A multi-element rotor blade includes a main element and an active slat movable relative to the main element. The slat rotates and translates relative to the main element from a base position. The base position provides a compromise between minimum coefficient of drag CD and maximum coefficient of lift CLmax. In the advancing blade, since the airspeed thereof is significantly greater than the retreating blade, the slat is positively rotated from the base position to minimizes drag at low angles of attack. In the retreating blade, since the airspeed thereof is significantly lower than the advancing blade, the slat is negatively rotated and translated to maximize the coefficient of lift CLmax.

This invention was made with government support under Cooperative Agreement: NCC2-9016 for the Variable Geometry Advanced Rotor Technology program awarded by NASA. The government therefore has certain rights in this invention.
The present invention relates to an active multi-element rotor blade, and more particularly to controlling an active slat relative to a main element.
Multi-element airfoils are in common use on fixed wing aircraft. Such applications, however, are either in a fixed configuration or activate at relatively slow rates. In conventional applications, the aerodynamic flow environment is steady or quasi-steady.
Multi-element airfoil application to rotary-wing aircraft has concentrated upon the development of fixed elements which attempt to provide a compromise between achieving an average improvement to rotor disc lift and avoiding an unacceptable increase in drag. Such fixed elements provide numerous design challenges including the aerodynamic requirements from lower-speed, high angle of attack on the retreating side of the rotor disc to high speed, low angle of attack operation on the advancing side of the rotor disc. Current designs for high lift in the low speed regime suffer from unacceptable drag levels at high speed while current designs for low drag in the high-speed regime do not show sufficient benefits of increased lift in the low speed regime.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an active multi-element rotor blade airfoil which is configurable to maximize lift performance while minimizing drag in various flight regimes.
The present invention provides a multi-element rotor blade having a main element and an active slat movable relative to the main element. The slat rotates and translates relative to the main element from a base position. The base position provides a compromise between minimum coefficient of drag CD and maximum coefficient of lift CLmax. During forward flight a rotor blade will either be advancing or retreating such that the forward velocity is added to or subtracted from the rotor angular speed. For the advancing blade, the airspeed thereof is significantly greater than the retreating blade. Applicant has determined that a positive rotation of the slat pitch angle from the base position minimizes drag at low angles of attack, providing a coefficient of drag CD lower than a conventional single element rotor blade. For the retreating blade, the airspeed thereof is significantly lower than the advancing blade, Applicant has determined that negative rotation and translation of the slat maximizes the coefficient of lift CLmax.
In one control method, the slat is passively controlled in accordance with azimuth angle xcexa8. The slat is driven between low drag and maximum lift positions in a sinusoidal or other prescribed wave pattern which has a minimum amplitude near xcexa8=90 degrees and a maximum near xcexa8=270 degrees. That is, the slat is at the low drag position near xcexa8=90 degrees, at the maximum lift position near xcexa8=270 degrees and at the base position near xcexa8=0, 180, and 360 degrees per rotor revolution.
According to another control method, the slat is independently controlled by a controller which provides full independent slat control with a feedback system to drive the slat to calculated positions in accordance with an aircraft flight control system. That is, the slat is selectively actuated to a particular position according to the flight control system.
The present invention therefore provides an active multi-element rotor blade airfoil which is configurable to maximize lift performance while minimizing drag for all flight regimes.

Active control of multi-element rotor blade airfoils


A pneumatically controlled system for cleaning conveyor belts is provided which applies cleaning compounds such as detergents and chemicals to the belts through nozzles positioned between the belts. Following application of the cleaning compounds, a rinse cycle is then applied to remove dirt and residue from the conveyor belts, and the process is repeated at suitable intervals. The belt cleaning process may be carried out during normal production operations or after production hours.

This invention relates to a new and improved apparatus and process for cleaning conveyors using a pneumatically controlled, rather than an electrically controlled, cleaning system; which functions automatically; which reduces the amount of labor to use and service the equipment; and, which reduces the amount of cleaning compound employed in the process.
Conveyors commonly used in the food and packaging industries generally require continual cleaning for maintaining them in a sanitary condition, and this in turn necessitates the periodic application of various types of cleaning ingredients such as detergent, sanitizers such as bactericides, slimicides, etc. A frequent industry practice is to apply these cleaning ingredients to conveyors manually by means of high pressure hot water, and/or steam hoses, or with tank cleaning equipment, or both.
This industry practice is both cumbersome and dangerous and the system does not always adequately clean the underside of the conveyors. In addition, there is a tendency to overuse the cleaning ingredients, and the high pressure process can atomize the detergent and other cleaning ingredients causing exposure of personnel in the food or packaging plant, or these ingredients may be dispersed into the surrounding air, with a resultant exposure of the public.
In addition, electrical equipment used for conveyor components which are exposed to water, water vapor, steam, and/or vaporized cleaning ingredients, etc., may have its function impaired due to rusting, short circuiting, and the like.
It would be desireable to provide a conveyor cleaning system and method which avoids the use of electrical components, reduces the use of cleaning ingredients, provides a more effective cleaning operation, and reduces manpower requirements.

Apparatus and method for cleaning conveyors


An ophthalmology apparatus includes an apparatus body on which a first measurer and a second measurer are provided and which is movable relative to a base by a driver, a forehead support provided on the base, and a controller. The controller detects a first front position setting a distance between the second measurer and the forehead support as a first interval and a second front position setting a distance between the second measurer and the forehead support as a second interval larger than the first interval, and emits a warning when the apparatus body reaches the second front position in moving the apparatus body to a forehead support side and stops movement of the apparatus body to the forehead support side when the apparatus body reaches the first front position.

A compound-type ophthalmology apparatus including a first measurer set at a first setting working distance and a second measurer set at a second setting working distance shorter than the first setting working distance is proposed (for example, Patent Literature 1). The ophthalmology apparatus includes an intraocular pressure measurement device as the second measurer in which the second setting working distance has a very small value and a separate eye characteristic measurement device as the first measurer in which the first setting working distance has a relatively large value. In the ophthalmology apparatus, various measurements are executed by fitting a forehead of the subject to a forehead support to fix the face, that is, an inspected eye of the subject and by moving the first measurer or the second measurer to a position where measurement is adequately executed.
Here, in the compound-type ophthalmology apparatus as described above, there is an apparatus having a configuration in which the second measurer is integrally provided above the first measurer and the first measurer and the second measurer can be moved while maintaining a positional relationship therebetween. In such a compound-type ophthalmology apparatus, it is considered that the second measurer is configured to locate in front of the first measurer, that is, protrude to a subject side. This is because the arrangement makes it possible to prevent the first measurer from being in contact with the nose or mouth of the subject, or from giving an obstructive feeling to the subject even if there is no contact, when measuring the inspected eye by use of the second measurer which is upward positioned.


Establishing voice calls in an IP based VPN includes determining the relative location of a terminating point with respect to an originating point of a new communication containing the voice data, determining one or more IP addresses to egress the communication from the originating point to the terminating point, creating a VPN identifier in the new communication, passing the new communication to the terminating point and removing the VPN identifier from the new communication. The VPN identifier can be an extra field added to an encapsulation coding scheme of the voice data.

IP based PBX has gained acceptance and momentum in the market place of advanced, high speed communications. The architecture of an prior art IP-PBX system is seen in FIG. 1. The system 100 consists of a number of IP phones (101, 102, 103) which are connected to a local area network (LAN) 120. Connected to the LAN is a server 110 which provides control of the local telephony network. The server 110 communicates with IP phones (101, 102, 103) via IP messages, accepts call requests from the IP phones (101, 102, 103) and alerts the phones upon incoming calls. There are two common standards for this protocol: H.248 from the International Telephone Union (ITU) and Session Invitation Protocol (SIP) from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The intelligence of the system 100 resides in the server 110 which can provide enhanced services such as call waiting, call hold, call transfer and the like.
In IP-PBX, voice traffic is encapsulated inside IP packets and is carried between the IP phones using the LAN. For communications to phones in the public switched telephone network (PSTN), a gateway 130 is needed to convert the IP encapsulated voice traffic to the traditional time division multiplexed (TDM) format. The gateway 130 is also under control of the server 110 using H.248. The usual access protocol between the gateway 130 and the PSTN is ISDN PRI. Many traditional PBXs have been upgraded to have an IP interface to support IP phones. These PBXs are considered as IP-PBX in this convention.
As IP-PBXs are created, the need to connect all the PBXs within an enterprise together to form a corporate network exists (just as it did with respect to TDM based systems). An advantage in connecting two IP-based PBXs is that the voice traffic is already packetized. Direct packet-to-packet connectivity is desirable as there is no need to convert the voice packets to TDM and back to again. A packet to TDM gateway is not necessary for calls between the IP-PBXs. This results in cost reduction and improvement in the performance of the system, as this avoids costly packet to TDM conversion and vice versa.
In one of the approaches to interconnect IP-PBXs, the user subscribes to connection oriented packet services, such as frame relay and ATM permanent virtual circuit services, from a service provider (SP). The SP would only provide transport services for the packet and is not aware that the packets are voice packets. In an alternate approach in which the SP can provide added functionality, the SP would actively participate in the call signaling when a call is being in set up. In doing so, the SP can provide enhanced service at the request of the end-user on a call-by-call basis. As the SP network is aware of when calls are set up and torn-down, the service can be charged based on call duration. This may result in lower cost to the end-user, another benefit. In the TDM environment, this alternative is similar to the "Software Defined Network" services from the SPs where TDM based PBXs are connected to the SP's networking using the Primary Rate Interface (PRI) from the ISDN. We will refer to this alternative as VoIP-VPN.
The module in this network that handles call signaling from the user is commonly referred to as a soft-switch. Depending on the size of the network, a network may contain a number of soft-switches, which are interconnected. Call signaling messages route through a series of soft-switches in order to establish a call as it is more efficient to connect the IP PBXs through an IP network, without converting the voice traffic to TDM and back.
In the current state of the art, all the IP phones are assigned an IP address from the SP's IP address space. However, this is a major shortcoming. Most enterprises use their own IP addressing scheme in addressing their workstations and PCs. All IP-VPN services allow the customer to use their own IP address scheme. Customer would like any VoIP-VPN service to have the same capability, i.e, the IP phones can be assigned IP address from the customer IP address space instead of the SP's public IP address space. This capability is important as, in the future, that an IP phone would actually be part of a PC or workstation. In this case, it is paramount that the PC and the IP phone use the same IP address or, at least, use IP address from the same addressing space. This invention describes an innovative method to do this.

Method and apparatus for establishment and management of voice-over IP virtual private networks in IP-based communication systems


Disclosed is a method for fabricating a smoothly surfaced GaN substrate. A GaN substrate is polished with diamond slurries and then, with boron carbide plates. The irreversible damaged layer which is caused by the mechanical polishing is removed by reactive ion etching, after which the GaN substrate is thermally treated to revive the recoverable damaged layer which is owed to the reactive ion etching. The resulting GaN substrate has a sufficiently smooth surface to allow subsequent thin films of high quality to grow thereon. Based on the GaN substrate of the present invention, blue light elements with excellent properties can be fabricated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a method for fabricating GaN substrates and, more particularly, to the minimization of defects in GaN substrates, along with the method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, blue light elements utilizing GaN, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs), have been one subject of great interest for many researchers and are now in a mature commercialization phase. As a consequence, such light elements find numerous applications in large size, color flat panel displays, signal lamps, interior lamps, high density light sources, high definition printing systems, optical communication, etc.
The substrates useful in the blue light elements are made of bulk GaN which is obtained by hydride vapor phase epitaxy. This technique is evaluated as being useful in minimizing the defects caused by the thermal expansion difference and lattice mismatch between substrates and thin films deposited thereon.
In order to produce thin films of high quality, these substrates should provide suitable surfaces. However, there remains a need for an improved polishing or pretreatment process that is adapted to accomplish sufficiently flat surfaces.
Using a diamond slurry, plate, or paste, alone, for example, a polishing process is conventionally conducted on bulk GaN substrates. The polished surfaces of the GaN substrates, however, do not show desired surface roughness because there exists a great difference in hardness between the diamond used and the bulk GaN. With expectations to solve this problem, sufficiently small sizes of diamond particles were used to polish GaN substrates, but could not yet bring about sufficiently reduced surface roughness in the GaN substrates.
The resulting surface roughness leads subsequent thin films to three-dimensional growth, making it impossible to obtain thin films of high quality. Upon the mechanical polishing with diamond particles, in addition, there are formed damaged layers whose defects are, in their entirety, transferred to subsequent thin films so that the thin films of high quality cannot be achieved which are as low in defect density as desirable. Consequently, devices of high properties cannot be fabricated by such conventional techniques.


Systems and methods are described for fabricating a varying-waveguide optical fiber. In one described method, a preform is fabricated having a core and at least one cladding region. The cladding region has a higher viscosity and the core region has a lower viscosity. The relative viscosities of the cladding region and core are chosen such that, when tension is applied to an optical fiber drawn from the preform, the applied tension is primarily borne by the cladding region thereby causing a viscoelastic strain to be frozen into the cladding region, while creating a minimal viscoelastic strain in the core. The method further includes drawing the preform into an optical fiber under an applied tension, such that a viscoelastic strain is frozen into the cladding region the frozen-in viscoelastic strain decreasing the cladding region refractive index. The cladding region refractive index is changed in a section of the optical fiber by heating the section so as to relax the viscoelastic strain frozen into the cladding region in the section of fiber, thereby increasing the cladding region refractive index in the section of fiber.

The present invention relates generally to the field of fiber optics, and particularly to advantageous aspects of systems and methods for fabricating a varying waveguide optical fiber device.
Optical fibers are thin strands of glass material designed to carry optical signals long distances at high bandwidth. Optical fibers are typically cylindrically symmetric structures, including an inner core region and one or more distinct cladding regions outside the core region. As used herein, the terms xe2x80x9ccladdingxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ccladding regionxe2x80x9d refer generally to regions of an optical fiber outside of the core region. Depending upon the particular fiber design, a cladding region may not necessarily have an annular cross section and may not necessarily be radially symmetric. One or more of the core and cladding regions are typically doped with various chemicals at various concentrations to create a desired refractive index profile.
One device that is useful for a number of applications is an optical fiber having a refractive index profile that varies along its length. Various approaches have been developed to fabricate such a device. In one approach, the refractive index profile of an optical fiber is modified by altering the fiber diameter to produce a physical tapering of the fiber. In a second approach, dopants in an optical fiber are diffused to modify the fiber""s refractive index profile. In a third approach, an optical fiber""s refractive index profile is modified by irradiating the fiber with high intensity UV radiation.
However, there are a number of known disadvantages of the prior art. Depending upon the particular technique used, it may be difficult to obtain a desired change in refractive index in a short length of fiber. Also, it may be difficult to precisely control the modulation of the refractive index profile in a length of fiber.
Aspects of the present invention provide systems and methods for fabricating a varying-waveguide optical fiber. In one method according to an aspect of the invention, a preform is fabricated having a core and at least one cladding region. The cladding region has a higher viscosity and the core region has a lower viscosity. The relative viscosities of the cladding region and core are chosen such that, when tension is applied to an optical fiber drawn from the preform, the applied tension is primarily borne by the cladding region, thereby causing a viscoelastic strain to be frozen into the cladding region, the frozen-in viscoelastic strain decreasing the cladding region refractive index and producing a net change of the cladding region refractive index relative to the core refractive index. The method further includes drawing the preform into an optical fiber under an applied tension, such that a viscoelastic strain is frozen into the cladding region, the frozen-in viscoelastic strain decreasing the cladding region refractive index. The cladding region refractive index is changed in a section of the optical fiber by heating the section so as to relax the viscoelastic strain frozen into the cladding region in the section of fiber, thereby increasing the cladding region refractive index in the section of fiber. This heating may also cause a relaxation of elastic stresses frozen into the core region, thereby inducing small changes in the core refractive index.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent by reference to the following detailed description and accompanying drawings.

Systems and methods for fabricating varying waveguide optical fiber device


An image forming apparatus includes a charge roller with improved resistance to defects from prolonged periods of nonuse. The charge roller includes an outermost coating layer including a coating material and filler particles. The filler particles have an average particle size larger than an average thickness of the outermost coating layer in a portion without the filler particles. Furthermore, the filler particles are harder and have a higher glass transition temperature than the coating material.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure generally relates to imaging and, more particularly, to an imaging device having a charge roller with improved resistance to defects from prolonged periods of inactivity.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, there are two distinct types of charge rollers used in electrophotographic devices such as laser printers. The first type is a charge roller which includes a core material whose surface may be modified by ultraviolet irradiation or chemical treatment. The second type is a charge roller which includes a core material and one or more coating layers. These charge roll types can operate by means of DC type charging or AC plus DC type charging.
It is commonly known that a charge roller may generate defects in a printed image after prolonged static contact with a photoconductor drum, especially if the contact occurs at higher temperature and humidity such as during shipping and warehouse storage. These charge roller defects may be chemical or mechanical in nature and can result in print defects in a printed image of the electrophotographic device.
Chemical defects may be due to the migration or leaching of low molecular weight components of the charge roll core material which may attack the outer surface of the charge roller or the coating layer of the photoconductor drum. This chemical defect may be prevented by the addition of one or more coating layers to the surface of the charge roll core material, which functions as a barrier to prevent chemical migration from occurring.
Mechanical defects may be related to the formation of a dent or flat spot on the outer surface of the charge roller which may be due to the high contact pressure exerted between the charge roller and the photoconductor drum. The resulting print defect of this mechanical defect may be in the form of a repeating horizontal line in the printed image of the electrophotographic device. Furthermore, this mechanical defect may occur even to charge rollers applied with one or more coating layers.
Various separation devices have already been utilized to keep the charge rollers away from contact with the photoconductor drum during shipping or storage. This includes a shipping separator which prevents the charge roller and photoconductor drum from contact during shipping. However, this shipping separator fails to prevent contact of charge roller and photoconductor drum during long periods of electrophotographic device shutdown or power-off. Printers used in schools, for example, may be turned off for the entire summer. A mechanical retract mechanism may be utilized which would disengage the charge roller during power-off. However, this would entail an additional manufacturing and design cost.
A non-contact charge roller may be employed in the electrophotographic device. But this non-contact charge roller may be expensive to create and requires very tight tolerance control of the gap between charge roller and photoconductor drum. Further, this non-contact charge roller requires AC plus DC type charging, thus having a more expensive power supply cost than DC type charge rolls.
Based upon the foregoing, there is a need to provide a charge roller which may withstand relatively high contact pressure with the photoconductor drum even when exposed to relatively high temperature and humidity for an extended period of time. Furthermore, it is desired to have a charge roller that may be resistant to mechanical defects.

Charge roller for an image forming apparatus using hard filler particles


An object is to reduce a discharging time required for discharging residual charges of a capacitor. A power conversion device according to the present invention includes: an inverter circuit unit; a step-up circuit unit; a smoothing capacitor; and a step-up circuit control unit which controls the step-up circuit unit, wherein the step-up circuit unit has a first switching element, a second switching element connected electrically in series to the first switching element, and a reactor having a conducting current controlled by switching operation of the first switching element and the second switching element, and the step-up circuit control unit has a first control mode of controlling the switching operation of the first switching element and the second switching element by changing a duty command value and outputting a stepped up voltage from the step-up circuit unit, and a discharge control mode of discharging electric charges stored in the smoothing capacitor into the reactor, with the duty command value fixed to a predetermined value.

As environmentally-friendly vehicles, a hybrid vehicle and an electric vehicle are vehicles using, as a power source, a direct-current power supply, an inverter and a motor driven by the inverter in addition to a conventional engine. Specifically, a power source is obtained by driving an engine, as well as converting a direct-current voltage from a direct-current power supply into an alternating-current voltage by an inverter and rotating a motor by the converted alternating-current voltage. Additionally, an electric vehicle is a vehicle which uses, as a power source, a direct-current power supply, an inverter, and a motor driven by the inverter.
This inverter is provided with a capacitor for smoothing direct-current power from the direct-current power supply. The inverter needs to be provided with a discharging circuit function of discharging charges remaining in the capacitor after the inverter stops. The inverter is also provided with a step-up converter for stepping up a direct-current voltage from the direct-current power supply.
PTL 1 discloses that in a control device 30, residual charges of a capacitor C1 connected between a step-up converter and a direct-current power supply are consumed by step-up operation by the step-up converter and residual charges of a capacitor C2 connected between the step-up converter and an inverter circuit are consumed by step-down operation by the step-up converter.
However, it demanded to further reduce a discharging time required for discharging residual charges of a capacitor.


A data recovery unit (DRU) includes: an oscillator; a phase detector unit configured to receive a reference phase and to receive input data through N wires, where N is an integer, to compare the reference phase with the input data to obtain phase errors, and to determine an average of the phase errors; a subtractor to subtract an output of the oscillator from the average of the phase errors to obtain an unbiased phase error; a delay unit to receive the input data; and a sample selector configured to receive an output from the delay unit and the output of the oscillator, and to output recovered data.

The circuit depicted in FIG. 1 shows an exemplary fractional, oversampling based data recovery unit (DRU) 100. In this circuit (which receives at least one clock signal (CLK) 105), the phase generated by the digital voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), which is depicted as a numerically controlled oscillator (NCO) 110, is compared by a phase detector unit 120, at each clock cycle, with the phase of oversampled incoming data 130. The incoming data 130 is deserialized over N wires 140, as high speed DRUs typically operate in parallel. The phase error, which is filtered by a variable low pass filter (LPF) 150, is used to correct the frequency of the NCO 110, so that its phase tracks the phase of the incoming data. The sample selector (SS) 160 associates a numerical phase at each raw sample, and extracts the ones that are optimally located in an eye diagram. The SS 160 outputs at least one output data signal (DATAOUT) 190 and at least one enable signal (ENABLE) 195, which indicates which portions of output data signal 190 are the recovered data. The DRU bandwidth may be tuned by controlling the coefficients of the LPF 150.
In the illustrated example, the DRU 100 operates based on a negative feedback loop 180. In particular, the upper bound of the bandwidth at which the DRU 100 can be tuned to is limited by the amount of time (e.g., the processing time (PT) 170) it takes to calculate the control signal for the LPF 150 (e.g., signal "A") from the NCO 110 phase (e.g., signal "C") and the oversampled incoming data phase (e.g., signal "B"). This amount of processing time PT 170 increases as the datapath, which corresponds with the number N of wires, of the DRU 100 becomes wider. As integrated circuit technologies, such as the technology for field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), continue to improve, DRU may be required to have wider datapath. As an example, it is common today to have a datapath width equal to 80 and above, and a clock frequency for the DRU in the fabric equal to about 150 MHz. In some cases, the PT may be in the range of 10 clock cycles or more. In some cases, the serdes speed and standard protocol speed may be increasing faster than the fabric speed.
Many protocols today, such as the Serial ATA (SATA), DisplayPort, Universal Serial Bus (USB) 3, etc., require a receiver with a wide bandwidth to be able to cope with the wide spread spectrum clock (SSC) level and the high sinusoidal jitter (SJ), which is in the range of few megahertz (MHz). DisplayPort, for example, has a challenging requirement of 2 MHz. Minimizing the PT in order to meet the wide jitter tolerance requirements of these protocols is a challenge today, and it will become more difficult going forward as technology continues to improve.

Data recovery unit (DRU) based on free running oversampling with zero-latency loop


A method of modifying a substrate comprising an etching step comprising contacting one or more primary surfaces of a glass, glass-ceramic, or ceramic substrate with a solution for a time period of 20 minutes to 8 hours to generate one or more etched primary surfaces, the solution comprising over 10 percent by weight of one or more alkali hydroxides, the solution having a temperature within the range of 100° C. to 150° C., the substrate having a thickness between the primary surfaces that decreases during the time period by 5 μm to 100 μm at a rate of 2 μm per hour or greater. The solution of the etching step does not comprise hydrogen fluoride. The one or more alkali hydroxides of the solution of the etching step can be sodium hydroxide (NaOH), potassium hydroxide (KOH), or a combination of both sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide.

Glass, glass-ceramic, and ceramic substrates are often used as front and back covers for display devices such as liquid crystal display (LCD) screens, tablets, smartphones, OLEDs, and touch screens. These substrates are advantageous in these applications due to their scratch resistance, strength, and resistance to various liquids and chemicals. In addition, the roughness of the primary surface(s) of the substrate can be increased (sometimes referred to as "textured") to improve tactile feel, to improve grip, and reduce fingerprint visibility during use. After the primary surfaces are textured, however, these textured surfaces are typically contacted with a solution (sometimes referred to as an "etchant") that reduces the thickness of the substrate at the textured surfaces in a process sometimes referred to as "etching." The etching of the textured surfaces is designed to rehabilitate the strength of the substrate, which may have suffered due to the texturing of the primary surface(s). However, there is a problem in that the typical etching process utilizes hydrofluoric (HF) acid, which is costly to dispose of, or basic (high pH) solutions, that have thus far proven to etch the textured surfaces at a rate that is too slow for commercial manufacturing purposes.

Methods of reducing the thickness of textured glass, glass-ceramic, and ceramic articles with high concentration alkali hydroxide at elevated temperature


A method of programming an implantable medical device (IMD) configured to provide electrical stimulation via a plurality of stimulation vectors during delivery of the electrical stimulation of a plurality of pulse widths to a neural target. The method may comprise comparing strength-duration curve data for the plurality of stimulation vectors to one another, the strength-duration curve data representing, for respective pulse widths and stimulation vectors, a corresponding stimulation strength that evokes a physiological response associated with the neural target. The method may comprise selecting at least one stimulation vector of the plurality of stimulation vectors based on the comparison of the strength-duration curve data for the plurality of stimulation vectors. The method may comprise programming, in response to the selection, the IMD to deliver the electrical stimulation to the neural target via the selected at least one stimulation vector.

Various pathological neuromuscular conditions, including some that are resistant to first-line forms of treatment such as pharmaceuticals or lifestyle modifications, may be successfully treated by implantable medical devices (e.g., neurostimulation devices) that apply electrical stimulation in part to motor or sensory neurons. Some illustrative areas for which neurostimulation devices may provide successful therapy are pain, urinary and fecal incontinence (e.g., an inability to control bladder and bowel function, respectively). Those problems affect people of all ages, genders, and races. Various muscles, nerves, organs, and conduits within the pelvic floor cooperate to collect, store and release bladder and bowel contents. A variety of disorders may compromise urinary tract and bowel performance, and contribute to incontinence. Many of the disorders may be associated with aging, injury, or illness.
Urinary incontinence, or degree of urgency associated with incontinence, may originate from disorders of portions of the peripheral or central nervous system which control the bladder micturition reflex. Nerve disorders may also lead to overactive bladder activities and/or may prevent proper triggering and operation of the bladder. Furthermore, urinary incontinence may also result from improper communication between the nervous system and the urethra.
Sacral neuromodulation (SNM) at the third sacral foramen (S3) is an FDA-approved therapy for urinary urge incontinence, urgency-frequency and fecal incontinence. The generally recommended pulse width value for SNM is 210 microseconds (μs).

Stimulation vector selection using pulse width data


Switching devices control the rectification and flow of alternating current power from a source such as an alternator to a load such as a battery in response to both the voltage of the battery and a minimum selected time period that is selected to eliminate or reduce an imbalance between various phases or polarities in possible current carrying paths. The selected time period may be constant or a predetermined function of variables such as the speed of the alternator.

Outboard motors and recreational vehicles such as snowmobiles often have electrical systems including a permanent magnet alternator, a battery, various connected loads, and a solid state combination regulator rectifier to change the alternating current output of the alternator to a controlled DC current for maintaining the required charge on the battery. As these vehicles have become more sophisticated, the required electrical loads have in general increased and there has been a corresponding requirement to increase the current carrying capability of the regulators and increase the amount of current obtainable from a given size or weight alternator. Except in some very low power applications, the regulators are in general full wave rectification from either single phase or three phase permanent magnet alternators. Improvements in the alternator output have come recently from such technology as rare earth magnets. This has resulted in many alternator windings running near the upper limit of a temperature capability of the insulation systems of the magnet wire. Regulators commonly used in this type of system include solid state switches, such as silicon control rectifiers and diodes, used to control the current flow from the alternator to the battery and load. These components and the alternator winding must of course be sized so that when the alternator is producing full output, with the switching devices such as silicon control rectifiers always on when instantaneous circuit polarity is such that they can conduct, that both the alternator and the semi conductor components are within their current capabilities, or stated another way within the temperature capabilities of those components. A problem arises if the design of the regulator allows an imbalance in current between the various phases of a three-phase alternator or the positive and negative half cycles of a single-phase alternator.
It has been observed that a full wave rectified single phase alternator operating at high RPM can maintain as much, and in some cases even slightly more, average current output with one of the polarities disabled. In this extreme example, even though the average current to the battery and load remains approximately the same the average current through the switching device and diode that is still in operation is increased 2 to 1 and the true RMS current or effective heating value of the current through the alternator winding is also drastically increased. The forgoing results from an effective phase shift, resulting in conduction of greater than 180 degrees compared to the open circuit voltage waveform of the alternator. Whether a given combination of alternator and regulator operates with a reasonable balance between the possible conducting paths, i.e. polarity or phases, can be influenced greatly by the connected load and the condition or type of battery used. Typically, the manufacturer of a vehicle cannot control the load and the battery condition. Thus, even if initial testing indicated that components share loads as desired it is often found in vehicles at a later time, particularly where batteries may have been substituted or the original battery type deteriorated, that a severe imbalance in the load occurs between for instance the positive and negative half cycle of a full wave rectified single phase, or between the phases of a three phase alternator.


In a cellular phone 100, a directional coupler 20 provided between a transmitter for communication 32 and a duplexer 30 extracts a transmitted signal, and a detector 21 detects the signal and detects a transmission power level. Next, the comparator 22 compares a comparison level generated by a base voltage source 23 which generates a base voltage corresponding to a received field strength of a broadcast signal with an output level from the detector 21. When the output level exceeds the comparison level, the comparator generates a selection instruction signal of level ‘H,’ and switches a path so as to insert a filter between a TV receiving antenna ANT 1 and a TV receiver 13 using an input selection switch 10 and an output selection switch 12. Accordingly, deterioration of viewing quality due to suppressed sensitivity caused by transmission power of wireless communication can be prevented.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus, a reception control method and a recording medium having a function of receiving a broadcast.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a terrestrial digital TV broadcasting, a transmission band of approximately 6 MHz per channel is divided into 13 segments modulated by OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing), and the one segment at the center thereof is allocated for mobile receiving.
Recently, mobile communication terminal units such as cellular phones equipped with a function of receiving a program broadcasted in this segment have been developed. As an apparatus of this type, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) 2003-111004 discloses an art. More specifically, when a call is started because of generation of an incoming call during program viewing processing, the art starts processing of recording coded video and audio data of the program which is being viewed to SDRAM. Next, when the call is terminated, the art starts reading out the coded video and audio data at the start of the call from the SDRAM, and chases and replays the data while continuing the processing of recording.
Meanwhile, the terrestrial digital TV broadcasting uses a broadcast band ranging from 470 MHz to 770 MHz, which is adjacent to the transmitting frequency of the cellular phones. Accordingly, in the case where a cellular phone transmits wirelessly for communicating with a base station while a TV receiver mounted with a cellular phone is receiving a program, the transmission power suppresses sensitivity of the TV receiver, thereby decreasing receive sensitivity which leads to deterioration of viewing quality.
To avoid such a program, it is possible to provide a filter for attenuating a transmitted wave from the cellular phone in the TV receiver side.
However, a broadcast band used by the terrestrial digital TV broadcasting and a transmitting frequency used by the cellular phone are adjacent to each other, as described above. Therefore, there is a problem of decrease in receive sensitivity due to filter insertion loss, particularly in a high-frequency channel for terrestrial digital TV broadcasting.

Electronic apparatus, reception control method and recording medium


Methods and devices for radio frequency (RF) loopback for transceivers are described. A transceiver for communicating RF signals with a target device may transmit signals at a transmit frequency and receive signals at a (different) receive frequency. The transceiver may include a waveguide diplexer for separating and combining signals based on frequency. The transceiver may be configured to couple a loopback signal from a common port of the waveguide diplexer; the loopback signal may be based on a transmit signal. The transceiver may include a loopback translator to translate the loopback signal from the transmit frequency to the receive frequency and provide the translated loopback signal to a receiver used for receiving signals from the target device. The receiver may compare the translated loopback signal with a representation of the transmit signal to generate a compensation signal. A transmitter may use the compensation signal to adjust subsequent transmit signals.

The following relates generally to transceivers for radio frequency communications, and more specifically to radio frequency loopback for transceivers.
Many communication systems include radio frequency (RF) transmissions between a target device and a terminal. For example, radio frequency transmissions are used for communications between satellites and ground- or vehicle-based terminals, and for many other types of communications. In multi-frequency communication systems, RF signals may be received by a transceiver via an antenna, frequency-multiplexed using a waveguide diplexer, and converted to digital signals using an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for additional processing. RF signals may be transmitted to the target device using a reverse process.
In some cases, an RF signal transmitted at the antenna may be different than the intended transmit signal due to distortion introduced into the signal along the transmit path. For example, the transmit signal may be affected by process variations or imperfections in the transceiver's analog and/or RF hardware, such as in the waveguide diplexer, power amplifiers, digital-to-analog converters (DACs), and/or filters, for example. RF transmit signals may also be affected by transceiver operating conditions, such as temperature. It may be desirable to compensate for such distortion before transmitting an RF signal to a target device.

Radio frequency loopback for transceivers


Method of blocking an unfinished optical lens to be machined, the unfinished optical lens comprising an unfinished face and a second face, the method comprising: an unfinished optical lens providing step in which the unfinished optical lens is provided; a positioning step in which the unfinished optical lens is positioned in a first reference position by positioning the unfinished face of the unfinished optical lens on the top of at least three pins; a preformed optical substrate block providing step in which a preformed optical substrate block is provided; a docking step in which the second face of the unfinished optical lens in the first reference position is docked to the docking surface of the preformed optical substrate block.

The process of preparing optical or ophthalmic lenses begins with an unfinished or semi-finished glass or plastic optical lens. Typically, unfinished optical lens has a front face with a finished polished front surface and back face with an unfinished back surface. By grinding away material from the back surface of the optical lens, the required corrective prescription is generated. Thereafter, the surface having had the corrective prescription imparted thereto is polished. The peripheral edge of the processed optical lens is then provided with a final desired contour. Thereby establishing a finished optical or ophthalmic lens.
It is necessary during these various processing operations to securely block the optical lens in accurate position. This procedure is often referred to as "lens blocking".
The accuracy of the blocking device directly influences the lens machining accuracy; therefore high accuracy of the blocking device is required.
During the processing operation a desired prism and/or tore may be introduced. The desired prism may be either a prescription prism or a non-prescription prism, for example a thinning prism. The manufacturing of such desired prism and/or tore requires that the lens be oriented in a desired specific orientation with respect to the manufacturing tools. The introduced prism and/or tore requires a very accurate orientation of the semi-finished ophthalmic lens.
Conventionally, the method of blocking a semi-finished ophthalmic lens may comprise for example:
an orienting step in which the semi-finished ophthalmic lens is orientated using an orienting station,
a moving step in which the orientated semi-finished ophthalmic lens is moved from the orienting station to a blocking station, and
a blocking step in which the semi-finished ophthalmic lens is blocked on a blocking station.
The orienting step may comprise placing the finished face of the semi-finished ophthalmic lens on a positioning device, for example three pins, and orienting the ophthalmic lens.
Once oriented, the semi-finished ophthalmic lens must be blocked leaving the unfinished face of the semi-finished ophthalmic lens accessible for the manufacturing tools. Therefore, the conventional blocking method require a moving step in which the ophthalmic lens is moved from the orienting station to the blocking station.
As can be appreciated, the precision of these methods depends greatly upon the accuracy with which the semi-finished ophthalmic lens is moved from the positioning station to the blocking station.
In the past, emphasis has been placed on the precision in the positioning step and blocking step. The moving step has been of a secondary interest.
For this reason also, and despite the use of ultra-precision computer-controlled apparatus, ophthalmic lens generated nowadays are not always errorless.

ESSILOR INTERNATIONAL (COMPAGNIE GENERALE D'OPTIQUE)


A searchlight (40) includes a high-power xenon-arc lamp (12) having a longitudinal axis (16), and an anode (18) and cathode (20) which are spaced from each other along the axis (16). The lamp (12) becomes inoperative when the anode (18) is disposed below the cathode (20) by more than a small distance. A first reflector (28) is integrally movable with the lamp (12) and has a parabolic reflecting surface (28a) for collecting light from the lamp (12) and reflecting the collected light generally parallel to the axis (16) as a beam (34). A second reflector (44) is also integrally movable with the lamp (12) for receiving the beam (34) from the first reflector (28) and reflecting the beam (48) away from the axis (16) at a right angle. With the anode (18) of the lamp (12) maintained at the same height as or above the cathode (20) and the searchlight (40) rotated such that the axis (16) sweeps a 180.degree. arc from horizontal through vertical to horizontal, the beam (48) from the second reflector (44) sweeps a 180.degree. arc from vertically downward through horizontal to vertically upward. The xenon-arc lamp (12) produces an arc (25) including proportionally more short wavelength light, notably blue light, than in sunlight. The first and/or second reflectors (28,44) have gold reflecting surfaces (43,44d) which partially attenuate shorter wavelength light from blue through ultraviolet such that the beam (48) more closely approximates sunlight for better color rendition of illuminated objects.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of high intensity illumination devices, and more specifically to a high-power xenon-arc searchlight which has a continuous vertical beam direction range from straight down through straight up.
2. Description of the Related Art
Xenon-arc lamps provide an efficient source of high intensity illumination for a diverse range of applications, including light sources for cinematography and mobile searchlights carried by helicopters. An exemplary xenon-arc lamp application is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,720,822, entitled "XENON PHOTOGRAPHY LIGHT", issued Mar. 13, 1973 to J. Rochester et al.
The main elements of a photography light 10 as disclosed by Rochester are illustrated in FIG. 1. A xenon-arc lamp 12 includes a quartz tube 14 which is filled with xenon gas and has a longitudinal axis 16. An anode 18 and a cathode 20 are disposed inside the tube 14 and spaced from each other along the axis 16. An anode contact 22 and a cathode contact 24 enable connection of the anode 18 and cathode 20 respectively to an external direct current (DC) power source (not shown).
Upon application of DC power to the lamp 12, the xenon gas in the tube 14 is ionized and a high intensity luminous arc 25 is formed between the anode 18 and cathode 20 having maximum intensity at a point 26. A concave reflector 28 having a reflecting surface 28a with a parabolic, elliptical, aconic, spherical, or other suitable cross-section is mounted relative to the lamp 12 such that the reflecting surface 28a faces the lamp 12 and the central axis of the cross-section of the reflector 28 coincides with the axis 16 of the lamp 12. A reflecting layer 28b of aluminum or rhodium is formed on the surface 28a. Alternatively, although not shown, the reflector 28 may be transparent, and a reflecting layer formed on the rear surface of the reflector 28. The anode 18 is disposed between the reflector 28 and cathode 20.
Assuming that the reflecting surface 28a has a parabolic cross-section with a focus 30, the lamp 10 produces a narrow or tightly focussed beam when the reflector 28 is in the position illustrated such that the focus 30 of the reflecting surface 28a coincides with the point 26 of maximum intensity of the arc 25. Light from the arc 25 is collected by the reflector 28 as indicated by arrows 32, and reflected out of the lamp 10 along (generally parallel to) the axis 16 as a beam indicated by arrows 34.
FIG. 2 illustrates how the light 10 can be manipulated to produce a wider, less focussed beam, and plots the luminous intensity of the arc 25 as a function of displacement from the point 26 for a typical xenon-arc lamp 12. The curves indicate the luminous intensity in candela per square centimeter. It will be seen that in the illustrated example, the luminous intensity is 2,260 at the point 26, and decreases as a function of displacement from the point 26 toward the anode 18 to a value of 150 adjacent to the anode 18.
In the solid line position of the reflector 28 as shown in FIG. 2, the focus 30 of the reflecting surface 28a coincides with the point 26 of maximum intensity of the arc 25, and the light 10 radiates a beam with maximum focus and minimum width. The actual beam width varies with the size of the lamp 12 and the type of reflector 28. For an exemplary lamp 12 having a power rating of 500 watts and a parabolic reflector 28 having a focal length of 1.9 cm, the minimum width beam will have a divergence on the order of 1.degree..
The focus can be progressively reduced and the beam made progressively wider by moving the reflector 28 upwardly toward a broken line position as indicated at 28'. In this case, the focus, here designated as 30', is closer to the anode 18 than in the position 26, such that the reflector 28' collects light from a larger portion of the arc 25 and produces a wider beam with divergence on the order of 12.degree..
The focus and beam width are continuously variable between approximately 1.degree. and 12.degree. in the manner described. It is also possible to position the reflector 28 and lamp such that the cathode 18 is disposed between the reflecting surface 28a and the anode 20. In this case, the beam is defocussed by moving the reflector 28 toward the lamp 12, opposite to the operation described with reference to FIG. 2. However, this arrangement is less desirable since possible range of focus is smaller, on the order of 1.degree. to 6.degree..
The prior art configuration illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 is satisfactory for lights with low-power (less than approximately 300 watt) xenon-arc lamps, and applications such as helicopter-mounted searchlights which are only required to direct their beams from slightly above horizontal to vertically downward. Low-power xenon-arc lamps will operate at any orientation. However, a higher-power xenon-arc lamp becomes inoperative if oriented such that the anode 18 is disposed below the cathode 20 by more than a small distance. More specifically, the arc 25 will become unstable or extinguish if the anode 18 is disposed below the cathode 20, and the longitudinal axis 16 is inclined by more than a predetermined angle .theta., typically on the order of 15.degree., from the horizontal.
The operating range of a conventional high-power xenon-arc 10 is illustrated in FIGS. 3a to 3c. FIG. 3a illustrates one extreme operative orientation in which the anode 18 is leftward of and below the cathode 20, and the axis 16 is inclined by the angle .theta. from the horizontal which is indicated at 36. FIG. 3b illustrates the ideal operating condition of the light 10, rotated 105.degree. clockwise from the position of FIG. 3a, in which the anode 18 is disposed directly above the cathode 20. FIG. 3c illustrates the opposite extreme operating condition of the lamp 10, rotated 105.degree. clockwise from the position of FIG. 3b, in which the anode 18 is rightward of and below the cathode 20 and the axis 16 is inclined by .theta. from the horizontal 36.
The prior art light 10 is thereby operative with a vertical or elevation range of 210.degree., extending from 15.degree. above the horizontal 36 in one direction, through vertically downward to 15.degree. above the horizontal 36 in the opposite direction. However, numerous applications require a searchlight having an unlimited range of vertical beam direction, extending from straight up through horizontal to straight down.
The requirement that the anode of a xenon-arc lamp not be oriented below the cathode can be satisfied while providing a full vertical range of beam direction by mounting the lamp horizontally and rotating the reflector in a vertical plane which is perpendicular to the axis of the lamp. Although this arrangement is acceptable in applications in which the beam width is maintained in the most narrowly focussed state, attempts to provide a wider beam width result in an extremely asymmetric beam.
It is also possible to maintain the lamp vertical or horizontal, and rotate the reflector about the lamp using a gimbal arrangement. However, this is difficult and expensive to embody in actual practice, since the displacement of the lamp and reflector between the minimum and maximum beam width positions is very small, on the order of 4-5 millimeters. The mechanical tolerances of a gimbal mechanism required to maintain a fixed beam width over the entire vertical beam range are very close and expensive to achieve and maintain under conditions such as encountered by helicopter and other ground, airborne and marine vehicle-mounted searchlights which are subject to heavy vibration. In addition, the gimbal arrangement is usable for only relatively small lamps, since larger lamps mechanically interfere with the movement of the reflector and gimbal mechanism.
The reflecting layer 28b of the reflector 28 has conventionally been formed of aluminum, silver, rhodium or multi-layer dielectric materials. However, these materials have various disadvantages. Aluminum has poor resistance to atmospheric corrosion. Silver tarnishes quickly upon exposure to air, and for this reason can only be used on the rear surface of the reflector 28. Rhodium is extremely expensive, and can only be used in thin layers which are sensitive to atmospheric conditions and easily damaged by cleaning. Multi-layer dielectrics only reflect light in a narrow wavelength band, are expensive to produce, and are also easily damaged by cleaning.
Gold has been used as reflecting material in infrared optical systems. However, it has not been employed in visible optical systems since it has relatively low reflectivity in the shorter visible wavelengths, notably the blue region. Although more expensive than aluminum and silver, gold is much less expensive than rhodium, and is highly resistant to tarnish and corrosion.

High-power xenon-arc searchlight with unlimited vertical beam direction


A MOS technology power device comprises a semiconductor substrate, a semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type superimposed over the semiconductor substrate, an insulated gate layer covering the semiconductor layer, a plurality of substantially rectilinear elongated openings parallel to each other in the insulated gate layer, a respective plurality of elongated body stripes of a second conductivity type formed in the semiconductor layer under the elongated openings, source regions of the first conductivity type included in the body stripes and a metal layer covering the insulated gate layer and contacting the body stripes and the source regions through the elongated openings. Each body stripe comprises first portions substantially aligned with a first edge of the respective elongated opening and extending under a second edge of the elongated opening to form a channel region, each first portion including a source region extending substantially from a longitudinal axis of symmetry of the respective elongated opening to the second edge of the elongated opening, and second portions, longitudinally intercalated with the first portions, substantially aligned with the second edge of the elongated opening and extending under the first edge of the elongated opening to form a channel region, each second portion including a source region extending substantially from the longitudinal axis of symmetry to the first edge of the elongated opening, the first portions and second portions of the body stripes being respectively aligned in a direction transversal to the longitudinal axis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a MOS technology power device, particularly a power MOSFET or an Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT).
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Among the most important electric parameters which characterize power MOS devices are the output resistance (R.sub.DSon), the input capacitance (gate-source capacitance or gate-emitter capacitance) and the feedback capacitance (gate-drain capacitance or gate-collector capacitance).
The output resistance is important during steady-state conditions because the output resistance determines the power dissipation of the power device, and should therefore be as small as possible.
The input and feedback capacitances are instead important during switching because the capacitances determine the turn-on and turn-off time of the power device. Longer turn-on and turn-off times cause a higher power dissipation during switching and limit the operating frequency of the power device.
In order to reduce the input and feedback capacitances, it is necessary to increase the gate oxide thickness and/or to reduce the extension of the area of superposition between the gate electrode, the channel region and the drain layer.
Unfortunately, an increase in gate oxide thickness or reduction in the area of superposition negatively affects the steady-state characteristics of the power device, such as the output resistance. In fact, an increase of the gate oxide thickness would cause an increase of the channel region and accumulation components of the output resistance. A reduction of the distance between the body regions of the elementary cells (or stripes) of the power device in an attempt to reduce the superposition area between the gate electrode and the drain layer would cause an increase of the so-called JFET component of the output resistance.
Conventionally, the distance between the elementary cells or stripes of the power device depends on the lateral diffusion of the body regions and on the requirement that the JFET component of the output resistance is to be kept low. For example, in power devices for low-voltage applications the distance between the elementary cells or stripes of the power device cannot be lower than 5-6 .mu.m.
In the co-pending European Patent Application No. 95830453.7 filed on Oct. 30, 1995 in the name of the same Applicant, a high-density MOS technology power device is described comprising rectilinear elongated apertures in the insulated gate layer under which rectilinear elongated P type body stripes are formed in an N+ drain layer. The body stripes extend laterally under the insulated gate layer symmetrically with respect to the symmetry axes of the elongated apertures in the insulated gate layer. Inside each body stripe, a plurality of N+ source regions are formed which are disposed in longitudinal succession on opposite sides with respect to a symmetry axis of the body stripe. In this way, it is possible to reduce the distance between adjacent elongated apertures in the insulated gate layer without increasing the JFET component of the output resistance, because the portions of the drain layer positioned between adjacent body stripes experience a current flux from only one side. Device simulations have in fact proved that the output resistance depends on the current density in the portions of the drain layer comprised between adjacent body stripes: an asymmetric current flux allows therefore a reduction of the distance between the body stripes without increasing the output resistance.
However, even in this power device structure the distance between adjacent elongated apertures in the insulated gate layer cannot be reduced significantly because of the symmetrical lateral diffusion of the body stripes under the insulated gate layer.


A method for producing a semiconductor thin film by melt and recrystallization process. At least one recess is formed in a stacked layered structure including a semiconductor thin film layer. The recess has an arrow head shape seen from a surface side of the layered structure. The apex of the arrow head shape is oriented to a forward direction on a scanning line. The surface of the layered structure is covered with a cooling medium so that the recess is filled with the cooling medium. An energy beam is irradiated to the layered structure through the cooling medium to scan the structure along the scanning line so as to melt the semiconductor thin film and after that the semiconductor is cooled and recrystallized to form a single crystal structure therein.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for forming a single crystal semiconductor thin film which constitutes a so-called SOI (Silicon on Insulator) structure of an electronic circuit formed on a dielectric substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various methods for forming the SOI structure of single crystal semiconductor thin film have been proposed. However, it has been difficult to form the single crystal thin film over a wide area on the substrate. For example, one of the methods is such that an energy beam such as a laser beam is irradiated to a polycrystalline silicon layer formed over an entire surface of a dielectric substrate so as to recrystallize the silicon layer. However, the crystal growth starts from the peripheral portion of the area where the beam is irradiated toward the centrer portion of the area so that a number of cores are formed. Therefore, crystal faces of the cores encounter each other, which impedes the growth of a large single crystal.
Also, in the melt and recrystallization process, the outer surface of the semiconductor thin film is being in contact with the air which has a low thermal conductivity. As a result, the heat radiation effect from the film surface is low compared to that of the rear side of the film opposite to the outer surface, which makes the temperature distribution uneven with respect to the direction of the thickness of the film. This also impedes the growth of a large single crystal.
To cope with this problem, it is proposed to irradiate and scan the thin film with a laser beam in such a way that the film surface is coated with a cooling medium such as polyethylene glycol which enhances the heat radiation from the film surface.
However, even if the thin film is coated with the cooling medium, the temperature distribution of the thin film is different from that of the beam spot of the laser which scans the thin film to melt and recrystallize the film. More precisely, the laser beam spot has a Gaussian temperature distribution. When this laser beam scans the semiconductor thin film surface along a certain direction, the profile of the temperature distribution represented by the contour lines becomes longitudinal so that the tail portion thereof is elongated toward the direction opposite to the scanning direction. As a result, the temperature difference between the beam trace of the spot center and that of the periphery of the spot becomes large, which causes generation of cracks at the time of recrystallization.

Method for producing semiconductor thin film by melt and recrystallization process


The disclosed opioid-related compounds and pharmaceutical compositions thereof, are useful in a variety of applications relating to the modulation of receptors and receptor signaling within and outside the nervous system. For example, the compounds and compositions are useful in methods for the treatment of addictions and other CNS-related disorders. The disclosed compounds can be delivered or administered to a mammal including humans, alone in the form of a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or hydrolysable precursor thereof, or in the form of a pharmaceutical composition, wherein a therapeutically effective amount of a compound is mixed with suitable carriers or excipients.

Dependence on alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug abuse is a serious worldwide public health issue with significant social and economic consequences. Drug and alcohol addiction is characterized by compulsive intake and withdrawal symptoms such as craving, depression and dysphoria (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). It has been hypothesized that the emergence of a negative emotional state during drug withdrawal not only provides a key marker for the development of dependence but may also be etiological for compulsive alcohol and drug taking associated with addiction. Such negative emotional states can contribute to relapse, and one of the most frequent determinants of relapse is reported to be a negative emotional state in alcoholism, heroin addiction and binge eating disorder. Therefore, adaptations in neurotransmitter systems that are involved in negative emotional states may underlie the development of drug addiction.
In 1994, naltrexone was approved by the United States FDA for the treatment of alcoholism. Naltrexone, along with acamprosate and disulfuram are the only agents currently available to treat alcohol dependence. In a number of clinical studies naltrexone has shown benefit for treating alcoholism in heavy drinkers, and moderate to severe alcoholism. However, naltrexone is not successful in treating all alcoholics and adverse effects including intolerable nausea and hepatotoxicity confound treatment of patients with liver disease. It may be that metabolic bioactivation of naltrexone to a reactive metabolic intermediate contributes to the hepatotoxicity observed. Diminished effect over time, relatively low bioavailability and possibly relatively low affinity for δ and κ opioid receptors or genetic variability of the opioid receptors may explain the less than consistent efficacy of naltrexone. Nalmefene possesses superior pharmaceutical properties compared with naltrexone but also suffers from hepatotoxic side effects.
Studies using rodent animal models have shown that naltrexone decreases alcohol self-administration, suggesting that these types of agents may prevent the reinforcing effects of alcohol consumption. However, some opioid receptor antagonists decrease both ethanol and sucrose intake in rats. Certain opioid receptor agonists stimulate food consumption in preclinical animal models of obesity and opioid receptor antagonists inhibit energy-rich food consumption. It may be that opioid receptor antagonists prevent central reward mechanisms that share common neural substrates responsible for the development of alcohol dependence.
Opioid receptors are well-characterized receptors and numerous studies suggest that alcohol and illicit drugs interacts with endogenous opioid systems (e.g., naltrexone is a pure opioid μ receptor antagonist with no agonist activity and no abuse potential). Antagonizing opioid receptors decrease the effects of alcohol and drug-mediated pleasure-inducing endogenous opioids. By attenuating the positive reinforcing effects of alcohol consumption, opioid receptor antagonists have direct effects on alcohol and drug-seeking behavior. A decrease in alcohol and drug consumption by antagonism of opioid receptors suggests direct effects on this reinforcement system and animal studies have shown that μ, δ- and κ-opioid receptors contribute to alcohol and drug-induced reinforcement.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Synthesis of metabolically stable agents for alcohol and drug abuse


A method for controlling alert notifications includes receiving, at an alert notification monitor, notifications from at least one medical device. The method further includes analyzing, at the alert notification monitor, the notifications based on one or more complex triggers to identify at least one triggered notification. The method further includes transmitting the at least one triggered notification.

Patient monitoring systems include alert systems. For example, alert systems may identify simple alert conditions such as a blood pressure exceeding a certain threshold. Present alert systems may generate a large quantity of alarms that may pose a risk of alarm fatigue for clinicians. Forwarding these basic alarms to remote notification systems serves to exacerbate alarm fatigue.

System, method, and software for controlling alert notifications


An apparatus is provided for locating a vehicle electronic key including a fob for receiving a low frequency signal, measuring the low frequency signal strength, and providing a radio frequency response signal, a portion of the response signal including the signal strength determination. A low frequency antenna is located within the vehicle cabin for providing the low signal. A controller receives the response signal and compares the signal strength against a predetermined threshold. A vehicle engine immobilizer is responsive to the controller where the controller controls the immobilizer in response to the comparison.

Vehicle entry and ignition systems that use a unique, physical key to enter and start the vehicle engine are well known in the art. Also, electrical fobs that wirelessly transmit an electrical signal such as a radio frequency ("RF") signal for controlling locking and unlocking functions of the vehicle doors are known. Recently, passive keyless systems have been developed for vehicles that include a fob carried by a vehicle operator that control door lock/unlock functions and engine immobilization automatically in response to the presence of the fob. As the operator approaches the vehicle and touches a portion of the vehicle, such as the door handle, the vehicle lock/unlocking system automatically sends an interrogation signal to the fob and monitors for a fob response signal. Once identification and authentication occurs between the vehicle system and fob, and if authentication is accomplished, the door is unlocked. Once inside the vehicle, if the fob carried by the operator is the correct fob associated with that vehicle, the vehicle can be started with a simple pushing of a start button located on the vehicle dash, i.e., no form of physical key is needed to start the vehicle. Such systems have become known as "keyless-go" ignition systems.
As part of the authentication process between the vehicle system and the fob, identification ("ID") codes are sent and compared. For example, the fob may send a coded ID signal via RF to an on-board vehicle system. The on-board vehicle system determines if the received ID code is a valid ID from a fob associated with that vehicle. If the ID code is a valid code, as determined via a comparison against a prestored code, the vehicle will be able to start when the start button is pushed. If the received ID code is not valid, i.e., the received code does not match the prestored code, the vehicle engine is immobilized.

Apparatus for locating a vehicle electronic key


A multipurpose learning device having a picture book including a plurality of pages, wherein the pages turned in a top-to-bottom hinged direction instead of a side-to-side hinged direction, a memory unit having audio and video data stored therein, the memory unit being detachably connected to a touch board. A surface of the touch board is declined to a predetermined angle for enabling a user to easily position an electronic pen perpendicular to the touch board. Each sheet of the picture book includes a blank page and a picture page and picture information corresponding to a picture on one of the pages is displayed on a host device, such as a television. A user moves the electronic pen over a blank page which is positioned over the touch board, and a cursor is displayed on the host device at a position corresponding to the position of the electronic pen over the blank page and touch board.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multipurpose learning device, and more particularly, relates to a multipurpose learning device for reducing its size and weight by turning each page of a picture book having multimedia learning information upward and downward.
2. Background of the Related Art
Due to a technical improvement in electronics, many educational machines for toddlers and children have been developed. Especially, the latest trend is to develop machines that incorporate a displaying function to entice children's interest. As a result, the purpose of such machines can be better served by prolonging their interest in learning from each machine. Some examples of the purpose are to increase imaginative power, communicability, arithmetic ability, linguistic ability, color distinguishing ability and to raise moral and social consciousness.
In the present invention, the multipurpose learning device adapts multimedia technology to a conventional picture book which is using for intellectual development of toddlers and children. And this device has a function to output audio/video (A/V) signals through an A/V output unit, like a television, for children to watch the picture and listen to the sound of the book that they are reading.
Conventional picture books which are interactive with a television is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,174,759 to Frank S. Preston et al. entitled TV Animation Interactively Controlled By The Viewer Through Input Above A Book Page and U.S. Pat. No. 5,749,735 to Peter M. Redford et al. entitled Interactive Book, Magazine And Audio/Video Compact Disk Box. Such devices allow a user to interact with the machine. For example, when a child selects a specific scene from a picture book, the child can see the corresponding picture and listen to the explanatory sound of the picture. Since such a device interestingly incorporates pictures of a picture book and A/V effects output through the television or any other A/V output units, the children can enhance their learning by actively interacting with such a device. Moreover, since lessons from the devices can be repeated as many times as children desire, the effect of education can be increased.
It is known that some conventional multipurpose learning device have many problems, as detailed below.
(1) In some interactive picture books, electronic pens are provided for the user to touch a picture to activate the interactive effects. After long-term use, each page of the picture book is easily injured by the electronic pen, so the conventional multipurpose learning device has the possibility of easy deformation of the pictures mainly associated with the long-term use by a user.
(2) The replacement of a information storing device is difficult because it is installed on a lower case of a main body of the interactive picture book, so a user may be required to disassemble the lower case of the main body for replacing the information storing device.
(3) The size of supporting body for the interactive picture book is large because the pages of the picture book are turned from side to side.
(4) The multipurpose learning device is too heavy to use for a toddler because the picture book and the supporting body are formed as a single module.