Disclosed is a semiconductor device (e.g., nonvolatile semiconductor memory device) and method of forming the device. The device includes a gate electrode (e.g., floating gate electrode) having a first layer of an amorphous silicon film, or a polycrystalline silicon thin film or a film of a combination of amorphous and polycrystalline silicon, on the gate insulating film. Where the film includes polycrystalline silicon, the thickness of the film is less than 10 nm. A thicker polycrystalline silicon film can be provided on or overlying the first layer. The memory device can increase the write/erase current significantly without increasing the low electric field leakage current after application of stresses, which in turn reduces write/erase time substantially. In forming the semiconductor device, a thin amorphous or polycrystalline silicon film can be provided on the gate insulating film, and a thin insulating film provided on the amorphous silicon film, with a thicker polycrystalline silicon film provided on or overlying the thin insulating film. Where the thin silicon film is amorphous silicon, it can then be polycrystallized, although it need not be. Also disclosed is a technique for selective crystallization of amorphous silicon layers, based upon layer thickness.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device having an MIS type structure, and, more specifically, to a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device and a method of manufacture thereof.
Nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices are usually formed as semiconductor integrated circuit devices. A typical example of such a device is a flash memory device that can be electrically written and erased. The flash memory device is described, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 276878/1987 and 219496/1991 and a paper by Kume, entitled xe2x80x9cA 1.28 xcexcm2 Contactless Memory Cell Technology for a 3V-Only 64 Mbit EEPROM,xe2x80x9d IEDM, 1992, 92-991 to 92-993.
FIG. 10 shows a cross-sectional structure of a main portion of a proposed (comparative) flash memory device. The main part of the memory often employs a so-called stack structure. The stack structure generally refers to a structure in which a capacitor for memory is formed over an electric switch circuit. In FIG. 10, reference number 601 represents a single crystal silicon substrate, 602 a device isolation oxide film, 603 a gate oxide film (tunnel insulating film), 606 a floating gate electrode, 607 an inter-layer insulating film, 608 a control gate electrode, 610 a source, 611 a drain, 609, 612 and 613 insulating films, 614 a source interconnect, and 615 a drain interconnect.
The construction of the main part of this memory will be described in detail. The gate oxide film 603 uses a silicon oxide film about 7.5-10 nm thick, which is generally formed by thermally oxidizing a silicon substrate. The floating gate electrode 606 is made of a polycrystalline silicon film doped with a high concentration of phosphorus and has a thickness of about 50 to 200 nm. The inter-layer insulating film 607 uses a laminated film 607 of SiO2 film/Si3N4 film/SiO2 film formed by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LP-CVD). This laminated film 607 (of SiO2 film/Si3N4 film/SiO2 film) is generally called an ONO film (This abbreviation xe2x80x9cONO filmxe2x80x9d will be used hereinafter).
A first state of information in this flash memoryxe2x80x94for example, writing of information-is accomplished as follows. The drain 611 is set to a positive bias (for example +4V), the control gate electrode 608 is set to a negative bias (for example xe2x88x9210V), the source 610 is open, and the silicon substrate 601 is set to 0V. In this state, electrons stored in the floating gate electrode 606 are pulled out toward the drain 611 side, thus writing information. These voltages are each applied by using pulses about 100 microseconds long. With this method the electrons in the floating gate electrode 606 are pulled out toward the drain 611 by a Fowler-Nordheim tunneling current (hereinafter abbreviated F-N current).
A second state of information, for example, erasing of information, is done as follows. The control gate electrode 608 is set to a positive bias (for instance +10V), the silicon substrate 601 is set to a negative bias (for instance xe2x88x924V), and the source 610 and the drain 611 are set to an open state. In this state, electrons are injected into the floating gate electrode 606 from the silicon substrate 601, erasing the information. These voltages are applied by using pulses about 100 microseconds long.
While the holding of information in the first state is referred to as writing and that in the second state is referred to as erasing, these states of electric charge may be called in an opposite way. Naming of these states depends on how the electric charge operates. Whatever they are called, the same states have the same problem. In the following description, the writing and erasing refer to the states of charge as described above for the purpose of facilitating the understanding of explanation. It should be noted that the description of this invention also applies to the case of a charge operation where the states of charge are called in a way opposite to this specification, by reading each of the charge states in this specification to mean the same but oppositely called state.
UK patent application No. 2,254,960 discloses an MOS device having reduced susceptibility to oxide degradation at high integration levels, the device having an improved breakdown voltage by preventing reaction between the gate oxide material and doped impurity used to improve the electrical conductivity of the gate. The gate, made of polycrystalline silicon, includes an upper polycrystalline silicon layer and a lower polycrystalline silicon layer, the lower layer having a larger grain size than the upper layer. The gate can be formed by initially forming an amorphous (lower) silicon layer and a polycrystalline silicon layer thereon, doping an impurity into the polycrystalline silicon layer and converting the amorphous silicon layer to a polycrystalline silicon layer, to form the layers having the necessary grain sizes. Illustratively, the amorphous silicon layer, converted to polycrystalline silicon, has a thickness of 20-100 nm.
Problems to be Solved by the Invention
Writing and erasing of information in a flash memory is performed by injecting electrons into and pulling them out of the floating gate through the gate insulating film. The write/erase time or programming time depends on the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling current (F-N current) that flows in the gate insulating film. Because the F-N current depends largely on the thickness of the gate insulating film, the write/erase time decreases as the gate insulating film becomes thin. A reduction in thickness of the gate insulating film, however, induces the following problem, which is briefly explained by referring to the drawings.
FIG. 15 shows an electric field-current characteristic of an MOS capacitor before and after having constant current (F-N current) stresses applied thereto. The application of stresses means a test method for acceleratedly simulating stresses that would occur in the actual mounted state. That is, this method involves injecting a predetermined amount of charge into a memory cell and comparing the memory characteristics before and after the charge injection. The charge injection in this case is called stress application.
In FIG. 15, the solid line A represents a characteristic before the stress application and the dotted line B represents a characteristic after the stress application. In this example, an injection current density is 0.1 A/cm2 and an injected charge density is 1 C/cm2. As shown in FIG. 15, the leakage current of the MOS capacitor after stress application increases in a low electric field region (for example, below xc2x18 MV/cm). This is explained as follows. When the F-N current is injected into the gate insulating film for the application of stresses, holes injected into the gate insulating film form a new level in the gate insulating film and the leakage current through this level increases.
The leakage current in the low electric field region is the major cause for deterioration of the charge retention characteristics of flash memories. That is, the concrete causes of degraded charge retention characteristics include what are generally called a retention failure of flash memory (leakage of charge from the floating gate to the substrate side) and a disturbance failure (leakage from the substrate side to the floating gate side).
FIG. 16 shows the relation between the thickness of a gate insulating film and the current density in a flash memory cell. The characteristic given by black dots represents the relation between the thickness of a gate insulating film and the F-N current, and the characteristic given by blank dots represents the relation between the thickness of a gate insulating film and the leakage current at a low electric field. As can be seen from FIG. 16, the leakage current at the low electric field can be controlled by increasing the thickness of the gate insulating film. The leakage current at the low electric field and the F-N current are, however, in a trade-off relationship with respect to the thickness of the gate insulating film. Increasing the thickness of the gate insulating film therefore reduces the F-N current, giving rise to a new problem of increased programming (write/erase) time.
As a means to solve this problem, a method is proposed that introduces a trace amount of nitrogen into the conventional thermally oxidized film to suppress the leakage current at a low electric field. One such example is described in IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 12, No. 11, p587, November 1991. Even with this method, a sufficient level to ensure a desirable charge retention characteristic has not been reached.
An object of this invention is to provide a semiconductor device (e.g., a nonvolatile semiconductor device, such as a nonvolatile semiconductor memory, but not limited thereto), which increases the F-N current while at the same time suppressing the leakage current, at a low electric field in a gate insulating film, caused by programming. Another object of this invention is to provide a method of manufacturing such a semiconductor device. This invention therefore can provide a nonvolatile semiconductor device that has high reliability and high-speed programming capability.
Means for Solving the Problems
Representative aspects of this invention disclosed in this specification may be summarized as follows. These representative aspects are illustrative, and not limiting, of the present invention, which is defined by the appended claims.
The semiconductor device according to one aspect of the present invention has a gate electrode (e.g., floating gate electrode), on a gate insulating film on a semiconductor (e.g., silicon) substrate, that includes a first layer of amorphous silicon or polycrystalline silicon or combination (e.g., mixture, i.e., partially crystallized silicon) of amorphous and polycrystalline silicon, on (in contact with) the gate insulating film, the first layer having a thickness less than 10 nm, preferably less than 8 nm. According to another aspect of the present invention, the first layer is made of amorphous silicon, without regard to the thickness thereof.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, the thickness of the first layer, when containing polycrystalline silicon, in contact with the gate insulating film, is less than 10 nm, preferably less than 8 nm. While not to be limiting, desirably the first layer has a minimum thickness of 1 nm, due to manufacturing considerations.
Another aspect of the present invention is a method of forming this semiconductor device. An amorphous or polycrystalline silicon film (a lower layer) of a thickness of less than 10 nm (preferably, less than 8 nm) is provided on a gate insulating film on a semiconductor substrate, and thereafter a thin insulating film (e.g., a silicon oxide film, of 0.3 to 1 nm) is provided on the amorphous or polycrystalline silicon. Then a doped polycrystalline silicon film is provided on the thin insulating film. During subsequent heat treatments (e.g., annealing, thermal oxidation, etc.) in the manufacturing process, the amorphous silicon film can be formed into a polycrystalline silicon thin film (or can remain an amorphous silicon film), and the thin insulating film can be eliminated. Moreover, during the subsequent heat treatments, impurity dopants from the doped polycrystalline silicon film can diffuse into the lower layer on the gate insulating layer, so a to make this lower layer (amorphous silicon, polycrystalline silicon or combination thereof) conductive. In this regard, the lower layer can be formed doped or non-doped. According to another aspect of the present invention, where the lower layer on the gate insulating film remains an amorphous silicon film, the lower layer is not limited with respect to thickness.
The semiconductor device in another aspect of this invention is characterized by an electrically erasable and programmable nonvolatile semiconductor device (e.g., a memory), which includes at least a floating gate electrode and a control gate electrode, the floating gate electrode being formed over a gate insulating film and including at least an amorphous or polycrystalline silicon film with an average thickness of less than 10 nm, more preferably less than 8 nm, the control gate electrode being formed over the floating gate electrode through an interlayer insulating film so that at least a part of the control gate electrode overlaps the floating gate electrode; and a method of fabricating this semiconductor device. The advantage of this invention can be observed for the average thickness of less than 10 nm and very remarkably so for the average thickness of less than 8 nm.
The semiconductor device in still another aspect of this invention is characterized by an electrically erasable and programmable nonvolatile semiconductor device, which includes at least a floating gate electrode and a control gate electrode, the floating gate electrode being made of an amorphous silicon film formed over a gate insulating film, the control gate electrode being formed over the floating gate electrode through an interlayer insulating film so that at least a part of the control gate electrode overlaps the floating gate electrode; and a method of forming this semiconductor device.
The semiconductor device in still another aspect of this invention is characterized by an electrically erasable and programmable nonvolatile semiconductor device, which includes at least a floating gate electrode and a control gate electrode, the floating gate electrode being made of a plurality of conductor or semiconductor films formed over a gate insulating film, the control gate electrode being formed over the floating gate electrode through an interlayer insulating film so that at least a part of the control gate electrode overlaps the floating gate electrode. Of the layers forming the floating gate electrode, a layer in contact with the gate insulating film is an amorphous or polycrystalline silicon film with an average thickness of less than 10 nm, more preferably less than 8 nm. The advantage of this invention can be observed for the average thickness of less than 10 nm and very significantly so for the average thickness of less than 8 nm.
The semiconductor device in a further aspect of this invention is characterized by an electrically erasable and programmable nonvolatile semiconductor device, which includes at least a floating gate electrode and a control gate electrode, the floating gate electrode being made of a plurality of conductor or semiconductor films formed over a gate insulating film, the control gate electrode being formed over the floating gate electrode through an interlayer insulating film so that at least a part of the control gate electrode overlaps the floating gate electrode. Of the layers forming the floating gate electrode, a layer in contact with the gate insulating film is an amorphous silicon film.
The amorphous or polycrystalline silicon mentioned above means polycrystalline silicon or amorphous silicon, or a combination (e.g., mixture) of these. Based on the conventional manufacturing processes and methods in the field of semiconductor devices, polycrystalline silicon is easiest to handle.
Of the two or more layers of conductor or semiconductor material that form the floating gate electrode, layers other than the one that contacts the gate insulating film may use a material of the floating gate employed in ordinary semiconductor memory devices. For example, the semiconductor material includes silicon and the conductor material includes polycrystalline silicon, tungsten, or titanium nitride, all containing a high concentration of impurity.
In the floating gate electrode, silicon films overlying the bottom layer in contact with the gate insulating film often use polycrystalline silicon films containing phosphorus (P) or arsenic (As).
The bottom layer of the floating gate electrode in contact with the gate insulating film preferably has a thickness of less than 8 nm when it is formed of polycrystalline silicon. It is further preferred that the average grain size of the polycrystalline silicon be set lower than 20 nm. When amorphous silicon is used, the thickness range should preferably be lower than 8 nm. The overall thickness of the floating gate electrode can be set to an ordinary thickness for a floating gate electrode of a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device.
According to various aspects of the present invention, it is desired to have amorphous silicon or small-grained polycrystalline silicon at the interface with the gate insulating film (e.g., where this silicon forms a floating gate, amorphous silicon at the interface with the tunnel insulating film); and to have, e.g., large-grained polycrystalline silicon at the interface with an interlayer insulating film, to provide a smooth surface on which the interlayer insulating film is formed. The present invention achieves this goal by at least a two-layer electrode (e.g., floating gate electrode). Where the lower layer (adjacent the gate insulating film) is of polycrystalline silicon, the lower layer is thin and is small-grained (generally, the grain size is 2xc2xd times the thickness of the layer; where the layer has a thickness of about 2 nm, the grain size would be about 5 nm); the upper layer is thick and is large-grained. Moreover in forming this electrode, a thin insulating film is provided between the lower and upper layers, so as to form the layers with different grain structure.
The semiconductor device in a further aspect of this invention is characterized by an electrically erasable and programmable nonvolatile semiconductor device, which includes at least a floating gate electrode formed over a gate insulating film and a control gate electrode formed over the floating gate electrode through an interlayer insulating film so that at least a part of the control gate electrode overlaps the floating gate electrode, wherein the floating gate electrode is made of two or more layers of conductor or semiconductor films processed by using the same mask, and wherein the thin film in contact with the gate insulating film is a silicon film with an average thickness of less than 10 nm, preferably less than 8 nm.
In this case, it is very desirable that the layer of the floating gate electrode in contact with the gate insulating film have a thickness of less than 8 nm when it is made of polycrystalline silicon. It is further preferred that the average grain size of the polycrystalline silicon be set smaller than 20 nm. When the bottom layer of the floating gate electrode in contact with the gate insulating film is made of amorphous silicon, it should very preferably have a thickness of less than 8 nm.
The thickness of the floating gate electrode as a whole can be set to an ordinary thickness. In the floating gate electrode, silicon films overlying the bottom layer in contact with the gate insulating film would generally use polycrystalline silicon films containing phosphorus (P) or arsenic (As).
The present invention has been accomplished based on the following findings on the gate insulating film.
(1) The relation between the F-N current of an MOS capacitor and the thickness of a polycrystalline silicon film as a gate electrode was examined. The study found that the F-N current significantly increases when the thickness of this polycrystalline silicon film is smaller than about 8 nm.
(2) When the gate electrode in contact with the gate insulating film is made of an amorphous silicon film, too, an effect similar to (1) was produced.
These phenomena may be explained as follows. Insulating substances such as oxygen and nitrogen present in the surface of a polycrystalline silicon film, when subjected to a high temperature heat treatment, diffuse through boundary surfaces of silicon grains to reach the rear side of the polycrystalline silicon film (i.e., on the gate insulating film side). At this time, they react with the silicon film on the rear side to form a new insulating film. This phenomenon tends to occur along the fine grain boundaries, producing a fine, rough surface on the rear side of the polycrystalline silicon film. Therefore, when an electric field is applied, the field concentrates on fine projections, which in turn is considered to cause a significant increase in the F-N current.
Further, in the above aspect of this invention, when an amorphous silicon film and other gate materials are used, there is formed at a boundary with a conductor film or semiconductor film an insulating thin film that includes an amorphous silicon film in contact with the gate insulating layer and other gate materials. This insulating thin layer is mostly a silicon oxide film, a silicon nitride film, or a combination of these. The thickness of this insulating thin film ranges between 0.3 nm and 1 nm. Of these insulating films, a thermally oxidized layer is most useful.
Amorphous silicon films formed by chemical vapor deposition are generally recognized to crystallize at temperatures higher than 600-650xc2x0 C. We have found, however, that the crystallization temperature of an amorphous silicon film became high where the amorphous silicon film has a film thickness 10 nm or less. However, this phenomenon is only observed when there is an insulating film about 0.3 nm or more on the surface of the amorphous silicon film.
FIG. 29 shows a relationship between thickness of an amorphous silicon film and a crystallization temperature thereof when the amorphous silicon film is formed by using disilane (Si2H6) at 450xc2x0 C., 30 min. in the nitrogen atmosphere.
As shown in FIG. 29, it can be understood that the crystallization temperature of an amorphous silicon film suddenly rises, when it becomes thinner than about 10 nm. For example, when the film thickness of an amorphous silicon film is 5 nm, even if it is heat treated at about 750xc2x0 C., crystallization does not occur. That is, a film thickness and a process temperature are controlled such that crystallization of the amorphous silicon film does not occur.
Accordingly, it is possible to form an optimum field effect transistor having an amorphous silicon gate electrode in case of consideration of this point of view.

Semiconductor device having thin electrode laye adjacent gate insulator and method of manufacture


A control apparatus and method, and an engine control unit for an internal combustion engine are provided for restraining a torque step and sudden fluctuations in rotation when an air/fuel mixture combustion mode is switched among a plurality of combustion modes, and for improving the fuel economy. A control apparatus of an internal combustion engine operated with a combustion mode switched between a stratified combustion mode and a uniform combustion mode comprises an ECU. The ECU calculates an ignition manipulated variable to cancel out a change in the engine rotational speed associated with the switching of the combustion mode when a first-time injection ratio changes during idle rotational speed control, and calculates an intake manipulated variable to cancel a change in the engine rotational speed caused by the ignition manipulated variable when the first-time injection ratio changes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control apparatus and method, and an engine control unit for an internal combustion engine which is operated with a combustion mode of an air/fuel mixture switched among a plurality of combustion modes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, as a control apparatus for an internal combustion engine, one described in Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 10-227239 is known by way of example. This internal combustion engine is of a so-called direct injection type, where a fuel is directly injected into cylinders by fuel injection valves. This control apparatus selectively switches a fuel combustion mode in accordance with a load on the internal combustion engine, i.e., the opening of an accelerator pedal among a first mode for a low load application in which a fuel is injected once in a compression stroke, a second mode for a middle load in which a fuel is injected in each of an intake stroke and a compression stroke in parts, and a third mode for a high load in which a fuel is injected once in an intake stroke. In this way, the internal combustion engine is operated such that an air/fuel mixture is stratified in a low load range, such that part of the air/fuel mixture is stratified while the rest is uniformly burnt in a middle load range, and such that the air/fuel mixture is uniformly burned in a high load range.
Also, this control apparatus executes ignition timing control in the following way. First, one of three ignition timing maps for the first to third modes is selected based on the fuel injection mode. In the ignition timing map for the first mode, a map value is constantly set substantially irrespective of a load, whereas in the ignition timing maps for the second and third modes, a map value is set to a more retarded value as a load is larger. In addition, in two ignition timing maps for load ranges adjacent to each other, map values are set to be discontinuous to each other for a load and to have a relatively large crank angle difference near the boundary of the load regions.
Next, the ignition timing control calculates an ignition timing by searching a selected ignition timing map in accordance with a load. In this event, the ignition timing is calculated through an interpolation of two map search values when the load is in one of the three mode ranges, and when the load is near the boundary of two mode ranges, the interpolation of two map search values is prohibited, and the ignition timing is calculated based only on a single map search value.
The ignition timing is calculated by the foregoing control approach for the following reason. Generally, when a single injection mode such as the first or third mode which involves injecting a fuel only once during one combustion cycle is compared with a split injection mode such as the second mode which involves injecting a fuel twice in parts, the two modes differ in the air/fuel mixture combustion state from each other, as described above, and in thermal efficiency (i.e., combustion efficiency) from each other, thereby causing a large difference in generated torques. As a result, when the fuel injection mode changes between the two modes due to a change in load, this causes a torque step or sudden fluctuations in rotation, possibly leading to a degraded operability. Accordingly, when a load presents a value near the boundary of the two mode ranges, the interpolation of two map search values is prohibited, and the ignition timing is calculated based only on a single map search value to rapidly change the ignition timing, thereby restraining the torque step and sudden fluctuations in rotation to improve the operability.
The control apparatus of Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 10-227239 restrains a torque step and sudden fluctuations in rotation when the fuel injection mode changes between two modes by prohibiting the interpolation of two map search values, and employing ignition timing maps which provide map values that are discontinuous to each other for a load and have a relatively large crank angle difference near the boundary of load ranges. However, an increase in torque resulting from an advancing ignition timing is very small as compared with a difference between generated torques in the two modes, and is insufficient for restraining a torque step and sudden fluctuations in rotation. As a result, the operability is still susceptible to degradation due to the torque step and sudden fluctuations in rotation. In addition, since two map values near the boundary must be set to be discontinuous and have a relatively large crank angle difference in order to restrain the torque difference and sudden fluctuations in rotation, one map value must be set to a fairly retarded value, possibly resulting in a lower thermal efficiency and an exacerbated fuel economy.

Control apparatus and method and engine control unit for internal combustion engine


A process for triggering a heater (10) for motor vehicles having a data memory (16) in which a first computer (20) is connected via an Internet connection (22) to a second computer (24), and at the request of the first computer (20), the second computer (24) transmits a first heater operating data sequence (26) to the first computer (20). Then, the first computer (20) transmits a second heater operating data sequence (28) which is dependent on the first heater operating data sequence (26) to the data memory (16). The first and the second heater operating data sequences (26, 28) contain at least information about the number of starting processes permissible for the heater (10).

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a process for triggering a heater for motor vehicles.
2. Description of Related Art
In known processes for triggering heaters for motor vehicles, the heater is triggered either by a simple wireless remote control or a mobile telephone with suitable equipment. Thus, German Patent Application DE 100 19 895 A1 discloses a process for triggering an auxiliary motor vehicle device, especially an auxiliary motor vehicle heater, in which a WAP-enabled mobile telephone communicates with a computer via a mobile radio telephone network with an Internet interface. Software for triggering the auxiliary motor vehicle device runs on the computer, the computer communicating with the auxiliary motor vehicle device over the mobile radio telephone network.

Process for triggering a heater for motor vehicles


Roof trunk for motor vehicles which has a clamshell-like lid hinged to the preferably likewise clamshell-like trunk body, which in its closed state can be latched by a plurality of latches which are disposed on a longitudinally displaceable locking rod and which can engage in stationary catches. The lid is hinged to the trunk body at one of its short sides and can be joined at both longitudinal sides to the trunk body by a plurality of spaced latches, and the locking rods are connected at both longitudinal sides to a common actuating mechanism through corner-turning devices.

The invention relates to a roof trunk with a preferably clam-shell-like lid which is hinged to a likewise clamshell-like trunk body and which can be locked in its closed position by a plurality of latches disposed on a longitudinally displaceable locking rod and engaging stationary catches.
In conventional roof trunks of the kind described above, the hinging of the lid to the body is provided on one of the longitudinal sides that run along the roof of the vehicle parallel to the longitudinal axis of the car. The latches are disposed on the opposite longitudinal side and so, accordingly, is the lock that controls them.
This arrangement has the disadvantage, among others, that the roof trunk can be loaded only from one side.
The invention is therefore addressed to the problem of designing a roof trunk such that it will be conveniently accessible from both sides when open, while simultaneously providing great security against theft when locked.
To solve this problem, provision is made according to the invention for the lid to be hinged to the trunk body on one of its short sides and for it to be fastenable to the trunk body on both longitudinal sides by a plurality of catches disposed at intervals, and for the locking rods on the two longitudinal sides to be connected by corner-turning means to a common actuating means.
On account of the configuration in accordance with the invention, when the lid is opened the trunk body is accessible from the two longitudinal sides and the other side, so that the roof trunk can be loaded and unloaded much more easily. Likewise the multiple latching in each of the longitudinal sides provides an especially secure lock, which can still be released by a manual operation the same as in the past, due to the linking together of the two locking rods.
Although the actuating mechanism could also be disposed in one of the side walls, especially the free short side of the trunk body, as is common in the roof trunks known heretofore, a further development of the invention has proven to be especially desirable in which the actuating mechanism includes a folding handle disposed under the bottom of the trunk body in the area of the short side opposite the hinge side of the lid, the shaft of the handle passing sealingly through the bottom and bearing a rocking lever to whose extremities transverse links are articulated which are connected each by a rotatably mounted bell crank to one of the lock rods.
Through this arrangement of the handle under the bottom of the roof trunk a large, easily operated handle can be provided and the locking does not have to be performed, as in the roof trunks known heretofore, by means of the small safety key whose rotary movement results in the displacement of the lock rod. Disposing the handle on the bottom makes it more easily accessible than if it were to be disposed on the short side, and finally it also becomes advantageously possible to swing the handle away so as to be almost invisible when in the normal nonworking position because it is linked pivotingly to the shaft so that it can be swung back and forth between a working position aligned with the shaft and a lockable non-working position folded against the trunk bottom.
An especially good locking action is achieved in further development of the invention if the latches are pins engaging hooks in the lid and riveted onto the locking rods, and, to prevent damage to the articles contained in the trunk and reduce the danger of injury when loading and unloading, guards opening upward and toward the narrow sides are to be fastened at the longitudinal inner sides of hte trunk body, to accommodate the hooks on the lid as well as the pins when the trunk is closed.
Other advantages, features and details of the invention will be found in the following description of an embodiment and in the accompanying drawings.


Apparatus and method for activating a passive entry system. The motion detector can include a latch input lever, a switch, and a damper. The damper can provide more resistance to the latch input lever in order to transfer motion to the switch in response to fast movement of the door handle. In some embodiments, the motion detector can include a switch actuator, a notched lever, and a switch. Movement of the notched lever can cause the switch actuator to contact the switch. In other embodiments, the motion detector can include a switch actuator, a notched lever, and a magnetic sensor switch. The magnetic sensor switch can include a magnetic switch member that moves in response to a second end of the switch actuator in order to complete a circuit to the passive entry system.

Vehicles having a passive entry system require a means of determining when an operator of the vehicle has approached the vehicle and wants to begin the electronic authorization process. A sensor or switch mounted on or near the outside door handle may require the operator to touch or pull the handle to begin the authorization process. When the operator touches or pulls the handle, the sensor sends a signal to a control unit in the vehicle to begin the authorization process. If the operator is authorized to enter the vehicle, an unlock signal is sent to the latch and the door can be opened.
For the passive entry system to feel responsive, the steps of the authorization process must be accomplished quickly. Since the handle switch or sensor is the first step of the passive entry sequence, it is important for the switch or sensor to detect the presence of the operator as soon in the cycle as possible. Several methods can be used to achieve these results. One type of system uses a non-contact sensor to detect the near presence of an operator's hand before it contacts the door handle. This first type of system has a cycle time advantage, but comes at a cost premium. A second type of system uses a sensor to detect the presence of the operator when the operator touches the door handle. This second type of system begins to wake up the passive entry system before the operator begins to move the door handle. This second type of system has a slight time cycle advantage, but also comes at a cost premium. A third type of system uses a simple switch that detects the initial movement of the door handle once the operator begins to pull it. This third type of system must wait for actual movement of the door handle to begin the authorization process, but has a large cost advantage over the other two systems.
Each of the methods described above assumes that the sensor or switch is mounted on or near the outside door handle. Significant cost is added to the manufacturing of the vehicle when the sensor or switch is mounted on or near the outside door handle, because a separate wire harness and connector are required to provide power to and from the sensor or switch. Specially-equipped door handles are required and may require additional suppliers.


The present invention relates to a Workflow Management System or a computer system with comparable functionality (WFMS). More particularly the invention relates to a method or means for generating a runtime compliant partner process for a given original process, wherein both processes are dedicated to interact with each other. In order to provide a method for generating a runtime compliant partner process for a given original process, which is easier understandable for a process developer, it is proposed to perform the steps of:    Step 1: Identifying all activities of the original process interacting with the partner process,    Step 2: Determining if an activity is able to be mirrored by a mechanism supported by the business process language, e.g. BPEL,    Step 2.1: If yes, generating the mirrored activity and creating a respective activity name,    Step 2.1: If not, using a predetermined mathematical method for dissecting such an activity that into a set of sub-activities, which can be mirrored,    Step 2.2.1: Generating a respective mirrored sub-activity and creating a respective activity name for each sub-activity,    Step 2.2.2: Arranging the mirrored sub-activities according to the outcome of the predetermined mathematical method.

Workflow Management Systems (WFMS) support the development, execution and monitoring of business processes. A business process specifies a set of work items and their dependencies along with required resources and assigned roles. Within a WFMS environment, the execution of work items is triggered and monitored by the workflow engine, and even performed automatically for some work items—whereas the individual pieces of work might be distributed across a multitude of different computer systems connected by some type of network.
IBM® WebSphere® Business Process Choreographer represents such a typical modern, sophisticated, and powerful workflow management system. It supports the definition of business processes as a process graph via a graphical editor, while using an underlying flow definition language, such as Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS). In this language, the actual work items are externalized as Web Services, accessible via standardized interfaces that are specified by help of the Web Services Definition Language (WSDL).
Since 2002, the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS) is in the very act of becoming the industrial standard for describing distributed business processes. On the one hand, a BPEL business process is a Web service. On the other hand, a BPEL business process interacts with one or more other Web services, which again can be business processes. Such a Web service is called partner of the BPEL process. Each Web service plays a role in a distributed business transaction, i.e. Buyer and Seller, or Producer and Supplier. Given a BPEL business process, in many cases it is useful to generate a 'blueprint' process for the other side, which has assured properties like i.e. behavioral compatibility.
The general challenge is to guarantee behavioral compatibility [c.f. Axel Martens: Analyzing Web Service based Business Processes. In: Proc. of Intl. Conf. on Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering (FASE'05), LNCS 3442, Springer-Verlag] between two interacting processes in an early design period, particularly in situations in which the original process exists already, and the partner process is in a development phase. To illustrate the underlying problem of behavioral compatibility, FIG. 1 depicts a situation wherein two BPEL processes do not work together well although the interfaces between both processes are perfectly compatible.
In more detail, in FIG. 1, the original BPEL process 200 at the right side interacts with a partner process 100 on the left side. The original BPEL process defines a sequence 205 of three activities: receiving the login data 210, making an internal decision 215, and returning the delivery data. The decision distinguishes two cases 220, 225. Each case implements the parallel execution (i.e. 230) of two sequences (i.e. 240, 255), in which also interaction happens. The interaction to the partner is realized via two interfaces 90, 95, which together form a partner link.
The partner process 100 shown on the left side just mirrors the structure of the original BPEL process. After sending the login data 110, the partner makes a decision 115 on its own to act like a premium customer 120 or like a regular customer 125. While his decision is not synchronized with the decision of the original BPEL process, it is crucial to the interaction. Let's assume the partner 100 acts like a premium customer: He sends terms of payment and order, and awaits discount information 150 and confirmation 165. The original BPEL process, however, might treat him like a regular customer 225 because he might have lost his status because it was too long since he last ordered. In that case 235, it acknowledges the order 290 with the standard business conditions (SBC) 295 and awaits the payment 275. Now, both of the processes are waiting and none can continue on its own—a classical deadlock situation. In the result, the behavior of both BPEL processes is not compatible.
Generating a behaviorally compatible partner process is a non-trivial task. A straight-forward approach could possibly be seen in a structural, pure BPEL-based method. The main idea is to analyze the original process' structure and to reflect it. In the end, this yields a so-called "mirrored" partner process, like the one shown in FIG. 1. While this approach would be based on static mapping rules of all BPEL activities, it does not always generate a compatible partner process as the initial example of FIG. 1 has proven.
A second approach is referred to as "communicational" method and is based on a formal, mathematical analysis of the process model. Some details are given in FIG. 2 which shows a block diagram representation of the basic steps of the latter-mentioned prior art partner process generation method. Such prior art method is published at [Axel Martens: Analysis and re-engineering of Web Services. In: Proc. of 6th Intl. Conf. on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS'04), Porto, Portugal].
In step A the original process 200 is transformed into a formal input representation 320 as for example Petri Nets, or π-Calculus. This representation is intermediary in nature. It describes formally the internal logic of the original process, and its externally visible communication behavior.
In step B2 the communication behavior of the formal input representation 320 is analyzed. This yields the communication graph that contains all possible sequences of input and output messages that may occur in the given process—the communication model 330 of the given BPEL process. Because some of those possible communication sequences might yield unwanted situations (like deadlocks, c.f. FIG. 1), the partner to generate should avoid those unsound sequences.
In step C the communication graph is restricted and projected to usable behavior. This yields to a sub-graph that represents a controller model 340 for the given BPEL process. Finally, in step D, the controller model, which is a graph, has to be transformed into a process model. The prior art method does perform a generation of a formal process model representation 345, but it does not bridge the gap to the target language BPEL.
On the level of formal process model representations, the communicational method can be proven to produce behaviorally compatible processes—in contrast to the previously mentioned structural method. However, it will consider actually all possible sequences of communication activities. To illustrate that drawback: For a number of 12 communication activities in the original process, there are 12!=47,900,1600 possibilities to order them. The complexity to order the activities of two parallel sequences of the length 8 has an order of 48=65,536. Hence, the method often will yield a partner process that is often too complex to be easily understood by the partner, making it rather hard to refine it, since the process logic might be "distributed" in the generated partner process. This can be assumed to be caused by the mathematical algorithm used within the method. Thus, this prior art method has significant disadvantages for the developer and is not widely accepted, when developing a partner process.
It is thus an objective of the present invention to provide a method for generating a runtime compliant partner process for a given original process, which is easier understandable for a process developer.

Generating compatible partner processes in BPEL

International Business Machines Corporation


Apparatus for performing an automatic focus/exposure operation for a camera includes a drive member driven by a motor, a distance member for driving a lens focusing mechanism during a lens focusing operation in correspondence with movement of the drive member in a first direction, a retaining pawl for engaging the distance member means to prevent reverse movement of the distance member means upon completion of the lens focusing operation, and a blade opening/closing mechanism for opening blades during an exposure operation when the drive member moves in a second direction which is opposite to the first direction of the focusing operation, the blade opening/closing mechanism shifting the exposure operation quickly upon completion of the lens focusing operation.

The present invention relates to an automatic focus/exposure operating apparatus for a camera.
A conventional automatic focus/exposure operating apparatus for a camera, for instance, one disclosed in the specification and drawings of Japanese Utility Model Application No. 20793/1988, which is an earlier application filed by the present applicant, is known.
This prior-art automatic focus/exposure operating apparatus for a camera is so arranged as to be capable of shifting speedily to an exposure operation upon completion of a focussing operation of a camera, with the result that wasteful time between the lens driving and a blade opening/closing operation is shortened appreciably, thereby making it possible to provide an automatic focus/exposure operating apparatus for a camera which is suited for quick photographing and the like.
However, with the above-described prior art, the structure is such that reverse movement of a distance member after a focusing operation thereof is prevented, when a retaining pawl is engaged with a ratchet tooth of the distance member, and the blade opening/closing mechanism is adapted to operate in such a manner as to open the blades provided at the shutter opening when a driving member moves a predetermined amount in an opposite direction on the basis of an exposure detection value after the focusing operation of the distance member. Accordingly, a phase difference unavoidable occurs between the time of completion of the focusing operation of the distance member and the time of engagement of the ratchet tooth and the engaging pawl. Hence, there is a problem in that, depending on the degree of the phase difference, an error arises in an exposure which causes the blade opening/closing mechanism to open the blades.
In addition, if an attempt is made to solve the problem mechanically in such a manner as to stop the distance member immediately upon completion of the focusing operation without causing any deviation in its position so as to prevent that error, there is a drawback in that the apparatus becomes complicated, and higher costs result.

Automatic focus/exposure operation apparatus for camera


A culturing system and method particularly useful for producing cellular products such as viral pathogens of cells. It includes a mass transfer culture segment, stacked filter plates to adjust the medium composition, and a product removal and concentration segment. The mass transfer culture segment utilizes changed directional flow of the medium to maximize cell growth and production of product. The stacked filter plates allow addition of sterile fresh medium and removal of growth inhibitory substances.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device and method for culturing pathogenic microorganisms and viruses to conserve laboratory space and avoid contamination of the culture and release of pathogens into the environment. In particular, this device pertains to a device and method for obtaining large volumes of pathogenic viruses such as the AIDS virus in a closed culture system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pathogenic animal viruses, such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the rabies and herpes viruses, and pathogenic bacteria such as Neisseria meningiditis and Mycobacteria avium must be studied with extreme precaution to avoid spread of the virus and contamination of workers and research areas. In the following discussion of viruses, it is understood that other pathogens may be handled in analogous fashion. The problem is that in order to study these viruses, large quantities of viruses and large volumes of virus extracts must be prepared and isolated from growth media and contaminating cells, microbes and debris. Although other pathogens, such as pathogenic bacteria or yeasts do not usually require such large volumes of cell growth as are required for viruses to obtain sufficient material for study, the cells must also be cultured in quantity and handled with great care to avoid worker exposure and accidental release of the organisms.
Microbial cellular pathogens of animals such as cellular viruses generally must be cultured in growing animal cell cultures. The standard method to culture such cells is by the use of roller bottles. Roller bottles are coated on the inside by a layer of solid or semi-solid growth substrate bathed by a nutrient medium on which the cells are grown. The cell growth in roller bottles and similar growth vessels, and thus, the viral yield, are limited by the the internal surface area of the glass or plastic bottle and by the nutrients in the nutrient medium. To obtain the large scale viral yields that are necessary to study viruses, the number of roller bottles needed may often fill shelves that extend from wall to wall and floor to ceiling in several growth rooms. This requires that large areas of laboratory space be allocated for incubation facilities and often necessitates construction and/or room conversion and attendant delays for those beginning to do research in this area.
The processes of preparing the large number of roller bottles, inoculating them with infected cells, incubating them under the appropriate conditions, extracting the viruses from the individual bottles, concentrating the viral suspensions, and lysing the viruses to obtain non-pathogenic viral extracts for research also are time-consuming and expensive. The numerous complicated manual manipulations required in these procedures allow many opportunities for mistakes to occur and problems to develop. Errors by the laboratory workers may result in unwarranted experimental conclusions and/or increased expenses and delays occasioned by the repeated experiments.
The multiple experimental steps involving opening of the roller bottles and the multiple number of roller bottles required increases the likelihood that some of the human host cells will be contaminated by undesirable microorganisms or viruses that may kill the host cells. This may decrease viral production of the system being studied or complicate extraction of the desired virus components from the culture.
The large volumes of viral suspensions produced in the existing culture systems necessitates a massive time-consuming effort of viral harvesting. The dilute viral suspensions that are obtained from the prior culture systems are difficult to treat effectively to lyse the viruses until the suspension has been concentrated. Thus, in a typical procedure, these large volumes of infective viruses must be placed in centrifuge tubes. The supernatant fluid must be decanted, with the possibility of resuspension of the infective particles, and the pellet must then be treated to lyse the viruses.
Thus, the numerous manual procedures that are required by the prior art increases the possibility of escape of some of the pathogenic virus particles from the culture system and their release from the laboratory into the environment. It is of the highest priority that the release of pathogenic viruses such as the AIDS virus be avoided.
Mass transfer operations are often used to attempt to solve some of the problems of growing a large number of cells that are associated with culture systems such as roller bottles. In the mass transfer chamber, a biological medium may be on one side of a mass transfer surface element and the medium to which or from which mass transfer is to be effected is disposed on the opposite side of the element. Counterflow of the two media past each other effects diffusional and/or osmotic mass transfer. Problems in the prior art, which include reduction of mass transfer after prolonged operation of a mass transfer element, longitudinal decrease of mass transfer efficiency due to fouling of mass transfer surfaces, and presence of undesirable micro-environments and areas of preferential cell growth, are substantially avoided with the cell culturing system disclosed in my copending patent application U.S. Ser. No. 06/936,486 filed Nov. 26, 1986, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. This system may be used to culture cells continuously on cellular or microbead substrates with a minimum of risk.
In the culture of host cells to produce progeny viruses, even with optimized mass cell culturing systems, there remain problems of handling the culture fluid containing the viruses that is being circulated through the system. Inhibitory substances of various sizes must be removed from the media without removing the viruses to allow cell growth to continue and viral concentration to increase. There also must be a way to add new medium in order to allow cell growth to continue without increasing the volume of the culture medium that contains the virus. These purposes may be accomplished by use of the stacked filter train disclosed in my copending patent application U.S. Ser. No. 07/104,177, filed Oct. 2, 1987, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, which allows media to be added or wastes to be withdrawn from a cell culture system without contamination of the system or the operator.
Even with the prior art technology, the problems remain of finding a method of culture of the cells to maximize virus yield; an arrangement of culture vessel apparatus and stacked filter train(s) to allow optimal recovery of viruses without excessive contamination by metabolites, medium components, cell debris, or other unwanted materials; and most importantly, a means by which viruses may be concentrated and lysed without causing them to be removed from the culture system to avoid all handling of the pathogenic viruses after the initial inoculation of the system.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for effecting increased cell growth and pathogen yield in which release of infective pathogens is avoided.
It is another object of the invention to provided an improved method and apparatus for effecting increased cell growth and pathogen yield in which the infective pathogentacre not handled by laboratory personnel after the original inoculation with the infected cells.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for effecting increased cell growth and pathogen yield by aseptic removal of spent medium components.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for effecting increased growth and pathogen yield by aseptic addition of nutrients.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for effecting increased pathogen yield that occupies a minimum of laboratory space and does not require construction of special rooms or buildings.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for concentrating pathogen suspensions such as viral suspensions for subsequent lysis without requiring handling large volumes of infective pathogens.
It is another object of the invention to provide a cost-reducing method and apparatus for effecting increased cell growth and pathogen yield.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a sealed virus-tight, unified, preassembled apparatus for aseptically growing pathogens, monitoring and adjusting medium components, harvesting the pathogens from the medium, rendering the pathogens harmless and obtaining unhazardous pathogens or pathogen components.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be more fully apparent from the following disclosure and appended claims.

Cross-flow filtration and culture method


A dehumidification system for removing water vapor from the within the envelope of an airship comprises a pressurizer valve, a blower and a dehumidifier attached to the airship. The pressurizer valve releases air from the envelope and directs the air to the blower. The blower forces the air through the dehumidifier where the air is dried to a desired dew point. The dried air is then forced back into the envelope of the airship, thus reducing the weight of the airship and reducing the amount of condensate that may form during an ascent.

As an airship moves between ground level and high altitude, various thermal changes are encountered due to the fact that external atmospheric temperature decreases as altitude increases. Thus, as the airship ascends from ground level, the temperature decreases resulting in a cooling of the walls of the hull or envelope of the airship. The rate at which the temperature decreases with increased altitude is referred to as the temperature lapse rate. As the walls of the hull decrease in temperature, sites for water condensation are created. Furthermore, as the air within the envelope continues to cool down to its dew point temperature, the water vapor in the air contained in the hull of the airship begins to condense into water. As this condensed water accumulates it may contribute to several unwanted problems discussed below.
To control the descent and ascent of an airship, conventional airships generally use ballonets or storage balloons contained within the envelope of the conventional airship. These ballonets separate the helium volume of the airship from the air volume. In addition, the ballonets, which have a much smaller volume than that of the envelope, inflate and deflate with air to control the trim and buoyancy of the airship. In fact, during descent of the airship from altitude, atmospheric air, external to the airship, is blown into the ballonets to bring the airship to the ground. Thus, conventional airships, because of the relatively small size of the ballonets, have a small quantity of air that includes water vapor. As such, the water vapor contributes only a small percentage of potential additional weight to the payload of the conventional airship. Since conventional airships and aerostats fly at relatively low altitudes, the change in temperature due to the temperature lapse rate is relatively small, which minimizes the amount of water condensation that forms on the interior surfaces of the air volume of the hull, and reduces the formation of ice fog within the air volumes of the hull as well.
In contrast to a conventional airship, the hull or envelope of a high altitude airship has a much larger air volume than that of the ballonets of a conventional airship. For example, the envelope of a high altitude airship may be on the order of five million cubic feet. In further contrast to the conventional airship, the high altitude airship will experience an extreme decrease in external air temperature due to the temperature lapse rate as it ascends from ground level to flight altitude. In similar fashion to a conventional airship, the high altitude airship uses external atmospheric air that is blown into the envelope to decrease buoyancy, causing the high altitude airship to descend. As the high altitude airship descends and intakes external ambient air, the water content of the air represents a significant mass addition, if condensed.
Water vapor within the hull of the airship may condense into either liquid or solid form in several manners, as the external air temperature decreases during the ascent of the airship. For example, water can condense on the inside surface of the hull or envelope of the airship, as the envelope temperature decreases due to the change in external air temperature and radiation of heat from the hull. As the internal surface of the envelope cools below the dew point or frost point of the internal air volume, liquid water or ice will form on the inside surfaces of the envelope. This can occur on the surfaces of structures mounted to the envelope of the airship that are exposed to the internal air volume, such as air blowers, air valves, check valves and air sensors. In addition, in the bulk internal air volume of the envelope, water can condense in the form of liquid water droplets. These water droplets tend to settle out on the internal surfaces of the envelope in liquid form. Yet another manner in which water can condense within the envelope of the high altitude airship is in the form of ice crystals. The formation of ice crystals occurs when the internal water partial pressure and air temperature are such that the water can convert directly (sublimate) from its vapor phase to its solid phase in the form of extremely fine ice crystals, sometimes referred to as ice fog. It should be noted that the ice crystals of ice fog tend to remain suspended in the air volume of the envelope of the airship.
High altitude airships may use a number of cells within the envelope to separate the lifting gas, such as helium, from the air that is used to maintain the shape and rigidity of the airship at altitudes below flight altitude, and to control the buoyancy of the airship to perform ascents and descents. The cells comprise a flexible and pliable material used to retain the lifting gas in discrete regions. As the high altitude airship ascends and descends, the material of the cells deflates or inflates in accordance with the change in altitude of the high altitude airship. Thus, during an ascent, the flexible and pliable material of the cells changes shape, which may result in the trapping of condensed water between the material of the cell and the inner wall of the envelope of the high altitude airship. This entrapped water may be in the form of ice or liquid that condensed upon the interior surfaces of the envelope or other components of the airship, or that has formed in the bulk air volume of the envelope and has settled onto the interior surfaces thereof. Furthermore, because of the large volume of air contained in the envelope, a large quantity of water may be condensed and trapped. Because of the trapping, the water cannot be easily evacuated out of the envelope through the various air valves carried by the envelope. Without any means of evacuating the trapped water, the water may continue to accumulate within the envelope, adding a significant amount of additional weight to the high altitude airship. Moreover, as the high altitude airship continues to ascend, the trapped water may freeze to form ice, which is very difficult to remove from the envelope.
This water content, if allowed to condense within the envelope of the airship during an ascent, could become entrapped and create several potential problems that may affect airship performance. For example, the entrapped water mass may reduce the payload capacity of the airship, reduce the flight altitude of the airship, and/or adversely affect the trim of the airship. Furthermore, the entrapped water can form ice that may interfere with the proper operation of the air pressurization blowers, vent valves, check valves and sensors. Moreover, an uncertainty in the altitude, performance, trim, and control of the airship will result because the mass of the entrapped water will continually vary due to the environmental fluctuations of the ambient external air used within the envelope of the airship.
Therefore, there is a need for a dehumidification system for an airship to prevent water condensation and ice formation within the envelope during ascent of the airship. And there is a need for a dehumidification system for an airship to reduce the amount of water vapor or humidity contained in the envelope of an airship prior to an ascent. Additionally, there is a need for a dehumidification system that is able to lower the dew point of the air contained within the envelope to a point where the water vapor in the air avoids the liquid phase, and sublimates into ice fog, which can be readily removed from the envelope of the airship.


A Watch (500) including a movement (200) with a tourbillon (100) including a carriage (1) pivotally mounted about a tourbillon axis (DT) with respect to a structure (300) and carrying a balance (2) pivoting about a balance axis (DB) and arranged to cooperate in a reciprocating motion with a stop device (3) pivotally mounted on this carriage (1), and wherein this tourbillon (100) includes a fixed magnet wheel (50) fixed to this structure (300) and comprising at least one continuous magnetic track and/or comprising a series of magnets, this magnetic track being arranged to cooperate by magnetic repulsion and/or attraction with at least one magnet (33) comprised in this stop device (3) in a reciprocating motion of this stop device (3) with respect to this fixed magnetic wheel (50).

Magnetic escapements substantially improve the efficiency of escapement mechanisms, improve isochronism and insensitivity to positions in the field of gravity, and contribute to better chronometric precision.
The insertion of a magnetic escapement in a tourbillon or a carrousel is advantageous. Indeed, the operating frequency of the tourbillon or carrousel may be higher than that of conventional tourbillons. This higher frequency provides higher chronometric precision. The escapement has a constant force in the tourbillon carriage and thus does not depend on the inertia of the carriage. The rate is therefore precise throughout the entire power reserve. All these chronometric advantages are combined with magnetic pivots which eliminate variations caused by gravity.
Swiss Patent No. CH00601/19 in the name of MONTRES BREGUET SA discloses a timepiece, which includes a tourbillon comprising a carriage which carries a balance/balance spring and a magnetic escapement device, this latter comprising an escape wheel set, formed of at least one annular magnetic structure, and also at least one magnetic element coupled to the magnetic structure and having a oscillating motion synchronous with the oscillation of the mechanical resonator. The magnetic escapement is arranged to alternately have energy accumulation phases, from the conversion of mechanical energy provided by the barrel into magnetic potential energy in the magnetic escapement, and phases of transferring energy accumulated in the magnetic escapement to the magnetic resonator. During the energy transfer phases, the magnetic element undergoes a radial magnetic force, relative to the axis of rotation of the escape wheel set, such that the magnetic escapement then converts into mechanical energy the magnetic potential energy accumulated in the preceding energy accumulation phase in order to maintain the oscillation of the mechanical resonator.

Timepiece movement comprising a tourbillon with a fixed magnetic wheel


Exercise apparatus, including treadmills having an endless loop belt driven by an electric motor to exercise the user, has a dual function common stop switch assembly at a singular location on a control console, which assembly has first and second switches each actuatable separately from each other to independently stop the exercise movement member such as a treadbelt. The construction eliminates separately located stop switches.

The invention relates to exercise apparatus having a user-engagable exercise movement member driven by an electric motor to exercise the user, for example treadmills and other types of exercise apparatus.
Treadmills are known in the prior art and typically have a user-engagable exercise movement member provided by an endless loop belt driven by an electric motor to exercise the user, e.g. walking or running. The motor is connectable to an electric power source, and energization of the motor is controlled at a control console having a keypad, a display screen, and the like, and further typically involving software based control functions enabling various routines and programs as selected by the user. The console typically includes a stop switch button manually depressible by the user to stop the treadmill by disconnecting the motor from the power source, including under software based control. The console also typically includes an emergency stop switch connected by a tether cord or lanyard to the user for stopping the treadmill in the event of a trip or fall by the user.
The noted two stop functions are performed by two separate switches and mechanisms on the front the console. It has been observed that some users can be confused by the presence of two stop switches, and may, for example, attempt to actuate the emergency stop switch for normal end-of-session stoppage or the like. The present invention provides a simple and effective solution, as well as other benefits and advantages.

Exercise apparatus with dual function common stop switch assembly


A fuel delivery rail assembly for supplying fuel to a plurality of fuel injectors in an engine is provided. The assembly comprises an elongated conduit and a plurality of sockets. The conduit has a four-wall section consisting of a single aluminum wall and three steel walls. Opposing steel walls are provided with cavities for receiving edges of the aluminum wall. Abutment portions between the aluminum wall and the steel walls are mechanically shrinked from outside and combined tightly. The sockets are integrally formed with the aluminum wall through an aluminum die casting process. The steel walls can be made from a high damping steel element.

This invention relates to a fuel delivery rail assembly for an internal combustion engine, especially for an automotive engine, equipped with a fuel injection system. The fuel delivery rail assembly delivers pressurized fuel supplied from a fuel pump toward intake passages or chambers via associated fuel injectors. The assembly is used to simplify installation of the fuel injectors and the fuel supply passages on the engine.
An example of a fuel delivery rail assembly having a rectangular section is shown in FIG. 5 of the drawings. In this assembly, an elongated conduct 71 is formed by a steel tube having a rectangular hollow section. To an end of the conduit 71, a fuel inlet pipe 77 for introducing gasoline fuel is secured, and to the other end of the conduit 71, a fuel return pipe 78 leading to an exit for residual fuel is secured, both pipes being welded to the conduit 71 by copper brazing. To the insides of the conduit 71 and the pipes 77, 78, a copper plating is coated for protecting the surfaces from rust and for keeping the fuel clean. At the intermediate portion of the conduit 71, four tubular sockets 74 are inserted into guide holes arranged within the bottom wall of the conduit 71 at predetermined intervals, and welded thereto by copper brazing. These sockets 74 are so formed as to receive associated tips of fuel injectors. The axial directions of the sockets should precisely line up in alignment with the respective axial direction of the injectors. Furthermore, pitch lengths between adjacent sockets should precisely coincide with the corresponding pitch lengths between associated injectors. One of the objects of the present invention is directed to these alignment problems as discussed in detail below.
On the aforementioned copper plating portions, a further coating is needed for preventing copper ion from dissolving in the fuel. Therefore, after the copper brazing and coating, a chemical plating (non-electrolytic plating) is applied to the all surfaces by coating thin metallic layers such as Ni-P or Sn. However, since the assembly is formed in a box shape, it takes a considerable time to let the plating liquid flow into the conduit and then drain away the conduit perfectly. Furthermore, a rotating action and an up and down action of the conduit are needed for draining residual air and liquid during the plating steps. Even if these actions are performed, it is difficult to eliminate plating defects caused by the remaining air and liquid. As a result, undesirable rust is generated from the plating defects. After the treatment, the residual plating liquid staying at the inside of the box-shape conduit is carried back to a container for renewal, whereby a liquid degradation and consumption are accelerated, resulting in an increase of plating liquid supply or recirculation steps.
Referring to the sockets 74, especially interior surfaces thereof should be smoothly finished in order to establish a fluid tight seal of an O-ring after accommodating the respective fuel injector. In manufacturing process of the metallic socket 74, many kinds of working steps are needed. For example, at first a rough fabrication is made by a forging work, and then it is machined to make a form, of the interior surface. Finally, the socket is finished with a burnishing machine until the predetermined smoothness is obtained. For making the socket 74, abovementioned many kinds of time-consuming working steps and transferring handlings are needed, resulting in an increase of manufacturing cost.
Furthermore, it has been found that this kind of fuel delivery rail assembly generates a special noise due to a vibration of itself caused by the associated engine.
In Japanese utility model public disclosure No. 107050/1984, there is disclosed a combined type fuel delivery rail assembly which comprises a conduit made from extruded aluminum material, and sockets and brackets made from other materials. However, the connected portion between the conduit and the socket tends to be separated therefrom, thereby causing a fuel leakage or breakdown.


A display device separates a size-reduced image into a plurality of sub-areas in such a manner that a sub-area farther away from the light sources becomes wider than a sub-area closer to the light sources; compares, in each of the sub-areas, the luminance values of each pixel in a direction perpendicular to the array direction; and selects a pixel having the greatest luminance value, thereby creating line information. The display device then compares a light distribution that is a synthesis of light radiation patterns of the light sources with a luminance distribution indicated by each line information and then adjusts the emission intensity of each of the light sources.

A liquid crystal display device includes a light control unit (liquid crystal panel) that can change the transmission state of light and also includes a light source (back light) that emits light toward the back surface of the light control unit. A liquid crystal display device turns on the light source and controls the transmittance of light irradiating the light control unit in accordance with the content of an image to be displayed so that a given image is displayed.
If an image to be displayed contains a black part, a liquid crystal display device sets the transmittance of light irradiating the black part to the lowest possible level; however, a light control unit does not block the amount of light emitted from the light source entirely. Therefore, a liquid crystal display device does not decrease the luminance of a black part to a value sufficiently low level and the contrast of a displayed image is decreased. Moreover, because a back light always irradiates with a luminance maintained at the same level, a large amount of power is consumed lighting the back light.
A technology that prevents a decrease in the contrast involves arranging multiple light sources on the back surface of a light control unit in a grid in such a manner that areas irradiated by their respective light sources are independent from each other and controlling the emission intensity of each of the light sources is in accordance with the image to be displayed (Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-258403 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-147573).


A method for cooling a generator. The method includes drawing air into a first zone of a housing through a first air intake, drawing air through a controller air intake adjacent a generator controller, directing air from the first zone into a second zone past a separator, drawing air into the second zone from both the first zone and the controller air intake, and exhausting air from the second zone to the exterior of the generator.

Generators are known for supplying electrical power in remote locations, locations where access to standard utility power is unavailable, and in emergency situations when standard utility power to an area may be temporarily out of service. Generators are available in many different configurations, and use many different types and sizes of engines, depending generally upon the amount of electrical power the generator is designed to provide. Some generators are portable and include a fuel tank for supplying fuel to the internal combustion engine, and a frame for supporting the engine, the alternator, and the fuel tank. Some frames include wheels to facilitate movement of the generator. Other generators are standby units that are permanently mounted near a home, business or other structure.
Generators generally have a frame construction or can be substantially enclosed in a housing. Some of the generator components, such as the alternator and the engine, each generate heat. However, other generator components, such as the controller, need to be kept cool. Enclosing the heat-generating components and the cool components in a single case can create issues for cooling the generator.


The present invention includes a method for improving operating efficiency of a hydraulic actuator loop and an improved hydraulic actuator loop. The method includes transferring hydraulic fluid between a first and a second hydraulic actuator when the actuators are disengaged from a load and transferring hydraulic fluid from an energy source to each of the actuators separately when the actuators engage the load. The method also includes transferring fluid from the energy source to the first actuator when the actuators are approaching the load and transferring fluid from the first actuator to a drain when the actuators are retracting from the load.

The present invention relates to an improved method for driving loads with hydraulic actuators.
Hydraulic actuators are used to convert energy such as is found in a pressurized fluid into mechanical motion that can displace a load. The mechanical motion includes a linear push or a pull that produces a change in elevation in a load. The mechanical motion also includes rotary and oscillatory motion.
One type of hydraulic actuator commonly used to provide a fixed length of linear motion is a linear cylindrical actuator. The linear cylindrical actuator includes a closed cylinder and a piston tightly fitted within the cylinder. The piston is attached to a rod extending from one end of the closed cylinder. The rod of the actuator engages and drives the load. The piston is fitted within the cylinder so that the piston can be pushed toward the load or away from the load in the cylinder in response to the rod engaging or disengaging the load.
The piston divides the closed cylinder into two sections, a section including the rod, a "rod section," and a section without the rod, a "rod-free" section. As the piston is moved toward the load, the rod section of the closed cylinder decreases in volume and the rod-free section increases in volume.
The piston is also pushed toward the load or away from the load by pressurized hydraulic fluid in at least one of the rod or rod-free sections of the closed cylinder. At least one of the rod and rod-free sections has a portal for a feed or exhaust of the pressurized hydraulic fluid. The pressurized hydraulic fluid fills at least one of the two cylinder sections through the portal. The hydraulic fluid is typically pressurized by a pump.
The pump is placed in communication with one or more cylindrical actuators by a piping network through which pressurized hydraulic fluid is transferred. One type of piping network is a parallel piping network. In the parallel piping network, a first and second actuating cylinder separately and concurrently receive fluid pressurized by the pump. For a situation where both of the actuators are engaging the same load, the actuators separately receive pressurized fluid through the portal in the rod-free section of each actuator to push the piston and rod of each actuator toward the load. The actuators separately and concurrently exhaust fluid from the rod-free section of each actuator into a tank to move the piston and rod of each actuator away from the load.
One disadvantage of the parallel, concurrent transmittal of hydraulic fluid is that when the pistons are moved toward the load by pressurized hydraulic fluid to cause the rods to approach but not to engage the load, the pressurized hydraulic fluid has an excess energy that is undesirably dissipated as heat. The excess energy arises because the hydraulic fluid is fully pressurized by the pump but the actuators are not engaging and driving a load. A generation of heat by the excess energy is undesirable because heat elevates the temperature of the hydraulic fluid beyond acceptable limits.
Another type of piping network is a series piping network. In a series piping network, pressurized hydraulic fluid is transferred from the pump to one of the sections of the first cylindrical actuator and then to one of the sections of the second cylindrical actuator. A series piping network reduces the volume of hydraulic fluid required to move pistons and rods of the actuators as compared to the parallel network. This is because the separate inlet and exhaust piping required for each actuator in the parallel network is not required in the series network. However, the series network requires that pump pressure be increased over what is required by a parallel network to move a given load. This is because the pump must pressurize a single long network of at least two actuators rather than the shorter separate parallel networks of each actuator.

Multiple hydraulic actuators with series/parallel operation

Viking Engineering & Development, Incorporated


In one aspect, devices for light treatment of skin are described herein. A device described herein, in some embodiments, comprises an interior compartment having a proximal end and a distal end, and an optical aperture disposed at the distal end. The device also comprises a laser or BBL source that produces a laser or BBL beam. The laser or BBL beam has a first optical path within the interior compartment, between the proximal end and the distal end. Additionally, the first optical path exits the interior compartment through the optical aperture. The device further comprises a camera that receives light from the aperture. The light received from the aperture has a second optical path within the interior compartment. Further, a selectively reflective optical element is disposed in the first and second optical paths. The selectively reflective optical element generally transmits the laser or BBL beam but generally reflects at least a portion of the light from the aperture toward the camera.

Many skin conditions can be treated with lasers. In general, laser light is selectively delivered to specific areas of the skin in such treatment methods. Selective and precise delivery of laser light to a specific area of skin can improve safety, increase treatment efficacy, and minimize adverse, undesired effects of treatment. However, in many treatments, target areas of skin are very small. For example, in some cases, target areas of skin have dimensions of less than one millimeter. Thus, laser treatment of skin often requires microscopically precise targeting of laser light. Unfortunately, many current laser treatment devices are not capable of such precise delivery of laser light to skin. There is accordingly a need for improved devices and methods for precisely delivering laser light to desired areas of skin.
In hyperhidrosis, an excess of sweating is observed in certain areas of the skin, including in the axilla, on the palms of the hands, and on the soles of the feet. One common way to address hyperhidrosis is the use of deodorants and/or antiperspirants. However, the action or effectiveness of deodorants and antiperspirants are often limited to several hours. Other existing treatment methods of hyperhidrosis include surgical removal of sweat glands from under the skin, application of a botulinum toxin, or destruction of sweat pores by the application of electromagnetic radiation in the microwave region of the spectrum. While these techniques can be effective in certain cases, these techniques can also suffer from one or more disadvantages. For example, the use of a botulinum toxin is currently not cleared for palms and soles, and treatment with a botulinum toxin provides only temporary relief of symptoms. As another example, the use of microwave radiation is associated with high tissue morbidity. Thus, there is a need for improved devices and methods for treating various skin conditions such as hyperhidrosis or unwanted hair, including in a manner that is safe, efficient, and/or permanent.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Devices for image-guided light treatment of skin