastic member 221a is supported in a cantilever manner and an opposing portion, which is the other end, comes into contact with a developing roller 217. That is, the cantilever-supported thin elastic member 221a is a leaf spring with a free length X and is provided with bending by a distance Y to ensure the contact pressure of the thin elastic member 221a with the developing roller 217.
In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-062096 discloses a developing device with the structure shown in FIG. 15. In the developing device shown in FIG. 15, a developing blade 321 which has a thickness of 2 mm to 4 mm and is made of a resin or a metal material with relative high hardness is attached to a blade guide through a coil spring 324 so as to be movable forward and backward. The developing blade 321 comes into pressure contact with a developing roller 317 which is rotated by the force of the coil spring 324 at predetermined pressure.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-239991 discloses a developing device with the structure shown in FIG. 16. In the developing device shown in FIG. 16, one end of a plate-shaped member 421a has a curved surface. The other end of the plate-shaped member 421a is rotatably supported by a developing container through a fulcrum shaft 423. In addition, the plate-shaped member 421a is urged by a spring 424 to bring the curved surface of the plate-shaped member 421a into contact with the circumferential surface of the developing roller 417.
However, in the above-mentioned related art, it is difficult to prevent the developing blade melt-adhesion on the downstream side of the contact nip portion between the developing roller and the developing blade in the rotation direction of the developing roller. In addition, the related art has the problems to be solved.
In the developing device shown in FIG. 14, a predetermined amount of bending is set to the cantilever-supported thin elastic member 221a, which is a leaf spring, and the thin elastic member 221a is fixed to the developing container to ensure contact pressure with respect to the developing roller 217. Therefore, the leading edge and the ventral surface of the thin elastic member 221a need to contact the developing roller 217 at the same time. In this case, in a pressure distribution in the contact nip (contact region) between the thin elastic member 221a and the developing roller 227, contact pressure is low in a ventral surface portion on the downstream side of the contact nip portion in the rotation direction of the developing roller.
In a region with low contact pressure, toner or an external toner additive tends to stay. When there is a wide region with low contact pressure, it is difficult to remove the toner attached to the thin elastic member 221a. As a result, toner is melted and adhered to the developing blade on the downstream side of the contact nip portion between the developing roller 217 and thin elastic member 221a in the rotation direction of the developing roller.
However, a small amount of bending may be set to the thin elastic member 221a and the thin elastic member 221a may be fixed to the developing container such that only the vicinity of the leading edge of the thin elastic member 221a comes into contact with the developing roller 217. However, in this case, the amount of bending of the thin elastic member 221a is small. As a result, the contact pressure between the thin elastic member 221a and the developing roller 217 is unstable due to, for example, a variation in the dimensions or set position of the developing blade and the variation of the circumference of the developing roller 217 (a variation in the radius of the developing roller in the circumferential direction). Therefore, high-accuracy assembly is needed in order to set stable contact pressure.
In the developing device shown in FIG. 15, the gap of the developing blade 321 with respect to a blade guide occurs, which is a structural problem. Therefore, the developing blade 321 is inclined in the rotation direction of the developing roller 317 by frictional force in the contact portion between the developing blade 321 and the developing roller 317 and it is difficult to maintain a predetermined position. As a result, it is difficult to stably regulate a predetermined amount of toner on the developing roller 317.
In the developing device shown in FIG. 16, the plate-shaped member 421a has the curved surface and the curved surface comes into contact with the circumferential surface of the developing roller 417. In addition, the size of the toner intake port is increased by the curved surface. Therefore, the melt-adhesion of toner is likely to occur in the plate-shaped member 421a on the upstream side of the contact nip portion between the developing roller 417 and the plate-shaped member 421a in the rotation direction of the developing roller. When the curved surface comes into contact with the circumferential surface of the developing roller 417, a wide region with low contact pressure is formed on the downstream side of the contact nip portion in the rotation direction of the developing roller, in the pressure distribution in the contact nip portion. Therefore, the adhesion of toner is likely to occur in the developing blade on the downstream side of the contact nip portion between the developing roller 417 and the developing blade in the rotation direction of the developing roller.
When the size of the toner intake portion increases, the developing blade is lifted up by toner which flows into the intake port by the wedge effect. Therefore, the load required for regulation needs to increase in order to coat a thin toner layer. When the load applied from the developing blade to the developing roller 417 increases, mechanical stress applied to toner also increases. As a result, toner is likely to deteriorate and the adhesion of the toner increases. Therefore, toner is likely to be melted and adhered to the developing blade.

Developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus


One object is to provide a gear to be included in a fishing reel to produce excellent rotation feeling while reducing the weight relative to the strength. In accordance with one aspect, a drive gear included in a fishing reel is formed of a circumferential part having tooth surfaces and a body part radially inside the circumferential part which are made of different materials and integrated together. These materials satisfy the following conditions: S1>S2, P1>P2, and F1<F2, where S1 and S2 represent material strengths, P1 and P2 represent material densities (specific gravities), and F1 and F2 represent vibration damping capacities for the circumferential part and the body part, respectively.

In general, a fishing reel includes a power transmission mechanism for transmitting rotational drive force of a handle to a spool around which a fishing line is wound. Such a power transmission mechanism includes various gears. As disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 10-150889 (the "'889 Publication"), the performance of a gear has recently been improved in accordance with the property required for a reel and the position where the gear is used.
The '889 Publication is directed to a weight reduced face gear unrotatably secured to a handle shaft so as to improve the casting performance of a spinning reel. The weight of the disclosed face gear may be reduced while retaining the strength and accuracy thereof. More specifically, the disclosed face gear is formed of a disk part and a tooth part made of different materials: the disk part is made of an aluminum alloy that permits weight reduction, and the tooth part is made of a zinc alloy or a high-strength synthetic resin that retains strength and accuracy.
In the '889 Publication, since the circumference of the gear (face gear) is formed by outsert molding a zinc alloy or a high-strength synthetic resin on the disk part serving as a substrate, the resulting gear has limited accuracy and is defective in strength and durability. The low strength requires a larger size of the entire gear and thus prevents downsizing and increases the weight. Additionally, a gear having a tooth part and a substrate made of different materials for weight reduction is defective in rotation feeling of the handle because the vibration and the rotation performance are largely affected by the combination of the materials.


A high speed dental drill includes a drill head having a housing including a bottom and a cavity, and a turbine assembly mounted in the cavity for supporting a dental tool extending outwardly from the bottom of the housing, the turbine assembly including a rotor shaft and an annular turbine drive mounted thereon. The outer surface of the annular turbine drive has blades with an outer shape of a substantially inverted D-shaped chordal segment cut out therefrom so that rotation of the rotor shaft occurs at high speed when air impinges against the part-circular cut-away surfaces of the blades. Bearing assemblies rotatably support the shaft of the turbine assembly, and an exhaust is provided for exhausting air from the turbine assembly out of the bottom of the housing and to create and maintain positive air pressure in the housing, even during turn off of the drill, so as to prevent liquid from being drawn up into the housing, the exhaust including an exhaust hole in the bottom of the housing and an exhaust channel formed in the housing for supplying air to the exhaust hole from the turbine assembly. An elongated handle is connected with the housing, and has an air conduit in communication with the cavity of the housing for supplying pressure air against the turbine assembly, and a water conduit for supplying water under pressure through a water spray hole in the housing so that a water spray impinges upon the drilling tool during use.

This invention relates to a high speed dental drill, and more particularly to a high speed dental drill having contamination prevention means and an improved drive for high speed operations.
High speed, air-driven dental drills are known in the art, for example as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,203,221. With such dental drills, air enters the turbine area through an opening in the handpiece and passes over the rotatable vanes or blades that are secured to the outside of a rotor, thereby rotatably driving the drilling tool fixedly mounted to the rotor. However, such dental drills have relatively inefficient drive assemblies. As a result, it has been necessary to use a high velocity air stream to drive the rotor at high speeds. In practice, such drills rotate at speeds between about 320,000 rpm and about 500,000 rpm.
In order to avoid discomfort to the patient and so as not to interference with the drilling operation, it has been necessary to exhaust the high velocity air stream through an opening in the casing which does not face the patient, so that the exhausted air does not impinge on the patient. A typical construction for exhausting the spent drive air in a turbine-type high speed dental drill is shown as exhaust channel 75 in FIG. 5, which will be discussed further hereinbelow.
A recent problem, however, has arisen with respect to such high speed drills. Specifically, it has been found that, due to the high speed rotational nature of the drilling tool, there is a tendency for blood and other human fluids in the patient's mouth to be drawn up the drilling tool into the drill head. This primarily occurs at turn off of the compressed air drive source when the drill is to be turned off. At such time, suction forces are developed internally of the drill head due to inertia of the turbine member 134 which causes it to continue to rotate after turn off of the drive air. Accordingly, when the drill is used on the next patient, the blood or other human fluids from the prior patient's mouth, which had been drawn up into the drill head by such suction forces, can ride or flow down into the next patient's mouth. Thus, for example, if the first patient is HIV-positive, or carries other infectious diseases, the next patient can be contaminated with the HIV-positive (or otherwise contaminated) blood from the first patient.
Although this can be avoided by sterilizing the drill head after each use in an autoclave, the majority of dentists do not autoclave the drill head after each such use, but rather, at most, do so only at the end of each day or a few times during the day. Some practitioners also dip the drill in a disinfectant or wipe the drill head with disinfectant after each use. These precautions are not sufficient. Such superficial "cleaning" is usually done because if autoclaving is carried out after each use, the dentist would be required to purchase additional drills and drilling tools to use on the next patient while the autoclaving process is occurring with respect to the drill and drilling tool from the prior patient. This could increase the cost of the dental supplies to the dentist by many thousands of dollars. Moreover, autoclave sterilization between uses is only recommended, not required, by the American Dental Association. Accordingly, as described above, the majority of dentists merely wipe the outside of the drill head with a disinfectant between uses. This, however, does not eliminate the contaminated blood or other mouth fluids that have been drawn up inside the drill head.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved high speed dental drill in which positive air pressure is provided and maintained inside of the drill head so that the air used to power the turbine is positively exhausted, by the positive air pressure, toward the drilling tool so as to prevent contaminated blood from being drawn up into the drill head both during operation and during turning off of the drill.
A further object of the invention is to provide such an improved high speed dental drill in which the turbine can be driven with less air power so that the exhausted air is not uncomfortable to the patient and does not interfere with the drilling or other dental operation.

High speed dental drill with positive pressure air drive


Systems and techniques for improving the performance of circuits while adapting to dynamic voltage drops caused by the execution of noisy instructions (e.g. high power consuming instructions) are provided. The performance is improved by slowing down the frequency of operation selectively for types of noisy instructions. An example technique controls a clock by detecting an instruction of a predetermined noisy type that is predicted to have a predefined noise characteristic (e.g. a high level of noise generated on the voltage rails of a circuit due to greater amount of current drawn by the instruction), and, responsive to the detecting, deceasing a frequency of the clock. The detecting occurs before execution of the instruction. The changing of the frequency in accordance with instruction type enables the circuits to be operated at high frequencies even if some of the workloads include instructions for which the frequency of operation is slowed down.

Modern processors are very complex and contain many millions of transistors on a single substrate. While each individual transistor consumes only a small amount of power, the millions of transistors on the substrate together can consume substantial power. This power consumption generates heat and also uses substantial power from the power supply. Accordingly, power delivery is an important aspect of a modern processor's design.
The wiring used to deliver power on the processor substrate forms the power delivery network. The power delivery network includes for example power rails used to supply electrical current of appropriate voltage to different components on the processor chip. The power delivery network affects many performance aspects such as, for example, the amount of noise on the voltage rails. The term "noise", as used in this document, refers to transient variations in voltage occurring on the voltage rails. While the power supply can be designed to be virtually noise free, the processor itself generates noise on its internal power delivery network. For example, executing high capability instructions that switch many transistors on the chip at or near the same time can cause momentary voltage fluctuations on the voltage rails. Excessive noise on the voltage rails may cause various circuit operating failures such as, for example, the processor being unable to obtain the power (current and/or voltage) required for its operating frequency, thereby causing timing errors, erroneous switching and the like.
In more detail, one or more voltage rails supply power from a power source such as a power supply to a processor. A voltage regulator typically controls the voltage on each of the voltage rails to one or more pads of the processor (or the integrated circuit that includes the processor) in accordance with the power requirements of the various components of the processor. Metal vias and traces distribute the received power at the pads throughout the processor (and/or the integrated circuit). One or more voltage regulators may dynamically shift the supply voltage up or down in accordance with changes in the workload, and thus power requirements, of the processor. The nominally constant voltage of the rail to the processing core is referred to as "Vdd".
As processors become faster and smaller, the design of the power delivery network within the chip becomes more complex. In general, the faster a processor operates, the more power it consumes. Conversely, slowing down the processor reduces the amount of power required by the various functional units of that processor. The characteristic representation of processor power consumption P makes this relationship between power and the frequency clear: P=CV2f, where C, V and f represent switching capacitance of the processor, voltage seen by the processor and the frequency of the operation of the processor respectively.
The speed at which a circuit operates is affected by the voltage that drives the circuit. Voltage fluctuations (noise) on the voltage rail can cause voltages different from the nominal voltage to the processor circuit(s). A primary factor affecting the magnitude of the noise is the workload being processed by the circuit (or other circuits on the chip). In particular, the dynamic resistive drop (also referred to as "IR drop") component of noise is affected by the current I a particular instruction draws while executing. There are two primary components to noise: Di/dt and IR drop. Di/dt noise depends on the rate of change of current over time, while IR drop depends only on the magnitude of the current. Noise Aware Frequency Locked Loop (NAFLL) techniques may be used to address the Di/dt component of noise. Techniques described in this disclosure are primarily directed to the IR drop.
Different instructions cause different numbers of transistors to switch, drawing different amounts of current and consequently causing different amounts of IR drop on the voltage rail. By way of rough analogy, consider a sweltering day in the middle of a weekday in summer. The thermometer reaches over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). When everyone in a city gets home from work, the first thing they do is turn on their air conditioners to cool down their living space. The electric grid may not be designed to handle such high peak current draw, causing "brownouts"—i.e., voltage fluctuations deviating from the nominal 110 VAC the electric grid is designed to deliver. Now consider such a situation in microscopic detail on board a modern processor chip, where millions of transistors operate thousands of times a second. This would be like turning hundreds of city's air conditioners on and off in synchronism many times a second. The resulting power fluctuations would create a substantial amount of noise on the city's power delivery network.
As processors get smaller and more complex, the increasing power density among circuits may further exacerbate issues related to noise generated on the voltage rails by the execution of certain instructions.
In some processors, such as, for example, Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) from past years, the frequency of operation (i.e. speed) at a voltage Vdd is set conservatively so that proper operation will result under even the noisiest expected workloads. Moreover, features such as NAFLL have been implemented to address noise effects on the power distribution network by tracking the noise on the voltage rails and dynamically changing the clock frequency in response. In particular, when a voltage droop is detected on the voltage rail, the NAFLL mechanism drops the clock frequency (i.e., the rate at which the processor's transistors switch) to give the transistors more time for proper operation and ensure there is no circuit failure. This is effective because transistors require higher voltages to switch more quickly. Slowing down the switching rate enables the transistors to operate at the lower, drooped voltage level. When the droop goes away, the clock frequency can be increased. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2018/0123604, for example, describes an example NAFLL that follows this principle.
However, as processors continue to get smaller, faster and more complex, techniques such as NAFLL may not fully address the problems and inefficiencies associated with noise on the voltage rails. Therefore, further improvements in adapting processors to noise-effects of different instruction types are desired.

Techniques for configuring a processor to execute instructions efficiently


An exhaust apparatus has an exhaust pipe that receives exhaust gas from an engine and a muffler attached to the exhaust pipe. The muffler has an exhaust portion that discharges exhaust gas received by the exhaust pipe. A tubular member is attached to the exhaust portion and has an exhaust inlet portion for passage therethrough of the exhaust gas discharged through the exhaust portion and an opening portion formed oppositely from the exhaust inlet portion. A filter formed from metal fibers is disposed in the tubular member to reduce an exhaust noise created by the exhaust gas. A cap member is attached to the opening portion of the tubular member and has an exhaust outlet portion that discharges the exhaust gas from the muffler.

Exhaust apparatuses including exhaust pipes connected to small-sized engines and box-shaped, compact mufflers attached to distal end portions of the exhaust pipes are proposed in, for example, JP-A-11-13452.
FIG. 11 hereof shows an exhaust apparatus disclosed in the above publication. In FIG. 11, the exhaust apparatus, designated by reference numeral 230, includes an exhaust pipe 232 extending from an engine 231, a box-shaped muffler 233 attached to the exhaust pipe 232, and a spark arrester 234 attached to the muffler 233 for preventing sparks contained in exhaust gas of high temperature from being emitted into the air.
The muffler 233 includes a first expansion chamber 235 communicating with the exhaust pipe 232, a second expansion chamber 237 communicating with the first expansion chamber 235 via exhaust passages 241 formed in a partition plate 236, and a tail pipe 238 disposed within the second expansion chamber 237. An exhaust gas flows from the first expansion chamber 235 through the exhaust passages 241 into the second expansion chamber 237. The exhaust gas then flows from the second expansion chamber 237 into the tail pipe 238 through exhaust holes 242 formed in the tail pipe 238.
If the exhaust passages 241 are narrowed or the number of the exhaust holes 242 is reduced for improved exhaust noise reduction, a back pressure increases to thereby heat the muffler 233 to a high temperature. Thus, it is impractical to narrow the exhaust passages 241 or reduce the number of the exhaust holes 242 for improved exhaust noise reduction. If the exhaust passages 241 are widened or the number of the exhaust holes 242 is increased, the back pressure can be reduced to thereby prevent the muffler 233 from being heated too much, but sufficient exhaust noise reduction can not be achieved.
Thus, there has been a demand for an exhaust apparatus for a small-sized engine, which is capable of reducing an exhaust noise with sufficiency while keeping to a minimum a degree to which a muffler is heated.

Exhaust apparatus for small-sized engine


A method and apparatus for the automated milking of dairy cattle employing live capture of the teats of a dairy cow without requiring identification of a particular dairy cow or the prior knowledge of the location of the individual teats. The live capture milking apparatus locates the individual teats of a dairy cow and attaches a teatcup to the teat without the need for human intervention. After the milking operation is completed, the live capture milking apparatus returns to a home position where cleaning and sanitization the milking equipment occurs.

Not Applicable.
Not Applicable.
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for automated milking of a dairy cow using real-time acquisition of the teat locations. More particularly, the present invention uses a network of sensors to locate the teats and does not require the dairy cow to carry an identifier providing teat position information.
2. Description of the Related Art
The dairy industry operates on low margin, high volume production of milk. Further, adequate labor is not available as the pay scale is minimal compared to other competing jobs, such as factory, fast food, and other service industries. In order to remain competitive, milk producers are constantly striving for ways to increase milk production at lower cost. The current trend is to improve milking efficiency through automation, or robotic milking. Robotic milking offers many advantages over manual milking. First, it drastically reduces labor costs. Second, it allows milk producers to increase herd size due to increased efficiency and regular milking schedules.
Automatic milking systems are known to those skilled in the art. Typical of these automatic milking systems are those disclosed in the following United States Patents:
A number of patents disclose improvements to milking systems intended to reduce the collection of dirt and debris within the teatcup. These include U.S. Pat. No. 6,357,387, issued to Johannesson, which describes an automatic milking apparatus wherein the teatcups are stored upside down and U.S. Pat. No. 6,142,098, issued to van den Berg, which describes a flexible teatcup that can be bent to move the opening to a horizontal position.
Other patents disclose systems for automatically milking a cow. U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,081, issued to Street, et al., describes a robot which is capable locating one teat at a time and sequentially attaching the teatcups to the dairy cow. U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,186, issued to van der Lely, describes a robot for a box-type milking system. The robot includes a carrier for automatically attaching teatcups. The robot includes sensors to determine if the teatcups are not properly returned to the carrier.
The present invention is a method and apparatus for the automated milking of dairy cattle employing live capture of the teats of a dairy cow without requiring identification of a particular dairy cow or the prior knowledge of the location of the individual teats. The live capture milking apparatus locates the individual teats of a dairy cow and attaches a teatcup to the teat without the need for human intervention. After the milking operation is completed, the live capture milking apparatus returns to a home position where cleaning and sanitizing of the milking equipment occurs.
The basic structural components move the milking platform from the home position to a position generally under the udder region of a dairy cow. The main positioning arm attaches to the main support via a main elevator and a rotary actuator. The main elevator adjusts the height of the main positioning arm along the longitudinal axis of the main support. The rotary actuator rotates the main positioning arm around the main support. The main positioning arm extends and retracts to position the milking platform along the longitudinal axis of the main positioning arm. The milking platform carries one controlling seeker arm and three secondary seeker arms.
The controlling seeker arm includes an x-axis actuator, a y-axis actuator, and a z-axis actuator, each of which are responsive to the logic controller and work together to move the controlling seeker arm. Each of the x-axis actuator and the y-axis actuator have a corresponding pair of sensors in communication with the logic controller. The sensors identify the location of the teat. A pair of limit switches are associated with each of the x-axis actuator and the y-axis actuator and are in communication with the logic controller. The activation of a limit switch stops movement of the corresponding actuator and generally indicates that the location of the teat was missed during scanning. A teatcup carried by the controlling seeker arm is adapted to attach to a teat of a dairy cow and collect milk. The teatcup is serviced by a flow switch, a vacuum switch, and a pinch valve that are in communication with the logic controller.
Unique to the controlling seeker arm is a distance sensor. The distance sensor communicates with the logic controller. Specifically, the distance sensor measures the distance between the milking platform and the udder. The logic controller monitors the measured distance and moves the milking platform to compensate for movement of the dairy cow in order to keep the milking platform at a fixed distance relative to the udder during teat acquisition and milking. The secondary seeker arms are identical to the controlling seeker arm with the exception that the secondary seeker arms do not have an associated distance sensor.
The milking process begins with the milking platform in the home position. An input signals that the dairy cow is in position and ready to be milked. Starting the milking process moves the milking platform into the milking position under the udder of the dairy cow. Once in position, the position of the teats of the dairy cow are located by moving the seeker arms until the sensors detect the teat position along both the x- and y-axis. As each teat is located, a teat cup is attached. After all four teats have been located and the teat cups attached, the diary cow is milked until a stop condition is reached. When the milking operation is complete, the teat cups are detached. The milking platform is moved to a wash position. A wash cycle cleans and sanitizes the milking platform for use with the next diary cow. Finally, the milking platform returns to the home position, which may or may not be the same as the wash position.

Live capture automated milking apparatus and method


A user device associated with a user may receive a document associated with the user. The user device may encrypt the received document. The user device may perform patch-based document segmentation on the received document to form a plurality of patches on the received document. The user device may extract text from each patch of the plurality of patches. The user device may analyze the extracted text from each patch to detect a field title and a field value. The user device may encrypt the extracted text and its associated field value for each patch of the plurality of patches. The user device may send the encrypted extracted text and its associated field value to the user device and instructions to display the extracted text and its associated field value on a user interface.

Manual data entry can be a very time-consuming and error prone process. It can be especially tedious for the users or customers that have a large number of forms and documents from which the data needed to be entered (e.g. entering tax form information into a tax filing software) into an application or browser on their computer. However, by allowing users to upload documents/forms, with either printed or handwritten information on them, and accurately extracting the necessary information from these documents, time can be saved and errors can be avoided that would traditionally be difficult to notice and correct.
Existing solutions at extracting information from documents are not robust enough and are not capable of handling wide variants of document inputs. Many frameworks are unable to manage and cannot replace manually entered and generated labelled data.

System and method of performing patch-based document segmentation for information extraction


A first tag is assigned to a branch instruction. Dependent on the type of branch instruction, a second tag is assigned to an instruction in the branch delay slot of the branch instruction. The second tag may equal the first tag if the branch delay slot is unconditional for that branch, and may equal a different tag if the branch delay slot is conditional for the branch. If the branch is mispredicted, the first tag is broadcast to pipeline stages that may have speculative instructions, and the first tag is compared to tags in the pipeline stages. If the tag in a pipeline stage matches the first tag, the instruction is not cancelled. If the tag mismatches, the instruction is cancelled.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the field of processors and, more particularly, to the cancelling of speculative instructions in response to a branch misprediction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Branch instructions present numerous challenges to processor designers. The existence of branch instructions in code, and the mechanisms that the processor includes to handle the branch instructions with high performance, are frequently large factors in determining the overall performance that a user may actually experience when using a system including the processor.
One mechanism frequently used to address the challenges presented by branch instructions is speculative operation. Generally, branch instructions may be predicted (e.g. taken or not taken, for conditional branches, and/or branch target address predictions, for indirect branches and returns) and speculative operation may be performed based on the prediction. Instructions may be speculatively fetched and processed up to and/or including execution prior to resolution of the predicted branch instruction. If the prediction is correct, performance of the processor may be increased due to the speculative processing of the next instructions to be executed after the branch (either those at the branch target address or the sequential instructions). However, if the prediction is incorrect, the speculative instructions must be cancelled. Cancelling the speculative instructions, particularly in wide issue processors, may be complex.
A further difficulty introduced in some instruction set architectures (e.g. the MIPS instruction set architecture) involves the branch delay slot. The instruction in the branch delay slot is typically executed irrespective of whether the branch instruction is taken or not taken. However, for some branch instructions, the instruction in the branch delay slot is architecturally defined to be conditional based on whether the corresponding branch is taken or not taken. If the branch is taken, the instruction in the branch delay slot is executed. If the branch is not taken, the instruction in the branch delay slot is not executed. Thus, the branch delay slot instruction is treated differently for different branches, further complicating the cancelling of speculative instructions. Any type of instruction may be in the branch delay slot, and thus locating the instruction and cancelling or not cancelling the instruction based on which branch instruction that instruction follows is complicated.

Method for cancelling speculative conditional delay slot instructions


A composite wing for an aircraft comprises a plurality of elongated hollow one-piece composite spars arranged in juxtaposed generally parallel relation in an array defining an airfoil with a composite skin disposed about said assembled spars.

Conventional aircraft wing construction generally comprises one or more spars that extend laterally relative to the longitudinal axis of the air frame for the support of a plurality of longitudinally extending laterally spaced ribs that define the shape of the air foil. Vertical web portions of the spars carry shear loads imposed on the wing and upper and lower wing skins act as flanges that sustain the wing under bending and torsional loads.
A variation on the aforesaid conventional wing construction is taught in Barkley, U.S. Pat. No. 2,122,709. Barkley discloses a wing constructed of a plurality of laterally extending webs that support the wing skins in a manner that makes it unnecessary to utilize longitudinally extending ribs. However, the Barkley wing configuration, like the conventional spar and rib construction, does not accommodate the use of composites.
Another problem addressed by the present invention is a phenomena known as "aeroelastic divergence". Aeroelastic divergence occurs when a forward swept wing is bent upwardly due to high angles of attack or gust loads. Because of the forward sweep geometry, the resultant torsional deflection increases the angle of attack of the wing. The increase in angle of attack of the wing increases aerodynamic load still further causing yet additional increase in the angle of attack. This self-propagating "divergence" can lead to structural damage or failure of the wing. To minimize the aforesaid phenomena the elastic configuration of the wing must be altered whereby an increase in aerodynamic load twists the wing in a direction so as to reduce the angle of attack of the wing thereby reducing aerodynamic load.
Yet another problem presented by known wing constructions, and addressed by the present invention, is the difficulty in integrating multiple fuel tanks into the wings of an aircraft.

Composite wing and manufacturing process thereof