Provided is a highly corrosion-resistant plated steel sheet having plating adhesion and resistance to liquid metal embrittlement. A highly corrosion-resistant plated steel sheet comprises a base steel sheet and a plated layer, which sequentially comprises an Fe—Al alloy layer and an MgZn2 layer from an interface with the base steel sheet.

With recent increasing interest in reduced weight and improved safety in vehicles, high-strength steel sheets for vehicles having strength of 900 MPa or more have been in the spotlight. To satisfy such demand, high-strength steel sheets including elements such as carbon (C), silicon (Si), manganese (Mn), aluminum (Al), titanium (Ti), chromium (Cr), and the like in a large amount, have recently been developed.
In addition, such high-strength steel sheets are often required to have high corrosion resistance as well, so that various plated steel sheets, respectively having surfaces on which plating is performed, have been proposed. In the case of aluminum-base plated steel sheets accounting for a majority of plated steel sheets, low corrosion resistance has been pointed out because sacrificial protection against corrosion of a plating layer is lower than that of a zinc plated steel sheet.
To address the above issue, Patent Documents 1 and 2 have proposed steel materials having corrosion resistance improved by adding zinc (Zn), magnesium (Mg), and the like, to an aluminum plating layer. Specifically, Patent Document 1 discloses alloy plating performed using a steel material including, by weight, Al contained in an amount of 25 to 85%, Si contained in an amount of 0.5% or more to 10% or less of the content of Al, and the balance of Zn. Patent Document 2 discloses a technology to improve corrosion resistance by performing alloy plating including, by wt %, 25 to 75% of Al, 0.1 to 10% of Mg, 1 to 7.5% of Si, 0.05 to 5% of Cr, and the balance of Zn.
However, when plating is performed with the plating compositions disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, dross may be generated in a plating bath. To prevent generation of the dross, the plating bath should be maintained at a high temperature, resulting in property deterioration of a steel sheet. In addition, when a large amount of Zn is included, a liquefied metal may permeate into a grain boundary to cause liquid metal embrittlement inducing cracking. When Mg is included as disclosed in Patent Document 2, plating adhesion may be reduced.

Highly corrosion-resistant plated steel sheet having excellent plating adhesion and resistance to liquid metal embrittlement


An autonomous cleaning device (1), such as a robotic vacuum (1), has an optical sensor (50) that includes: a rotary body (51) configured to rotate relative to a main body (2) about a rotational axis (CX); a light-emitting device (61) provided on the rotary body; a light-receiving device (62) provided on the rotary body; a cover (52) disposed upward of the rotary body; and legs (70) disposed around the rotary body and supporting the cover. In a cross section orthogonal to the rotational axis, at least a portion of a surface of each of the legs is inclined with respect to a virtual radial line (RL) extending in the radial direction of the rotational axis.

U.S. Patent Publication No. 2017/0296021 discloses a robotic vacuum (autonomous cleaning device) that collects or suctions dust, debris, etc. while traveling autonomously across a surface-to-be-cleaned. The robotic vacuum comprises an optical sensor (sensing module), which includes a rotating laser distance sensor (LDS) that detects surrounding objects for navigation, e.g., according to a simultaneous localization and mapping ("SLAM") algorithm.

Autonomous cleaning device having an optical sensor


An oscillator system is provided to have a plurality of delay paths coupled in a loop. The oscillator system also has an improved AC feedforward path coupled in parallel with one or more delay paths in the loop. The AC feedforward path includes first and second parallel sections. The first parallel section has a plurality of parallel branches and is configured for receiving one or more control signals. The plurality of parallel branches is selectively conducted in response to the one or more control signals. The second parallel section is coupled in series with the first parallel section and is configured to remain conducting when any of the plurality of parallel branches becomes conducting. The first and second parallel sections are configured to transmit an AC feedforward signal when conducting.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to phase-locked loops (PLLs) and voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) used in the PLLs, and more particularly, to a balanced interleaved feedforward VCO (BIFFVCO).
2. Description of the Related Art
High-frequency voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) are extremely important for applications such as processor clock generation and/or distribution, wired and/or wireless communication, system synchronization, and frequency synthesis. Research on VCos for the past decade has been concentrated in the areas of high frequency, lower jitter, lower operating voltage and power, and increasing the frequency tuning range. Many of these design goals are achieved only at the expense of some or all of the other performance objectives. As technology progresses toward shorter channel lengths and lower operating voltages, the headroom available for an analog design decreases to the point that cascading (stacking) is no longer feasible. High-frequency analog VCOs operating with properly biased current sources may have signal swings that are only a small fraction of the supply voltage, severely limiting their usefulness.
Current-starved ring-oscillators using 3 or 4 levels of stacking have become quite common, but they have extreme sensitivity to noise due to very high gain, are inherently nonlinear (especially near cutoff, where they often stop oscillating), are inherently limited to 2X max frequency range and are difficult to build in less than 4 levels. Multiphase oscillators offer advantages by pipelining operations using equally spaced phases at lower frequencies, but control mechanisms in delay interpolators introduce offsets from the ideal spacing. LC-based oscillators are capable of high frequency and extremely low jitter but are difficult to integrate and model and have tuning ranges of only a few percent.
Therefore, there is a need for a VCO that creates a frequency dither that is symmetric about a DC operating point and that interfaces directly to a common phase-frequency detector, resulting in more optimal PLL performance.
The present invention provides an oscillator system, which has a plurality of delay paths coupled in a loop. The oscillator system also has an AC feedforward path coupled in parallel with one or more delay paths in the loop. The AC feedforward path includes first and second parallel sections. The first parallel section has a plurality of parallel branches and is configured for receiving one or more control signals. The plurality of parallel branches is selectively conducted in response to the one or more control signals.
The second parallel section is coupled in series with the first parallel section and is configured to remain conducting when any of the plurality of parallel branches becomes conducting. The first and second parallel sections are configured to transmit an AC feedforward signal when conducting.

Interleaved VCO with balanced feedforward

International Business Machines Corporation


The hydraulic damping device includes: a cylinder storing fluid; a piston configured to form a channel through which the fluid flows along with relative movement of a rod relative to the cylinder in a specific direction; a valve having elasticity, the valve being configured to open and close the channel in the piston; a movement permitting part configured to permit the valve to move between a contact position and a spaced position, the contact position being a position where the valve contacts the piston, the spaced position being a position where the valve is spaced from the piston; a restricting part configured to restrict bending of the valve at the spaced position; and a pressing part having elasticity, the pressing part being configured to press the valve against the piston.

There is known a hydraulic damping device that performs damping by fluid. The hydraulic damping device is provided with a valve that controls the flow of fluid. One known example of such a valve controls the flow of fluid by moving the position of the valve (e.g., see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-211878). Another known example of such a valve controls the flow of fluid by deforming the valve (e.g., see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-254372).


A support device includes a support element, a plurality of legs rotatably connected to the support element which can be rotated to be changed from an unfolded state and a folded state, and a main body sleeves the support element. When the legs are rotated to be in the unfolded state, the legs cooperate with the support element to support an electronic device, and when the legs are rotated to be in the folded state, the main body sleeves on the support element receiving the legs.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to support devices and, particularly, to a support device for supporting portable electronic devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Hand-held electronic devices, such as PDAs, often use docking stations for support. However, some docking stations cannot be folded and are an inconvenience when being carried and take a large amount of space.

Fu Tai Hua Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.


A triaxial gyro system includes a loop controller for generating a multiplexed digital biasing waveform. The controller receives the multiplexed outputs of the three gyros in digital form from an analog-to-digital converter. The loop controller is arranged to generate a digital waveform for multiplexed driving of the phase modulators associated with the three gyros. Within the loop controller, the multiplexed gyro outputs are independently processed in such a way that a biasing waveform is generated which permits sequential driving of the phase modulators without any need for resetting buffer cycles.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for measuring rotation rates about three orthogonal axes. More particularly, this invention pertains to a loop controller for use in a triaxial gyro of the type in which a multiplexing arrangement is employed for reducing system components.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The Sagnac interferometer is an instrument for determining rotation by measurement of the non-reciprocal phase difference generated between a pair of counterpropagating light beams. This instrument generally comprises a light source such as a laser, an optical waveguide consisting of several mirrors or a plurality of turns of optical fiber, a beamsplitter/combiner, a detector and a signal processor.
In an interferometer, the waves coming out of the beamsplitter counterpropagate along a single optical path. The optical waveguide is "reciprocal"; that is, any distortion of the optical path affects the counterpropagating beams similarly although they do not necessarily experience such perturbation at the same time or in the same direction. Time-varying perturbations may be observed where the time interval is comparable to the propagation time of the light around the optical waveguide whereas "non-reciprocal" perturbations affect the counterpropagating beams differently and according to the direction of propagation. Such non-reciprocal perturbations are occasioned by physical effects that disrupt the symmetry of the optical medium in which the two waves propagate. Two of the non-reciprocal effects are quite well known. The Faraday, or collinear magneto-optic effect, occurs when a magnetic field creates a preferential spin orientation of the electrons in an optical material whereas the Sagnac, or inertial relativistic effect, occurs when rotation of the interferometer with respect to an inertial frame breaks the symmetry of propagation time. The latter effect is employed as the principle of operation of a ring gyroscope.
It is known that the fringe or interference pattern formed by the counterpropagating beams of a gyro consists of two elements, a d.c. component and a component that is related (e.g. cosine function) to the cause of the phase difference between the beams. This phase difference provides a measure of the non-reciprocal perturbation due, for example, to rotation. As a consequence of the shape of the fringe pattern, when small phase differences are to be measured (e.g. low rotation rates), the intensity of the combined beam is relatively insensitive to phase difference as such difference occurs close to the maximum of the phase fringe pattern. Further, mere intensity of the composite beam does not indicate the sense or direction of rotation.
For the foregoing reasons, an artificially biased phase difference is commonly superimposed upon the counterpropagating beams. The biasing of the phase shift, also known as "non-reciprocal null-shift," enhances the sensitivity of the intensity measurement to phase differences. A maximum degree of sensitivity is achieved by shifting the operating point of the gyroscope to .+-..pi./2 (or odd multiples thereof). Furthermore, by alternating the bias between +.pi./2 and -.pi./2, two different operating points are observed. This enables the system to determine the sign of the phase difference and, thus, the direction of rotation.
In addition to phase modulation, the processing of an interferometer output commonly employs "phase hulling" that introduces an additional phase shift through a negative feedback mechanism to compensate for that due to the non-reciprocal (Sagnac) effect. Commonly, the negative feedback generates a phase ramp whose slope is proportional to the rate of rotation to be measured. In actual practice, a ramp whose height varies between 0 and 2.pi. radians is employed as the nulling phase shift cannot be increased indefinitely due to voltage constraints.
U.S. patent Ser. No. 4,705,399 of Graindorge et al. discloses a digitally-based arrangement that employs a "stairstep" waveform. The height of each step is equal to the measured phase difference while the width or period of each is the group delay time of the optical coil. On the average, the slope of the ramp is equivalent to the measured non-reciprocal phase difference per unit of time. This method is compatible with digital signal processing and enjoys many resulting advantages. The phase modulation may be directly added to the digital ramp through the synchronization offered by a digital signal processor. The (combined) signal ultimately controls the phase modulator that is positioned near one end of the optical fiber coil.
Many applications, including navigation, require rotation and position information with respect to the three orthogonal space axes. Accordingly, a triad of interferometers would then be required, one for sensing rotation about each of the rotation axes. The necessity of deploying multiple interferometers can greatly complicate the amount and complexity of associated signal processing electronics. One approach to simplifying the signal processing electronics and thereby reducing the cost of a triaxial fiber optic gyroscope is taught in U.S. patent Ser. No. 5,033,854 of Matthews et al. entitled "Multiplexed Fiberoptic Gyro Control" in which the amount and complexity of the control electronics are simplified and reduced by multiplexing the outputs of the three fiber optic gyros to derive angular and rotation rate data as well as drive signals for the phase modulators associated with the three gyro coils by means of a single processor. In that patent a plurality of gyros is sampled at a rate of n.tau. where .tau. is the gyro optic transit time and n is an integer. The sampled signal is then fed to the digital signal processor and used to form a rate feedback signal which is then converted to analog form to drive the phase modulators. The same signal is employed to drive the phase modulators associated with the three gyro sensor coils. Accordingly, the modulators must possess identical operational characteristics. Otherwise, differences between the devices would most likely be reflected in differing scale factors that would adversely affect the accuracy of the device. Furthermore, such errors could be cumulative in nature with mounting bias errors eventually rendering the device useless.

Loop controller for multiplexed triaxial gyro


Provided is a method, computer program product, and coherent computer system for improving memory management by establishing cooperation between an operating system and a coherent accelerator device (CAD). The CAD may retrieve a set of work elements for completion from a work queue. The CAD may determine a length of time required to complete the set of work elements. The CAD may identify a set of memory pages needed for completing the set of work elements. The CAD may communicate the set of memory pages and the length of time required to complete the set of work elements to a virtual memory manager.

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of memory management for computer systems, and more specifically, to improving memory utilization by establishing cooperation between an operating system and a coherent accelerator device (CAD).
A CAD includes an accelerator functional unit (AFU) (e.g., co-processor) that is used to supplement the functions of the primary processor (e.g., computer processing unit (CPU)). Operations performed by the CAD may be floating point arithmetic, graphics, signal processing, string processing, cryptography, compressions, encryptions, and/or I/O interfacing with peripheral devices. By offloading processor-intensive tasks from the main processor, CADs can accelerate system performance.

Management of memory pages for a set of non-consecutive work elements in work queue designated by a sliding window for execution on a coherent accelerator

International Business Machines Corporation


An air filter assembly for removing particulate matter from an incoming dirty air stream. The assembly includes a housing having an inlet, an outlet, a dirty air chamber and a clean air chamber and a non-cylindrical shaped elongated filter element arranged within the dirty air chamber constructed to remove particulate matter from an incoming air stream. A plurality of non-cylindrical filter elements are preferred. The non-cylindrical filter elements provide a decreased incoming air stream velocity when compared to conventional cylindrical filter elements having the same surface area. Alternately, the non-cylindrical filter elements allow an increase in the volume of incoming air when compared to conventional cylindrical filter elements having the same surface area.

Many industries often encounter particulate matter suspended in the atmosphere. In some industries, this particulate matter is a valuable product, for example, starch; it would be beneficial if these suspended particulate could be recovered and reintroduced into the process. For other industries, such as metal or wood working, the particulate matter may be simply dust; it is desirable to remove dust particles from the air in order to provide a clear working environment.
Systems for cleaning an air or other gas stream laden with particulate matter include air filter assemblies that have filter elements disposed in a housing. The filter element may be a bag or sock of a suitable fabric or pleated paper. The gas stream, contaminated with particulate, typically is passed through the housing so that the particulate are captured and retained by the filter element. Cleaning is accomplished by periodically pulsing a brief jet of pressurized air into the interior of the filter element to reverse the air flow through the filter element, causing the collected contaminants to be collected. Such air filter assemblies are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,218,227 (Frey) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,395,269 (Schuler), which patents are hereby incorporated by reference.
Cylindrical filter elements are usually used in an air filter assembly to process dust particles from an airstream. In a standard design of air filter assembly, an air filter assembly has a clean air chamber and a dirty air chamber. The two chambers are separated by a sheet metal, commonly referred to as a tube sheet. The tube sheet has a number of openings from which cylindrical filters are aligned. The filters suspend downwardly with or without an angle from the tube sheet openings into the dirty air chamber. Particulate-laden air is introduced into the dirty air chamber, and the particulates collect onto the filter. The filtered air passes through the filters to the interior of the filters, and upwardly out through the openings in the tube sheet into the clean air chamber. From the clean air chamber, the cleaned air is exhausted into the environment, or recirculated for other uses. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,424,070 (Robinson), U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,536 (Robinson), U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,237 (Ulvestad), U.S. Pat. No. 4,445,915 (Robinson), U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,812 (Tronto et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,954,255 (Muller et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,488 (Forsgren), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,846 (Kott et al.) are prior art examples of prior art cylindrical filter elements of the pleated cartridge type.
Non-cylindrical filter elements are sometimes used to process dust particles from an airstream and provide increased filtration area within a housing than cylindrical filter elements. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,766 (Clements) discloses a non-round unitary filter cartridge having a unitary structure with pleated filter media formed securely about a perforated interior core in a dust collector. U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,131 (Howeth) discloses non-cylindrical filters having a greater clean air flow area than a plurality of cylindrical elements fitted within the same dimensional envelope.
In one conventional design of air filter assembly with non-cylindrical filter elements, non-cylindrical filter elements simply replaces cylindrical filter elements. With less space between adjacent filter elements, more non-cylindrical filter elements are placed within a housing than cylindrical filter elements. U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,766 (Clements) discloses this type of use of non-cylindrical filter elements.
In another conventional design of air filter assembly with non-cylindrical filter elements, a plurality of cylindrical elements are replaced by a single non-cylindrical filter element. U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,131 (Howeth) discloses this type of use of non-cylindrical filter elements.
Unfortunately, each of these conventional designs which utilize non-cylindrical filter elements has its disadvantages and drawbacks.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Air filter assembly having non-cylindrical filter elements, for filtering air with particulate matter


A memory component or subsystem is provided. The memory comprises one or more memory devices and one or more write controllers within each of the one or more memory devices that each controls memory-device components to write input data values into a plurality of memory cells within a memory device that represents a unit of stored data addressed by a logical-address-space address, the write controller applying a current to the plurality of memory cells during a WRITE operation with a magnitude that corresponds to a retention value associated with the logical-address-space address.

Over the past 70 years, computer systems and computer-system components have rapidly evolved, producing a relentless increase in computational bandwidth and capabilities and decrease in cost, size, and power consumption. Small, inexpensive personal computers of the current generation feature computational bandwidths, capabilities, and capacities that greatly exceed those of high-end supercomputers of previous generations. The increase in computational bandwidth and capabilities is often attributed to a steady decrease in the dimensions of features that can be manufactured within integrated circuits, which increases the densities of integrated-circuit components, including transistors, signal lines, diodes, and capacitors, that can be included within microprocessor integrated circuits.
The rapid evolution of computers and computer systems has also been driven by enormous advances in computer programming and in many of the other hardware components of computer systems. For example, the capabilities and capacities of various types of data-storage components, including various types of electronic memories and, mass-storage devices, have increased, in many cases, even more rapidly than those of microprocessor integrated circuits, vastly increasing both the computational bandwidths as well as data-storage capacities of modern computer systems.
Currently, further decrease in feature size of integrated circuits is approaching a number of seemingly fundamental physical constraints and limits. In order to reduce feature sizes below 20 nanometers, and still produce reasonable yields of robust, functional integrated circuits, new types of integrated-circuit architectures and manufacturing processes are being developed to replace current architectures and manufacturing processes. As one example, dense, nanoscale circuitry may, in the future, be manufactured by employing self-assembly of molecular-sized components, nano-imprinting, and additional new manufacturing techniques that are the subjects of current research and development. Similarly, the widely used dynamic random access memory ("DRAM") and other types of electronic memories and mass-storage devices and media may be, in the future, replaced with newer technologies, due to physical constraints and limitations associated with further decreasing the sizes of physical memory-storage features implemented according to currently available technologies. Researchers, developers, and manufacturers of electronic memories and mass-storage devices continue to seek new technologies to allow for continued increase in the capacities and capabilities of electronic memories and mass-storage devices while continuing to decrease the cost and power consumption of electronic memories and mass-storage devices.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Methods and systems herein provide for the color conversion of image data with various levels of gray values, such as text. Such color conversion includes generating a CMYK conversion model by defining a gray region in the perceptual color space of the image data to convert the gray values of the gray region to a range of K values during CMYK color conversion of the image data and segmenting chroma values in a color lookup table that maps perceptual color values to CMYK color values. Lightness values in the color lookup table are adjusted using a perceptual model (e.g., a Heimholtz-Kohlrausch Effect model) based on the segmented chroma values to substantially maintain a lightness relationship between the gray values of the image data and the remaining color values of the image data. The image data is the converted to a CMYK color space using the generated CMYK conversion model.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of printing systems, and in particular, to color conversion of image data that includes various levels of gray, such as text.
2. Statement of the Problem
In color printing, a printer prints input image data onto a tangible medium, such as paper, by converting colors in the image data to a color space of the printer. For example, the printer may have a CMYK color space that is used to represent the image data using various levels of Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y), and blacK (K). Before the image data is printed, the image data is converted to the typically smaller gamut of the CMYK printer. Because of this smaller gamut of that color space, precise representation of the image data is generally not possible as information is lost or misrepresented in the conversion process.
Adding to the complexity, the input image data may be a perceptual color space, such as CIEL*a*b*, that is visualized as three dimensional color space, where every color that humans can see is uniquely located. Though the CIEL*a*b* color space is a perceptual color space, it is not a perceptually uniform color space as the Euclidean distance in the space does not correspond to the perceptual distance. For example, the magnitude of the perceptual color difference generally depends upon the color location and the changing direction in chroma and hue. CIEL*a*b* increasingly overstates the magnitudes of perceived chroma differences. The human visual system (HVS) is sensitive to the change of chroma in the neutral color area and insensitive to the change of the chroma in a highly saturated color area. The CIEL*a*b* color space is also non-uniform regarding hue angle in that the thresholds of visual tolerances are a function of hue angle. If the non-uniformity of the CIEL*a*b* color space in chroma and hue is examined from another perspective, CIEL*a*b* colors have different characteristics at different locations.
A color conversion model can be generated using this data to convert color values of the CIEL*a*b* space to the CMYK space. Generally, the relationship between CMYK color space and the CIEL*a*b* color space is nonlinear due to the interactions of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black planes, leading to more complex color conversion processing. Moreover, the printer may misregister the colors and improperly print them. Generally, misregistration regards the printer's inability to precisely align different color planes. For example, to produce a certain gray value, the printer may drop a certain amount of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black on top of each other. When the drops are not correctly aligned, the misalignment causes the drops to blur. Misregistration is particularly problematic during the color conversion of gray values in that it leads to less than desirable gray representations in certain cases (e.g., unclear or "fuzzy" text, barcodes, etc.). That is, the printed gray representations of items such as text, barcodes, lines, and the like often appear unclear after standard color conversion and printing when compared to the original image data. Accordingly, there exists a need to convert colors that remain esthetically pleasing while ensuring that the converted gray values representing lines, text, barcodes, etc. are sharp and vivid.

Systems and methods of color conversion with gray values


There is provided a heavy construction installation method which does not need a secondarily transport in a construction field even if an installation position of a heavy construction is apart from a berthing position of a transport ship. A movable area where a ground plane is reinforced so that a heavy hoisting machine for installing a heavy construction in a building is movable is constructed so as to include a circle drawn around an installation position in the building with a maximum operating radius of the heavy hoisting machine relative to a weight of the heavy construction being as a radius, and a circle drawn around a loaded position of the heavy construction at a transport ship coming alongside a landing place with the maximum operating radius being as a radius.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of installing a heavy construction, and more particularly, a construction technique of landing a heavy construction transported by ship and of installing the heavy construction inside a building in construction of a seaside plant.
2. Description of the Related Art
Relating to large-scale seaside plants like nuclear power generation facilities, a large-size heavy construction (e.g., a nuclear reactor pressure vessel) which is conveyed inside a building (e.g., a nuclear reactor building, a nuclear-reactor-building attached ridge, a turbine building) built in a site is generally manufactured at a factory far apart from the site, and transported by ship to a construction field.
Adopted in recent large-scale plant construction is a construction technique of integrally manufacturing various equipment and pipes beforehand at a factory in a remote area, of transporting a heavy construction manufactured in this manner by ship to a construction field of a plant, and of installing such a heavy construction on the site of a building. This construction technique is so-called a modular construction.
Such a large-size heavy construction transported by ship is landed by a heavy hoisting machine like a crane, and is installed at a predetermined place in a site where a building is to be built (see, for example, JPS58-86494A and JPH10-104383A).
According to JPS58-86494A and JPH10-104383A, however, because the heavy hoisting machine is fixed or can only move linearly over rails, the range of an installation position of the heavy construction is limited.
Moreover, when the installation position in a building is distant from a place where a ship comes alongside the pier and the heavy construction is landed, it is necessary to once put the heavy construction on a specialized vehicle or the like, and to secondarily transport the heavy construction close to the heavy hoisting machine as will be explained with reference to first and second comparative examples to be discussed later. In this case, because the number of works increases due to once putting the heavy construction on a specialized vehicle, the construction cost increases, and the construction schedule is protracted.


A process is disclosed for the separation of catalyst-free working solution from working solution containing palladium black of the hydrogenation circuit of the anthraquinone process for the production of hydrogen peroxide. The problem addressed was to improve the separation of a catalyst-free working solution from the hydrogenation circuit containing Pd black, which was previously carried out using filter candles, in order to reduce the process costs. This problem is solved by the use of a microfilter operating on the crossflow principle with a filter membrane of ceramic material, more particularly .alpha.-aluminum oxide, or polyolefin with an average pore diameter of 0.1 to 3.0 .mu.m, preferably 0.1 to 1.5 .mu.m, and more preferably 0.5 to 1.5 .mu.m. The crossflow rate is generally 0.5 to 5 m/sec.

The present invention relates to a process for the separation of catalyst-free working solution from working solution containing palladium black of the hydrogenation circuit of the anthraquinone process for the production of hydrogen peroxide.
In the anthraquinone process for the production of hydrogen peroxide, also known as the AO process, a reaction support based on one or more 2-alkyl anthraquinones and tetrahydro-2-alkyl anthraquinones is converted with hydrogen into the corresponding hydroquinone form in an organic solvent system in the presence of a catalyst. After the hydrogenation stage, the working solution freed from the catalyst is treated with an oxygen-containing gas in the oxidation stage, the quinone form of the reaction support reforming with elimination of hydrogen peroxide. Finally, hydrogen peroxide is extracted from the oxidized working solution with water and the working solution, i.e. the mixture of the reaction support and solvent or solvent mixture, is returned to the hydrogenation stage. Full particulars of the AO process can be found in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, 5th Edition (1989), Vol. A 13, pages 447-456 and Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, 3rd Edition, volume 13, pages 12-38 (which is incorporated by reference).
Where suspension catalysts, such as palladium black for example, are used, the circuit of the hydrogenation stage (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,923 which is incorporated by reference) essentially comprises the actual reactor, a circulation pipe with a circulation pump, means for introducing and distributing the hydrogen, means for introducing working solution from the working solution drying stage following the extraction stage, and means for removing catalyst-free hydrogenated working solution, including a solid/liquid separator. U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,923 discloses a process for the production of hydrogen peroxide by the anthraquinone process which includes a step of the catalyst hydrogenation with hydrogen or a hydrogen containing gas using a working solution having palladium black suspended therein. The process employs a meandering tube system as the reaction space at a temperature up to 100.degree. C. and a pressure up to 15 bar. The hydrogenation is carried out in a loop reactor made of tubes of the same nominal width and which are arranged vertically or horizontally and are connected by tube elbows of the same nominal width at a flow velocity in the tubes of at least 3 m/sec.
The quantitative and--in continuous operation--uninterrupted retention of the generally very finely divided suspension catalyst in the hydrogenation circuit during separation of part of the hydrogenated working solution, which is delivered to the oxidation stage, is a basic prerequisite for a safe and economic process. Accordingly, numerous references are concerned with this particular aspect, the solid/liquid separation being based on filtration using fine-pored filters and catalyst deposited on the filter surface being periodically removed therefrom either completely or in part by pressure reversal and being delivered to the hydrogenation circuit (see, for example CA-PS 1,208,619, GB-PS 959,583 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,433,358).
According to CA-PS 1,208,619, suspended hydrogenation catalysts with a particle spectrum of 75%>1 .mu.m can be separated from a working solution for the production of hydrogen peroxide by using a filter medium of sintered steel particles having a maximum pore diameter of 8 .mu.m. Satisfactory operation of the filter on a continuous basis necessitates backwashing at frequent intervals. Only suspension catalysts with the particle spectrum mentioned above can be separated. This process cannot be used for the separation of a catalyst-free working solution from a working solution containing a noble metal black, for example palladium black having a primary particle spectrum of 5 to 50 nm (see Example 3).
A particular embodiment of the hydrogenation circuit of the anthraquinone process for the production of hydrogen peroxide is disclosed in GB-PS 959,583. Part of the hydrogenated working solution is removed in catalyst-free form from the circulated working solution containing palladium catalyst by means of a filter in a filter housing through which the catalyst-containing working solution flows. The filter is periodically backwashed to free the surface of the filter at least from partly deposited catalyst. No particulars of the filter medium are provided in this document. A major disadvantage of this process is that the volume of catalyst-containing working solution present in the filter housing(s), based on the volume present in the hydrogenation circuit as a whole, is very considerable. Accordingly, this embodiment involves an undesirably high tie-up of capital.
Effective filter media for separating support-free noble metal catalysts, such as palladium black, are known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,433,358 (which is incorporated by reference). The filter media in question are filter candles of carbon material of which the pore diameter may be larger than the diameter of the particles to be separated and which have a wall thickness of at least 10 mm. In this case, also, one or more filter candles are arranged in a correspondingly shaped filter housing. Although this reference seeks to minimize the volume in the filter housings in order to reduce the capital tied up in the catalyst-containing working solution remaining in this unit, narrow limits are imposed by the design of the filter candles to maintain a certain filter area and have already been reached in practice. U.S. Pat. No. 3,433,358 discloses a process for the separation of a suspended finely divided unsupported noble metal catalyst having a primary particle size of between about 0.01 and 1 m.mu. from an organic liquid containing the suspended catalyst. The organic liquid is passed through a porous carbon filter having a maximum pore size of 15 m.mu. to filter off the suspended catalyst. Filter candles of the type mentioned above, which are periodically backwashed in operation, are used in the industrial production of hydrogen peroxide, for example by the process according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,923.
In the search to improve the production of hydrogen peroxide by the anthraquinone process in order to reduce costs, there is considerable interest in modifying the apparatus for separating a catalyst-free working solution from the hydrogenation circuit in such a way that the volume of working solution remaining in the solid/liquid separator and the quantity of catalyst present therein can be significantly reduced for the same filtration capacity.
DE-OS 32 45 318 describes a process for continuously carrying out gas/liquid pressure reactions using a suspended catalyst remaining in the reaction zone, in which part of the reaction liquid is removed from the reaction vessel using a microfilter operated on the crossflow principle. The microfilters are equipped with a tube, hose or plate module (polytetrafluoroethylene, polyvinylidene fluoride and sintered metals being mentioned as suitable materials for the module). The microfilter is periodically backwashed by pressure reversal between the retentate side and the permeate side of the microfilter. References to the production of hydrogen peroxide by the anthraquinone process using extremely fine noble metal blacks are as difficult to find in this document as references to the solution to the problem addressed by the present invention as stated above. Thus, the catalyst used by way of example in the process according to DE-OS 32 45 318 has an average particle size of around 1 .mu.m whereas the primary particles of palladium black are between 5 and 50 nm in size. DE-OS 30 40 631 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,414,401 which is incorporated by reference) is based on a process principle similar to DE-OS 32 45 318: among the catalysts mentioned by way of example there is again no reference to the particularly fine-particle noble metal blacks.

Process for the separation of catalyst-free working solution from the hydrogenation circuit of the anthraquinone process for the production of hydrogen peroxide


Methods, systems and computer program products are provided to determine an individual's risk of being targeted by a cyberattack based on quantifying their online presence. In some embodiments, online information pertaining to an individual, accessible through the clear web (e.g., Internet) or the dark web, is identified and used to calculate a digital vulnerability (DV) score. The DV score is used to determine the susceptibility of an individual of being targeted for a cyberattack or cybercrime based upon their online presence, and may be computed based upon personally identifying information (PII) features present on clear web and deep/dark web resources.

With the rapid growth and expansion of online services, social media, and other web-based information repositories, maintaining control and privacy of personally identifying information (PII) has become considerably challenging. For example, social media sites may contain information about a person's birthday, residence, family members, and friends. Credit monitoring agencies, banks, government databases, and other types of databases may contain social security numbers as well as aspects of an individual's financial status. Insurance companies or medical providers may have information pertaining to an individual's health or psychological status. Although safeguards are implemented to prevent the acquisition and release of PII from these various data sources, data breaches still occur on a frequent basis. In some instances, a data breach is reported as soon as it is discovered. In other cases, a data breach is not reported until months after detection, and in some cases, may never be reported.
High-profile, high-ranking, or influential individuals (e.g., celebrities, government officials, executives, affluent individuals, researchers or scientists with access to controlled biological materials, engineers or other individuals with access to government intelligence, etc.) are at increased risk of being targeted for a cyberattack Cyberattacks also routinely target corporations or organizations (e.g., insurance providers, banking institutions, credit monitoring agencies, dating websites, government agencies, etc.), and the obtained information corresponding to large numbers of individuals is frequently posted on the dark web, a portion of the web that is not accessible through traditional web engines, such as GOOGLE®. Generally, access to information provided on the dark web requires specialized browsers, and in some cases, knowledge of where to look online for the information.
In the social media community (e.g., TWITTER®, YOUTUBE®, LINKEDIN®, FACEBOOK®, FOURSQUARE®, WIKIPEDIA®, BING®, GOOGLE+®, and INSTAGRAM®), the Klout algorithm may be used to assign a score that evaluates an online user's influence across the social media space. Each social media community may utilize their own combination of social media features and weights in order to determine a Klout score. For example, features such as the number of TWITTER® followers, the number of retweets, the number of likes per post may be important to the TWITTER® community, while the number of friends, the number of likes per post, the number of comments per post, and the number of unique commenters may be important to the FACEBOOK® community. The Klout score algorithm is provided in the following references (Rao, A. et al., Klout score: Measuring influence across multiple social networks, 2015 IEEE International Big Data Conference—Workshop on Mining Big Data in Social Networks (2015) p. 2282-2289; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klout). Forbes Magazine published a list of "Most Powerful Women" in 2015, based on determining highest Klout scores. Not surprisingly, women with the highest Klout scores were predominantly politicians or celebrities receiving considerable notoriety in popular culture (https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2015/05/26/the-worlds-most-powerful-women-2015).
With the ever-increasing frequency and secrecy of cyberattacks, and the increasing number of online locations where PII may be posted, it is difficult to assess the risk of a particular individual being targeted for a cyberattack.

Determining digital vulnerability based on an online presence


The present application provide a silicon-oxygen compound, a secondary battery using it, and related battery modules, battery packs, and devices. The silicon-oxygen compound provided by the present application has a formula of SiOx, in which x satisfies 0<x<2. The silicon-oxygen compound contains both sulfur and aluminum element, and the sulfur element is present in an amount of 20 ppm˜300 ppm. The mass ratio of sulfur element to aluminum element is from 1.5 to 13.0. A secondary battery uses the silicon-oxygen compound provided in the present application, so that the secondary battery can have both long-cycle performance and high initial coulombic efficiency.

With the increasing attention to environmental protection, environmentally friendly secondary batteries are gradually being applied to electric vehicles. Different from secondary batteries used in consumer electronics, power secondary batteries have higher requirements for energy density and cycle life. Compared with traditional carbon materials, silicon-based materials have a high theoretical gram capacity as negative active materials, which is several times greater than that of graphite-based negative active materials. Therefore, the industry expects to use silicon-based materials to increase the energy density of secondary batteries.

Silicon-oxygen compound, secondary battery using it, and related battery module, battery pack and device

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited


Example methods and apparatus for registration and data transmission using fast/zero contention resolution are disclosed. An example method for transmission on a random-access channel (RACH) involves transmitting a mobile station radio access capabilities (MS RAC) message to a network and receiving an identification (ID) from the network subsequent to the MS RAC. The ID is locally unique and provides contention resolution. A timing advance is determined and further transmissions are performed on the RACH using the ID and the TA.

In the wireless environment where multiple devices can request to access the network at the same time, it is necessary for the network to resolve this contention. Currently a random number may be included by the device in its initial request in order to minimize the risk of confusion as to which device is being responded to.
There are, however, a limited number of bits available for the random number reference in the request message, so there exists a significantly high probability that multiple devices use the same random number in the same RACH time slot and that there will be a contention that should be resolved to avoid having multiple devices transmitting on the same dedicated channel. A device which loses a contention resolution (i.e. discovers that it has been transmitting on resources that were not intended for it) may have consumed significant power and incurred delay in transmitting data which was not processed or forwarded by the network. Thus a need exists for an efficient method for contention resolution in terms of time, power consumption and signaling overhead in a wireless network.

Methods and apparatus for registration and data transmission using fast/zero contention resolution


An animal trap, according to one embodiment, includes: a first portion having upper and a lower ends; a second portion in sliding relationship with the first portion, the first and second portions being relatively positionable between cocked and deployed positions; a biasing mechanism for biasing the first and second portions towards the deployed position; a trigger mechanism for selectively locking the first and second portions in the cocked position; and an end unit removably coupled to the lower end of the first portion. The end unit includes: a base; at least two unique members extending from a bottom end of the base; and a bottom portion coupled to a distal end of each of the unique members. A first end of each of the unique members is coupled to the base, while each of the distal ends are at a second end of each of the unique members.

Many different conventional aboveground animal traps exist in the marketplace today. However, often times it is difficult to set these conventional aboveground traps, as the triggering mechanisms are often complex and very sensitive. Furthermore, some sort of bait is usually implemented to draw a target animal species to the trigger of the animal trap. However, it is difficult to apply the bait in an effective manner to conventional aboveground animal traps as an individual setting the trap usually triggers it while trying to apply the bait.
Conventional traps which include poison are also highly undesirable as they can be harmful to people who may come into close proximity to it. The poison may also contaminate the area with the potential of being spread elsewhere, thereby resulting in undesirable and unintended effects. Moreover, poisons can be expensive as well as unavailable to the general public, thereby making them an undesirable solution to animal control.
As a result, conventional animal trap products tend to increase user interaction, thereby decreasing their effectiveness and ease of operation. Therefore, it would be beneficial to have an animal trap product which possesses a more efficient design and/or mechanical properties.


A handhold device of a railcar includes: a frame arranged along a side edge of a specific door opening and connected to a car interior side of a side carshell; a turning mechanism provided at the frame and configured to be turnable about a turning axis extending in an upper-lower direction; and a handle including a base portion connected to the frame through the turning mechanism and a holding portion projecting from the base portion in a direction intersecting with the turning axis. The handle is angularly displaceable about the turning axis between a deployed position where the holding portion is exposed to the specific door opening when viewed from a lateral side of the car body and a storage position where the holding portion is hidden by the side carshell when viewed from the lateral side of the car body.

In some cases, at the time of maintenance of a railcar, a worker gets into the railcar from the ground, performs work, and gets out from the railcar to the ground after the work. Therefore, in the vicinity of a specific door opening that is one of a plurality of door openings of a side carshell of a car body of the railcar, a device by which the worker can easily get in or out of the railcar through the specific door opening is preferred. Generally, a step on which the worker places his/her feet and a handle held by the worker with his/her hands are arranged in the vicinity of the specific door opening. The step is located under the specific door opening and fixed to the side carshell so as to project downward from the side carshell. The handle is fixed to the side carshell along a side edge of the specific door opening.
The handle may be arranged inside or outside the railcar. When the handle is arranged outside the railcar, ordinary people outside the railcar can access the handle during normal operation of the railcar. Therefore, the handle may be arranged inside the railcar so as not to be exposed to an outside of the railcar during the normal operation of the railcar. However, the handle is should be located at such a position that the worker on the ground can easily hold the handle with his/her hands. Therefore, when viewed from a lateral side of the car body, the handle needs to be exposed to the specific door opening. In this case, the handle may interfere with passengers who get in or out of the railcar through the specific door opening.

KAWASAKI RAILCAR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.


Compositions are described, based on starch and/or on modified starch and comprising, as plasticizers, polyhydroxycarboxylic acids derived from aldoses and/or from ketoses, in particular from pentoses and hexoses, or comprising lactones of these acids. The materials can be processed thermoplastically to give shaped articles which are biodegradable and physiologically nonhazardous. They may be used as packaging or casing for food or drink or pharmaceutical products, or also for the controlled release of active substances, or else for producing temporary protective coatings.

The invention relates to compositions which comprise starch and/or modified starch and plasticizers and also, if desired, other additives, and which can be processed to give shaped articles, in particular to give shaped biodegradable articles, and to the use of the compositions for producing shaped articles.
Constantly increasing awareness of the environment, together with continuing increases in the strictness of regulations relating to waste disposal or recycling, have led to a marked increase in efforts to use biodegradable materials for producing shaped articles. In addition to this, ever increasing efforts are being made to use, wherever possible, materials based on renewable raw materials rather than those based on mineral oil. In many cases substances from natural sources are also less physiologically hazardous.
Starch and modified starch, alone or else mixed with other polymers, in particular with biopolymers, are renewable raw materials of constantly increasing importance, especially for producing shaped articles, such as foils or films. There are many problems here for processors. For successful shaping of starch, modified starch or else mixtures with other polymers, very intimate mixing, i.e. homogenization, of the components is required, in particular if the materials are to be processed thermoplastically. It is also important that during shaping the mixture has been sufficiently plasticized, in order to avoid having to accept excessively high shaping temperatures and the associated decomposition of the components. The shaped articles, furthermore, should not only have good biodegradability but also have a very homogeneous internal structure and good mechanical properties, such as strength and elasticity. In particular, a requirement for most applications is that brittleness and abrasion are very low. The plasticizer should also be environmentally friendly, i.e. biodegradable and physiologically nonhazardous.
There is a wide variety of known molding compositions which are based on starch, comprise plasticizer and can be processed to give shaped articles. U.S. Pat. No. 3,312,560, for example, describes how amylose, with diglycerol as plasticizer, can be used to produce foils from aqueous solutions, via coagulation. In the presence of a certain amount of water the diglycerol-plasticized amylose can also be processed by extrusion to give foils. However, the method is restricted to the processing of amylose or of mixtures of amylose with low contents of amylopectin and, respectively, of chemically modified amylose. A further disadvantage is that diglycerol first has to be synthesized.
EP-A2-0 609 983 describes starch having at least two sugar alcohols of mono- or disaccharides as a plasticizer, and also describes water-containing compositions from which biodegradable articles can be produced, also with concomitant use of emulsifiers. Prior-art plasticizers mentioned in this text for starch products include low-molecular-weight propylene glycol, sorbitol, mannitol and polyvinyl alcohol. The compositions may initially be processed to give pelletized material, using an extruder, and this may subsequently be further processed to give shaped articles, e.g. by injection molding. A disadvantage of the process described there is the use of the emulsifier, which shows a tendency to migrate to the surface, as well as known chemical effects such as low thermal stability. The process is relatively complicated and attended by additional costs. In addition, the blending of at least two sugar alcohols with the amount of water stated there makes the shaped articles susceptible to fracture.
Thermoplastic mixtures of starch with other polymers, such as proteins, have been described, for example, in WO-A1-93/19125. Crosslinking, e.g. by aldehydes, is first required here. The plasticizers recommended comprise especially polyhydroxy compounds and various esters. Due to the crosslinking step the products obtained have only a very narrow processing range. The reaction is very sensitive and susceptible to problems, and processability is therefore reduced.
WO 90/05161 describes what are known as fatty-acid-based lubricants (fats, lecithins, fatty acids). These compounds, which also have free carboxyl groups, facilitate the processing procedure, but have the disadvantage of being unable on their own to plastify starch sufficiently.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,834 describes biodegradable thermoplastic compositions built up on the basis of proteins and aldehyde starch, where aldehyde starch and proteins have been crosslinked with one another. The compositions may comprise antioxidants, inter alia from 0.001 to 1% of ascorbic acid, preferably in the form of ascorbylpalmitate, as well as plasticizers, lubricants and extenders.
Although there is a wide variety of known compositions which comprise starch or, respectively, modified starch and plasticizers, and of known processes for producing shaped articles from compositions of this type, there is a need for compositions of this type which offer advantages over products of the prior art.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide compositions which comprise starch and/or modified starch and plasticizers, can be prepared simply and cost-effectively, have good homogeneity, and even in a mixture with other polymers, in particular with biopolymers, such as proteins, are very homogeneous, and have good thermoplastic processability, are physiologically nonhazardous and biodegradable, and can advantageously be processed to give shaped articles which are useful in industry, and have good homogeneity and good mechanical properties, such as excellent flexibility, and in which the plasticizer has little or no tendency to migrate.
This object is achieved by compositions comprising starch and/or modified starch and plasticizers for producing shaped articles, in particular shaped biodegradable articles, wherein the compositions comprise at least one polymer based on starch and/or on modified starch and, as plasticizers, polyhydroxycarboxylic acids derived from aldoses and/or from ketoses or comprise lactones of these acids except ascorbic acid in amounts of up to 1% by weight, based on the solids in the compositions, and also, if desired, comprise other polymers, in particular biopolymers and additives, such as extenders, lubricants, mold-release agents, dyes, water and the like.
Other advantageous embodiments of the novel compositions are wherein the plasticizer is a polyhydroxycarboxylic acid derived from pentose and hexose, or a lactone of said polyhydroxycarboxylic acid derived from pentose and hexose. The plasticizer can also be a sugar acid or lactone of said sugar acid; an aldonic acid or a lactone of said aldonic acid; an uronic acid or a lactone of said uronic acid or a gluconic acid or gluconolactone or a mixture thereof. The plasticizer is preferably present in an amount from 2 to 30% by weight. The composition can contain destructured starch, hydrolytically degraded starch, chemically modified starch, cationically or anionically modified starch. The composition further comprises proteins as other polymers. The composition preferably has a pH set at from 6 to 10, preferably 8 to 10. The composition can further comprise an additional plasticizer. The composition can comprise a total of from 3 to 50% by weight of the plasticizer. The composition according to the invention can be used as a shaped article. The composition according to the invention can be used for the production of the following:
a packaging for food or drink,
a sausage casing,
a packaging for pharmaceutical products,
a shaped articles for the controlled release of active substances and
a temporary protective coating for a technical device. The invention further relates to a process for preparing a composition which comprises mixing and homogenizing starch and/or modified starch and plasticizers and optionally other polymers and additives, wherein said plasticizers are polyhydroxycarboxylic acids derived from aldoses and/or from ketoses, or using lactones of these acids. The process preferably has the pH of the composition set at from 8 to 13 by adding a base.
A group of starches which can be used within the scope of the invention comprises the starches obtained from vegetable raw materials. These include starches made from tubers, such as potatoes, cassaya, maranta or sweet potato, from seeds, such as wheat, corn, rye, rice, barley, millet, oats or sorghum, from fruits, such as chestnuts, acorns, beans, peas and other pulses, or bananas, or from plant pith, for example of the sago palm.
The starches which can be used for the purposes of the invention are composed substantially of amylose and amylopectin, in varying proportional quantities.
Particularly good results are achieved with, inter alia, starches made from potatoes (e.g. (copyright)Toffena from Sxc3xcdstxc3xa4rke) or corn (e.g. Maize Starch from National Starch), or else from polyglucans, which feature a perfectly linear structure of the polymers.
The molecular weights of the starches which can be used according to the invention may vary over a wide range. The starches which can be used as a basis for the novel thermoplastic mixture are those which are composed substantially of a mixture of amylose and amylopectin, with molecular weights Mw within the range from 5xc3x97104 to 1xc3x97107. Preference is given to relatively long-chain polymers with molecular weights Mw of from 1xc3x97106 to 5xc3x97106.
Preference is also given to linear starches, preferably polyglucans, in particular 1,4-xcex1-D-polyglucan, with molecular weights Mw within the range from 5xc3x97102 to 1xc3x97105, preferably with molecular weights Mw of from 1xc3x97103 to 5xc3x97104.
Besides molding compositions based on starches of native vegetable origin, the invention also includes thermoplastic mixtures or molding compositions with starches which have been chemically modified, have been obtained by fermentation, are of recombinant origin or have been prepared by biotransformation (biocatalysis). The term xe2x80x9cbiocatalysisxe2x80x9d is used synonymously with the term xe2x80x9cbiotransformationxe2x80x9d.
For the purposes of the present invention, xe2x80x9cchemically modified starchesxe2x80x9d are starches whose properties have been altered from their natural properties by chemical means. This is achieved substantially by polymer-analogous reactions in which starch is treated with mono-, bi- or polyfunctional reagents and/or oxidants. The hydroxyl groups of the polyglucans of the starch are preferably transformed here by etherification, esterification or selective oxidation, or the modification is based on a free-radical-initiated graft copolymerization of copolymerizable unsaturated monomers onto the starch backbone.
Particular chemically modified starches include starch esters, such as xanthogenates, acetates, phosphates, sulfates and nitrates, starch ethers, e.g. nonionic, anionic or cationic starch ethers, oxidized starches, such as dialdehyde starch, carboxy starch, persulfate-degraded starches and similar substances.
For the purposes of the present invention, xe2x80x9cfermentative starchesxe2x80x9d are starches obtained by fermentative processes using naturally occurring organisms, such as fungi, algae or bacteria, or which can be obtained by implementing, and with assistance from, fermentative processes. Examples of starches from fermentative processes are gum arabic and related polysaccharides (gellan gum, ghatti gum, karaya gum, gum tragacanth), xanthan, emulsan, rhamsam, wellan, schizophyllan, polygalacturonates, laminarin, amylose, amylopectin and pectins.
For the purposes of the present invention, xe2x80x9cstarches of recombinant originxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9crecombinant starchesxe2x80x9d are specifically starches which can be obtained by fermentative processes, or with the involvement or assistance of fermentative processes, using organisms which do not occur in nature, but with the aid of natural organisms modified by genetic engineering, for example fungi, algae or bacteria. Examples of starches from fermentative processes using genetically engineered modifications are amylose, amylopectin and polyglucans.
For the purposes of the present invention, xe2x80x9cstarches prepared by biotransformationxe2x80x9d are starches, amylose, amylopectin or polyglucans prepared by a catalytic reaction of monomeric fundamental building blocks, generally of oligomeric saccharides, in particular of mono- or disaccharides, by using a biocatalyst (or: enzyme) under specific conditions. Examples of starches from biocatalytic processes are polyglucan and modified polyglucans, polyfructan and modified polyfructans.
Finally, advantageous thermoplastic mixtures may also be obtained using derivatives of the individual starches mentioned. For the purposes of the present invention, xe2x80x9cderivatives of starchesxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cstarch derivativesxe2x80x9d very generally are modified starches, i.e. starches whose properties have been altered by changing the natural amylose/amylopectin ratio or carrying out a pregelatinization, a partial hydrolytic degradation or a chemical derivatization.
Examples of particular derivatives of starches are oxidized starches, e.g. dialdehyde starches or other oxidation products with carboxyl functions, or native ionic starches (e.g. with phosphate groups) or starches which have been further modified ionically, where this term covers both anionic and cationic modifications.
The destructured starches which can be used for the purposes of the invention include those which have been homogenized using, for example, glycerol, so that crystalline reflections are no longer visible in X-ray diffraction and starch grains or birefringent regions are no longer visible under a polarizing microscope at a magnification of one thousand. In this connection reference is made to DE A1-3931363, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein by way of reference.
Most of the plasticizers used according to the invention are commercially available products, e.g. gluconic acid, galacturonic acid, glucaric acid or glucuronic acid. They may also be obtained from the carbohydrate sugars by appropriate oxidation. In this connection reference is made to Lehrbuch der Organischen Chemie [Organic Chemistry Textbook] by Beyer, Walter, S. Hitzel Verlag, Stuttgart, 1991, 22nd edition, pages 431-432, paragraph 2. This disclosure is expressly incorporated herein by way of reference.
The other polymers which may be used concomitantly include especially proteins, such as vegetable proteins, e.g. sunflower protein, cottonseed protein and the like, and also plasma protein, egg white and the like.
It was particularly surprising that according to the invention it is possible to obtain compositions which are particularly homogeneous and have excellent processability to give shaped articles, in particular by thermoplastic methods such as shaping, injection molding, etc. It is therefore possible to obtain foils, casings, packaging, containers, etc. which may be in immediate contact with food, drink or pharmaceutical products.
The plasticizer is physiologically nonhazardous and does not tend to migrate, and is even difficult to leach out from the shaped article using liquids, for example, which may emerge from food or drink. Gluconic acid or, respectively, the corresponding lactone, and other compounds of the class of substances described here as plasticizers, have preserving properties, and appropriate shaped articles are therefore particularly advantageous in applications in the food and drink sector and the pharmaceutical sector.
The shaped articles are not brittle and also show no abrasion, and are transparent. The plasticizers used according to the invention in the composition enter into particularly advantageous interaction canot observed with known plasticizers, such as sorbitol, glycerol, etc. In particular, it has been found that it is advantageous to operate at a pH above 7, particularly preferably in the range from 8 to 10. However, the plasticizers of the present invention may be used advantageously even at higher pH values, up to a pH of 13. If the pH diverges greatly from the neutral value 7, the amount of the plasticizer should be increased. In particular when processing in the acid pH range, the amounts of plasticizer required may on occasions be substantially higher than when working in the alkaline range.
The novel thermoplastic molding composition can be processed to give products using known processing methods. For example, in a first step it may be pelletized.
The invention therefore also provides a pelletized material obtainable by extruding and pelletizing the thermoplastic mixture according to the invention.
In addition, moldings or films with good biodegradability and improved mechanical properties can be obtained, either directly or by further thermoplastic processing of pelletized material with thermoplastic properties.
Finally, the invention also includes the use of the thermoplastic mixtures for producing moldings or films. Altogether, the novel products therefore cover a wide variety of possible applications. These include specifically adhesives for paper and corrugated board, shaped articles produced by injection molding, especially rods, tubes, bottles, capsules, pellets, additives for food or drink, foils, in the form of coatings or free-standing foils, or also in the form of laminates, especially films, packaging materials, bags, and release-slowing materials for controlled release of active substances in general, in particular drugs, pesticides or other active substances used in agriculture, fertilizers, flavorings, etc. The release of the active substance here may take place from foils, films, tablets, particles, microparticles, rods or other extrudates or other shaped articles.
More preferred applications include packaging for food or drink, in particular casings or wrappings for sausages or cheese absorbers, powders and the like.
In a particular embodiment the novel thermoplastic mixtures are used to produce shaped articles for the controlled release of active substances, for example tablets or dragees.
Another expedient and particularly advantageous use of the novel thermoplastic mixture relates to the production of shaped articles which are suitable for producing solid shaped articles, hollow articles or combinations of these.
Another excellent use of the novel thermoplastic mixture is for producing films for use in agriculture.
Another particular variant of the invention is the use of the thermoplastic mixture for producing films for use in food or drink applications.
Another specific use of the thermoplastic mixture is for producing films to be as packaging surrounding food or drink.
One more highly advantageous use of the novel thermoplastic mixture is in producing films for use as packaging for food or drink with full surface contact with the food or drink.
A final particularly advantageous use of the novel thermoplastic mixture is in producing flat or tubular films for use as food wrappings or casings for sausages or cheese.
For the purposes of the present invention, preference is also given to the use of the thermoplastic mixture as a short-lived protective film for technical consumer articles.
The invention is described in more detail at the examples below.

Compositions comprising starch and/or modified starch and plasticizers


A buckle prevention ring assembly for use within a conduit, such as casing, having at least one buckle prevention ring may be provided. The buckle prevention ring may be bonded and may provide a fluid and gas tight seal to prevent fluid and gas from leaking out of the casing in a downhole environment.

Support structures may be used to create seals against fluid flow between portions of the inside diameter of conduit, such as casing, and the outside diameter of a packing element used on a packer. Support structures have been used in oil and gas wells, but they may be used in other types of conduit as well. While it is known to include a support structure in a packer assembly, packers are often unable to remain effective under high pressure due to high compressive loads applied to these support structures. Particularly because these support structures have not been bonded into place, when subjected to intense pressure, the support structures may not remain in place. As such, one side of the packing element buckles in toward the mandrel of the packer and away from the inside of the conduit or casing and causes leakage of fluids and gases.
Generally, a multiple element packer offers more sealing points and provides greater reliability under high pressure. To the contrary, single element packers are known to buckle on one side towards the inside of the packer and away from the inner wall of the conduit or casing when set in a conduit and compressed under high pressures. Consequently, buckling of the packer leads to leaking of fluids and gas, and failure of down-hole equipment.


A pop-up and release handle mechanism has a pop-up support rod slideably connected to a vehicle body panel for movement between a retracted position and an extended position as a vehicle closure panel moves from a closed position toward an opened position. A pop-up spring is anchored between the vehicle body panel and the pop-up support rod for urging the pop-up support rod from the retracted position to the extended position and for urging the vehicle closure panel towards the opened position. A secondary latch handle, carried by a self-presenting bracket, is connected to the secondary latch by a flexible push-pull cable for releasing the secondary latch allowing movement of the vehicle closure panel to the opened position. The self-presenting bracket is pivotally attached to the pop-up support rod for movement with the pop-up support rod and is guided from a retracted position beneath the closure panel to an extended position extended from the closure panel as the pop-up support rod moves from the retracted position to the extended position by a pivot rod mounted on the body panel. Thereby when a primary latch is released allowing the pop-up spring to urge the closure panel toward the open position and the closure panel is limited by the secondary latch, the self-presenting bracket which is connected to the pop-up support rod moves the secondary latch handle from the retracted position beneath the closure panel to the extended position extend from the closure panel where the secondary latch handle is accessible by the operator.

It is known to have a hood latch assembly including a primary latch which may be released from the interior of the vehicle as desired and a secondary latch which engages a striker to limit the upward movement of the hood after the primary latch is released.
It is also known to provide a handle under the hood for operating the secondary latch to allow full opening of the hood. The hood is biased upwardly when the primary latch is released, thereby leaving a small gap or opening into which a person may extend their hand to grasp the handle and operate the secondary latch. The location of this handle for the secondary latch is not the same from model to model due to differences in design and may be difficult to reach.
It is known to provide a release lever on the secondary latch, where the release lever is presented upon unlatching of the primary latch. Such a release lever is mechanically attached through linkages to the secondary latch.
It would be desirable to provide a secondary hood latch handle which is presented when the closure panel is raised to a secondary latch position and connected to a secondary latch by a flexible push-pull cable.

Self-presenting secondary hood latch release and hood pop-up


Methods and apparatus for linking captured images using short range communications or a personal area network are described. In an embodiment, an image capture device is described which detects devices in proximity to the device and stores data identifying the devices and the times when they were in proximity. In another embodiment, a computing-based device is described which uses the data stored by an image capture device to identify sequences of images which were captured by a group of devices in proximity to each other and to present these sequences to a viewer concurrently and in temporal alignment.

Digital cameras and digital video cameras have resulted in users generating large amounts of digital image data which records places they have been, events they have attended and people they have met. In order to share this data with friends, a user may upload their digital images to a web service which provides controlled access to the user and anyone the user authorizes to view the images, such as a gallery service or social networking website. Alternatively, a user may upload their images to a video/photograph sharing website or a mapping website, which may enable anyone to view their videos/photographs.
Automatic image capture devices have been developed which enable users wearing such a device to capture a sequence of images which record their surroundings and the objects that they can see. SenseCam® developed by Microsoft® is an example of such a device.
The embodiments described below are not limited to implementations which solve any or all of the disadvantages of known image capture devices.

Linking captured images using short range communications


A pressure limiter valve for regulating the inflation and deflation of inflatable tubes of a deicer wherein such valve has a housing with a central chamber with inlet and outlet ports communicating therewith. The inlet port is selectively subjected to a vacuum or a fluid pressure. An annular shoulder with a central aperture separates the ports so that a piston moveable within the bore between a first position and a second position can seat on the shoulder and isolate the ports. The one face of the piston has a first and second operative surface wherein the first operative surface communicates at all times to the inlet port via a passageway so that when the force on such first operative surface is slightly greater than a piston biasing force the piston is in a first position which causes the piston to expose both operative surfaces to the fluid pressure from the inlet port. When the inlet port is subjected to a vacuum then the piston moves to a second position and only the first operative surface is in communication with the inlet port while the inlet port remains in communication with the outlet port.

This invention relates to a pressure limiter valve for use in the control of inflating and deflating the deicer pad of an airfoil utilizing low pressure unregulated air.
Under certain atmospheric conditions, ice will form and accumulate on the leading edge of an aircraft wing, struts, stabilizers and propellers. In the discussion hereinafter reference to these parts will be made as airfoil and the description will be directed to the wing of an airplane, it being understood that such description is equally applicable to the aircraft struts, stabilizers or propellers. A deicer pad is the inflatable and resilient extensible units mounted on the leading edge of the airfoil and its repeated inflation and deflation prevents the accumulation of ice on the airfoil. Such accumulation of ice is undesirable as it adds weight to the aircraft as well as alters the aerodynamics configurations of the airfoil to change materially the efficiency thereof.
To break up the ice formation on the wings of an aircraft, pneumatic deicing equipment such as deicer pads or boots are employed utilizing a series of resilient inflatable tubes covering the leading edge area of the wings to deice them. An air supply system is used to alternately inflate and deflate the tubes to flex the deicer pad. Such repetitive flexing action shatters or breaks up the ice formation or layers as they form on the leading edge of the deicer pad and are broken into particles, which ice particles are blown off by the airstream moving over the airfoil.
Since icing conditions exist only for a relatively small portion of the total aircraft flight time it is necessary during non-deicing use to maintain a vacuum on the tubes to assure a smooth exterior surface on the deicing pad. Irregularities on the deicer pad would seriously reduce aircraft performance and efficiency by creating unwanted air turbulence. To effect a positive pressure into the tubes of the deicer pad, a solenoid operated valve upon actuation is operative to direct pressurized air thereto in cooperation with a pressure regulator which is used to maintain a predetermined air pressure to the deicer system. Under normal conditions the air supply for the deicer is the bleeding off of a very small portion of the pressurized air from the compressor section of the aircraft's turbine engine. Under certain operating conditions, the bleed off pressure can drop to a pressure equal to or slightly less than the deicer system value. As the supply pressure drops to pressures lower than the needed pressure, the pressure regulator becomes restricted and the deicer inflation flow of air is reduced substantially and impairs the proper functioning of the deicer pad. The present invention is directed to the elimination of the need for a pressure regulator and thus in effect uses unregulated air pressure to insure the proper functioning of the deicer by utilizing the available source of air pressure to inflate the pneumatic deicer rapidly, especially when the source pressure is near deicer operating pressure. The pressure limiter of the present invention overcomes the limitation of present pneumatic deicer systems operating components that result in deicer inflation that is too slow for effective performance when the air supply pressure is low in the turbine engine's bleed system. Such pressure limiter valve utilizes all available source of air pressure and flow to inflate pneumatic de-icers rapidly, especially when the source pressure is near de-icer operating pressure. Such pressure valve is particularly useful as it eliminates the need for a pressure regulator.


The present invention generally relates to compounds and methods for inhibiting the radical polymerization of unsaturated compounds, particularly vinyl monomers. More particularly, it relates to the use of stable hydroxyl amines to inhibit the polymerization of unsaturated compounds (e.g., vinyl monomers) wherein said stable hydroxylamine is soluble in organic solvents, particularly hydrocarbon solvents consisting of unsaturated and, therefore, polymerizable constituents.

Unsaturated compounds, particularly vinyl monomers, can undesirably polymerize at various stages of their manufacture, processing, handling, storage, and use. Vinyl monomers can undergo self-initiated polymerization at elevated temperatures even in the absence of polymerization promoters. Thus, undesired thermal polymerization can be a problem during the purification of vinyl aromatic monomers and during sudden process shutdowns. Undesirable polymerization results in product loss because the valuable monomer end product is consumed in the undesired side reaction. Moreover, polymerization reduces production efficiency as the polymer is deposited on process equipment. This fouling of process equipment may require a shutdown to remove the undesired polymer by physical methods.
The stable free radical, 4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetra-methylpiperidinoxy (HTEMPO), has been used extensively to control free radical polymerization of reactive monomers during the purification, handling, transportation and storage. However, to improve its efficacy as an inhibitor, there are two alternatives. Firstly, the dose of HTEMPO can be increased. However, as the concentration is increased, the dissolved HTEMPO will crystallize especially if the ambient temperature under which the solution is used or stored falls. HTEMPO can also crystallize if the solvency of the hydrocarbon media decreases, for instance, a solution comprising aromatic solvents will have a lower solvency when it comes into contact with aliphatic media. Owing to the low solubility of HTEMPO in aliphatic media, the introduction of an aromatic-based solvent of HTEMPO will result in the precipitation of HTEMPO thereby resulting in the plugging of quills and transfer lines.
Secondly, the conversion of HTEMPO to its hydroxylamine, HTEMPOL, is the other alternative to increasing its polymer inhibiting efficiency. Unlike HTEMPO that is soluble in aromatic hydrocarbon solvents, HTEMPOL is sparingly soluble in hydrocarbon solvents. In applications that involve aqueous media, the water-soluble HTEMPOL can be used with nominal risk of precipitation whereas it will precipitate in hydrocarbon media. Consequently, the use of HTEMPOL as an inhibitor is restricted to stopping premature polymerization in aqueous media.
In prior art, hydrocarbon-soluble hydroxylamines have been used as inhibitors. Due to the presence of hydrogen substituents of the a-carbon atoms relative to the hydroxylamine functional group, said hydroxylamines are therefore unstable. At high operational temperatures associated with the purification and other processes involving vinylic monomers, these unhindered or partially hindered hydroxylamines decompose to yield contaminant byproducts, namely; aldehydes and primary hydroxylamines. As an example, N,N-diethylhydroxylamine will decompose to acetaldehyde and ethylhydroxylamine.
More particularly, this invention addresses inhibition of polymerization in units typically associated with hydrophobic vinylic monomers such as in distillation towers where aqueous-based inhibitors are not very effective or the poor solubilities of the highly polar inhibitors result in the precipitation or recrystallization of said inhibitors when mixed with hydrocarbon media. In equipment in which a hydrocarbon phase is in contact with an aqueous phase, the currently used hydrophilic hydroxylamines preferentially partition into the aqueous phase rather than the hydrocarbon phase. By contrast, the organic-soluble vinylic species that are liable to polymerization partition into the hydrocarbon phase. Owing to this partitioning tendency, the prior art hydroxylamines are not effective polymerization inhibitors.
Thus, a need exists for a hydrocarbon soluble, stable free-radical scavenger.

Use of stable lipophilic hydroxylamine compounds for inhibiting polymerization of vinyl monomers


In a complex plant most of the problems or errors will occur only once. Therefore corrective maintenance and trouble-shooting staff can not go back or hark back to ready-made solutions for these problems or errors. The present invention provides a method and a computerized system which enables the corrective maintenance and trouble-shooting staff having access to experiences made on third party plants regarding these problems or errors.

Production facilities, commonly referred to as plants, continue to increase in complexity due to automation and interconnections between sections of the plant and individual machines within the plant, among other reasons. Furthermore, the hardware and software that directs the machines, and the machines themselves, will often be adjusted to meet changing production demands. Moreover, plant machinery, hardware and software are typically from different suppliers and must be seamlessly integrated for peak plant performance. Coping with this increasing complexity is difficult for corrective maintenance and trouble-shooting staff employees of the plant or maintenance staff employees of suppliers.
US PAP 2002/0035447 A1 discloses a classical system for remote diagnosis as application service.
US PAP 2002/0007237 A1 discloses another conventional method and apparatus to capture diagnostic symptoms and resolution for repair.
US PAP 2001/0037363 A1 discloses another method for providing consulting services to resolve a problem in a centralized web-based environment.

Method and system for providing problem identification and trouble-shooting services


Methods and apparatus are provided for verifying proper operation of a gas turbine engine output torque sensor using a speed sensor, and using the speed sensor as a backup torque sensor. Gas turbine engine output torque is sensed using a reference torque sensor, and gas turbine engine output shaft rotational speed is sensed. Gas turbine engine output torque is calculated from the sensed gas turbine engine output shaft rotational speed. The sensed gas turbine engine output torque is compared to the calculated gas turbine engine output torque to determine if the reference torque sensor is operating properly. The gas turbine engine is controlled at least partially based on the sensed gas turbine engine output torque if the reference torque sensor is determined to be operating properly, and is controlled at least partially based on the calculated output torque if the reference torque sensor is determined to be not operating properly.

Gas turbine engines may be used as the primary power source for various kinds of aircraft. The engines may also serve as auxiliary power sources that drive air compressors, hydraulic pumps, and industrial electrical power generators. Most gas turbine engines implement the same basic power generation scheme. That is, compressed air is mixed with fuel and burned to generate hot combustion gases. The expanding hot combustion gases are directed against stationary turbine vanes in the engine. The vanes turn the high velocity gas flow partially sideways to impinge onto turbine blades mounted on a rotatable turbine disk. The force of the impinging gas causes the turbine disk to spin at high speed. Main propulsion engines typically use the power created by the rotating turbine disk to draw more air into the engine, and the high velocity combustion gas is passed out of the gas turbine aft end to create forward thrust. Other engines may use this power to turn one or more propellers, electrical generators, or other devices.
In many instances, gas turbine engines may be automatically controlled via an engine controller. The engine controller receives signals from various sensors within the engine, as well as from various pilot-manipulated controls. In response to these signals, the engine controller regulates the operation of the gas turbine engine. One typical sensor that is used is a torque sensor, which senses the output torque of the gas turbine engine and supplies a torque sensor signal to the engine controller.
Though unlikely, it is postulated that this torque sensor could become inaccurate, or otherwise inoperable, over time. If this were to occur, the engine controller may not properly control the gas turbine engine and may lead technicians to believe that various other gas turbine engine components are inoperable. This can lead to unnecessary and potentially costly engine down-times.
Hence, there is a need for a system and method that can validate whether or not the torque sensor is operating properly so that the likelihood of unnecessary and costly engine down-times can be reduced and/or eliminated altogether. The present invention addresses at least this need.

System and method for providing gas turbine engine output torque sensor validation and sensor backup using a speed sensor


A method for implementing ellipsometry for an ultrathin film includes directing a polarized light beam incident upon a sample surface, receiving an initial reflected beam from the sample surface and redirecting the initial reflected beam back upon said sample surface one or more times so as to produce a final reflected beam. The final reflected beam is received through an analyzer and at a detector so as to determine characteristics of the ultrathin film.

The present invention relates generally to semiconductor device manufacturing, and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for improved ellipsometric measurement of ultrathin films.
Ellipsometry is an optical technique that uses polarized light to probe the properties of a sample. One of the most common applications of ellipsometry is the analysis of thin films. Through the analysis of the state of polarization of the light that interacts with a sample, ellipsometry can yield certain information about the properties of such films. For example, depending on what is already known about the sample, the technique can probe a range of properties including the layer thickness, index of refraction, morphology, or chemical composition.
Generally, optical ellipsometry may be defined as the measurement of the state of polarized light waves. An ellipsometer measures the changes in the polarization state of light when it interacts with a sample. The most common ellipsometer configuration is a reflection ellipsometer, although transmission ellipsometers are also sometimes used. If linearly polarized light of a known orientation is reflected or transmitted at oblique incidence from a sample surface, then the resultant light becomes elliptically polarized. The shape and orientation of the ellipse depends on the angle of incidence, the direction of the polarization of the incident light, the wavelength of the incident light, and the Fresnel properties of the surface.
The polarization of the light is measured for use in determining certain characteristics of the sample. For example, in one conventional null ellipsometer, the polarization of the reflected light may be measured with a quarter-wave plate, followed by an analyzer. The orientation of the quarter-wave plate and the analyzer are varied until no light passes though the analyzer (i.e., a null is attained). Based on these orientations and the direction of polarization of the incident light, a description of the state of polarization of the light reflected from the surface may be calculated and the sample properties deduced.
Two characteristics of ellipsometry make its use particularly attractive in the field of semiconductor manufacturing. First, since ellipsometry is a nondestructive technique, it is suitable for in situ observation of a sample. Second, the technique is extremely sensitive in that small changes of a film may, in certain instances, be measured down to a sub-monolayer of atoms or molecules. Accordingly, ellipsometry has been widely used in areas such as physics, chemistry, materials science, biology, metallurgical engineering and biomedical engineering, to name a few. At the same time, however, advances in microelectronics fabrication are rapidly surpassing current capabilities in metrology. In order to enable the continued scaling of future generations of microelectronics, advances in specific metrology capabilities must also follow suit, such as the ability to measure the properties of ultra-thin films (e.g., thicknesses on the order of 20 angstroms or less) over sub-micron lateral dimensions.
Unfortunately, existing ellipsometry systems have difficulty in measuring and distinguishing between certain characteristics (e.g., index of refraction, thickness, etc.) of ultrathin films having varying optical properties. In the past, certain optical properties (such as material composition) have been assumed for thin films such as gate dielectrics where the dielectric material utilized was an oxide or nitride material, for example. However, with the use of more advanced ultrathin gate dielectrics, the traditional assumptions as to the composition of the dielectric material are no longer reliable for use in ellipsometric measurements. In particular, these ultrathin films do not produce enough of a phase shift on an incident beam to adequately distinguish between film thickness and film composition. Thus, a need exists for improving conventional ellipsometric techniques so as to be able to reliably obtain the desired measurements of advanced ultrathin films.

Method and apparatus for improved ellipsometric measurement of ultrathin films